Eternal Life and
Eternal Hell
The
resurrection of the dead, the change of the living and the final judgement will
be followed by eternal life or eternal hell. Hell means punishment.
Some,
like the believers in the millennium, believe that after the final judgement
the sinners will be destroyed. Considerably more believe that after the final
judgement the sinners will be punished for a certain period of time, will
repent and be saved. Neither one is correct. Holy Scripture teaches very
clearly that the righteous will enjoy eternal life and happiness, whereas the
sinners will be being punished. Reading the twenty-fifth chapter of the Gospel
of Matthew we see that all the dead and the living will be presented before the
unbribable Judge. We will be divided into the just and the sinners, just as the
sheep are separated from the goats. Then Christ will say to the just, who will
be on His right-hand side: "Come, O blessed of my father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew
25:34). And these will inherit the kingdom of God. Then He will turn to His
left towards the sinners and He will say to them: "Depart from me, you
cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels"
(Matthew 25:41). And behold the result. "And they [the sinners] will go
away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life"
(Matthew 25:46). Behold then that the just will live in eternal life and
happiness. The sinners will live in eternal punishment and despair. These are
the words of Christ. Those who believe and teach otherwise do not profess the
truth. They do not present things as Christ, "Who is the truth and the way
and the life," said.
No
one knows exactly what the after-life will be like. No one knows quite how the
just and the sinners will be living. St. Paul, who was taken up to the heavens
and wanted to describe those things that he saw and heard (1 Corinthians, 2:9; II Corinthians, 12:4 ), said: "What
no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has
prepared for those who love him."
The
Holy Scriptures in describing hell, use frightening images. They call it
"the outer darkness," "the worm that does not die," where
there will be "weeping and gnashing of the teeth." This state of the
punished will be eternal, without any change or amelioration. Without end. As a
result it is indescribably frightening.
Let
us be careful here. All that the Holy Scriptures say regarding hell should not
be understood physically, as we know these things today. We should always keep
in mind that with the Second Coming of Christ and the final judgement
everything will change. Everything will become "new." The whole
universe. The Fathers of the Church explain this very well, particularly, St.
Gregory of Nyssa, who writes the following: "Because you learned to
understand something different from what exists in reality, when you hear the
words fire or worm, you should not think of the earthly fire or insect."
In other words, when you hear of fire and worms do not understand it as the
fire and worms that you know of here. St. John Damascene also writes the
following: "eternal fire is not a material thing such as we are familiar
with; rather it is something that only God comprehends." In other words,
the fire of hell is not physical as we know it, but will be fire as God knows
it.
GLORY BE TO GOD