Глава 7 Загробная участь грешников

1. Visions of the torment of sinners. a) One pious warrior was near death and, returning to life, said: “I saw a dark and gloomy river, across which there was a bridge; There was a test on this bridge: whoever was sinful fell into this dark and stinking river, and whoever was righteous walked across it freely and carefree. On the other side of this river, a green meadow, fragrant herbs and flowers were visible, and monasteries with men in white robes living in them were visible. Some monasteries stood closer to the river and the bridge, while others were further away; the stinking smell of this river reached some monasteries, but not others. Another bright monastery was being built, wonderful and gracious, from nothing but golden stones, but for whom it is unknown. There was such a fragrance in that place that those who passed through that place and lived here were saturated from the mere smell and fragrance of it. Near that terrible river I saw a certain Peter, who died 4 years ago, hanging in those terrible places, bound with great, heavy irons. I asked him why he was suffering so much. He replied: “Because when I was ordered to punish someone for crimes, I punished them not so much out of obedience, but because of cruelty and inhumanity of character.” (“Prol.” May 23 days). b) One paralytic, exhausted in the spirit of patience, with a cry asked the Lord to end his suffering life. “Okay,” said the angel who appeared to the sick man, “the Lord, being indescribably good, deigns to answer your prayer.” - He ends your temporary life, only on the condition: instead of one year of suffering on earth, with which every person is purified like gold in fire, do you agree to spend three hours in hellish torment? Your sins require cleansing through the suffering of your own flesh, you must be in relaxation for another year, because both for you and for all believers, there is no other path to heaven except the cross, paved by the sinless God-man. You are bored with this path on earth - experience this torment only for three hours, and after that, with the prayers of St. church, you will be saved. The sufferer thought: a year of suffering on earth is terrible, but it would be better for me to endure three hours in this endless torment, he told himself, than a year on earth. - I agree to hell! - he finally said to the angel. The angel quietly accepted his suffering soul and, confining it in the depths of hell, departed from the sufferer with words of consolation: “In three hours I will appear for you!” The darkness prevailing everywhere, the cramped space, the sounds of inexplicable sinful cries coming from everywhere, the vision of the spirits of evil in their hellish ugliness - all this merged for the unfortunate sufferer into inexpressible fear and languor. Everywhere he saw and heard only suffering and screams and not a sound of joy in the vast abyss of hell; only the fiery eyes of the demons sparkled in the underworld darkness, and their gigantic shadows rushed before him, ready to crush him and burn him with their hellish breath. The poor sufferer trembled and cried out; but his cry and cries were answered only by the hellish abyss with its echo fading in the distance and the bubbling of the hellish flame that swirled in sight of the trembling sufferer. It seemed to him that centuries of suffering had already passed; From minute to minute he waited for the luminous angel to come to him, but the angel was not there, finally, the sufferer despaired of his heavenly appearance and, gnashing his teeth, groaned; but no one listened to his cries. All the sinners who languished in the abyss of Gehenna were busy with themselves, with their own only torment, and the terrible demons in hellish joy mocked the torment of sinners. Finally, the quiet light of angelic glory spread over the abyss. With a heavenly smile, the angel approached the voluntary sufferer and asked about his condition. “I didn’t think that there could be a lie in the mouths of angels,” whispered the sufferer in a barely audible voice, broken from suffering. “You promised to take me from here in three hours, and meanwhile whole years, whole centuries passed in my unspeakable suffering. - What years, what centuries? - the angel answered meekly. “An hour, only one hour, has passed since my absence, and you still have two hours to be here.” - Two hours? - the sufferer asked in fear, - two hours? Has it only been an hour? Oh, I can’t stand it anymore, I have no strength! If only possible, if only it is the will of the Lord, I beg you: take me from here! It would be better for me to suffer on earth for years and centuries, until the last day, until the very coming of Christ to judgment - just get me out of here. Unbearable! Have pity on me! – the sufferer exclaimed with a groan, stretching out his hands to the bright angel. “God, as the father of generosity and joy,” answered the angel, “shows His grace on you, fulfilling your request.” But you must know and remember how cruel and unbearable the torment of hell is (extracted from “Letters of the Holy Mountainer,” p. 224, letter 15). 2. What will be the torment of sinners? (according to the teachings of the Holy Fathers). The torment to which sinners will be condemned by the righteous judgment of God is depicted by the word of God with different features and from different sides. It mentions: 1. On the removal of sinners from God and their damnation. “Depart from me, cursed” (Matthew 25:41), the terrible Judge will tell them, “I do not know you..., depart from Me, all workers of unrighteousness” (Luke 13:27; demolished Matthew 7:21). And this removal from God and curse will be in itself the greatest punishment for the unfortunate. “For one who has feeling and reason,” notes St. John Chrysostom - to be rejected from God means to endure Gehenna” (on Romans. Discourses V, p. 95 according to Russian translation). “Gehenna and the torment in it are unbearable, however, if you imagine thousands of hells, then all this will mean nothing in comparison with the misfortune of being deprived of this blessed glory, of being hated by Christ and hearing from him: not seeing you, and the accusation that we, seeing him hungry, did not feed! For it is better to be subjected to countless strikes of lightning than to see the meek face of the Lord, turning away from us, and his clear eye, unable to look at us” (on “Ev. Matthew. Conversations. XXIII”, vol. 1, p. 495). 2. That sinners will be deprived of all the benefits of the kingdom of heaven, which the righteous will receive. The Savior Himself testified that then “many will come from the east and the west and lie down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven; and the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness” (Matt. 8:11–12; taken down. Matt. 22:13); and, being in torment, they will see Abraham from afar and the righteous in his bosom (Luke 16:23). “This is deprivation of goods,” argues St. Chrysostom, “will cause such torment, such sorrow and oppression that, even if no execution awaited those who sinned here, then it in itself, stronger than the torment of Gehenna, can tear and revolt our souls.” And further: “Many foolish people only want to get rid of Gehenna, but I consider it much more painful; the punishment is not to be in that glory; and the one who has lost it, I think, should cry not so much about the torment of Gehenna as about the deprivation of heavenly blessings; for this alone is the most severe punishment of all” (“Words 1 to Theodore the Fallen,” in Chron. 1844, 1, 370, 375). 3. About the place where sinners will be removed, and about their community. This place is called either the “abyss”, terrible even for the demons themselves (Luke 8:31), then “hell” (Luke 16:23), or “the land of eternal darkness, where there is no light” (Job 10:22), then “gehenna of fire” (Matthew 5:22), “cave of fire” (Matthew 13:50) “lake fiery and bogey" (Rev. 19:20, 20:14, 21:8). And in such and such a place, sinners, for all eternity, will not see anyone around them except the outcasts; spirits of evil, which were the main cause of their destruction (Matthew 25:41). “Whoever sinned on earth,” says St. Ephraim the Syrian, - and insulted God, and hid his deeds, he will be cast into pitch darkness, where there is not a ray of light; whoever harbors wickedness in his heart and envy in his mind will be hidden by a terrible depth, full of fire and bogeymen; whoever indulged in anger and did not allow love into his heart, further to hatred of his neighbor, will be handed over to cruel torment by the angels” (“On the fear of God, and on the last judgment”, in the work of the Holy Fathers XV, 308). 4. About the internal torment of sinners in hell. Then the word of the apostle will be fulfilled on them in all its breadth: “tribulation and distress upon every soul of man who does evil” (Rom. 2:9). The memory of their past life, which they so recklessly ruined for vicious deeds, the constant reproaches of conscience for all the iniquities they have ever committed, the later regret that they did not take advantage of the God-given means of salvation, the painful consciousness that there is no longer an opportunity to repent, correct themselves and be saved - all this will torment the unfortunate ones incessantly. “Those,” writes St. Basil the Great, who did? evil, they will rise to reproach and shame in order to see in themselves the abomination and imprint of the sins they have committed. And perhaps more terrible than darkness and eternal fire is the shame with which sinners will be immortalized, constantly having before their eyes traces of sin committed in the flesh, like some kind of irreducible paint that forever remains in the memory of their souls” (“Conversation on Ps. XXXIII, 6, in the works of the Holy Fathers” V, 293). 5. About the external torment of sinners in hell. These torments are represented in St. Scripture under the images of an undying worm and, much more often, an unquenchable fire. Christ the Savior, protecting us from temptations, said among other things, “And if your foot offends you, cut it off: it is better for you to enter into life lame than with two feet to be cast into Gehenna, into unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:45–46), in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, he noted that the rich man, who after his death is in hell, he suffers in flames (Luke 16:24), and at the general judgment he will say to sinners, “Depart from me, cursed, into eternal fire” (Matthew 25:41). St. John of Damascus speaks of this hellish fire like this: “Sinners will be consigned to eternal fire, not as material as ours, but such as is known to God alone” (“Accurate exposition of rights, faith,” book IV, chapter 27). “Hearing about the fire,” says St. John Chrysostom, - do not think that the fire there is similar to the one here: this one, which will capture, burn and change into something else; and the one whom he once embraces will always burn and will never stop, which is why he is called unquenchable. For sinners also must be clothed with immortality - not in honor, but in order to be always confused by the torment there: and how terrible this is, the mind can never imagine; Is it possible to gain a small understanding of those great torments from the experimental knowledge of unimportant disasters” (St. John Chrysostom. “1st Word to Theodore the Fallen”). “Oh, how terrible is that fire, which even Satan himself trembles at! - exclaims St. Dimitri, Metropolitan of Rostov. If the abyss of Gehenna is terrible for demons, how much more must it be terrible and trembling for people. If here the fiery execution, to which when a person is condemned, is terrible, then incomparably more terrible is the punishment that will follow in hell, the fiery one. Demons are not afraid of the fire here, just as we are not afraid of the fire depicted on the board (in the picture), but they tremble with the fire of Gehenna. This fire burns only bodily matter, while it burns and torments disembodied spirits. This fire goes out when there is a lack of combustible substance; and hell will never go out, according to the testimony of the Lord: “Their (sinners’) worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:46). The local fire, when it burns, shines, and the flame of that fire, when it burns, only burns, but does not in the least illuminate the outer darkness; and even if it illuminated a little, it would be for the greater fear and trembling of the condemned - in order to see the tormented faces of sinners, with whom in this life they together angered the Lord with their sins. The local fire, having declared a person thrown into it, immediately kills and in one hour burns and turns to ashes; and that one, the fire of Gehenna, burns, but does not kill: sinners cast into the fire of Gehenna will not die, being tormented forever. And if being burned for one hour is a great and unbearable torment, let us imagine how terrible the torment will be for those who will burn and not be burned for endless centuries! (“Chronicle of the Fire of Gehenna,” pp. 122–123). 6. About the consequences of all these torments, internal and external, which are: crying and gnashing of teeth, despair, eternal destruction. “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” the Savior repeated more than once about Gehenna (Matthew 8:12, 13:42, 50, 25:30). “When we go there,” says St. Chrysostom, - then even if we show the strongest repentance, we will not receive any benefit from it; but, no matter how much we gnash our teeth, no matter how much we weep and pray a thousand times, no one will drop the tip of a finger on us, engulfed in fire: on the contrary, we will hear the same thing as the rich man of the Gospel - that “a great chasm has been established between us and you” (Luke 16:26). We will grind our teeth from unbearable suffering and torment, but no one will help. We will groan loudly when the flames begin to engulf us more strongly, but we will not see anyone except those who are tormented with us and except the great emptiness. What can we say about the horrors that darkness will bring upon our souls?” (“Sk. to Theod. fallen. 1”, in “Chronicles” 1844, 1, 361, 366–367). St. Anthony the Great says: “What do weeping and mourning mean if not the greatest regret for sins? Then we will begin to be indignant at ourselves, to repent, gnashing our teeth... when repentance does not take place” (“Fatherland Bishop Ign.”, p. 2). Let's make a comparison here too. Our hearts are torn when we hear the loud crying of only a few unfortunate faces (for example, when a mother and children cry at the grave of their husband or father): what can we say about the crying, groaning and gnashing of teeth that will come from many people? Each of the tormented sinners himself will emit lamentable groans, and all around him he will hear the same lamentation. Let us give here an example from modern life, which became known through a special revelation of God. One pious woman was in the afterlife for nine days, and then miraculously came to life. She was shown heaven and hell. When, after heaven, she was sent down to hell, she “heard here such a cry, such a groan that it is impossible to describe.” Therefore, she strongly began to pray to God that the merciful Lord would return her to life for repentance (“Tser. Vest.” 1884, No. 21). What is unquenchable fire? We do not find a direct answer to this question either in St. Scripture, nor in the teachings of the church. Therefore St. John of Damascus expresses this about the fire of hell: “Sinners will be consigned to eternal fire, not as material as ours, but such as is known to God alone.” 50 And Blessed Augustine: “What kind of fire, what kind and in what place of the universe, I think no one can know, except perhaps the one to whom the Spirit of God will reveal.” No matter how difficult it is to understand this subject, human thought, seeking a solution to everything mysterious, has not left the solution of the question that occupies us completely untouched. His solution falls into two types: some thought and still think that the unquenchable fire and the undying worm can be understood in a figurative sense, as symbols of the most severe hellish torment, that the worm expresses mainly internal remorse, and fire - terrible external torment. So thought: Origen, Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine; This is what many who tried to identify the mysterious object thought and think before and now. Others, on the contrary, understand the words of the perfect scripture literally, a sign of which can be pictures of the Last Judgment, in which those tormented in hell are represented as burning in flaming fires, hooked with iron hooks - some by the tongue, some by the side, some by the legs, or sitting in cauldrons with boiling tar, or standing on hot iron. Most Christians, especially those of the lower, uneducated or poorly educated class, seem to view the torments of hell this way and not otherwise. Of these two views on hellish torment, the church did not accept the first, although it was and is expressed by highly educated persons, leaving it in the range of private opinions. And the church could not accept it, since extremes are not characteristic of the exact teaching of the Orthodox faith; and such, without prejudice to the truth, cannot take Christ’s words about hellish torment as a metaphor: Christ many times says with precision and certainty that the torment of sinners in hell will be fire and the worm (Matthew 5:22, 30, 13:50, 25:41; Mark 9:43–50; Luke 16, etc.). The apostles say the same thing (2 Thess. 1:8; Heb. 12:29; Rev. 20:15, etc.). The general voice of the church is the same. His Eminence Anthony, in his Dogmatic Theology, briefly expresses this voice as follows: “The multitude of evidence from Holy Scripture obviously leaves no doubt that the fire of Gehenna should be understood not in some figurative or allegorical sense, but in its own sense” 52 . Without attaching importance to the exact teaching of the first view of hellish torment, leaving it in a series of private opinions, the church all the more cannot accept the latter as translating into a future renewed life the crude concepts of present life, hiding from our eyes the lofty image of the loving Christian God. Rough concepts of hellish torment may be appropriate for religions that constitute the work of the human mind, and for people who think in the spirit of the doctrine of hell, which, according to the Koran, is as follows: “What a terrible dwelling (gehenna)! When sinners are cast (there), they will hear her roaring, and the fire will burn with power. Hell will almost burst with rage." “The skin of those who are tormented will be destroyed by fire, but we will clothe them with another to make them experience punishment.” “We will make him (the sinner) roast in the fire of sakar (hell fire). It burns the human body. He leaves nothing without destroying it, does not leave anything intact, does not allow anything to hide.” - “The one condemned to dwelling in fire, having his body covered on top with layers of fire, will be given boiling resin to drink, which will tear his insides; it will be covered with stinking water.” “The wicked will yet be fed by the tree of Tzakkum. This tree grows from the depths of hell; its tops look like demon heads. The outcasts will eat it and fill their stomachs.” “Moreover, we will see them burdened hand and foot with chains. Their tunics will be made of pitch, fire will cover their faces, because God distributes each soul according to its deeds" 53 . These literal passages from the Koran leave no doubt that Mohammedanism understands hellish torment in a crude sense. If neither of the two given views on hellish torment can be accepted as the exact teaching of the Orthodox faith, and the church considered it best to leave the question of hellish fire without a definite answer, which, in the words of Blessed Augustine, is known only to the Spirit of God and to those to whom this Spirit is pleased to reveal, then should not, in view of the silence of the church and the remarks of its blessed teacher, refuse to clarify a rather difficult to understand subject? It would be necessary if the Spirit of God himself did not lift the veil that covers the future from our eyes. Let us look behind this veil to the extent that it is lifted by the Spirit of God for those who believe in Christ and who reverently approach his Divine word, the teachings of the church and the book of nature. What do we read in these organs of broadcasting of the Spirit of God? The Word of God, speaking about the fire of Gehenna, assimilates strange properties to it, apparently. It, firstly, calls it “unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43, 45; Matt. 25:41); secondly, by fire, scorching its unfortunate victims and never burning them (Rev. 20:10); thirdly, by fire, in which there will not be a ray of light, which will be impenetrable darkness (Matthew 8:11–12, 22:13, etc.). Many fathers and teachers of the church dwelled on these wonderful properties of hellish fire, as properties that deserve special attention, reflecting on it, for example: Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, Augustine, Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Lactantius, Basil the Great, etc. The latter, for example, says: “The fire there will be a dim fire, which in the darkness contains burning power, but is devoid of luminosity" 54, in which, according to Ephraim the Syrian, "there is not a ray of light" 55, which is not at all similar to the real one: "this one that captures, burns and changes to something else, and the one who once embraces will always burn and will never stop, which is why it is called unquenchable," says Saint Chrysostom 56. Lactantius writes: “This (hellish) fire will be very different from the fire we use. Our fire goes out as soon as there is not enough fuel to support it; but the fire that God will kindle for the execution of the wicked will be a fire that does not need any fuel; it will be without smoke, it will be clean and liquid like water, it will not rise upward like our fire, which earthen parts and coarse vapors force to rise to the sky in uneven and discordant waves. This fire will have power both to burn the wicked and to preserve them; for, serving as food for himself, he will be like the fabulous kite that gnaws at Tityus without killing him, as the poets say. He will burn and torment bodies without destroying them. - Those whose virtue is perfect will not be touched at all by this fire, because they will have within themselves the power that will remove them from it. God grants to this fire the power to torment the criminals, but spare the blameless 57.” And a thinking soul cannot help but pay attention to the properties of hellfire! In nature, as we know it, we know fire that goes out, fire that destroys things exposed to its action, fire that is usually accompanied by flame. The difference is obviously huge. How can we understand the wonderful properties of hellfire, and what concept can we form about it? We think we see the key to resolving this issue in the words of Jesus Christ himself, borrowed from his parable “About the Rich Man and Lazarus.” This parable, known to every Christian who is attentive to the word of God, says that the rich man, being in hell, in torment, saw Abraham far from him and Lazarus in his bosom, crying out and saying: “... Father Abraham! have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said: child! remember that you have already received your good in your life, and Lazarus received your evil; now he is comforted here, but you suffer…” (Luke 16:24–25). From these words of the parable, it is first of all clear that the torment of the rich man in the fire of Gehenna consists of the closest internal connection with his earthly life: “Remember that you received good things in your belly,” Abraham says to him; in return for which - “now you suffer.” - What kind of good is this that the rich man received in his belly? During his earthly life, as it is said at the beginning of the parable, the rich man feasted brilliantly every day: “he feasted brilliantly every day” (Luke 16:19). After this kind of earthly life, what kind of torment befell the rich man? His larynx is scorched with an unbearably burning fire; For her, the unfortunate sufferer asks Abraham for cooling. Whatever he sinned during his earthly life is scorched by hellish fire; the sufferer was a sensualist, and his organ of voluptuousness, his tongue, suffers; the sufferer loved on earth an artificial, refined way to satisfy his taste - in hell he sees the only means of cooling this sense organ in the most natural object of quenching thirst, in water; he says: “Father Abraham! have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.” For the fire of Gehenna to burn the entire body of the sufferer, this is not evident from the parable 58 . What concept of hellish fire, which has the power to scorch unrepentant sinners, follows from the parable of Christ the Savior? The tributary sufferer burns in the fire of his earthly passion; fire receives its food in the artificiality, refinement, and abnormality of the use of the sinful organ; the source of cooling for him is seen in the simplest, natural object, intended to satisfy the scorched part of the body; in a word - “with them the sufferer sins, and with these he is tormented” (Wis. 11:17). From here it so naturally follows that every unrepentant sinner will be scorched in Gehenna by the fire of his passion, scorched to the extent that the organs of passion deviated from their natural use to the unnatural, from the simple to the artificial, from the normal to the abnormal, from the legal to the illegal; this abnormality, this illegality will be the source of hellish fire, which could be extinguished only by what constituted a simple, unartificial, normal, legal way of satisfying sinful organs, but it was too late. Each of those who go to Gehenna will cry out like the tributary sufferer: “I suffer in this flame,” in the flame of my earthly passionate inclination. This source will also contain the variety of hellish fire for different kinds of sinners, about which St. Ephraim the Syrian says: “Otherwise an adulterer suffers, otherwise a murderer, otherwise a thief and a drunkard, etc. 59. So that the conclusion we draw from the Savior’s parable receives strength, and the concept of hellish fire receives greater certainty and clarity, let us turn for an explanation of the subject that interests us to the book of nature and read from it what is necessary for us with the aid of science. This necessity will relate to a thorough consideration of the structure of our body, as far as it matters in our moral life. What do we draw from this source? a) “Throughout our entire body, wherever there are signs of sensation and movement, a network of nerves extends, originating in the centers of the nervous system - the brain and spinal cord, located in the bone storages.” b) “Nerve threads themselves do not have the power to be excited and act, nor the ability to feel, think and want, but through them and in no other way the soul controls all vital activities; they are nothing more than unconscious conductors of excitation that are produced by the soul, or received by it from the external world. When an impulse of some passion excites a person’s soul, then its excited state is communicated by the nervous system, as if by telegraph wires, to all members of the human body 60.” c) “A nerve excited by the soul to a certain activity, from the frequent repetition of the same actions, not only performs these actions more easily, but can and often receives a physical inclination towards them, makes this inclination felt by the soul, which senses the nervous organism with its characteristics and those physical inclinations that have been established in it from the frequent repetition of this or that activity. Thus, first we need to use a significant effort of consciousness and will in order to give this or that direction to this or that activity of our nerves, and then we are forced to use the same effort of consciousness and will in order to counteract the inclination of the nerves, which we ourselves have ingrained in them: first we lead our nerves where we want, and then they lead us where, perhaps, we do not want to go at all.” “True, consciousness and will always remain with us and, no matter how strong the attraction of the nervous organism in any direction, we can always counteract it, but the fact is that, while our consciousness and will act almost instantly, in fits and starts, the nervous organism, with its inclinations and habits, influences us constantly. As soon as our will weakens for a moment, or our consciousness becomes occupied with another subject, our nerves begin to push us towards the mode of action to which they are accustomed, and “we,” as Reed puts it, “are carried away by habit, like a stream, when we float without resisting the current.” Only intense attention to oneself and time can change the mood of the nervous organism. d) “Experiments show that the same nerve can generate only one kind of sensation, although to varying degrees. We, for example, become noticeably tired of vividly imagining, that is, expressing in nervous movements, any one picture, so that this picture, despite all the efforts of our will, begins to fade more and more, while at the same time we can vividly imagine another picture. But some time will pass, and we can imagine the former with the same vividness.” e) From this explanation about the ability of a certain kind of nerves to produce only a certain amount of work, a new position is explained: “the nerves get tired from activity, but, having rested, they continue their work again.” About this property of the nerves, let us note the following: “the correct change from fatigue to rest constitutes normal activity of the nerves and makes the whole human being feel good. But when the nerves are withdrawn from their normal activity, they seem to stop getting tired, continue to work with extraordinary energy and often torment us with their uninvited activity. Abnormal activity of irritated nerves, repeated frequently and lasting for a long time, depletes the strength of the body - this is a well-known fact” 61. f) If the abnormal activity of the nervous system always has a painful effect, then we cannot help but see from experience that such painfulness manifests itself with greater force in the abnormal irritation of the nerves by illegal, immoral actions of people. Let’s take debauchery as an example: what does it bring to those who indulge in it? With the continued satisfaction of passion, that is, with the extinguishing of a fire with oil, the victims of debauchery do not always notice the danger of their situation. However, even in this case it sometimes comes to such an unnatural mood of the nervous organism, in which the victims of passion are furies, going beyond the boundaries of all decency. Who has not heard of the dissipations of Messalina, Poppaea, Lucretia Borgio and many others? What if they decided to abstain from their passionate exploits? Oh, then they would have experienced what Mary of Egypt experienced, who with all conscientiousness confessed the sinful acts of her life, shortly before her death. She says: “I spent 17 years in this desert, fighting my thoughts as if with fierce beasts... When I began to eat food, the thought immediately came of meat and fish, which I was accustomed to in Egypt. I also wanted wine, because I drank a lot of it when I was out in the world. Here, often without simple water and food, I suffered fiercely from thirst and hunger. I also suffered more severe disasters: I was overcome by the desire for fornicating songs, as if I heard them, confusing my heart and ears.” At the same time, “A passionate fire flared up inside my heart and scorched me all over, arousing lust.” So he died seventy years ago, having suffered countless misfortunes 62 . From these words of the Venerable Mary, what is important for us is her recognition that she was unbearably scorched by the fire of habitual passions, with the cessation of satisfying them. These words of recognition give us the opportunity to understand that all furies of voluptuousness are furies because they burn in the fire of their passion, kindled by themselves and supported by the incessant satisfaction of passionate demands. Yes, almost anyone who has ever been under the influence of a strongly excited carnal passion has almost experienced inner burning. Let us also listen to the statement of bitter drunkards when they are denied a glass of vodka for a hangover. By their own admission, these unfortunates are burning internally with a fire scorching them. This is the confession of the drunkards of St. Basil the Great puts it this way: “In the bellies of those who immeasurably drink wine, a flame burns, which they are unable to extinguish. “The prophet Isaiah sheds tears about such people, saying: “Woe to those who from early morning look for strong drink and until late in the evening heat themselves with wine” (Is. 5:11)” 63. What is said about some passions, the same happens with all with the onset of the impossibility of satisfying them; that the highest degree of abnormal irritation of the nerves affects so clearly, the same thing happens at lower degrees, only to a lesser extent. St. Basil the Great says: “Those who live passionately have their own fire of passions, just as the rich man had within himself a reason that burned him with thirst” 64 . Or: “We prepare ourselves to become fit for burning, and like fiery sparks, we kindle within ourselves the passions of our souls for the ignition of the Gehenna flame, just like the rich man who is scorched by thirst in the flame” 65. Or again: “What is sweet for you in the present will have a bitter end; This tickling, now happening from pleasure in our body, will give birth to a poisonous worm that will endlessly torment us in Gehenna, and this irritation of the flesh will be the mother of eternal fire” 66. g) What can we say about this fire that burns people, leading their nervous organism into abnormal, passionate irritation: is this fire a metaphorical expression of the painful, painful state of the body under the influence of passion, or is it a real fire? We have to put aside any thought about metaphor and say: yes, this is real fire, and not fire understood in a figurative sense. Let's explain. We said that tired nerves, after rest, are again capable of activity. What happens to them during rest? What is the essence of rest? During it, new materials from the nutritional process enter the nerves, instead of those consumed, materials that replenish the loss and, as a result, restore the strength and strength of the tired organism. What kind of consumable material is this, replenished from the nutritional process? This is electricity, the presence of currents in nerves was positively proven by Dubois and Raymond 67 and accepted by science as a fact that is no longer subject to doubt. During normal activity of the nerves, during rest, they receive as much new material as is needed to continue such activity. But if a certain section of the nerves is abnormally irritated, if, therefore, the amount of electricity flowing from the nutritional process cannot correspond to the strength and tension of the excited nerves, then this deficiency is made up for from the available resources of the body in this way: science, on the basis of experience, accepts the solidarity between all physical forces, according to which one of them can pass into another: movement into heat, heat into movement, both into electricity, electricity into magnetism, etc. From here it becomes clear that excessively, abnormally irritated nerves can convert into the electricity they need other forces required for other functions of the body, as a result of which, as stated above, the body is exhausted during the normal activity of the nerves of one or another department 68. Having considered everything that has been said about the nervous organism and knowing that people will be resurrected in the same body in which they now live on earth, in the same body, although it will appear after the resurrection in a renewed form, with the same normality or abnormality of functions that was developed in it by the soul on earth and which, therefore, will turn out to be akin to it after the resurrection - having realized all this, we believe that the future hellish fire will not be understood metaphorically, but the fire is real, material, only the fire does not scorch the sinner from the outside, but burns him from the inside, the same one that forms the basis of the vital activity of the nervous organism, electric fire. With excessive abnormally irritated activity of the nerves that served one or another sinful inclination, the amount of this fire will appear in them incomparably more than what should be for the normal state of the body, will appear on the basis of the transition of forces from one to another, due to their solidarity. An increase in the amount of fire in sinfully disposed nerves will ensure that a person will burn precisely in the fire of his passion, burning the more intensely the more significant the abnormal irritation of the nerves, the more abundant it is, therefore there will be a transition of the forces of the suffering organism, due to their solidarity, into the electricity of abnormally irritated nerves. This fire will burn a person - a sinner, but will not burn, because it (fire) is the very basis of the vital activity of the nervous organism, it will burn and will never go out, it will burn, but not shine, and then rather fog the person’s consciousness, due to its inexpressibly painful burning. In order for a person to burn in this fire, there is no need for flaming fires, or servants who light the fires and maintain the strength of the flame by adding new combustible material instead of the used one, or boiling cauldrons with tar, or any other instruments for executing sinners. With this fire, wherever an unrepentant sinner is placed to live, he will suffer everywhere, even if he is placed in heaven, according to the wonderful expression of the late Most Reverend Innocent 69. At present, the excessive amount of fire in abnormally excited nerves is reduced through various kinds of organic secretions, the result of which is fatigue of the nerves, and not a burning sensation of them attracted by the fire attracted in excess - although even now, as said above, as if in indication of future fire, there are cases of burning in the fire of passion. The current secretions of abnormally excited fire, bearing the stamp of moral damage, form a morally corrupt atmosphere, corrupting the world and preparing material for the fire that has the power to transform and renew the universe. But when the world is transformed and renewed, when, according to scripture, nothing foul and unclean can enter its borders (Rev. 21:27), cannot, otherwise the harmony of nature would again be disturbed and would appear inappropriate to the blissful state of the righteous, then there will be no release of the abnormally excited and excessively accumulated internal fire of sinners, therefore, there will be no fatigue of the nerves, then the internal fire will remain hopelessly in its internal hearth and will constitute undiminished, incessant, eternal torment for those who have gathered it, always equal to itself. This fire, as the fruit of a disturbed balance of forces attracted in excess to abnormally tuned nerves, to the detriment of others, will naturally and necessarily produce physical disgrace in the body, which will increase further as a result of the painful shocks of the internally burning sufferer. We can give an explanation from the phenomena of present life, from the words of St. Basil the Great. This holy father, depicting the state of an angry person at the highest level of irritation, says: “For those who desire revenge, the blood boils in their hearts, as if from fire, agitated and noisy; having come out, he shows in another image of one who is angry: the eyes of those who are angry, characteristic and ordinary, are not known; the gaze is fierce and fiery; they will sharpen their teeth like pigs in rage; the face is blue and bloody, the voice is cruel and tense beyond measure, the words are unclear, reckless, not detailed, pronounced less decorously and well. When a person is kindled incurably, like a flame from too much heat, then one can see an even greater disgrace, which cannot be explained in words or shown in deeds” 70 . If a person is so severely disfigured by the internally active fire of passion now that the balance of forces can be restored again, then what will happen to the cessation of this possibility? It is natural to conclude that the degree of ugliness will then be revealed to an incomparably greater extent. An explanation of the fact that hellish fire will remain hopelessly inside the sufferer, and due to its hopelessness - without the possibility of cooling the hellish burning, can be found in the following church narrative. From this narrative we see that the ulcers that torment the sinner in hell are hidden from everything around them - which is expressed by the clothing covering them - and if they become noticeable to those who have received the revelation of the secrets of the afterlife, then only by a special dispensation of God, to admonish those who are careless about their salvation 71 . This story is conveyed as follows: “Two friends entered the church of God, and just fell upon the touching word of the preacher, strong in truth and sweetness of speech, who proved the saving power of self-sacrifice and the whole danger of worldly vanity. One of them was so touched by the power of this word that his heart could not stand the reproaches of his shocked conscience and the warmth of his tender feelings: he wept bitterly about his situation and, in these burning tears of his repentant soul, made a promise to the Lord - to stop loving everything and become a monk; on the contrary, the other was in a completely different arrangement. Instead of being convinced of the justice of God's word and, with the sincerity of repentance, deciding to correct his corrupt heart, he became hardened and cruelly mocked the truths of the Gospel. These friends in the church still parted with each other in spirit, and after leaving it, in body: one, indeed, gave away all his property to the poor brethren and became a monk, and the other lived luxuriously and in strict fulfillment of the whims of his heart, like the gospel rich man, and “feasted brilliantly every day.” It happened that the monk outlived the layman, and when the latter died, his friend wanted to know the state of his afterlife, and in this desire he sincerely and with faith prayed to the Lord God, leaving his holy will to fulfill his childhood prayer. God heard him, and a few days later his dead friend appears to him in a dream. “What, brother, how do you feel – is it good?” – asked the monk, delighted by the vision. - “Do you want to know this? – the dead man answered with a groan. - Woe to me, poor thing! The never-ending worm gnaws at me and doesn’t give me peace for an eternity.” “What kind of torment is this?” – the monk continued to ask. “This torment is unbearable, but there is nothing to do: there is no way to avoid the wrath of God. I have now been given freedom for the sake of your prayers and, if you want, I will show you my torment, but do you want to see and feel it completely, or partially? You cannot fully endure my torment, so try and see some of it...” With these words, he lifted the hem of his dress to the knee, and the horror and unbearable stench so struck all the feelings of the sleeper that he woke up at the same moment... The entire leg that his friend opened to him was covered with a terrible worm, and such a fetid stench emanated from his wounds that there is no word or pen to express it... And this hellish stench is so it engulfed the cell and the monk so that he could barely jump out of it, not even having time to slam the door behind him, which is why the stench continued to spread throughout the entire monastery; all the cells were filled with it, and the alarmed monks did not understand what it meant... For a long time, this hellish air did not disappear, and the brethren involuntarily had to leave the monastery and look for shelter elsewhere, and the friend of the deceased could not do anything or anything to get rid of the once inhaled stench, nor wash it, nor drown it out with the aromatic essences of this smell 72 . The Holy Scripture also speaks about the isolation within the sufferer of hellish fire and the impossibility of weakening the burning sensation of hell in the parable of Christ the Savior cited by us “About the Rich Man and Lazarus.” The unfortunate sufferer is scorched by the fire of his passion acting within him, and finds no relief for his torment in anything. This impossibility lies in the eternal separation of hell from heaven, or, in the Gospel expression, a great abyss that no one can cross (Luke 16:26). A faint semblance of the condition of those suffering in hellfire can be seen on earth in people suffering from fever. We all know from experience that the correct distribution of heat in the body, combined with the correct and timely release of everything unnecessary, produces a pleasant sensation and gives pleasure to the body. But as soon as deviations arise in the body, as soon as its pores, due to some reason, close to evaporation, what then happens in a person? The inner fire that beneficially warmed him begins to burn painfully; the burning sensation of this fire is also noticeable to those around the patient. With this combustion, however, there is no flame; The darkness of the fire is increased by darkness of the mind, in which the sufferer rushes in all directions, would be ready to throw himself into both fire and water if they were not restrained, not further noticing the danger to themselves. This comparison is used by St. John Chrysostom, when discussing hellish fire, which he understood, it seems, is the same as us. He says: “Having heard about the eternal fire, do not think that the fire there is similar to the one here: this one, which will capture, burn and change to something else, and the one whom it once embraces will always burn and will never stop, which is why it is called unquenchable... If you are ever in a strong fever, then transfer your mind to that (Gehenna) flame 73 . For if fever torments and worries us, then what will we feel when we fall into the fiery river that will flow before the terrible judgment seat! 74 What kind of worm is this? And to this question, as to the question about the fire of Gehenna, we do not find a direct answer either in Scripture or in the teachings of the church. Setting aside the idea of ​​an exclusively spiritual understanding of this kind of hellish torment, which, according to some theologians, has a symbolic meaning and denotes torment of conscience when remembering vile deeds committed in this life, 75 the godly fathers and teachers of the church recognize the literal meaning of the doctrine of the undying worm, although they do not explain what kind of worm it is. So, for example, St. Basil the Great in the word “about the future judgment” says: “Imagine a kind of worms, a kind of poisonous and flesh-eating worm, which always eats and can never be satisfied, causing intolerable diseases with its remorse” 76 . Having behind us the authority of the fathers and teachers of the church, we also recognize the Gospel teaching about the undying worm not as a symbolic expression of remorse, but as a teaching literally understood. Wanting to give our conviction the possible thoroughness, let us turn again to the data obtained by science and providing material for understanding the Gospel teaching, proposed in the form of positive truth. What does science give us to explain the subject under consideration? In Quatrefage, for example, we read: “A large number of bladder worms live in the intestinal canal; Tremalots are found in almost all viscera, bladder worms seem to prefer the tissue itself, which is why they are found in the muscles, the center of the brain,” etc. “We see that all these and similar animals feed and then breathe at the expense of the animal in which they live. Every animal that has its own nutrition, its own temperature, its own fluids, represents at the same time a set of different conditions, and therefore a special world for helminths. Therefore, these alien creatures must be distributed according to their nature and cannot live without distinction in all animals. The observation confirms these theoretical considerations. Every kind of animal feeds only its own helminth. To count all alien eaters without exception, it would be necessary to consider all creations and enumerate all animals.” “These strange animals sometimes fill the viscera and tissues in myriads, penetrating into the very part of the skull and into the cavity of the eyeball.” 77 In the book “God in Nature, According to Camille Flammarion” we read: life is diffused throughout nature, the continent is too small for it; it rushes in all directions, it inhabits the waters and the inorganic kingdom... Thus, this complex, incomprehensible, varied life inhabits every type of creature and every kind of substance with animals... Do we know how many different genera of animals and plants are in our body? “Since the invention of the microscope, we have seen that parasites live in our blood, in our meat, in the chest, in the teeth, in the ears, under the apple of the eye, then under the papillae of the nasal nerves. We feed both carnivores and herbivores, freshwater fish swim in our veins, and in our arteries there are those that live only in salt water... Unnoticed insects penetrate our lungs and breed there for generations. In general, how many breeds of animals are found in living organic beings, although they do not notice it! One philosopher said that each part of an animal being lives by itself, an independent life; now it is no longer considered great boldness to say that the higher animals are like buildings divided into many rooms filled with many elementary animals. If this is so, then everything lives in nature. Not only air, but water, flying specks of dust, organic and inorganic elements, everything is inhabited by invisible life, creatures undergoing three metamorphoses; Everywhere we see them in one form or another, in accordance with the temperature conditions surrounding them, in accordance with warmth and humidity” 78. What is said in these extracts is not the private opinion of the named authors, but the results of experiments in science, which never ceases to comprehend more and more the secrets of nature created by God. What conclusion can we draw from the data acquired by science presented to our readers? If the human body, in its large and small parts, in tissues and muscles, in bones and fluids, is the totality of the innumerable world of living beings, then it lives the total life of all these living beings. But just as living, microscopically small creatures inhabit every living organism of a higher living being, but microscopic creatures of some genera and species live in some higher organisms, others - in others, then the human body is a collection of only known genera and species of the microscopic world of creatures. These living beings inhabit the human body because their nature is in complete agreement with the conditions presented by the human body. But a person, controlled by free will, can change the correct, normal conditions of his organic life, distort and become stagnant in the changed conditions of life, ultimately becoming a slave to his unhappy habit. For example, correctly developing nature calls a person to chastity, abstinence, honesty, respect for the Rights of other people, a person can distort himself, becoming an uncontrollable libertine, an ever-present sensualist and reveler, a desperate rogue and scoundrel, despising all human rights and dignity. If a person, controlled by free will, can radically change the conditions of normal human life, ultimately becoming a slave to new, albeit abnormal conditions, then one should conclude that the world of microscopic creatures inhabiting his body adapts to the changed conditions of life and, having adjusted, becomes so accustomed to them that the cessation of these conditions should produce in them a painful irritation, accompanied by a painful state of the whole organism. Only the repetition of abnormalities that have become a habit drowns out the silent but uncontrollable cry of the microscopic inhabitants of an organism that has deviated from the correct living conditions - drowns it out so that this cry subsequently intensifies even more. Do I need to look for examples to explain this? Anyone who wants to have such, let him look around him. Further, perhaps, it will be enough to pay attention to oneself, to the phenomena of one’s own life: every petty habit, if its requirements are not met, responds with more or less significant languor in the body. Let us now imagine the position of a person who has accustomed the world of microscopic creatures of his body to altered, abnormal living conditions - the position in the future afterlife. The world of microscopic creatures will remain in him the same as it was on earth, because there is the basis of the organism, but accustomed to changed, abnormal living conditions, which will not exist in the renewed world, he will powerfully conspire against his master. It will be impossible to drown out this cry of the internal inhabitants of the body the way we drown it out here by repeating abnormalities, because the renewed world will not provide material for the repetition of abnormalities, otherwise the same disorder in the world that exists now would again occur, the same misfortunes and disasters that oppress humanity today, otherwise the whole work of our salvation would turn into nothing. One remains to suffer from a freely developed abnormality, to suffer without the hope of ever seeing an end to suffering, because its end would be tantamount to the cessation of being, to suffer the more strongly the more the normal conditions of organic life here on earth have been distorted - to suffer, having the gnashing of teeth as a necessary companion to suffering of this kind. That the grinding of teeth will need to be accompanied by the cry of the microscopic inner world can be understood from the example of those now suffering from worms, in whom the grinding of teeth is closely connected with the disease. On this topic, the late Most Reverend Innocent offers the following considerations: “Another type of torment,” he says, “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 constituent parts of all bodies, they will never be destroyed. Now they are in our body in normal combination with it and with each other, and therefore do not torment us; among the wicked, who have been subjected to eternal torment, they will form disharmonious groups and will torment them. This is very natural, and the scripture, speaking about this, seems to have used not a likeness, but the thing itself; otherwise it would have been expressed better, it would have found a more noble expression” 79 . Oh man! Bring your mind and heart to the thought of your mysterious posthumous fate, to the thought of the indicated hellish torments, which, of course, confuses your spirit when you remember that terrible time in the existence of unrepentant sinners. And having leaned in, you, of course, will throw away the unfounded fear of hell - you will throw it away, knowing that hell is not something external for the wicked, but his internal, acquired property, which forms one whole with his very organism, and therefore cannot leave him anywhere, not for one minute, whether he reaches heaven, or the underworld, or anywhere else. According to Scripture, a person’s deeds follow him (Rev. 14:13). Instead of a vain fear of hell, you should try with all your might to arouse in yourself fear and hatred of sin and all the deeds imprinted with its seal. We must, we say, because, after what we have said, you should thoroughly understand the meaning of the moral requirements of the word of God, such as these: “or you do not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not flatter yourselves: neither harlots, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor defilers, nor wicked women, 80 nor homosexuals, nor the covetous, nor thiefs, 81 nor drunkards, nor molesters, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10). Or: “The works of the flesh are known; they are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, quarrels, envy, anger, strife, disagreements, temptations, heresies, hatred, murder, drunkenness, disorderly conduct and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19-21). Now you understand, O man, that these divine instructions are not the demands of a willful master, but the urgent need of your nature; it contains an irresistible incentive for you to turn away from evil deeds and cleave to the Lord. The opposite course of action will kindle an unquenchable hellish fire in you, awaken and educate the never-ending worm. With them you will sin in this life, given to you to prepare for the future life, and with them you will suffer (Wis. 11:17) (see “Orlovsk. Eparch. Ved.” for 1878, No. 10, etc.). A. Evidence of eternity of torment Even in the books of the Old Testament, eternal torment is often mentioned. The evil one will not be without torment, as it is said in the parables of Solomon. According to the prophet Isaiah, the fire of sinners will not go out, that is, it will burn forever. The Prophet Daniel speaks of eternal shame for some people and considers eternal life to be the opposite state for others: he foreshadows both after the resurrection of the dead. In the New Testament, the Forerunner of Christ preached for the first time about eternal torment. This time he puts before us such a picture. When the grain harvest is over, the wheat will be put into the granary and the threshing floor will be cleansed: then the matter will be dealt with with the tares or chaff. The chaff is collected in a heap and, like useless material, is burned with fire. Chaff is the unrepentant sinners whom the Judge will burn with unquenchable fire (Matthew 13:40). The most merciful shepherd Christ himself repeatedly spoke about “hell” (Luke 16:23), about “fiery hell” (Matthew 5:22), about the fiery furnace and about pitch darkness. According to his teaching, the future execution of sinners has absolutely no limit. Thus, when he instructs us to anticipate and overcome dangerous temptations, in this one speech he repeats the words many times “where the worm of their sinners does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43–48). Isn’t this the special insistence of his preaching? Most clearly, he preached about eternal torment a few days before his suffering, when he prophetically described the latest events of the world. Depicting the Last Judgment, he first called the eternal fire of hell, “Render me cursed into everlasting fire” (Matthew 25:41). And then he recognized the burning in this fire as eternal: these go into eternal torment. Going, without a doubt, means an action that seems to be already taking place. But even though the terrible steps towards Gehenna of sinners are still far from us, perhaps they will follow another thousand years after this, yet before Jesus Christ a thousand years are like yesterday. As a God-man, he clearly saw the time when sinners would move from the place of judgment to hell. Thus, his speech in the present case is especially positive: there is no condition here. And therefore, no matter who and no matter how he interprets his sayings about eternal fire and eternal torment, the truth remains undoubted that not only evil spirits will burn in that fire, but also some of the people, this is absolutely true. But it must certainly be for some, because God’s decision about it has already taken place and will not change, although not one of those to whom this decision applies will suffer in any way by accident, by misfortune, by inevitable fate, but he himself will be the cause of his death. What kind of unfortunate people these are, now we cannot indicate except for a few, for example, the future Antichrist, Nero, the persecutor of Christians, and others. The apostles of Christ also preached about eternal torment. The strict Peter, the most patient Paul, and John the Theologian, full of love for his neighbor, predict eternal destruction for sinners. From their writings, let us cite at least the words of the last one in the Apocalypse: the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever. This is what the apostle-theologian says about sinners, and specifically from among the people. It would seem that it was enough to terrify the soul with this one word: forever. But he adds; centuries. What can be said against this accuracy? It is impossible to understand: forever and ever, not in the sense of eternal and endless time, but in the sense of only several centuries, as now the word “age” means a hundred years, because in the same inspired book the Apostle also uses the same words. But everywhere he expresses with them the undoubted infinity of time, for example, that God eternally exists, that the kingdom of Christ will continue forever. The holy interpreters of Scripture, the fathers and teachers of the church, all accepted the teaching of the word of God about the fate of unrepentant sinners in the next world in no other way than in the sense of their endless torment. One of the ancient church writers, very famous for his learning and works for the benefit of the church, a certain Origen, admitted the idea that after some time the torment of sinners would end. But the holy church recognized his teaching as false and condemned him at the whole ecumenical council (fifth). Ephraim the Syrian, especially, thought and talked a lot about the eternal damnation of sinners. Then the holy martyrs spoke about eternal torment at the places of their execution. This means that they expressed their conviction in it at such hours when it would be scary to tell a lie, not only to them, but also to anyone else, and when, moreover, the special grace of God was with them, which, as much as it strengthened their spirit and body in torment, also enlightened their mind with the truth. Thus, the holy martyr Polycarp responded to his tormentor’s threat to burn him at the stake with a sermon about eternal fire, in which villains like the tormentor would burn. Even after these proofs, let others still reject eternal torment. Let both, smart and foolish, make objections to the present dogma of faith. Let them say with mockery: “Has anyone ever returned from the other world?” Let them joke about hell and hellish fire, calling it all the belief of the common people and boasting of some kind of fearlessness. But the truth, which has been preached so many times and in such clear words in the word of God and explained by St. fathers, will remain an immutable truth: it will not lose anything from incorrect interpretations, various softenings, from witticisms and jokes. For this very reason, that is, that some do not believe it and, thus, live their lives here without any fear of God, and eternal fire will befall those who do not believe. Others deliberately distance themselves from the thought of hell so as not to bother themselves at all. But this means repeating the murmur of unclean spirits who said to Jesus Christ in a demoniac state, “You came here before the time to torment us” (Matthew 8:29). This means the sooner to reach eternal restlessness, because he only sins less every day who assumes about each of his days that this may be the last day of his life, that then judgment and eternity will come for him. Still others, although they do not shy away from thinking about the future fate of the sinner, harbor in their souls the regret that God is too just. So Lot’s wife, although she was afraid of the fire of Sodom, had not yet rejected Sodom with all her heart, her heart still strove for Sodom, and for this she turned into a pillar of salt. No, dear reader, we must here turn our regret only to the fact that by our unrepentance we bring upon ourselves the eternal wrath of God 82 . B. Image of hell and the future torment of the sinner in it Imagine the widest, steepest abyss, imagine it with such a deep bottom that nothing can be deeper, that it is impossible to get out of it. Or imagine a whole lake, only filled not with water, but with fire: from this fiery lake, flames shoot up into the air with a terrible roar. This is what hell will be like! This will be the room for sinners after the current chambers or poor huts, but those where almost every day they had noisy fun and spent their lives in debauchery. God was not feared and man was not put to shame. God will send eternal fire to this place. Fire here must be understood in the literal sense. The interpretation that this will be torment for one conscience, called fire because of the unbearable pain, is not based on anything and is contrary to the word of God. Hellfire will be thin and not bright, however, the smoke from it will not darken the abyss so much that sinners cannot see each other. As for his strength in action, he will be even stronger than now. But, burning to the bones, it will not take away a person’s consciousness and feelings, which sinners drowning in its abyss would happily wish for. When today someone experiences a terrible fever (for example, during a severe fever), then the delirious person still vaguely feels his pain. If someone then falls into the fire itself (as during a fire), then the unfortunate person fights, screams and moans only at the beginning, or when the fire slowly acts on him, and then he no longer remembers anything. A sinner, tormented in hellish fire, will retain all his feelings, physical and mental. That is why his suffering will be terrible: he will suffer, as it were, especially with every feeling. Thus, with his own eyes he will see other sinners similar to himself, who have despair in their faces and tears in their eyes. With your ears you will constantly hear your own groans and the gnashing of teeth of others: “What a cry will arise (says St. Cyril of Alexandria), what a cry and sobbing, leading to bitter eternal torment! How they will moan, fight and be tormented! 83". With his sense of smell, the sinner will feel the stench of the components of hellfire, for example, a bogeyman, or flammable sulfur. By touch he will feel only the burning power of fire. His body will be enveloped on all sides and, so to speak, doused with fire: as I suffer in this flame, it is said about the rich man. And what else? The fire will penetrate to his very entrails. Just as a person drowned in a river is surrounded and pressed from everywhere by water: the water presses him from the outside, while the water fills his insides, so in hell the sinner will be completely penetrated by the opposite element, fire. The only difference here will be that a person drowned in water does not feel the pressure of the water on him, but a sinner will fully feel the fire scorching him. From the force of the fire, all his members will seem to crack, his veins will be subject to contraction. A worm that never sleeps will be painful to the touch of a sinner. This again will not only be a remorse of conscience, but an actual worm that will constantly prick the sinner. Among the fiery flames, the worm will blacken over a vast space, it will agitate like water during a storm: its external appearance will also be disgusting: “the area of ​​the spectacle is purulent... the heat is unbearable... the worm is stinking and fetid,” I will say again in the words of Cyril of Alexandria. Finally, the sinner’s sense of taste will not be left without excruciating pain. With his taste he will experience the disgusting bitterness of hellish fire, and at the same time an unbearable thirst, since the fire scorching him from the outside will also be like food for his insides: send Lazarus, “may he wet the tip of his finger and cool my tongue” (Luke 16:24), the rich man tearfully asked Abraham from the underworld. The sinner will taste with his taste and “the poison of asps under his lips” (Ps. 139:4), perhaps because he unworthily partook of the body and blood of Christ. That the sinner will retain the feelings of the soul is evident from the words of the Savior, “Fear Him more who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna” (Matthew 10:28). If not only the body, but also the soul is destroyed in Gehenna, it means that the soul there will remain alive and conscious; This means he will remember, think and feel. Yes, in one and the same eternal time the sinner’s real life will be united with the past, present and future time. To roughly imagine what he will feel there with his spiritual abilities, let us assume his conversation in hell with himself, or suppose his future memories, as if spoken out loud. Let us first pay attention to its past tense. So, for example, an atheist, remembering his life, will say to himself: “I also deliberately suppressed religious beliefs in myself.” The truths of faith spoke to my soul about themselves, but I was looking for books and people who would convince me otherwise, that is, that there is no God and no future life. Now I see that there is a God. I didn’t want to know him voluntarily: now I know him involuntarily. Now, in fact, I am convinced of the insanity of my previous reasoning, for example, that “the soul means nothing, that man is only matter, or the composition of flesh and blood, which are forever destroyed with his death.” Also: “how many I have infected with my freethinking and unbelief! How fearlessly he entered the church, which meanwhile others entered with reverence! How he despised priests, laughed at every sacred thing, and thus insanely deprived himself of saving grace!” – A stubborn schismatic will remember: “How many admonitions have I neglected! I didn’t want to believe even the most obvious evidence of Orthodox truth! Even before his death, St. rejected confession. communion, which my loved ones invited me to accept, but which my “mentors” in the schism rejected me from. I was called to the church, as to Noah’s ark: but instead of the legitimate priests, I wanted to listen better to the same ignoramuses, or at least worldly people, like myself. And now I find myself behind the saving ark, drowning in a fiery flood!” The idolater will remember the soulless idols that he worshiped instead of God... The lover of money will also remember his money and property, which he now also puts in place of God, which is why he is called an idolater. The sensualist, who in this life rejoices brightly all the days (Luke 16:19), looks at this life as only a period in order to enjoy in every possible way, there he will actually feel the power of the sacred text: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. He will ask himself: “Where are these feasts with music? Where are the everyday evenings for unnecessary rest, playing cards, running away from your family? Where are those who visited me in such great contentment that they drenched themselves in wine? Where is feminine beauty? The stubborn proud man will remember how much of his pride, which he now manifests in various ways through lust for power, inaccessibility, irritability, ambition, and contemptuous treatment of others, will remember how much others have suffered from his satanic pride. Nowadays, he doesn’t even want to listen for a minute when someone thinks of awakening his conscience, begins to express the truth to him directly or only in modest terms: he runs away from truthful speech and closes the door behind himself, so that there is no possibility of ever conveying the truth to him, leading him out of error. But there he will be tied hand and foot, so he will inevitably listen to all the accusations from his conscience. The blasphemer will remember how he carelessly and impudently used the name of God in conversations, writing and vain deification; how he further cursed the name of God, remaining, through the long-suffering of God, not struck at that very moment; as he called his “angel” a woman’s face, for whom he had unclean love and with whom he then lived depravedly. The oathbreaker will remember his many oaths, which he took without any fear and consciously violated, his vows before God and the assurances of others, in the name of God, which he did not even think of fulfilling. The one who blasphemes will remember all the cases when he turned church services, holy icons and clergy into jokes and laughter. Those who do not honor Sundays and holidays will remember how at a time when good Christians hurried to church, they, on the contrary, went to field work or - even worse - gathered in houses of feasting and debauchery, as if on holidays, they deliberately organized singing and ceremonies, or else they all gathered in one house (club) for fun; Like all the holidays, we spent only in revelry. These same people will remember how, apart from two or three days of fasting, which they performed only according to custom, they never went to church during the whole year, how, when they got up in the morning and went to bed in the evening, each time they did not think of praying to the Lord God. Those who break the fast will remember the meat and wine with which they satiated their bellies, while others (even those weaker in strength) remained on dry eating or did not think about food at all (for example, on Great Friday). The blasphemers of the Holy Spirit, who expressed their blasphemy, for example, by not recognizing the holy relics and miracles that may have been performed before their eyes, will be convinced that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be tolerated in the next century. Disobedient children will remember how, with their rude words, their resistance and depraved lives, they forced their parents to grieve and cry for them. But it will be difficult for the parents themselves to remember how they clearly seduced their children into a lawless life, how they did not try to raise their children in the fear of God, and thus brought them along with them to this place of torment. In the next world the priest will remember his grace and say: “How many times have I forgiven the sins of others, but have not earned forgiveness for myself! The higher bliss I should have received in paradise, the lower my fall into the depths of hell.” The memories will be difficult for the leaders who did not observe justice in anything, acting, apparently, on a legal basis, but in fact they did not set up any laws for themselves except their own opinion and arbitrariness; demanding from others only unquestioning obedience and giving nothing to the freedom and rights of their neighbors, they themselves did not in the least submit to either the gospel or the rules of St. churches. It will be bitter for them to remember how they envied worthy people who were under their power and influence and, out of envy, did not allow them to breathe freely, while rewarding and exalting the unworthy and flatterers. Since they were strong, they would be tortured even more for their abuses. How terrible will be the memories of suicides who were free to destroy their souls, easily and autocratically disposed of their lives, but will not be able to stop their torment in hell with a new suicide! With what horror will other murderers remember their crimes, especially those who raised their murderous hands on the parents themselves, or shed the blood of a priest, or tortured their own wives and children, as those who once persecuted for Christ, or even took the lives of pregnant women and babies! Terrible will be the memories of haters, molesters, cruel rich people, seducers, in general, all those who killed their neighbor slowly, physically or mentally and morally! The consciousness of these people will bring to light all the tears that the innocent shed as a result of their cruelties. And they will cry the more intensely, the more tears others have shed from them in this life. Fornicators and adulterers will remember in the next world how they laughed at the chastity of others, how from an early age they desecrated themselves with fornication, and how they also seduced many innocents; how they dissolved legitimate marriages with their criminal connections, how they seduced widows; how they had concubines or concubines until old age and, then dying, did not want to end the shameful relationship; how they reached such sins of carnal passion that it is shameful to say, they will remember that they did not restrain themselves from their passion further on the great bright holidays, on the strictest fasts and fasting days. At the same time, they will be reminded of their bad words and their equally bad songs, music and theatrical performances, from which their souls were pampered and their imaginations were inflamed. These people will feel the stench of hellfire all the more. The robber and thief will remember their robberies and thefts, as well as the very things that they acquired and used unjustly. It will be terrible for the arsonists to remember their arson, because these villains left both rich and poor, elderly and infants homeless; because of their malice, good Christians lost the churches of God, and perhaps some perished in the fire! The fire of hell will burn them in a terrible way. The lazy will remember their talents that they buried in the ground; a fiery flame, like some kind of scourge, will bite them for laziness. The slanderer will be reminded of his vain suspicions of others, his gossip, his evil tongue, from which many died, his false denunciations and testimonies, his very evasiveness in defending a right and innocent person, in general, his constant favor only towards untruth and lies. The envious person will remember how he gloated over the failures of his neighbor, how many times, out of envy, he stopped the good undertakings of others, while he himself did nothing useful; how one would like to possess everything; how he burst into flames in his heart (Acts 7:54) when he saw the intelligence, merits and successes of another, and how after that he took revenge on this person, without knowing why; how much with his intrigues and envious persecution he took away from others good nights, health and years of life. For this very reason, in the next world he will be greatly consumed by his conscience and howl, as it were, like a stupefied dog howls. Here are examples of how sinners in the future life will remember their past! 84 “But is it really possible, you say, that even for one sin a person will be subjected to eternal torment? For example, will the troublemakers be tormented forever?” The trouble is that one passion in a person (when it reaches the highest degree of development) rarely exists without other passions and sins. Let's say, for example, about the same annoying people. By their name we mean people who are slanderous and scolders, and should also be understood as those who hinder others in some way and generally disturb the good tranquility of their neighbor. They have an evil heart: they sometimes do not spare their neighbor even in his illness. They have no fear of God, because they often do not respect the sacred place where they annoy others. That’s how many other vices these people combine with their main vice! I will also note about the future memories of the sinner. Bringing to mind the wicked life here, he will see that sinful pleasures were not always easy for him, but were often combined with vanity, illness, difficulties and further suffering of his own kind. What will be the consequence of all these memories? What will be left of them for sinners? Repentance is the most painful. Sinners recognize their guilt and will not blame anyone else for their destruction: they will see that the keys to the kingdom of heaven were in their own hands. It will be especially bitter for them to realize that they had long, long ago heard about hell and eternal torment, but did not believe anything or remained careless. However, there will be no deep and humble repentance in them. Their repentance will be similar to the repentance of a stubborn murderer who is caught in the crime itself or has committed a crime in front of others: this criminal, let’s say, does not lock himself in his crime, but does not soften in the least in his heart and does not ask for forgiveness for himself. The repentance of sinners in the next world will be similar to the repentance of the desperate Judas the traitor. Recalling their past time in general, sinners will also pay attention to those years that they have already spent in hell since the Last Judgment. But it’s nice to remember the difficult time, when this time has passed and calm days have come. And for sinners in the next world, even after a thousand bitter days, not a single joyful day will come. For them, the beginning of hellish torment will mean nothing in comparison with its continuation, on the one hand, because the subsequent days of their life in hell will be similar to the first, and on the other hand, hell will be so painful that it will be impossible to get used to it. So, the past tense will be terrible, terribly terrible in all respects for those who will suffer eternal torment! Poor soul of a sinner! How much she will suffer along with her body! This, my brothers, is what it means to destroy your soul in that life! (Mark 8:35–36. See book. Archpriest Popov: “Eternal torment of the sinner.”) B. About the subsequent time in the life of sinners in the next world If we take current life as an example, then sometimes even the most unfortunate people find some joy in their future. Let, for example, someone else on earth be assigned to spend a thousand days in hard labor. If he spends only the first day, then he probably knows that he has not a thousand days left to live in hard labor, but 999, and he says to himself that he has “taken a step forward.” Another was sentenced to 10–15 years of hard labor. His years pass slowly and sadly. But over time, he strengthens his spirit and gives himself up to waiting, beginning to count down the remaining years of his term one month at a time. Let anyone be sent to work for the rest of his life. And such a person (besides the fact that death will someday relieve him of his difficult condition) often still feeds himself with the hope of being freed. There are permanent exiles and just dreamers. They don't need their dreams to be impossible. But they knew in the fate of their comrades cases of unexpected release from work, and so they dream of their own freedom, and they delight themselves with the dream. But for the eternally condemned sinner there will be no hope left. There will be no way out of hell for anyone: it will be like a sea without a pier. “The wilderness is impassable and the abyss immeasurable...; there will be no way out for the prisoner, the prison wall is impassable...; the shackles cannot be removed." Let someone say to the atheist burning in the fire: “You will suffer for another thousand years,” or let it be announced to the arsonist: “You still have to suffer for another five thousand years.” They would begin to wait for the end of these periods. But, unfortunately, no one else will promise them anything; they themselves cannot indulge in any gratifying dream or unconscious expectation of a better time. On the contrary, their consciousness will clearly imagine one painful eternity. They will wish to die a hundred times, but will not wait to die. In today’s life they sometimes talk about a person for whom his long-term illness or other long-term suffering has ceased with death: “My life has suffered; The unfortunate one will no longer suffer!” But in the future light the sinner's eyes, full of tears, will never close; his groans will never subside there, and the grave no longer awaits him. In this respect, he will be like a person who has suffered from insomnia, who, no matter how hard he tries to fall asleep, is far from sleep and is therefore completely upset. Finally, the state of the sinner will not be life, but also not death, understood in the sense of the separation of the soul from the body. This will be eternal dying, or, as they say in the apocalypse, the second death. So, in the past tense, rejected sinners will find one painful regret, in the present - one painful suffering, and in imagining the future time - only horrors. That is why they will curse their birthday and themselves. Despair, a terrible disease of the soul in this life, will be their endless disease. Some will grind their teeth in despair, while others will cry continuously. There will be no compassion for them from anywhere. The devil and other evil spirits, whose will they carried out here and with whom others, such as wizards, were in the closest communication, will not help them. Evil spirits themselves will be tightly bound, they themselves will be in much greater despondency and destruction in their souls. Evil joy is partly a delightful feeling, just as every sin in this life gives the sinner sweetness, albeit temporary, at least sometimes for one minute. But in the future life the sinner will drink not a sweet cup, but only the sorrow of his sins. Christ the Savior threatened some Jewish cities and villages with a terrible fate in the next century. These were those cities and villages that, although they heard his preaching and saw his extraordinary miracles, did not believe anything and were not moved by anything. He compared these cities with other stubborn sinners who lived before, or if simultaneously with them, then outside Palestine. And so, in comparison with the latter, he clearly expressed the highest degree of punishment for them: “it will be more bearable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that city” (Matthew 10:15). “It will be more tolerable for Tire and Sidon than for you” (Matthew 11:22). And he pointed precisely to the execution after the trial of the latter (on the day of judgment!...). At other times, he spoke directly about his second coming, after which there would be rewards for some and executions for others. And what did he preach? “The servant who knew the will of his master, and was not ready, and did not do according to his will, will be beaten many times; but whoever did not know and did something worthy of punishment will receive less punishment. And from everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required, and to whom much has been entrusted, from him will be required more” (Luke 12:47–48). Although ignorance of the will of God as set out in revelation is not excusable for anyone, anyone who has full knowledge of this will and yet does not apply his knowledge to the matter will deserve a great execution. The Holy Fathers discuss the difference in torment for sinners: “there are different kinds of torment... And what is said in parables: in the day of hell makes it clear that some, although in hell, but not in the bottom of hell, suffer the lightest punishment; otherwise the adulterer suffers, otherwise the fornicator, otherwise the murderer, otherwise the thief and drunkard; There should be no doubt that the very punishments to which sinners will be subjected will differ according to the differences in their crimes.” In the word of God (except for the teaching about the servant who knew and the one who did not), as well as in St. fathers, we still find indications of who will suffer more and who will suffer less in the next world. The Apostle Paul, offering the doctrine of retribution to people on the day of “the revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (hence, in the next century), says: “tribulation and distress will be upon every soul of every man who does evil, both Jew and Greek first” (Rom. 2:5, 9). The Jew was given a complete understanding of God and the commandments of God, but the pagan was deprived of this understanding. So, he will be punished more severely compared to the latter. Only in relation to both, the name “doing evil”, translated from Greek, means “unrepentant villain.” St. Chrysostom teaches: “Whoever has received more instruction must endure a greater penalty for the crime; The more knowledgeable we are... the more severely we will be punished.” Therefore, it was said to the Jewish scribes and Pharisees, who rested on the law, and yet did not want to move a finger to fulfill it: you will receive unnecessary condemnation. Those who have the greater power to counteract evil in themselves and in others will also be subjected to greater torment (sometimes one word of theirs or one letter of theirs could support the truth, inspire innocence, give rise to good enterprises), but who, meanwhile, have always only patronized vice and themselves oppressed the truth: to him has been given... much, much will be demanded of him. “How will the torment itself differ?” We can deduce their difference (in the sense of greater or lesser cruelty) from some Gospel sayings. Yes, St. Chrysostom, from the torment of the rich man who asked to send Lazarus to him, turns to each such sinner: “But with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you; You didn’t give a grain, you won’t get even a drop.” St. Ephraim the Syrian applies torment to the quality of those sins and passions that someone has sinned here: “Whoever harbors wickedness in his heart and envy in his mind, he will be hidden by a terrible depth.” According to the teachings of the same father, “There is total darkness in a special country...; gnashing of teeth special place; Tartar is also a special place.” And the Hieromartyr Patrick says: “Tartarus is deeper than all the other abysses under the earth.” St. prayed against the same Tartarus. Cyril of Alexandria: “I am terrified of Tartarus, where there is not even a little warmth.” St. Joseph of Persia said to his judge-torturer: “The persecutors of Christians will be condemned to eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Souls who believe and revere the terrible justice of God! It is true that to be subjected to even the lightest torment in the next world will be a great misfortune. In today's prisons, others take advantage of better accommodations and more lenient treatment from the prison guards against their fellow prisoners: but isn't the mere deprivation of freedom painful for them? So, let us avoid not only excessive crimes that directly bring us closer to hell, but also such sins that we consider to be everyday, but with which, however, our soul and body are desecrated, and for which, finally (such as swearing in anger towards our neighbor), the gospel also threatens Gehenna. An accurate exposition of the Orthodox faith, book. IV. Ch. 27. p. 308. Of the newest theologians, for example, Bishop Michael thinks so and sets out his thoughts in an explanation of the parable of “the rich man and Lazarus.” See his Expository Gospel on Luke. ed. 1871 p. 483. Also in the explanation of the words of Jesus Christ from Chapter 25. Matt. Art. 41–43 about the participation of sinners, where he says: “Fire depicts the highest degree of torment, since execution (burning) by fire is the most cruel execution,” p. 496. Dogma, theologian. Antonia, ed. 1862, p. 271. Koran of Mohammed in Russian translation. Nikolaev, ed. 1864 Basil the Great, conversation on Psalm. XXXIII. – A Word about the Future Judgment, in ed. 1826, p. 214. Ephraim the Syrian's word is about the fear of God and the final judgment, c. creativity St. father XV, 308. Chrysostom, word 1 to Theodore the fallen. Lactation, trans. Korneeva, book. VII, on the blessed life, XXI, p. 16. This parable is found in the Gospel of Luke, ch. 16, art. 19–31. Ephraim the Syrian, word on the honorable cross and on the second coming. Gentlemen, in Creation. Holy Father. XIV. page 50. Space. Nature's Bible. Benera, book. IX. Ch. 221. page 13. Ushinsky “Man as a subject of education”, volume I. ch. XII, X and XI. pp. 104. 84, 85 ed. 1871 Life of the teacher Mary of Egypt in “Chet. - Min. under the 1st of April. Moral words of Vasily Vel. ed. 1855 in a word against drunkards, pp. 224 and 226 Collected, works of Vasily Vel. Vol. II. p. 241. in the interpretation of Art. 23. Chapter V Isaiah. Collection of works of Vasily Vel. Vol. II. p. 90. in interpretation, on Art. 31. Ch. Isaiah. Assembled in the same. Vol. IV. page 43. Herman's educational physiology pp. 176.228. See about this in Ushinsky’s book: “Man as a Subject of Education,” chap. XI. pl. 5.6, p. 87; at Sekka's. in the book: “The Unity of Physical Forces.” See the collection of lectures by Professor Kyiv Spirit. Academy, ed. On the occasion of the anniversary of the Academy. The word “against those who are angry” in the collections of moral words of Basil the Great, selected by Simeon Metaphrast, in Russian. Transl. Ed. 1855, p. 149. Although the proposed story speaks of a never-ending worm, and not of an unquenchable fire, we present it here as a story that confirms our thoughts that hellish torment will be locked inside tormented sinners. The never-ending worm itself will be discussed below. Collection of works and letters of Svyatogorets about St. Mount Athos, vol. I, ch. 36, pp. 162–164. It is difficult for the person who is sick with fever to transfer his mind from the engulfing illness to the fire of hell, it is even hardly possible; It is more convenient to observe patients of this kind from the outside. Homily 1 to Fyodor the Fallen in Chron. Thu." 1844 1, 336. Blessed. Theophylact. for example, in his interpretation of the words of the Gospel about the undying worm and unquenchable fire, he says: “the worm and fire that torment sinners are everyone’s conscience and the memory of vile deeds committed in this life.” Quote Bishop Michael, in his explanatory gospel on the Evangelist Mark, ch. IX, Art. 49–50. Mikhail himself has the same thoughts as the bl. Theophylact. The same with Augustine in his de civil. Dei XXI. 9 paragraph 2; 10 p. I; in Origen. Ambrose and Jerome. Morals words of Basil the Great, elected. Simeon Metaphrastus. in Russian translation, according to ed. 1854 p. 161. Orthodox Church, according to Vasil. Great, recognizes the undying worm in the literal sense. Cheat. in Dogma. theology of Macarius and Anthony. Transformations in the animal world. A. Quatrfaja, ed. 1859 p. 145. God in Nature by Camille Flammarnon, ed. Ed. Chistyakova, pp. 124–126. Collection of lectures by professors of the Kyiv Theological Academy. Kyiv. 1869 pp. 210–211. Malakia – from the Greek word μαλακία “malakos”, which has several meanings: 1) soft, 2) feminine, 3) indefinite. Theologians differ on what is meant by this word in 1 Corinthians 6:9: some believe that malakis were male prostitutes, while others believe that malakis were people without a specific sexual orientation, including crossdressers (men who dress like women). Either way, the above sin is sexual sin. Note: Quote from the Brockhaus Bible Dictionary: Malakia [Greek “malakos” – “soft”, “easily subject to pressure, compression”, “elastic” (for example, in Matthew 11:8; Luke 7:25)]. In 1 Corinthians 6, the word “Malachi” refers to a man or youth who allows homosexuals (see 1 Timothy 1:10) to use him to satisfy their sexual needs (Rom. 1:27). Greek philosophers often regarded sodomy as higher than sexual relations between a man and a woman. Thus, in the work “Symposium,” Plato glorifies the malaki as follows: “These are the best of boys and young men, for they are by nature the most courageous. Some, however, call them shameless, but this is a delusion: they behave this way not because of their shamelessness, but because of their courage, masculinity and bravery, out of passion for their own likeness.” Dahl's Dictionary TAT m. (to conceal), thief, predator, kidnapper, who stole something, who steals custom, prone to this, little used. stealer In the old days, thief meant a swindler, to steal, to cheat, to deceive; and thief, the direct name of a secret kidnapper. Theft, theft, kidnapping; theft by deception, theft; theft by violence, robbery, robbery; theft is simple, the secret removal of things. Nowadays the law distinguishes between theft-theft, theft, and theft-fraud, theft. Serves the thief right with flour (whip). Tatya is being tortured, her ribs are being broken! Tatem passed, sneaked. A thief, not a thief, but to become the same, a supporter, a handyman. Night (death) will cover (or ruin) like a thief. The thief stole the thief's baton. Incense on the devils, prison on the thieves. Tate's ducklings were stolen (shortcut). Church congregation Tatba. Tatbina Church a stolen thing, the most lost thing. Tatsky, Tatya is old. related to the tat, thief. Bring robbery, murder, Taty's cases to provincial elders in the cities. Laid down. Tatebny, tatstvenny, related to theft, theft, theft. Tatebnoye, everything is stolen. N.A. Berdyaev “Truth and Revelation Prolegomena to the Criticism of Revelation. “Chapter VIII THE PARADOX OF EVIL. ETHICS OF HELL AND ANTI-HELL. TRANSFORMATION AND TRANSFORMATION It is a great honor to Fr. S. Bulgakov is that in the third volume of his system of dogmatic theology he resolutely rebelled against the idea of ​​eternal hell. In this he expresses the tradition of Russian religious and philosophical thought, the Russian idea. Eternal hell for him means the failure of God, the defeat of God by dark forces. I have long ago expressed the idea that the “eternity” of torment does not mean an infinite duration in time, but only the intensity of the painful experience of a certain moment in time. For Fr. According to S. Bulgakov, evil has no depth and, as it were, exhausts itself and destroys itself. And for him the idea of ​​​​the eternity of hell is unacceptable to his conscience. And also “Orthodox teaching on salvation” Sergius (Stragorodsky), Patr. As you can see, readers, we have given these memories in order of all ten commandments of God. Now these memories can constitute a “confession” for the sinner before God, which will not be rejected, which God grant to all of us! You might be interested in: