Лекция третья. О последней судьбе человека и мира

Death. Each person, upon entering the mysterious future, faces death from the very beginning - a most terrible and at the same time necessary phenomenon. Reason, for all its considerations, does not want to unravel this phenomenon: when it looks at death, no matter how hard it tries to show itself fearless, it still fears it and needs consolation. So, let's come closer to this phenomenon; let us consider death in its beginning, image and consequences; Let us resolve where death comes from and for what, what is it and what is behind it? What is called death? It is usually called death when the life of the body ceases and the soul is separated from the body, although the image of a person remains. But this definition does not embrace the thing itself: it does not express the essence of death, but only depicts its visible side. For us, for our feelings, death really is what it is represented here; but in reality there must be something more to it. How does Holy Scripture define death? It calls it a transition from this world to another (Ecc. 12:7), departure (2 Tim. 4:6): “for I am already eaten and the time of my departure has come”, resolution: “my desire will be resolved” (Phil. 1:23). Let us note in passing the word resolved; it has a very deep concept. From it it is clear that our spirit, living in the body, is in bonds. And indeed, that outer shell, which comes closest to the spirit and through which the spirit feels, sees and acts, has the appearance of a prison lattice: the nerves everywhere in a person are entangled and woven like prison nets. Thus, the outer side of a person shows that his spirit is bound and imprisoned. That is why in some nervous diseases, when some of the rings of this network are broken, the human soul discovers special freedom and displays extraordinary strength, physical and moral; for example, in some patients such physical strength is revealed in this way that they break the iron bonds, whereas before they had very little strength. Scripture also calls death the end of life and the putting away of the body, or better from the original: the putting away of the tabernacle, the tent (2 Peter 1:14). And many other names are given to it by Scripture; eg Ap. Paul calls it a return from a foreign land, for he says that as long as we are in the body, we are removed from the Lord. (2 Cor. 5:6). There is also a wonderful name for death in Isaiah in the prayer of King Hezekiah (Is. 38:12): here Hezekiah compares death to a woman who came to cut off a woven cloth - a deep comparison! Indeed, in a person, the soul and body are like fabric. Just as a cloth is first founded, then woven, finally cut off and put into use: so a baby first only feels, then realizes, then develops its soul, is finally cut off and beyond the grave becomes what it should be. This is the picture of death in Scripture! It is obvious that in all these images only the relationship of death to the future life and its appearance are presented, and the thought of what death consists of, what constitutes its essence, is not here: Scripture has left this a secret. Why didn't it cover this issue? Of course, it would be possible for God to do this, but it would be harmful for people. If Scripture, having clarified the moral side of the future life, also clarified the physical side, about which it is silent, then what harm would come from this? Firstly, two worlds, visible and invisible, would mix, and as a result all everyday activity would fall: everyone would leave their titles and occupations, and the character of real life would completely change. Secondly, moral activity would not be so free: what kind of freedom would there be then in doing good or avoiding evil, if everyone, so to speak, saw hell with sensual eyes? Then everyone would inevitably fear hell and avoid evil. Thirdly, there could also be harm from this, that some would have attempts to quickly move to another world. This world is full of disasters; but the unknown beyond the grave forces one to endure these disasters. But if the curtain had been lifted, covering another world, an afterlife, a trouble-free world, then many poor people would suddenly rush there. For these and other reasons, Scripture did not reveal the dark veil of the future world and did not explain to us the secrets of death. Where does death come from? Scripture produces it from sin (Gen. 3:19, Rom. 8). It is impossible to assign any other source to it without abandoning many immutable truths; eg from the fact that God, the creator of everything, cannot be the creator of corruption and death, or from the fact that a sinless person could not be subject to corruption, and from many others. How does sin produce death? Scripture does not speak about this because it nowhere enters into metaphysical investigations; Our mind also cannot explain to itself how this happens. And it is not surprising: for for this it is necessary to know the primitive state of man, and without this it is impossible to directly judge this, because there is nothing to compare our real body with. Ruin the color of something and then judge it: can you guess what color it was without knowing it before? However, we previously clarified this matter somewhat when we talked about the state of fall. Now let's see for what reasons death was allowed. Death is allowed according to laws necessary and for high purposes, and, moreover, it is allowed on a large scale - in all kingdoms of nature, not only in animals, but also in plants, in a word - throughout the entire earth; This is the fate common to man and the world, trace. and the reason for it must be very great. Could a body be immortal by nature? Enough has been said on this question when we spoke about the primitive state of man. And really, what prevented the human body from being immortal? His physical composition? But the physical world has the same composition, and no matter how many centuries it has existed. If immortality exists on a large scale, then why not allow it on a small scale, why not attribute indestructibility and immortality to our body? We do not see the basis of the origin of death in all clarity, but we can still partially see it. In experience, what seems to be the beginning of death? The action of the elements and external forces of nature on the body. Sunlight is indestructible because it acts on everything, and nothing acts on it, it itself is not subject to anyone’s action. And therefore, the main reason for the destruction of human bodies should be their dependence on all the elements. See how the elements are hostile to the body in their actions and how destructive this enmity must be for the body! Water wants to dissolve the body - to turn it into a liquid state, there is nothing to say about fire, that it wants to eat, devour everything, air also has the property of separating everything and resolving it, the earth wants to turn everything into itself - to petrify. With such an effect of the elements on the human body, a person must be poor! It can only be reflected from them in two ways: by breathing, with which it reflects the suffocating power of the elements and which is nothing more than the incessant burning of vital fire, and by nutrition, through which strength and substance are delivered to this internal combustion. Without this, a person would very quickly end his life: stop breathing, and you will see how quickly your life will end! But isn't it possible to remove the body from the influence of the elements? There is no impossibility: in the primitive state it was so, and in the future it will also be so. Then the body will be freed from the nasty influence of the elements, because the current nutritional system will then be abolished. That is why the bodies of that time will be immortal. Now mentally free any person from the need for breathing and nutrition, and he will live for a very long time. So, from this it is clear that the main cause of death is the action of the elements and the forces of nature in general on the body. That is why real life is called struggle. The body fights the elements, remembering its former dominion over them and still having some remnant of its former power: it resists their predominance, processing within itself everything that it receives from the outside, but soon this power is exhausted from the excessive increase in the predominance of the elements, and they, having completely mastered the body, dissolve it into parts, and thus kill it. This is how death comes! Here we can see the reason why death was allowed. After the appearance of sin, things became higher than man and their dominion especially extended to the body. Through this, man came into enmity with the world, which took away his dominion from him. For his good, it remained to quickly end this hostility and give power to that over which the elements did not have dominion. That is why death is allowed as a tribute that a person gives to the world for the freedom of his soul, which itself is not subject to the yoke of this slavery, but, being in union with the body, cannot help but bear it. Therefore, from this side, death is a blessing from God. And therefore, in the words of Moses: “and now let him stretch out his hand and take from the tree of life, and cut it down and live forever” (Gen. 3:22) contains a deep thought: this is the most fatherly fear on the part of God! God seems to be saying this here; “Adam sinned and will die, let things go naturally - let him die, death does not yet destroy the possibility of restoration, in death there are still means to save him. But if, through sin, he has immortality, then this is already an inevitable disaster: then it will be impossible to give him a helping hand, because it will be impossible to bring him to another state, which is necessary to alleviate his fate.” This is what he feared and why God forbade Adam, a sinner, from eating from the tree of life! That death is unnatural to man is evident from the fact that with it, a person’s life takes on a surprisingly contradictory sign, is filled with countless contradictions and seems something strange: for example, earthly life is given to prepare for eternity, but look what a contradiction there is! More than a third of people die before the age of 5: where is the consistency with the purpose for which life is given? True, this contradiction may not be important when we imagine that present life is in the closest connection with the extent of the future life, which will continue until the final Judgment and restoration in general, in this regard it is not important, those who die so soon are therefore under the special order of God, and for their development another part of the preparatory life is assigned, the afterlife part. But such a contradiction is important in another respect, precisely when people die who, having developed their lives here, would have brought more benefit to themselves and others than there. We will see the reason for this below, when we talk about the state of souls after death. So, let us repeat that death is beneficial: it is a barrier against moral evil: without it, a person would sin to the point that he could harden in sin. But do all people die? All. Enoch and Elijah did not die: but there are only examples of the contrary. Moreover, we cannot say decisively about them that they are excluded from this universal law. The Genesis writer says vaguely about Enoch: “God has changed him” (Genesis 5:24). That's why we can't say what happened to him. It is also said about Elijah that some kind of fiery chariot appeared and carried him away: perhaps it was death that appeared to him among the fire. In general, these signs are not clear, and we can directly say that everything is subject to death: only those who will be found alive by the second coming of Christ are excluded from this law, but they too will change like death: “For we will not all sleep,” says the Apostle, “but we will all change” (1 Cor. 15:51–55). Death, as a consequence of sin, is terrible, and the memory of it in Scripture is called bitter. But for a true Christian, death is not only not terrible, but should even be comforting. It is terrible for peace-loving Christians who live only on the physical side: for the body will truly collapse and decay. But for a Christian who considers this life to be a journey, who lives here as if in a foreign land, it is very comforting to die, for he is sure that after death he will live with Christ, with the angels and saints. And what some saints say that they would like to die, for example. Simeon says: now you are releasing your servant... this is not like the counterfeit words of earthly heroes - they speak from the heart. For their view of death requires this of them. However, even for a pagan or philosophical faith, death may not seem as terrible as it seems to some. Her horror may lessen when she looks at real life. This life has some pleasant things: these are traces of paternal love on the part of God, who left something for the unfortunate children, so that they would not fall into complete cowardice, so that they would remember their first state and, remembering, would be corrected. But this life has much more bad sides. There are so many physical evils in life, so many different disasters, needs, grief! Look at the faces of people when you are in large gatherings: what will you see on them - what will be the dominant feeling in everyone? Discontent, grief. Descend somewhat into the circle of lower people: what is there? Poverty, hunger, cold, etc. Look in all directions: what is here? Illnesses are everywhere, failures and sorrows are everywhere! What if, at the same time, a person were given immortality? It would be like turning hospitals into permanent homes. And how painful immortality would be, if only our body were the same as it is now! Take an old man with a emaciated body and make him live another hundred years: he himself will wish for death. And those whose sense of true life has not yet developed are often dissatisfied with real life. What can we say about those who have it developed? For them, the body cannot help but seem like a prison, and indeed, how unimportant this life is, how unnatural it is for man! She depends on a piece of bread: is such dependence natural? And can a spirit value such an insignificant life? But this is the relationship of life in general to the human spirit. Let's touch more specifically on his abilities: does this life satisfy them? For example, what is it for the mind? To him she represents the very sphere of activity. If a person remained in this world for 100 years, then his mind would not find here food completely akin to itself. And with a short life, the minds of many become bored with the earth and love to occupy themselves with distant, heavenly worlds; in general, the more our spirit develops, the more it feels the need for a heavenly homeland. A long life would have brought even greater torment to the will, and now the will, which has not yet been perfected, suffers when it looks at human injustices. Imagine a man who has lived for a long time and perfected his will to the possible degree: what a torment would it then be for his conscience to forever look at the injustices that prevail among people, at their iniquities!.. Given this state of human affairs, who would not agree that death is better than earthly immortality, that dying is more comforting for a person than living? Thus, looking at the misfortunes of life reduces the horror of death. On the other hand, confidence in a better future life on the part of one who lives at least somewhat legally, who has even a small hope of bliss, makes one wish for death as a change for the better. It's only scary to lie down in the ground! But even this fear does not exist for the human spirit, for a body will lie in the ground, and even that may not be a true body. Maybe this is a spiritual forgery... But isn’t this just a shell of the body, similar to the one in which the baby’s body is located and which it leaves behind when emerging from the mother’s womb? ...Is it not this shell, which does not belong to the body of glory, that is buried and dissolved into parts?... So, the fear of death can be overcome, although, generally speaking, most people have this fear. What can be opposed to this fear - how can it be defeated? The main and most powerful weapon against it is confidence, or a living sense of immortality: fully realize that you are immortal, and the fear of death will disappear. But how can one awaken the consciousness of one’s immortality? Consciousness of your spirituality. How to awaken the consciousness of your spirituality? By distancing oneself from everything that is not-I, by separating the spirit from the body, by beginning a mental life, instead of a carnal one. We usually think that the hand is a man, the leg is a man, in this case we have a forgery of thoughts, because of this the spirit does not know itself and its immortality. But leave the spirit to itself, and it will immediately recognize itself as immortal. The feeling of immortality is a general weapon against the fear of death, but there are also more specific weapons. Fill your mind with true, incorruptible ideas, your will with pure, holy desires, place in your heart, like David, the law of God, in a word, saturate your soul with immortal, eternal objects - and the feeling of immortality will be unshakable in it, and with it the fear of death will disappear. This is the only reason why the spirit comes into oblivion of itself, because the thought of immortality now eludes it, because it is filled with corruptible things and has become accustomed to death. But the feeling of immortality is especially awakened by the thought of God and the fact that man is His image. Having said with reflection: God lives, one can no longer help but say: my soul lives! So, confidence in immortality is the only bulwark against the fear of death. But many have it only in words, in memory and imagination, and not at all in their hearts, which is why they approach the tomb with the greatest timidity. But maybe looking at death will really give rise to doubts? To avoid this, it is better to look directly in the face of death. So what does death represent when we look at it? We see that through death the action of the vital organs ceases, the soul is separated from the body and becomes invisible, the body exists for some time, then resolves, decays and disappears. This is what the sensual eye sees in death. Logical reason, both everywhere and here, appears with its dialectical machinations, and concludes this way: “After death we do not see the soul, therefore it does not exist, for if it were, it would make itself felt.” Here's a syllogism! Is he correct according to the laws of logic? Obviously not! From the invisibility of a thing one cannot conclude its non-existence: in the air with a simple eye we see nothing, but with an armed eye we see, and if we armed it better, we would see even more. If we do not see the material, then even more so we cannot see the spiritual, the soul. That the soul does not allow itself to be felt, it also does not follow that it does not exist. Maybe she doesn’t want to let herself be felt, or maybe she can’t, since she has lost the tools with which she could act on us, but there are other aspects of her activity that, without a doubt, remained in her. Judging strictly, from the fact that the body is destroyed and the soul becomes invisible, the only thing that follows is that there is probably no soul. But against this probability we have countless evidence and evidence. Reason, which asserts that the soul can die, has only to show its composition - to say that it consists of thoughts and desires, and then demand from it an explanation of how a thought or desire can be destroyed: then it immediately realizes the absurdity of its assertion, its error. This is why stubborn ignoramuses always, when talking about the death of the soul, get off with metaphors: the soul falls asleep, the soul goes out, and so on. But this means cutting the knot, not untying it. The best way to act against them is to demand from them not a metaphorical, but a direct explanation of how the soul goes out, falls asleep, how a thought or desire is destroyed. This will soon silence them. After death, the soul does not allow itself to be felt, therefore, reason concludes, it does not exist. But is the basis for such a conclusion strong? It is only strong for superficial and sensual viewers, i.e. for those who believe only in their five senses and are only led by them. But are there really such people? Hardly! Everyone must certainly believe in something higher and greater than the five senses: for sometimes things are discovered that are not subject to these feelings, and cannot be subject to them. For example, some things were not visible to the eye before the invention of the magnifying glass, and they were judged as invisible, but now we see them. And in general it would be extreme arrogance to say that in my or another’s eye all visible objects are located and represented. However, it is not only by these considerations that the dark side of death is eliminated, but by comparisons of it with carnal birth. If a baby in the womb received meaning and began to reason like us, then it would consider its birth to be death. In the womb, he is physically connected to the mother’s body and lives her life; at his birth, this connection, these life channels are severed, just as a dying person stops breathing and eating with which he lived. Consequently, being born and dying are the same: in both cases, the essence of the matter is in a change in the environment of life. But for the one being born, the world serves as the same thing as the mother’s womb was for him, why not assume that for the dying person, another world will be the same as this one was? In general, anyone who knows the relationship of a baby to its mother understands what can happen to us in death. We do not know what will happen to us beyond the grave, but if the baby began to understand before birth, then at his birth he would not be able to know what would happen to him. He would not understand real life, although he has all the tools necessary for it: lungs for breathing, digestive canals for nutrition. It would be difficult for him to imagine real life, which he does not yet see, and therefore at birth the thought would easily come to him that “I will no longer exist, I will die.” But the one who is dying has a perfect resemblance to the one who is being born. And for him, the world is a womb, with the only difference that this womb is large, and that the baby’s connections with the mother’s womb are rough, but he is connected to the world more subtly, more spiritually - only by constant breathing and temporary nutrition. Death ends these ways of life, just as birth breaks the shell of a baby and ends the ways of its womb life. But his spirit finds a new way of life and a new way of external nutrition, not as rough as in the womb: one might think that after death the same thing happens to the human spirit. For, although one day, perhaps, the world will feed on man the way man now feeds on him, this will be at the end of everything, and until that time, most likely, man will depend on the world, and therefore, after death, his spirit enters into a union with the world, only, without a doubt, into a higher, most spiritual union. This idea is biblical. In the 3rd book. Ezra (3 Esdras. 4:40-42) The angel says: “Just as in your world a wife cannot give birth before nine months, and after nine months she cannot hold the fetus in herself for a single day: so will hell not hold in itself when its birthdays are fulfilled.” This means that there is a period of development beyond the grave, and a person must thus go through three such periods—he must be born three times. And our third great change - the general Resurrection - is also a birth, and we can say that for the majority of the dead this third birth and Resurrection is as incomprehensible as the second - death - is incomprehensible to us. The saints only probably understand this third birth in the same way as the second was clear to them: for, probably, they are already partly experiencing this birth, i.e. Resurrection of the body. Until now we have touched on the dark side of death, which can give rise to doubts, and we have talked about the causes and purpose of death. – they decided why it was and for what purpose. Let us add to this something else that can serve as an apology for Providence, about which faint-hearted people sometimes grumble when they see this terrible phenomenon in the human world. So 1) paying attention to the real body, is it possible to wish it immortality? Whoever talks about the body, everyone will recognize it as burdensome for the soul, and will say: it would be better if there was no body. The longer it continues to live, the more painful it becomes. If our body is like this, then we cannot blame Providence for not giving him immortality: we ourselves would have recognized him as unworthy of immortality and would have condemned him to death. 2) It is desirable for us to exchange our present thin body for a better one, to get a more slender organ. Providence did this: we are promised a glorious body, incomparably better and more perfect than the present one. 3) It is also desirable for us that this change be carried out painlessly. But is this possible? Having looked closely, we see that this change cannot occur without displeasure, without illness. Why is this so? Because, firstly, death is a consequence of sin: what would happen if this consequence were not associated with disease? Then a person would not be at all afraid of sin and would continue to sin painlessly. This is the first reason - moral. There is also a physical reason. It consists in the fact that here one half of human existence must be separated from the other in order to be able to change it, so to speak, to clean it up, and such a bifurcation of our being cannot exist without an unpleasant feeling. For only completeness is pleasant for us, and any damage, no matter how small, causes us displeasure. But Providence has made sure that the division of our being is not too painful for us. The death of the righteous is quiet, it is justly a dormition for them, and only the death of sinners is fierce. Death by nature is not difficult; we ourselves make it difficult. But to demand this from Providence, i.e. for him, despite our sins, to make death easy for us, would be madness and a crime. Moreover, if you look at this more closely, you can also ask: is death actually painful or the illness that precedes it? There are reasons that make us think that death itself is associated with a pleasant feeling. In any case, when death is preceded by illness, it, like the end of the illness, is a pleasant change. Here we must say the same thing that the Savior said about the first birth: “When a woman gives birth, she has sorrow, but when she gives birth, she does not remember the sorrow for the joy that a man was born into the world.” It is true that this birth is followed by the same joy (John 16:21–22). However, mortal sorrow, no matter how great it may be, should not frighten us. What does it say about people born with unusual difficulties and illnesses? They notice that these are extraordinary people, with great abilities, with a special destiny. Maybe this parallel goes here too... This is an apology for Providence. It consists in the fact that we ourselves have condemned our body to death, and therefore we cannot desire immortality, that we have been promised a glorious body as a reward, one that the ordinary mind cannot even imagine and which therefore unbelievers refuse, that this revolution is deep and great, for here we are dealing with a radical revolution of the whole world, heaven and earth, and therefore this revolution cannot be accomplished without a special illness. Observers of the deceased human body (these observations recently began and continue) noticed a visible process of cleaning it. This whole process is nothing more than combustion, which is why some dead bodies are luminous: this is a clear hint of a future light body. The main epochs of this process, noticeable to our eyes, are the following four: 1) the epoch with which the body melts, and it takes on a mushy appearance, 2) the epoch in which it takes on a lighter, phosphorescent appearance, 3) the epoch in which the bodies of people, as well as animals, are, for a short time, so inaccessible that the slightest touch to them produces a disease: this state of the deceased body was noticed by the ancients and called draconian, in In the 4th epoch the body turns into dust, which cannot be resolved by any chemistry. These four eras, noted by observers, are phenomena that indicate the decay of the body as its repurification, an approach to future enlightenment. It's about the body. Private death court. What happens to the soul behind the grave? Our church teaches that with the soul, immediately after its separation from the body, a private judgment occurs, and in confirmation of its teaching, it points to one place in the New Testament (Heb. 9:27): “it is appointed for man to die, but after this comes the judgment” and to one from the Old Testament (Eccl. 12:7): “and the spirit will return to God who gave him.” These passages are not entirely decisive: they can also be attributed to the last future Court, which is why some rejected the private court. But our church accepts it, and the work itself seems to demand it. A private trial can and should be allowed on the basis that, upon appearing in another world, everyone’s conscience must make its own decisive verdict, must say what it is. Along with this, there may also be appearances to the soul of angels or Jesus Christ himself, and therefore the soul can hear its verdict from the outside. Our Church does not indicate who carries out this judgment and pronounces this sentence, but one can probably believe that this is done either by some Angel, or by Jesus Christ himself. All this is very possible. At the threshold of another world, a decisive consciousness must awaken in the soul, and it must decisively condemn itself. The manifestations of spirits there are no longer as wonderful for her as they are here, since she herself has already passed into the spiritual world. So, in general, it must be said that private court is possible, and we can confidently believe that it exists. The state from death to the universal Judgment. What after this trial? What is the state of souls before the final Judgment? From the second birth to the third, i.e. from death to Resurrection, the period of life is very long, a lot must happen here, but Scripture says almost nothing about it. One must think that knowing this would be useless for human morality. But on the other hand, this subject captivates our curiosity, and the thoughts of both saints and sinners have always rushed to it. That is why many opinions have been formed about him. The main of these opinions are the following: 1) the souls of holy people are with Christ in the angelic world, 2) the souls of sinners remain in the opposite state - in hell, and just as the first enjoy bliss, so the second suffer torment, although their bliss and their torment are still incomplete until they are completely united with their bodies. There is still a middle ground between these two opinions: they think, as they should think, that those souls who passed into the other world in a morally mixed state also have a mixed physical state, that is, since they are partly good and partly bad, then in their external state they are partly happy and partly unhappy: this third opinion is average. In discussing the location of these last souls, there are two opinions: some believe their location is in the tollhouses, and others in the easy side of hell. Both of these opinions exist in our church, and one part of theologians adheres to one of them, and the other to the other. Catholics have their own opinion on this subject: they appoint purgatory (purga torium) for such souls. These are the main opinions of the church about the future state of souls before the general judgment! All these opinions presuppose in the soul consciousness and memory of the past life. Hand in hand with these opinions has gone hand in hand since ancient times the opinion that destroys consciousness in the soul, separated from the body; this opinion is called (psychopannykhia, “the everlasting sleep of the soul”). What does Scripture say to support the Church's views? It contains, as it were, a twofold teaching on this subject. One is the teaching of the Jews, who thought about this without the help of revelation - the popular opinion. The other teaching is the teaching of Scripture itself, or the revealed teaching. It is not surprising that the Holy Scripture contains the opinion of the people: in places it even contains the words of evil spirits, but this in no way interferes with its purity and divinity. In the Old Testament, from the very beginning, only the popular, Jewish opinion is found. Moses does not even have a deliberate teaching about the immortality of the soul: Providence destined this teaching to develop in a natural order. That is why in the first books of the Bible we find the same teaching on this subject that was then among all other peoples. The state of souls after death is called here Sheolol. But what this Sheolol is, Moses has no separate idea about it. It began to develop in Job and in the Psalter, but even here it has developed little: here Sheol is called a dark, uncertain country, where no solemn and laudatory voices are heard. This concept is further developed in the prophets, especially in Isaiah, in the place where he imagines that the souls of the dead, after the death of one king, gathered and asked in surprise how such a great king could die. Pure, revealed teaching begins with Ecclesiastes. It is remarkable that the first chapters of this book also contain the teaching or opinion of the Jews, and at the end it expounds pure, revealed teaching, which says: “the body will return to the earth, and the spirit ... to God” (Ecc. 12:7). The revealed teaching about this is found in even more detail in the Wisdom of Solomon, where it is said about the resurrection that not only the soul, but also the flesh will rise. Then the doctrine of the resurrection is clearly stated by the prophet Baruch. The books of Maccabees contain entire chapters on this subject, especially where they talk about the sufferings of famous Jewish martyrs. Ezra has a detailed description of Sheol, which shows its compartments, or nests for the dead. At the beginning of the New Testament, at the time of the coming of Christ, the Jews divided hell into several sections: this can be seen from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, where one place is assigned for the blessed souls in the bosom of Abraham, and another for the souls of the wicked and unfortunate below, but all in the same Sheol, or hell, which is why the rich man appears to be talking to Abraham. In the writings of the Apostles there is not a word about these divisions, and everywhere they speak only about the future state of souls. Eg. The Apostle Paul always says this: to be beyond the grave means to be with Christ, to be in heaven, with the Lord, and so on. There is also no clear and complete idea of ​​this in any book of the New Testament, for the most part its features are borrowed from the Jewish image, and at the same time it is said about the righteous that they are with Christ, and about sinners - only that they are bad, but what this badness consists of is not a word about that. The Apocalypse concerns this subject somewhat more, but nothing can be deduced from it literally. It says that the souls of those beaten for the word of God are under the altar, but where this altar is and what it is is not visible. It is also said that “the sea will give its dead,... and death and hell” (Rev. 20:13), but what kind of words, metaphors or things themselves we do not know. Therefore, it is impossible to extract a certain dogma from this book. But from the spirit of the entire revelation it is clear that before judgment it is bad for the bad, good is good for the good, and for average people, partly good and partly bad, their external state is partly good and partly bad. The opinions of Christian theologians are for the most part similar to the opinions of the Jews. Let's say something else about this state of souls based on human considerations alone; let's state, that is, the opinion about the afterlife is not a general church opinion, but a private, human one. So, are there any ways to create at least a half-image of this state? Are there such phenomena from which one could remove features and from them create an image or concept of a future state? There are such phenomena, and the first of them is a dream. The ancients called sleep the brother or sister of death, and it can indeed lead to clarification of the future state of the soul. The second phenomenon of this kind is extinction. It comes closest to explaining a future state. People who die are at the end of this world, so they are considered completely dead. Being close to the borders of another world, they can at least somewhat look into it and see something in it. They say that at that time they were in a daze, but they tell the opposite - they say that they were aware of themselves. The third phenomenon of this kind is illness, especially artificial magnetic sleep. The fourth phenomenon is a direct communication with another world: with the good - through prophetic inspiration, through the appearance of Angels, etc., with the evil - through sorcery, summoning evil spirits, dead people, etc. If we combine all these phenomena, the following results will be revealed that explain the future state of the soul: 1) the soul in a dream is aware of itself and the whole world, feels and imagines a body, or rather, not that body, but some other one. So, in a dream she has everything that she has in reality, only the firmness of consciousness is missing. In the waking state, the consciousness of the soul is directed to one point, but in a dream it is unsteady, shadow-like, there is no support for it, and hence there is no decisive activity. Thoughts appear in the soul, but immediately fly away, desires boil and flare up, but are not carried out, the association of concepts is rare: this is the internal state of the soul. In thinking about the external world, its state is also different: in reality we see all objects in order, in a certain classification; in a dream, these laws of order and classification of things do not exist. It is also remarkable that in a dream the soul is in the body, but it seems to it that it is everywhere. 2) Let us turn to the third phenomenon – magnetic sleep. In this dream, the soul remains in the body, but changes its seat: from the head it passes to the chest. In an ordinary dream, the soul sees dimly, but its sphere of vision is wider; in a magnetic dream, it sees clearly, and its sphere of vision expands even more, but it lacks firmness and power. From here another spirit can lead and control the soul brought into this state, and it is like a speck of dust that is immediately attracted by a magnet, this is all because there is no support in it. In natural sleep, the soul, to a certain extent, renounces the body; in artificial sleep, it renounces it more; in dying, even more, and in death, even more. In addition, in artificial sleep there are manifestations of spirits. 3) Those over whom the second phenomenon occurred - extinction, said that they saw spirits only in human form, that they were aware of themselves in the body, and the world - with space and time, but they also did not have material independence. – These are the results deduced from the observed phenomena! since souls depart from this world different - good and evil and in-between, then the images of their state beyond the grave should be different. In general, based on these phenomena, we can say about the condition of thin and average people that they do not have hardness. But having done so, the saints are excluded from this law. They do not have natural strength, but it is replaced by moral power - by the will of God, the righteous does not move because, as the Psalmist says, the law of God is in the midst of his womb. The will of God is the firmest support on which the moral and physical world rests, and therefore it gives the righteous the firmest and most essential independence. The will of sinners, on the contrary, rushes about in its desires and wavers in the air. That is why the church prays for the repose of the souls of sinners. And indeed, their peace may depend on will alone. For example the patient, who is in a magnetic state, undergoes convulsions, but if at that time the magnetizer comes, then his convulsions subside - the will of the magnetizer has its power over him. This unattainable state also clarifies how evil spirits can act on departed souls. From what has been said, it is also clear why prayers can have a greater effect on the dead than on the living. The magnetizer will not have any effect on an ordinary person with his thoughts until he has to a certain extent detached his soul from his body. If the force of a magnet acts in this way on a soul that is not completely detached from the body, then all the more can a spiritual force, such as prayer, act on a soul that is completely detached. Here the action may be the most powerful and extend over the most distant distance. This same state also clarifies the truth that after death there is no repentance. Indeed, after death there can be no repentance, because the soul does not have complete independence, and there is no independence because there is no body. So, unconditional complaints and complaints about the body are in vain, it imparts weight to our soul, and thus directs it either to heaven or to hell. That the soul, thrown away from the body, really cannot decide on anything and bring anything into execution, this is clear from the state of Magnetism. A patient in this state, if he has any thought or desires something, then asks the magnetizer to take care of his thought or desire and bring it into fulfillment, but he himself cannot do anything. But righteous souls are excluded from this: for them, as we said, their physical lack of independence is supplemented by moral power, they do not move, resting on the law of God. Only the souls of sinners, having no support, waver. Let us develop some aspects of this matter even further. Let us assume that the soul is connected to the body through some third, spiritual-material body (and this must be assumed: for the physical world is also connected to the spiritual by something third, physical-spiritual). Now, in death, the soul takes this material-spiritual body with it to another world and forms it there. It is clear that it is formed in the image of the soul - it takes on a form consistent with the properties of the soul, for if here there is harmony between the body and the soul, then beyond the grave it should be even greater. As a result of this harmony, the beautiful appearance of the souls of saints gives a bright appearance to their bodies, and the ugly appearance of sinners gives an ugly appearance to their bodies. In this life we ​​see that the body is subject to the influence of the elements: will this be the case in the future life before the Judgment? Regarding the righteous, we can say that since they are approaching a glorious state, they are above the elements, but sinners are also subject to the influence of the elements. But since their local body disintegrated in death, then, having another body, less coarse, they probably enter into intercourse with less coarse elements, equal to themselves. So, they may be affected by heaviness, light, fire, warmth and other even subtler elements. Well, if they act with all their might, how painful should their action be? Imagine that it was not in vain to stay in the whale for three days; the basis for this must be deep - in nature itself. By nine days, they put in relation the nine angelic orders: it is not surprising if they are related to the soul. Perhaps at this time she is given the opportunity to survey the Angelic world. In general, it cannot be said that this custom is based on unimportant grounds; it is important only because it comes from ancient times and preceded Christianity, and for this reason it would be a matter of frivolity to reject it without reflection. The Church, as we have seen, allows three states of the soul after death. Is it possible, according to the teachings of Scripture and the church, to transition from one state to another? Scripture indicates the possibility of this only in one place, where it speaks of the descent of Jesus Christ into hell and the removal of the souls of sinners from there (1 Peter 3:18). From this it follows to conclude that a change from one state - worse to another - better, is possible. The Church assumes the same thing when it prays for the dead; if she imagined improvement beyond the grave as impossible, she would not have prayed. But doesn’t the church contradict itself when it prays for the dead and claims that there is no repentance after death? Here the contradiction is only apparent, but in reality there is none. Perhaps repentance is truly impossible for the very soul of the deceased, but it is possible under the influence of others - with the help of the visible church, Angels and saints. It may also be that it is impossible only for those who have crossed over without any germ of good, and not for everyone in general. Therefore, the idea of ​​the church that there is no repentance after death is correct, and prayers for the dead agree with it. What else do the natural phenomena noted above and the concept of the future life compiled on their basis clarify for us? From them it is clear that the state of souls before the Judgment is similar to a dream. And therefore, the opinion about the sleep of souls (psychopannykhia)), being understood correctly, can be accepted, and has its basis in the fact that the soul after death, like a sleepy person in his full being, has an imperfect, incomplete, unsteady consciousness. To see even more what the state of the soul is after death and what it needs to be afraid of, for this you need to carefully observe all the named phenomena, especially magnetic sleep and extinction. There is an excellent article about extinction in “Son of the Fatherland” for 1831, entitled “Lethargic Sleep”. In the past century there was extreme materialism, extending almost to the point that they did not want to allow anything other than the four elements. But, to our surprise, the strictest defender of materialism, Mesmer, discovered animal magnetism, and thereby undermined the entire system of materialism, gave a new direction, which now dominates, and through his experiments clarified deep psychological truths. Thus, through the materialist, as through Balaam’s donkey, against his will, we are told that which justifies true revelation itself. From the same phenomena one can see how a person, after death, pronounces judgment on himself. In an ordinary dream, conscience acts more powerfully than in reality: anyone knows this who has noticed how in a dream some thought related to morality makes a strong impression on the conscience. In artificial sleep, one impure thought can be unbearable. In dying, this action of conscience is even stronger. It follows from this that the more the soul renounces the body, the stronger the conscience acts. This means that with complete resolution of the soul from the body, the action of conscience is irresistible. How necessary it is, therefore, to clear your conscience so as not to endure its remorse!.. These half-dead states of the soul in our world also show that the souls of the dying are influenced by spirits. For even in natural sleep sometimes there are manifestations of spirits, in artificial sleep and extinction these phenomena occur even more often: after death, when the soul enters the world of spirits, these phenomena should be a constant and ordinary thing. These same natural phenomena clarify the deep truth of Scripture - our unity with Christ, as members with a head. It is difficult for us to imagine how many indivisible, separated from each other, each of which lives a separate life, constitute in Christ a single body, in which there is one sympathy! But in a magnetic dream, the vision is a very clear hint of this. If one magnetizer magnetizes several patients, then they receive such unity and sympathy that no matter how many there are, for example. 3, 4 and more, everyone begins to live one life, and almost constitute one spirit. It is also clear from this same dream that the circle of existence of a soul brought into this state spreads as many other souls are brought into the same state by the same magnetizer, so that if, for example, four people are brought into this dream, then the soul of each of them sees as if they were four, lives the life of four. The same, without a doubt, exists in the Angelic world. In the future Kingdom of God, he will enjoy everything that others have, and will have all the perfections of this glorious Kingdom. That is why each new member of this Kingdom does not constrain, but on the contrary, expands its sphere. A patient recently remarked this to a German philosopher. While visiting a madhouse, the philosopher asked one of them something about hell and heaven. This one answered him: “When someone new comes to hell, it becomes more crowded, and when he goes to heaven, it becomes more spacious.” Indeed, selflessness and love have the power to expand, but egoism, apparently expanding, in fact only constrains, turns things and persons infected by it into insignificance! These considerations also clarify the faith of the church that the Old Testament righteous, before the descent of Christ into hell, were in hell. The basis of this can be seen in the main property of the afterlife. This property is the half-hearted existence of people, in which there may be thoughts and desires in the soul, but there is no action, because this existence is wavering, not independent. The souls of the Old Testament men were in such a state; they needed real help, which was provided to them by the humanity of Jesus Christ: it gave them peace. When Jesus Christ appeared, they were all drawn after Him, and until that time not one of them could either get out or lead others out of this wave-like state, which was called hell, for this word is vague, and here it can mean an indecisive state of souls. The period of existence beyond the grave is very long, and real life, in relation to it, is very short. Judging by this, one would have to think that people would be very concerned about death, but how little they not only care, but also think about it!.. What is the reason for such a strange phenomenon? Death is a terrible phenomenon, and therefore should involuntarily make people think about themselves, why don’t people have logic? If we did not know real life, and we were told that it would last for some people up to 80 years, for others 40, 20 or less, then we would naturally think about these people that they would spend most of their lives on coffins, and would only think about death. Why don't we do this? The reason for this is difficult to comprehend. Partly, of course, this is due to the unknown of death and what will follow it, and the main reason for this must be in the Providence of God. It is true that Providence arranged it this way so that death would not produce the horrors that it should have produced. The end of the world. Let us now look at the events that will follow at the end of the world. Just as every person faces death, so the whole world faces some kind of death or destruction. This is clearly shown in Scripture, and philosophers and common people believed in the fragility of the world, and even preceded the New Testament revelation by explaining the method of the end of the world - they taught about the destruction of the earth by fire. The end of the world will be preceded by signs. These signs are different, some of them are indicated in Scripture, but not exactly: this is where disagreements arose about this. The Savior indicated these signs when he prophesied about the fate of Jerusalem, but in such a way that some of them refer to the destruction of Jerusalem, and some to the end of the world. From verse 3, chapter 24. according to Matthew up to 25 - the signs that happened during the destruction of Jerusalem, then those signs that the sun will darken, the moon will not give light, the Gospel will be preached to everyone, there will be great sorrow, false Christs will appear, love will dry up - these signs are already heading towards the end of the world (Matthew 24); further verse 34 ch. 25 again points to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This means that here Jesus Christ acts as the prophets often did, when with some visions or events they connected others similar to them; predicting one near event, they also spoke about others, more distant and more important. That all this will follow at the end of the world can and should certainly be expected. The end of the world will follow when the world grows old in cunning and deceit (hence tricks and deceit), in guile and malice (hence persecution), in powers and laws (hence the darkening of the sun and other luminaries). And now they notice that there are spots on the sun, which sometimes increase and decrease the light of the sun... The preliminary sign, according to the Apostle Paul (Rom. 11, 25, 26), will also be the conversion of the Jews, which will follow after the fulfillment of the number of pagans. One must think that this conversion will be significant, but how it will happen, whether the Jews will gather in one known place or not and when this will happen is unknown. The apostle touched upon this subject by chance, being forced by circumstances. They began to think about him that he had completely abandoned the Jews, from whom he was descended in the flesh, and clung only to the pagans. As a result, he writes a message in which he explains his love for his fellow tribesmen and, so to speak, boasts of it. Therefore, here he seems to say this: “I love my half-blooded ones and do not think lowly of them, but I think of them as my brethren, as those who are now rejected, but in time will be accepted when the number of pagans is fulfilled.” The most decisive sign of the end of the world is the appearance of the Antichrist, described in the Epistle to the Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 2:3–13). Who will this Antichrist be? Some interpreters give it a collective meaning, i.e. By it they mean a spirit that prevailed in a certain time and people, contrary to the spirit of the teaching of Christ. But, following the Apostle, one must think that this will be a personal being: for he is called the son of lawlessness and acts as a person. Who will he be? From the words of the Apostle it is clear that he will be the owner, combining in himself temporal and spiritual power: for he will sit in the church (verse 4) (2 Thess. 2:4). How will he act? It is contrary to Christianity and very hypocritical (verse 10), so that he would deceive even the elect if it were possible. He will be in communication with the devil, and perhaps this connection will stretch, as is the general opinion among the people, to a personal union with him. Whether it will be this way or that way, it is certain that he will be in close union with the devil. Is this possible for humans? Experiments show that it is possible: there are people who, out of self-interest, completely surrender to the devil and become, as it were, one spirit with him. Just as the light showed its actions in the face of Jesus Christ, so in the face of the Antichrist darkness will show its efforts. He will be equipped with “power, signs and lying wonders” (2 Thess. 2:9). These miracles will be produced by the art of the devil in the lower, sensual sphere. And among people the geeks can do wonderful things, but the devil can do more than them, since he knows the forces of nature better than them. Probably, the Antichrist will hide everything and present lies as truth, but it is clear that he will directly go against everything sacred, for he will place himself above everything that is called God or sacred, and will place himself at the center of religion and worship. Is it possible to imagine such madness in people that they could believe him and follow him? Experiments, unfortunately, confirm that this is possible. The French Revolution presented something very similar to this future phenomenon: it portrayed God in the person of a shameless woman, and there were people, even intelligent in other respects, who admired this shameless triumph of reason. Therefore, we can probably assume that even then, during the Antichrist, people will become ignorant, shameless and mad enough to listen to this liar. The Antichrist will act differently with those who do not believe in him; he will take off his disguise before them and will torment them like a tyrant (Apoc. 9:10, 11). In a word, this will be a person who is opposite to Christ in everything. Here the correctness of the opinion will be seen, according to which they claim that the devil imitates God in everything, only in the opposite way. Thus, in Christ there was the appearance of God in the flesh: in the Antichrist the devil will appear in the flesh in the same way. In general, the essence of the biblical teaching about the Antichrist is that he will be an evil man, an opponent of Christianity, directing false miracles and prophecies against religion, demanding worship for himself as the representative of God, and that his end will be destruction: for the Savior “will kill him with the spirit of his mouth and abolish him with the appearance of his coming” (2 Thess. 2:8). Jesus Christ will not fight with him, will not honor him with this honor, but will abolish him with his one coming, i.e. as soon as the true Christ appears, this ghost will immediately disappear. The duration of the reign of the Antichrist is unknown, but, as can be seen from the Apocalypse (Apocalypse 13:5), it seems that it will not be long and this kingdom will soon end for the sake of the elect (Matt. 24:22). The power of the Savior’s words about the miracles of the Antichrist is remarkable: “as if it were possible to deceive even the elect” (Matthew 24:24). At first glance, it seems that there is no strong thought in them. But what does possibility and impossibility mean here? Possibility in relation to signs and wonders, but impossibility in relation to the elect. According to the laws of the ordinary human mind, these miracles will be such that they should make one believe: this is a possibility. But in the elect there is, as John says, a holy seed - a spirit that saves them even when reason, left to itself, could not but agree to a well-known proposal: this is an impossibility. There are moments with saints when they believe, according to Ap. Paul, rather than hope, as Abraham believed, i.e. sometimes reason certainly demands to abandon a certain good deed, recognizing it as not good, and meanwhile they continue to do it, following the secret fellowship of the Holy Spirit with them. This, both now and then, at the end of the world, will not allow the elect to be carried away by the flattery and deceit of the spirit of evil. Consequently, all people who do not have this indwelling Spirit are deprived of the Holy Spirit. seed, will be carried away by the Antichrist. The remedy against it in general will be the firmness and immutability of faith, but whoever wants to resist it will find many other means. For if the devil then uses all his strength, then without a doubt God will not sleep. Therefore, whoever gets carried away by the Antichrist will be the cause of his own destruction. One can notice from the great judgments that have already taken place in the world that God in such eras always saves those who are devoted to Him. So, for example, during the destruction of Jerusalem, Christians were taken to Pella and did not participate in the disasters of the Jews. This is what will precede the end of the world. At first there will be silence, as always happens before great events of nature, from which nature and carelessness will be born, as was the case in the days of Noah, then there will be an extraordinary movement in all worlds: in the angelic world the heavenly powers will move, in the physical world the luminaries will darken, in the human world false Christs will multiply, errors and vices will increase, the Antichrist will appear. All these signs will be followed by the very end of the world, which will be accompanied by the following events: 1) the Resurrection of the dead, 2) the appearance of the Lord at the Judgment and the Judgment itself, 3) the transformation of the world and 4) the distribution of the final fate, or rewards and punishments. Resurrection of the dead. At the end of the world, change will follow with the living, and the dead will be resurrected. All the dead, both good and evil, will participate in the Resurrection. The resurrection will follow with the sound of an angelic trumpet (1 Cor. 15:52). Clearly this is a metaphor, but it expresses something significant. The voice of God will certainly be to the forces of nature, according to which “the sea, hell and death will give up their dead” (Rev. 20, 13). With what body will people be resurrected? With a body similar to the real one, but better than it. How much of the present body of matter will enter this body is not determined by Scripture, and we ourselves cannot determine. It is enough for us to know that this body will be like the glorified body of Jesus Christ, and there is no need to wish for a better model than this. Based on even experimental observations made on a deceased human body, one can think that the future body will be much different from the present one. Because how much work is being done on it! After death, those four verses that during life were at enmity with the body become its servants - they process and cleanse it. How much should it change after going through all the processes of this processing? Ap. Paul describes in detail the qualities of the future body (1 Cor. 15:38–58). He calls this body spiritual, no doubt because it will be too subtle and incorruptible. It should look luminous. For even in a magnetic dream, when the soul looks at its body, its nerves appear to it to be fiery. The appearance of Angels in bodies of light also leads to the same conclusion. Without a doubt, those who will cohabit with the Angels will have the same light bodies. There may be doubts about this glorious body, but they are all taken from the dust of the grave, and there, i.e. in the grave, they must remain. That the body might be different is not at all surprising. Physiologists have noticed that even now, at the age of 12, our body is completely changing: old particles fly away, new ones arrive, and we get a completely new body. Moreover, our visible body is only a shell of the body of another, which constitutes the constant, abiding basis of this sensory seed of the future glorious body; it is found not only in humans, but also in animals and plants. So chemists noticed that even after the plant burns, the internal, main body remains it, floats in the air, and sometimes you can see it with your eyes. So, in perplexity about how the particles of the body will be collected, how the glorious body will appear, are unfounded and inappropriate. It also seems incomprehensible how in the blink of an eye (1 Cor. 15:52) the living will change. Something similar now represents combustion, suddenly turning the body of a person exposed to it into ashes. These experiences are rare and very scary, but they exist and well explain the possibility of a future instantaneous change in the bodies of the living. This change for those people will also be the death of a kind. According to what laws will the Resurrection of bodies take place? Without a doubt, the power of God will be involved here, but one can also expect this from the world itself: for this will happen when the world is ripe for such phenomena - when this womb of human bodies will not be able to hold them within itself for a single day longer. The doctrine of the Resurrection of the dead is a distinctive feature of Christianity, it is the clearest teaching of Scripture about the immortality of humanity. The ancient world expected immortality only of the soul, and very few dreamed of immortality, or resurrection, of bodies, and then with great uncertainty and ambiguity. Christianity alone has established this truth of the immortality of bodies. In our times there are minds that cast doubt on this truth, but this is a remnant of the ancient view, and this view is not philosophical, although its defenders pose as philosophers. For a truly philosophical mind, the opposite view is very favorable, i.e. an opinion about the immortality of the body and about its future meeting with the soul, for in this union of the immortal soul with the immortal body there is a completeness that the mind seeks everywhere and mainly here and which it cannot but like. The mind, judging the future state of human existence, removes for it features from the existence of the present, and therefore in the future state it cannot help but imagine the union of the soul with the body, because it is here. The denial of the Resurrection comes with the idea that it is better for the soul to be without a body. But this thought is the fruit of a superficial view; in fact, the body is necessary for the soul, with it, as we have seen, it is better, from it it receives firmness and weight. In this only form, a person can be called a reduction of the whole world, and such a name should belong to him: for he is the connection of two worlds. Some philosophers have also been led to denial by thinking about the difficulty of such an event as the Resurrection of bodies to occur. Human wisdom is generally strong in theory, but when it comes to action, it weakens and is lost. It is true that it is difficult to form a body from dust. But what does such a difficulty mean for such an actor as will be here? The actor here will not be some weak sage, but the all-powerful God. We also saw that the future body, according to the teachings of Ap. Paul, it will be spiritual. By virtue of this spirituality, it will have the following distinctive qualities: 1) it will not be subject to any current marital ties and relationships: in the resurrection, the Savior told the Sadducees, they neither marry nor commit violence, but are like the angels of God in heaven. The feature is sharp, very much differentiating the future body from the present one. 2) There will be no need for food: the belly and waste there will be abolished. This quality shows the complete difference between the future body, glorious, and the present, insignificant. Separate man now from his belly, from his method of nutrition: how much he will differ from ordinary people! Nutrition truly is slavery to the world. If a person did not need food and clothing, then all his vain worries would disappear; who would then begin to accumulate gold and chase jewelry? That such a separation of the body from the ways of present being is impossible, this is clearly answered by current experiments. And now, in some diseases, people live for several years without food, on air alone; We had such a man in Russia, he (I saw him myself) lived only by occasionally soaking his mouth with water. Pious people also have these bonds that connect us with the world, i.e. nutrition and the need for clothing, weaken, the words of Scripture often come true over them: “man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Deut. 8:3), they often live by the word of God alone. End of the world. After the resurrection and change of people, the resurrection or change of the Earth will follow. In Scripture this change, or, better, the time of its occurrence, is shown indefinitely. In some places of Scripture it precedes the Judgment, and in others the Judgment precedes it. But what will happen before and what will happen after, there is little need for this, we only need to know that both will happen. So, let's first talk about the end of the world. Did Jesus Christ know about this end? The disciples asked Him about this twice, but the first time He told them that He did not know: “But of those days and hour no one knows... not even the Son of man” (Mark 13:32), the second time he answered that they did not need to know this, “You do not understand the times and years which the Father has set in His power” (Acts 1:7). Did Jesus Christ really not know about this? Some were tempted by this passage and therefore interpreted it differently. Some, since the word Son is found in one Evangelist Mark, argued that it was inserted by the hand of copyists, others, like Chrysostom, said that Jesus Christ did not know about this, just as children do not know about some things of their parents. In general, the church fathers gave different meanings to these words. But judging directly, it must be said that Christ really did not know the last day, as this idea was beautifully revealed in one sermon by the Reverend. Philaret, where it is said that this ignorance was the last form of His exhaustion and humility. And indeed, this is a very fitting sacrifice for Him who had to be tempted in every way. Is there any reason in nature to think that such a revolution will ever happen in it? Even the ancient world found in it signs of a revolution that had time to follow. The view of the ancients was mainly on the impoverishment of the forces of nature. This can be seen from the letter of Cyprian of Carthage to Demertian, in which he describes in detail the view of the ancient world on the future revolution. But now even more new hints about the destruction of the world have been discovered. Astronomers have noticed that worlds are born, grow old and die, and they say that the same will happen to our earth. And in general, how many revolutions have there been on earth! The surface of the earth is a perfect cemetery, strewn with corpses, we live on ruins, and past revolutions vouch for future ones. They also notice that the Earth’s ecliptic is constantly tilting, and may finally reach the point where it will be impossible for the Earth to orbit around the Sun: then, of course, a great change must follow. Moreover, from the particular terrible phenomena of the Earth it is clear that it is in a painful state. Her insides burn and erupt, she trembles and in many places allows her trembling to be felt - and all these and similar convulsive movements of her must someday end in a great revolution. There were many opinions about the imminent end of the world. There is now an opinion (Stilling) about the end of the world, which will follow between the 30th and 40th years of this century, based on the apocalyptic calculation of the animal number - six hundred and sixty-six (Rev. 13:18). But the most ordinary considerations lead to the opposite conclusion - to the fact that peace must still continue for a considerable time. So the time of existence of the world - 6 or 7 thousand years - is not very long. For some huge planet this time is very short. Of course, one can look at the passage of time differently: with God one day is like 100 years, and maybe vice versa, but in our view of time this existence of the world seems short. A look at the Earth leads to the idea that its existence will continue. There are still many places on it unknown and uninhabited, but people little by little recognize and inhabit it. One can believe that his dominion over the earth should continue with the knowledge and population of all its places, but such a limit of dominion is still far away. If we take the impoverishment of the forces of nature as a sign of the end of the world, then even in this case the end is not yet near, for there are still many of these forces. The earth, this common mother, can nourish many more children. The history of mankind represents a lot of evil and good, but this sum cannot yet be equal to the sum found in the idea of ​​humanity - not a dreamy idea, but one that can come true, i.e. the complexity of actual good and evil cannot yet be equal to the complexity of possible good and evil, and probably the limit of the existence of the human race should be the implementation of this ideal - the extraction from it - the revelation of all the forces that exist in humanity. Apply this scale to the state of the human race, and you will see how much more people still have to do, develop and develop, and therefore how far the limit of their life should be! And Providence, which does not pluck up even the chaff - because it spares the wheat, does not pluck out a single ear of wheat if it remains immature, but gathers everything ripe into the granaries. But all these considerations have nothing decisive in them. For the period of existence of the world and man can be defined differently by those who see better than us the connection between the existence of the temporal and the eternal. Therefore, this matter must be submitted to Providence: he sees everything and appoints an end to everything. Will the world be destroyed, or will it just change? One must think that he will only change. God has no death. “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Luke 20:38, Mark 12:27, Matt. 22:32). And Holy Scripture itself confirms this idea. Yes, Ap. Peter in his second letter (2 Pet. 3:13) says that there will be “new heavens and a new earth,” but all his teaching about this makes it clear that something will remain from the old world. Who will be the producer of this great revolution, what weapon? According to the teachings of Ap. Peter, this weapon will be fire (2 Peter 3, 7, 10). They ask: where will the amount of fire come from? But there is still a lot of it, it is everywhere, and in huge sizes. For example, what could be freer from fire than air? But there is also a lot of it in it: lightning appears, and fire spreads everywhere in the air, and the fire is terrible. In rough bodies, too, apparently there is no fire: but begin to rub them, and they emit sparks. The ice is even filled with fire: for the northern lights occur in the most Arctic countries. So, asking where the fire will come from is futile work. The better and more pertinent question here is: who will stir up this fire lurking everywhere? Great stimulants are not needed for this, and if it were necessary, then God would not lack them. The fire constantly burns inside the earth and stretches, as it seems, to its very center - it embraces the entire earth, so that 200 mountains constantly spew out its flame. With such a combustion, only the slightest touch is needed to produce a general fire; this touch can be produced by some comet, which generally has an incendiary property. The sun itself, with its beneficial light, can create a fire. And even the smallest stimuli, for example, lightning, northern lights, etc., make the earth sway and sparkle. Not long ago, just last year (1832), from the Arctic Sea to the Mediterranean everything was on fire. All such phenomena happened and are happening on the surface of the earth, and not a single spark has sunk into it yet, but the time will come, a spark will fall into the Earth, and it will ignite. The same can be said about this fire as about flood water, which is why ap. Peter, and Jesus Christ himself, compare the final end of the world with the flood that occurred during the time of Noah. Was there a belief in the end of the world in ancient times? It has been going on since ancient times through all nations. The Jews derived it either from Adam or from Enoch, who allegedly erected two pillars, one of which signified the transformation of the world through water (the general flood), and on the other through fire (the final end of the world). Ovid and Seneca talk about the same thing. The first imagines in his poems that the sea will catch fire: mare ardebit. The latter is expressed as follows: sidera sideribus incarretn et omne uno igne ardebit. Thus, a new one will come from the old world, and the human race will settle on the new earth. Therefore, the expressions - a person will ascend to heaven, move into another world - are the essence of a metaphor: a person remains on earth, only changed, renewed. Here, apparently, the body has deteriorated: God will cleanse it and give it its first purpose - to unite the glorious body with the innocent soul. So, the land has deteriorated: God will burn it up and use it for his former service - he will settle people on it. This means that what God said once will never change. So powerful is His word! How to understand that heaven, which, according to the teachings of the Apostle, will burn up at the end of the world? Interpreters understand it differently, but Scripture understands heaven in general. Now naturalists have come to the idea that everything will collapse. It is remarkable that all sciences, having taken the right direction, converge with the Bible and are, as it were, commentaries on it. For example, about the end of the world, naturalists say almost the same thing that is contained in the Apocalypse; they argue that over time the planets will have to turn into the sun, a trace. and our Earth will be in the sun and will have the perfection of the sun - constant light and warmth (Apoc. 21, 23, 25, 22, 5). Naturalists say about the inhabitants of the Sun that they must be as more perfect than earthly people as the Sun is more perfect than the Earth. All these opinions of naturalists are very close to the thoughts of St. Scriptures. The Last Judgment. After the change of the Earth, the terrible Judgment will follow. At this Judgment the whole world will be judged, Christians will be judged according to the law of the Gospel, Jews according to the Law of Moses, and pagans according to the internal law of the heart. However, perhaps, before the general Judgment, the Gospel will become a universal law - perhaps everyone will turn to Christ... Evil spirits will also be judged with people. Ap. Paul (1 Cor. 6:1-3), reproaching Christians for going to court with foreign authorities, and not with their own, says that the saints will judge the world and the evil angels: “Do you not know,” he says, “how the saints of the world judge... Do you not know how the imams judge angels?” Who will judge? Jesus Christ and saints. The whole judgment belongs to Jesus, but he cedes part of it to the saints. It seems strange how the saints are judged and judged. But they are judged as human sinners, and judged as saints of God, while at decisive moments they place their crowns on the throne of the Lamb, as the Apocalypse says about the 12 elders (Apocalypse 4:4). How will the trial be conducted? Scripture presents an image of its production in the most sensual terms. It says that Jesus Christ will appear on the clouds with many angels, will divide people, the books of human deeds and the book of God's predestination, called the animal in the Apocalypse, will be opened, judgment will be carried out through questions and answers, and at the end of it, some will go to hell, and others to heaven. What is metaphorical and what is significant here? The modern eye sees a lot of metaphorical things here. It is not clear to him how this throne will be installed, how all the people will gather and where. All this seems like a metaphor, and books are already an obvious metaphor. But the current vision is not suitable there. People at that time will have new bodies and will live on a new earth, and therefore their relationships will be different than now. Judging by this, it is no longer possible to determine what is historical and metaphorical here. It is difficult to imagine that all this would actually be so, but one cannot conclude from difficulty to impossibility and unreality. Isn't universal history being written in heaven? Perhaps the Angels fully satisfy the desire that people have - to write and know the history of all mankind. This thought may seem dreamy, but what leads to it is that the earthly world shadows the heavenly world, and that earthly metaphors have been removed from spiritual things. And therefore it cannot be said that the Gospel description of the future coming of the Heavenly King was merely an imitation and satisfaction of Eastern taste. Of course, there are many other aspects of judgment that are not presented in Scripture; it taught us only what is needed for morality, and taught us in such a way that this supersensible subject was understandable to all people, not only educated, but also wild ones. No book contains such a sensual presentation of moral truths as in the 25th book of the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 25). The questions that are offered to Jesus Christ there, good and evil, and which, without a doubt, will not be offered in such a form, clearly express the intention to present this truth as much as possible sensually, closer to human concepts. At the Last Judgment, this can only be matched by an outburst of noble and humble feeling, according to which the righteous will present their deeds as too small, while Jesus Christ will present them as great. With sinners it will be the other way around. Distribution of the last fate. The consequence of the Judgment will be eternal life and endless torment. The righteous will enjoy the first, and sinners will suffer the second. What types of bliss will there be? The types and types of earthly bliss cannot be counted, much less heavenly. However, they can be partially indicated, divided into types of external and internal bliss, just as bliss itself is divided into external and internal. The types of external bliss are: 1) harmony with the external forces of nature and the elements, 2) the righteous will be settled on a beautiful earth, and 3) they will not need anything. However, their bliss will not yet be complete for some time: and in the new life there will still be dependence on the visible world, for the tree of life will appear again (Apoc. 22:2), but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil will no longer exist. This position of the righteous will be useful for them because with it they will not forget about their creatureliness and dependence. The angels had nothing of the kind, and how terrible was their fall! Among the external perfections should also be included the fact that the righteous will be in communion with Angels. But won’t their activity there extend to the point that they, like God, will realize all their thoughts? This height is impossible, and they believe that Adam had it in the beginning: but there the bodies of the righteous will be even more perfect than the body of Adam. The types of internal bliss are as follows: 1) the righteous in spirit will have a perfect mind, perfect will and perfect feelings. The success of knowledge there will be endless, and the joy will be sweeter: for there will be an abundance and an endless variety of beautiful objects. 2) They will also contemplate the physicality of Jesus Christ: in God the Father physical greatness, and in Jesus Christ moral greatness will constitute their eternal delight. Moreover, they are also promised the sight of God: but what kind of sight is this? Should it be taken in its proper or non-proper sense? It seems like it should have a metaphorical meaning. For, in addition, in many places of Scripture the vision of God seems impossible, the very word to see in all languages ​​is taken in the sense of understanding; and therefore the promised sight of God can mean the highest degree of His understanding. One can also imagine that the righteous will see God in the world, for the world is from God and in God, but this image of representation is partly pantheistic and not entirely correct. Will there be a gradual perfection of the righteous there? Scripture does not speak about it, but it must be: the property of the human spirit requires it. One creator is unchangeable, and the creatures created by Him must always change and grow. To stop their growth means to stop bliss: bliss increases only when the food of the spirit - its knowledge - multiplies. What are the types of torment that are opposite to the types of bliss? The evil will be in disharmony with nature and will be separated from the blessed by a vast lake of fire, the place of their torment. Where will this lake of fire come from? Will it not simply be composed of parts that are separated from the world? During the re-creation of the world, as well as during the re-making of things in general, certain particles will separate and, perhaps, produce a lake of fire. Another type of eternal torment will be communication with evil spirits, disastrous, terrible communication!... Another type of torment is the torment of never-ending worms: everyone regards this as a metaphor, but, looking closely at nature, one should almost assert that these worms will really be there. Physiologists have noticed that the base or the first elements of all bodies consist of worms (ciliates), since these are the main parts of all bodies, they will never be destroyed. Now they are in our body in the correct combination with it and with each other, and therefore do not torment us, but among the wicked, who have been subjected to eternal torment, they will form disharmonious groups and will torment them. This is very natural, and Scripture, speaking about this, seems to have used not the likeness of a thing, but the thing itself, otherwise it would have expressed itself better, it would have found a more noble expression. It may also seem strange how the lake of fire will be dark - how darkness will unite with the light. But physicists also determine the shape of dark fire: this fire is wavy, while light fire has the shape of a triangle or a pyramid. Dark fire is noticed in the decay of bodies, in diseases, such as, for example, the disease known as Antonov’s fire, and so on. So, it would almost be better to take literally everything that is said about hell. Will there be an end to the suffering? Scripture definitely says that this torment will be eternal. Does this agree with other truths? Even if we could not agree, we must believe the Scripture. And is it possible that this torment will ever end? Is there a way to do this? A person, of course, can improve, but a sinner cannot compare with a righteous person; his sin will always take precedence in the sum of his perfections. The wisdom of God alone found in Jesus Christ the reconciliation of man with God and the replenishment of good in the world. But this means is not accepted by the sinner, therefore, it is impossible for him to become a saint and receive bliss. You might be interested in: