Do the slain go to heaven?

From a letter:

“Dear Natalya Ivanovna, if you remember, it was I who called and told that once, out of the kindness of my soul, I gave your books to my ex-girlfriend, and after reading them, she decided to earn extra money, began to receive people on your behalf. You then also asked me to go to her and tell her to stop doing this immediately. I went to her, but she pushed me out, insulting and cursing me in every way. Then I, outraged by her behavior, gave an announcement so that people would not believe her, since she was a false healer, and not N. I. Stepanova from Novosibirsk. You would know what she did after that ...

This person does not understand well, she rented a room in a trading house and hosts a reception there, but only now she does not say that she is Stepanova, but says that she is your sister. I'm sorry if I upset you again, but she must be stopped, because she can harm many people, and the shame will go to you. I am writing to you for another reason. I am tormented by the question of where people who were killed by a violent death end up, because the person who was killed did not have time to confess before his death, and is it true that all sins are forgiven for them? The fact is that almost two years ago my husband was killed (we were not married to him), and I always think about whether his soul has found peace?

I also wanted to ask you when the second coming of Christ will be, so I'm already tired of everything. I feel very sad and bad without him, there is no support. I remind you that the name of the false healer is Natalya Sergeevna Tereshchenko (nee Skripchenko), born in 1980. I am very sad that she was once my friend. But you should know that her tongue is serpentine and deceitful, she will definitely start spreading all sorts of dirty rumors in revenge and will try to slander you in every possible way. So you, if anything, will now know who should be responsible for this!

My dear, first of all, thank you for trying to defend my name. Everything I can, I will help you. Many messages of this kind come to me, for the sake of money, announcements are given that say that N. I. Stepanova is conducting a reception (here and there), and, of course, not me, but another person is conducting this reception. And you are right that after the proceedings these enterprising people are trying in every possible way to annoy me. They spread false rumors, they write on the Internet that I do not exist, that I am already too old to heal people, or that I have died. Every time such a fuss ends in trouble for those who organize such a vicious game. There is nothing hidden that would not become obvious - this should not be forgotten.

Now about your question: “Is it true that all sins are forgiven for a murdered person?” I think that only the Lord God can know the answer to this question. He alone decides who to pardon and who to execute. Judge for yourself, for example, that person who himself killed people and was killed in a shootout or in a fight, how can you say here, whether his sins will be forgiven if he, even against his will, did not have time to confess and take communion before his death. On the other hand, there is an opinion that those people who died on Easter are forgiven for all sins. Each of the people wants to believe that there is an excuse for his sins, probably this is so, but, nevertheless, it is up to God to decide whether to forgive sin or not. You can only alleviate the fate of your deceased husband. Do good deeds and deeds in his memory. Read psalms and prayers according to his soul. Ask the Mother of God for protection for his soul, justification and mercy from Her Son Jesus Christ, and your labors will not be left without God's reward.

Not only you, but also many of my readers ask me about the fate of the souls of dead people. No one can know everything, but I will say what my grandmother explained to me, what the holy elders, for example, St. John Larch, said: “When a person confesses, then by repentance the sins committed are destroyed and are not mentioned anywhere (three days after death), nor at the judgment of God. Immediately, as soon as a person dies, light and dark angels come to him in order to determine which of them the person (his soul) should follow. Light angels declare his good deeds in earthly life, while dark angels convict the soul of committing sins.

There are twenty ordeals of the soul after the death of a person. Here is how St. Theodora tells about these painful steps: “After parting with the body, on the path to the Lord, the soul meets its first ordeal, where sins are presented to it: verbosity, idle talk, idle talk, foul language, ridicule, blasphemy, singing obscene songs, passionate hymns , wanton exclamations, impudent laughter, etc.

Then the second ordeal: perjury, failure to fulfill the vows given to God, mentioning the name of God in vain, etc.

The third ordeal: the ascension of slander and slander against one's neighbor, as well as humiliation, defaming, ridicule and mockery of other people, etc.

The fourth ordeal: breaking fasts, drunkenness and greed for satiety, gluttony, voluptuousness, eating food without prayer, etc.

The fifth ordeal: abandoning prayer (not praying to God), negligence in serving God, parasitism, stump, etc.

The sixth ordeal: secret and hidden theft, theft and unlocking from one's theft, etc.

The seventh ordeal: avarice, money-grubbing, avarice, etc.

The eighth ordeal: covetous men, buyers of stolen goods, usurers, bribe-takers, embezzlers of other people's property, etc.

The ninth ordeal: unjust judgments, lovers of discussing other people's sins, sowing injustice, inciting quarrels, etc.

The tenth ordeal: envious people who hate those who live better, harm from their evil, etc.

Eleventh ordeal: vanity, pride, self-greatness, not paying due honor to one's parents, not honoring spiritual and civil authorities, self-conceit (those who do not consider other opinions), disobedience and disobedience to elders.

The twelfth ordeal: swagger, vindictiveness, inability to forgive one's neighbor, rage, blasphemy, malice, etc.

The thirteenth ordeal: secret and open revenge on one's neighbor, rancor, threats, etc.

The fourteenth ordeal: murders, abortions, bringing a person to suicide, etc.

Fifteenth ordeal: seduction, temptation, introduction to sin, etc.

The sixteenth ordeal: voluptuous views, fornication from spouses in marriage, fornication of persons not bound by the sacrament of marriage, fornication in thoughts, thoughts, desires and deeds, defilement by touch, etc.

The seventeenth ordeal: the prodigal falls of persons who have dedicated themselves to God, the fall in their faith in God, etc.

Eighteenth ordeal: unnatural, fornication sins, sodomy (depraved) behavior, incest (marriage between people related by blood), temptation to incest, etc.

The nineteenth ordeal: blasphemy, apostasy from the Orthodox faith, doubting the faith and calling against the faith, spreading unbelief in God, etc.

Twentieth ordeal: mercilessness to the weak, mockery of the poor and the weak, mercilessness and cruelty, the use of one's power against the weak, the orphans and the defenseless, etc.”

All sources about the ordeals of souls come from the apostles, and it becomes known to us that all the passages of ordeals take place on the third day after death. That is why the relatives of the deceased also hasten the church to offer prayers for the soul going through ordeals, trying to facilitate its passage through prayers, begging forgiveness from the Lord. After all the ordeals, the soul receives permission from God to visit the cloisters of all the saints and experience the beauty of paradise. The journey of the soul to the holiest and purest places lasts exactly six days. A righteous and sinless soul, contemplating paradise and the abodes of the saints, rejoices tenderly and glorifies the Creator. At the same time, the soul forgets the sorrow that it could know while in the body. The same soul that was sinful and did not have time or did not want to repent, at the sight of the pleasure and joy of pure souls and saints, begins to grieve and reproach itself for living in sin, and not serving God. On the ninth day, the soul, after its journey through paradise, again, together with its Angel, ascends to the second worship of God. On the same, the ninth day, relatives and friends of the deceased person gather to commemorate his soul.

They pray for him themselves and ask the church to pray for the reckoning of the departed soul to the nine angelic faces. It is after the second worship that our Heavenly King and Lord commands his angels to show their souls hell and all the torments of hell. The soul sees and hears the gnashing of teeth, the weeping and groans of sinners, and so thirty days pass. All this time, having bypassed all the circles of hell, the soul trembles in fear of being in this hell. And when the fortieth day of the parting of the soul with the body comes, it must appear for the third time before the Heavenly Judge. The fortieth day is the decisive day for determining the fate of this soul, where, in what place, the promise is prepared for it until the universal Last Judgment. On the fortieth day, a commemoration takes place on earth. Memorial services are ordered, prayers for a sinful soul, relatives and close people gather at the table, which must necessarily serve as a prayer for the soul of the one who has reposed. Having the prayers of these intercessors, our Merciful Lord can have mercy on a sinful soul.

So, my dear readers, I answered your questions regarding the newly deceased soul, who did not have time to repent before death. A very striking example of caring for the soul of the deceased is Ksenia of Petersburg, who, in order to receive complete forgiveness for the soul of her husband, who died without repentance, turned her whole life into serving this holy goal. I think everyone knows about her glorious feat.

The life on Earth of each individual is only a segment of the path in the material incarnation, intended for the evolutionary development of the spiritual level. Where does the deceased end up, how does the soul leave the body after death, and what does a person feel when they pass into another reality? These are some of the exciting and most discussed topics throughout the existence of mankind. Orthodoxy and other religions testify to the afterlife in different ways. In addition to the opinions of representatives of various faiths, there are also testimonies of eyewitnesses who survived the state of clinical death.

What happens to a person when he dies

Death is an irreversible biological process in which the vital activity of the human body ceases. At the stage of dying of the physical shell, all metabolic processes of the brain, heartbeat and respiration stop. Approximately at this moment, the thin astral body, called the soul, leaves the obsolete human shell.

Where does the soul go after death?

How the soul leaves the body after biological death and where it rushes to is a question that interests many people, especially the elderly. Death is the end of being in the material world, but for an immortal spiritual essence, this process is only a change of reality, as Orthodoxy believes. There is a lot of discussion about where the soul of a person goes after death.

Representatives of the Abrahamic religions talk about "heaven" and "hell", into which souls end up forever, according to their earthly deeds. The Slavs, whose religion is called Orthodoxy because they glorify "Right", hold beliefs about the possibility of the rebirth of the soul. The followers of the Buddha also preach the theory of reincarnation. It can only be unequivocally stated that, leaving the material shell, the astral body continues to "live", but in a different dimension.

Where is the soul of the deceased up to 40 days

Our ancestors believed, and the living Slavs to this day believe that when the soul leaves the body after death, it stays for 40 days where it lived in earthly incarnation. The deceased is attracted to places and people with whom he was associated during his lifetime. The spiritual substance that has left the physical body, for the entire forty-day period, “says goodbye” to relatives and home. When the fortieth day comes, it is customary for the Slavs to arrange the farewell of the soul to the “other world”.

Third day after death

For many centuries there has been a tradition to bury the deceased three days after the death of the physical body. There is an opinion that only at the end of the three-day period does the soul separate from the body, all vital energies are completely cut off. After a three-day period, the spiritual component of a person, accompanied by an angel, goes to another world, where her fate will be determined.

On day 9

There are several versions of what the soul does after the death of the physical body on the ninth day. According to the religious figures of the Old Testament cult, the spiritual substance, after a nine-day period after the Dormition, goes through ordeals. Some sources adhere to the theory that on the ninth day the body of the deceased leaves the "flesh" (subconscious). This action takes place after the “spirit” (superconsciousness) and “soul” (consciousness) left the deceased.

What does a person feel after death?

The circumstances of death can be completely different: natural death due to old age, violent death or due to illness. After the soul leaves the body after death, according to eyewitness accounts of coma survivors, the etheric double has to go through certain stages. People who have returned from the "other world" often describe similar visions and sensations.

After a person dies, he does not immediately enter the afterlife. Some souls, having lost their physical shell, at first do not realize what is happening. With special vision, the spiritual entity “sees” its immobilized body and only then understands that life in the material world has ended. After an emotional shock, resigned to his fate, the spiritual substance begins to explore a new space.

Many at the moment of the change of reality, called death, are surprised that they remain in the individual consciousness, to which they are accustomed during earthly life. Surviving witnesses of the afterlife claim that the life of the soul after the death of the body is filled with bliss, so if you have to return to the physical body, this is done reluctantly. However, not everyone feels peace and tranquility on the other side of reality. Some, returning from the "other world", talk about the feeling of a rapid fall, after which they found themselves in a place filled with fear and suffering.

Peace and tranquility

Different eyewitnesses report with some differences, but more than 60% of the resuscitated testify to a meeting with an amazing source that radiates incredible light and perfect bliss. To some this cosmic personality appears to be the Creator, to others as Jesus Christ, and to others as an angel. What distinguishes this unusually bright creature, consisting of pure light, is that in its presence the human soul feels an all-encompassing love and absolute understanding.

According to Christian beliefs, after death, a person continues to live, but in a different capacity. His spirit, leaving the physical shell, begins its journey to God. What is ordeal, where does the soul go after death, should it fly away and what happens to it after separation from the body? After death, the spirit of the deceased is tested by trials. In Christian culture, they are called "ordeal". There are twenty of them in total, each more difficult than the previous one, depending on the sins committed by a person during his lifetime. After that, the spirit of the deceased goes to Heaven or falls into the Underworld.

Is there life after death

The two topics that will always be discussed are life and death. Since the creation of the world, philosophers, literary figures, physicians, prophets have been arguing about what happens to the soul when it leaves the human body. What will happen after death and is there life at all after the spirit leaves the physical shell? It so happened that a person will always reflect on these burning topics in order to know the truth - turn to the Christian religion or other teachings.

What happens to a person when he dies

Having passed his life path, a person dies. On the physiological side, this is the process of stopping all systems and processes of the body: brain activity, respiration, digestion. There is a decomposition of proteins and other substrates of life. Approaching death also affects the emotional state of a person. There is a change in the emotional background: loss of interest in everything, isolation, fencing off from contacts with the outside world, talk about imminent death, hallucinations (the past and the present are mixed).

What happens to the soul after death

The question of where the soul goes after death is always interpreted in different ways. However, the clergy are unanimous in one thing: after a complete cardiac arrest, a person continues to live in a new status. Christians believe that the spirit of the dead, who lived a righteous life, is carried by angels to Paradise, the sinner is destined to go to Hell. The deceased needs prayers that will save him from eternal torment, help the spirit pass the tests and go to Paradise. The prayers of loved ones, not tears, can work wonders.

Christian doctrine says that a person will live forever. Where does the soul go after the death of a person? His spirit goes to the kingdom of heaven to meet with the Father. This path is very complex and depends on how a person lived his worldly life. Many clergy perceive the departure not as a tragedy, but as a long-awaited meeting with God.

Third day after death

The first two days the spirits of the dead fly over the earth. This is the period when they are close to their body, with their home, wandering around the places dear to them, saying goodbye to their relatives, ending their earthly existence. At this time, not only angels are nearby, but also demons. They are trying to win her over to their side. On the third day, the ordeal of the soul after death begins. This is the time to worship the Lord. Family and friends should pray. Prayers are made in honor of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

On day 9

Where does a person go after death on the 9th day? After the 3rd day, the Angel accompanies the spirit to the gates of Paradise so that he can see all the beauty of the heavenly abode. The immortal souls stay there for six days. They temporarily forget the sadness of leaving their body. Enjoying the sight of beauty, the soul, if it has sins, must repent. If this does not happen, then she will be in hell. On the 9th day, the angels again present the soul to the Lord.

At this time, the church and loved ones perform a prayer service for the deceased with a request for mercy. Commemorations are held in honor of 9 angelic ranks, who are defenders during the Last Judgment and servants of the Almighty. For the deceased, the “burden” is no longer so heavy, but very important, because the Lord determines the future path of the spirit according to it. Relatives remember only good things about the deceased, they behave very calmly and quietly.

There are certain traditions that help the spirit of the departed. They symbolize eternal life. At this time, relatives:

1. They perform a prayer service in the church for the repose of the spirit.
2. At home, kutya is cooked from wheat seeds. It is mixed with sweet: honey or sugar. Seeds are reincarnation. Honey or sugar is a sweet life in another world, helping to avoid a difficult afterlife.

On day 40

The number "40" is very often found on the pages of the Holy Scriptures. Jesus Christ ascended to the Father on the fortieth day. For the Orthodox Church, this became the basis for organizing a commemoration of the deceased on the fortieth day after his death. The Catholic Church does this on the thirtieth day. However, the meaning of all events is the same: the soul of the deceased ascended the holy Mount Sinai, achieved bliss.

After the angels re-presented the spirit before the Lord on the 9th day, he goes to Hell, where he sees the souls of sinners. The spirit stays in the Underworld until the 40th day, and the third time it appears before God. This is the period when the fate of a person is determined by his earthly affairs. In the posthumous fate, it is important that the soul repent of everything it has done and prepare for the future right life. Commemorations atone for the sins of the deceased. For the subsequent resurrection of the dead, it is important how the spirit passes through purgatory.

half a year

Where does the soul go after death six months later? The Almighty made a decision about the future fate of the spirit of a deceased person, it is already impossible to change something. You can't yell and cry. This will only harm the soul, bring severe torment. However, relatives can help and alleviate the fate of prayer, commemoration. It is necessary to pray, calming the soul, showing it the right path. Six months later, the spirit comes to the relatives for the penultimate time.

Anniversary

It is important to remember the anniversary of death. The prayers performed up to this time helped determine where the soul would go after death. A year after death, relatives and friends perform a prayer service in the temple. You can simply heartily remember the deceased if there is no opportunity to visit the church. On this day, souls come to their relatives for the last time to say goodbye, then a new body awaits them. For a believer, a righteous person, the anniversary gives a start to a new, eternal life. The annual cycle is a liturgical cycle, after which all holidays are allowed.

Where does the soul go after death?

There are several versions of where people live after death. Astrologers believe that the immortal soul enters space, where it settles on other planets. According to another version, it soars in the upper atmosphere. The emotions that the spirit experiences affect whether it will go to the highest level (Paradise) or the lowest (Hell). In the Buddhist religion it is said that having found eternal peace, the human spirit moves to another body.

Mediums and psychics claim that the soul is connected with the other world. It often happens that after her death she remains close to loved ones. Spirits that have not finished their business appear in the form of ghosts, astral bodies, phantoms. Some protect relatives, others want to punish their offenders. They contact the living with the help of knocks, sounds, the movement of things, the short-term appearance of themselves in visible form.

In the Vedas, the sacred scriptures of the Earth, it is said that, after leaving the body, souls pass through tunnels. Many people who have been in a state of clinical death describe them as channels on their own body. There are 9 of them in total: ears, eyes, mouth, nostrils (separately left and right), anus, genitals, crown, navel. It was believed that if the spirit came out of the left nostril, then it gets to the moon, from the right - to the sun, through the navel - to other planets, through the mouth - to the earth, through the genitals - to the lower layers of being.

Souls of dead people

As soon as the souls of dead people leave their physical shells, they do not immediately realize that they are in a subtle body. At first, the spirit of the deceased soars in the air, and only when he sees his body, he realizes that he has separated from him. The qualities of a deceased person during life determine his emotions after death. Thoughts and feelings, character traits do not change, but become open to the Almighty.

The soul of a child

It is believed that a child who dies before the age of 14 immediately enters the First Heaven. The child has not yet reached the age of desires, is not responsible for actions. The child remembers his past incarnations. The First Heaven is the place of waiting for the rebirth of the soul. A deceased child is waiting for a relative who has gone to the other world or a person who, during his lifetime, loved children very much. He meets the child immediately after the hour of death and escorts him to the place of waiting.

In the First Heaven, a child has everything he wants, his life resembles a beautiful game, he learns goodness, receives visual lessons on how evil deeds affect a person. All emotions and knowledge remain in the memory of the baby even after rebirth. It is believed that people who live nobly in ordinary life are indebted to these lessons learned and experiences in the First Heaven.

Soul of the suicidal

Any teaching and belief asserts that a person does not have the right to take his own life. The actions of any suicide are dictated by Satan. The soul of a suicide after death strives for Paradise, the gates of which are closed to it. The spirit is forced to return, but it cannot find its body. The ordeals last until the time of natural death. Then the Lord decides according to his soul. Previously, people who committed suicide were not buried in the cemetery, the objects of suicide were destroyed.

Souls of animals

The Bible says that everything has a soul, but "taken from dust, to dust they shall return." Confessors sometimes agree that some pets are able to transform, but it is impossible to say exactly where the soul of an animal goes after death. It is given and taken away by the Lord himself, the soul of the animal is not eternal. However, the Jews believe that it is equal to the human, so there are different prohibitions on eating meat.

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While the souls of people, in a natural way, experience relief and even joy in that world, the souls of suicides, on the contrary, having got into that world, experience confusion and suffering there. One specialist in the field of suicide expressed this fact with the following apt phrase: "If you leave life with a restless soul, then you will pass into that world with a restless soul." Suicides lay hands on themselves in order to “end everything”, but it turns out that everything is just beginning for them there.

Here are a few contemporary stories illustrating the otherworldly state of suicide. A man who loved his wife dearly committed suicide when she died. He hoped to connect with her forever. However, it turned out quite differently. When the doctor managed to resuscitate him, he said: "I ended up in a completely different place where she was ... It was some kind of terrible place ... And I immediately realized that I had made a huge mistake" (Raymond A. Moody, MD, Life after Life, Bantam Books, NY 1978, p. 143).

Hieronymus Bosch. Fragment of the triptych "Last Judgment" - right wing "Hell", 1504

Some resurrected suicides described that after death they fell into some kind of dungeon and felt that they would remain here for a very long time. They realized that this was their punishment for violating the established law, according to which every person must endure a certain share of sorrows. Having voluntarily overthrown the burden placed on them, they must bear even more in the other world.

One man who survived a temporary death said: “When I got there, I realized that two things are absolutely forbidden: to kill yourself and kill another person. gift. To take the life of another person would be to destroy God's plan for him" (Raymond A. Moody, MD, Life after Life, Bantam Books, NY 1978, p. 144).

The general impression of resuscitators is that suicide is very severely punished. Dr. Bruce Greyson, a psychiatrist in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Connecticut, who has extensively studied this issue, testifies that no temporary death survivor wants to hasten the end of his life (Raymond A. Moody, MD, The Light Beyond , Bantam Books, NY 1990, p. 99). Although that world is incomparably better than ours, life here is of great preparatory significance. Only God decides when a person is mature enough for eternity.

Forty-seven-year-old Beverly told how happy she was to be alive. As a child, she endured much grief from her abusive parents who bullied her daily. Already in adulthood, she could not talk about her childhood without excitement. Once, at the age of seven, driven to despair by her parents, she threw herself head down and smashed her head on the cement. During clinical death, her soul saw familiar children surrounding her. her lifeless body. Suddenly, a bright light shone around Beverly, from which an unknown voice told her: "You made a mistake. Your life does not belong to you, and you must return." To this Beverly objected: "But no one loves me and no one wants to take care of me." “It is true,” the voice replied, “and in the future no one will take care of you. So learn to take care of yourself.” After these words, Beverly saw snow and dry wood around her. But then a warm breeze came from somewhere, the snow melted, and the dry branches of the tree were covered with leaves and ripe apples. Approaching the tree, she began to pick apples and eat them with pleasure. Then she realized that both in nature and in every life there are periods of winter and summer, which form a single whole in the plan of the Creator. When Beverly came to life, she began to relate to life in a new way. As an adult, she married a good man, had children, and was happy (Melvin Morse, MD, Closer to the Light Ivy Books, published by Ballantine Books, 1990. "To Hell and Back", 1993, p. 184).

Heaven and Hell

What is Heaven? Where is it? In colloquial speech, people designate Heaven "above" and hell "below". People who saw the state of hell during their clinical death invariably described approaching it as exactly a descent. Although, of course, "up" and "down" are conventional concepts, however, it will still be wrong to consider Heaven and hell as only different states: they are two different places, although they cannot be described geographically. Angels and souls of the dead can only be in one specific place, be it Heaven, hell or earth. We cannot designate the place of the spiritual world, because it is outside the "coordinates" of our space-time system. That space of a different kind, which, starting here, extends in a new direction that is not perceptible to us.

Numerous cases from the lives of saints show how this other kind of space “breaks through” into the space of our world. So, the inhabitants of Spruce Island saw the soul of St. Herman of Alaska ascending in a pillar of fire, and the elder Seraphim of Glinsky saw the ascending soul of Seraphim of Sarov. The prophet Elisha saw how the prophet Elijah was taken to heaven in a fiery chariot. As much as we want our thought to penetrate "there", it is limited by the fact that those "places" are outside our three-dimensional space.

Most of the modern stories of people who have experienced clinical death describe places and conditions "close" to our world, still on this side of the "border". However, there are also descriptions of places resembling heaven or hell, which the Holy Scriptures speak of.

So, for example, in the messages of Dr. Georg Ritchie, Betty Maltz, Rawling's Matrix and others, hell also appears - "snakes, reptiles, unbearable stench, demons." In his book Return from Tomorrow, Dr. Ritchie recounts what happened to him in 1943 when he saw pictures of Hell. There the attachment of sinners to earthly desires was insatiable. He saw killers who were, as it were, chained to their victims. The murderers wept and asked for forgiveness from those who had been killed by them, but they did not hear them. These were useless tears and requests.

Thomas Welch tells how, while working at a sawmill in Portland, Oregon, he slipped, fell into a river and was crushed by huge logs. It took workers more than an hour to find his body and remove it from under the logs. Seeing no signs of life in him, they considered him dead. Thomas himself, in a state of his temporary death, found himself on the shores of an immense fiery ocean. At the sight of the rushing waves of burning sulfur, he was dumbfounded with horror. It was fiery hell, which there are no human words to describe. Right there, on the bank of hellfire, he recognized several familiar faces who had died before him. They all stood in a daze of horror, looking at the rolling fire shafts. Thomas understood that there was no way to leave here. He began to regret that earlier he cared little about his salvation. Oh, if he knew what was waiting for him, he would live very differently.

At this time, he noticed someone walking in the distance. The stranger's face displayed great strength and kindness. Thomas immediately realized that it was the Lord and that only He could save his soul, doomed to hell. Thomas began to hope that the Lord would notice him. But the Lord was walking by, looking somewhere in the distance, "He's about to hide, and then it's all over," Thomas thought. Suddenly the Lord turned His face and looked at Thomas. That's all it took - just one look from the Lord! In an instant, Thomas was in his body and came to life. Even before he had time to open his eyes, he clearly heard the prayers of the workers standing around. Many years later, Thomas remembered everything that he saw "there" in all the smallest details. This case was impossible to forget (he described his case in the book "Oregon's Amazing Miracle", Christ tor the Nations, Inc., 1976).

Pastor Kenneth E. Hagin recalls how in April 1933, while living in McKinney, Texas, his heart stopped beating and his soul left his body. "After that, I began to descend lower and lower, and the more I descended, the darker and hotter it became. Then even deeper I began to notice the flickering of some ominous lights on the walls of the caves - obviously hellish. Finally, a large flame escaped and pulled Many years have passed since this happened, and I still see this hellish flame in front of me as if in reality.

Having reached the bottom of the abyss, I felt the presence of some kind of spirit around me, which began to guide me. At this time, an imperious voice sounded over the hellish darkness. I did not understand what he said, but I felt that it was the voice of God. From the strength of this voice, the whole underworld trembled, like leaves on an autumn tree when the wind blows. Immediately the spirit that was pushing me released me, and the whirlwind carried me back up. Gradually the earthly light began to shine again. I was back in my room and I jumped into my body the way a man jumps into his pants, Then I saw my grandmother, who began to say to me: "Son, I thought you were dead."

After some time, Kenneth became a pastor of one of the Protestant churches and dedicated his life to God. This incident he described in the pamphlet "My Testimony".

Dr. Rawlings devotes a whole chapter in his book to the stories of people who have been to hell. Some, for example, saw there a huge field on which sinners, in a combat battle without rest, maimed, killed and raped each other. The air there is saturated with unbearable cries, curses and curses. Others describe places of useless labor, where cruel demons depress the souls of sinners by carrying burdens from one place to another.

The unbearability of hellish torments is further illustrated by the following two stories from Orthodox books. One paralytic, having suffered for many years, finally prayed to the Lord with a request to end his suffering. An angel appeared to him and said: "Your sins require cleansing. The Lord offers you, instead of one year of suffering on earth, with which you would be cleansed, to experience three hours of torment in hell. Choose." The sufferer thought and chose three hours in hell. After that, the Angel took his soul to the underworld places of hell. Everywhere there was darkness, crowding, everywhere the spirits of malice, the cries of sinners, everywhere there was only suffering. The soul of the paralyzed man fell into inexpressible fear and languor, only the infernal echo and the gurgling of hellfire answered his cries. No one paid attention to his groans and roars, all the sinners were busy with their own torment. It seemed to the sufferer that whole centuries had already passed and that the Angel had forgotten about him.

But finally an angel appeared and asked: "How are you, brother?" - "You deceived me!" exclaimed the sufferer. "Not for three hours, but for many years I have been here in unspeakable torment!" - "What years ?! - asked the Angel, - only one hour has passed, and you still have to suffer for two more hours." Then the sufferer began to beg the Angel to return him to earth, where he agreed to suffer for as long as he wanted, just to get away from this place of horrors. "Well," answered the Angel, "God will show you His great mercy."

Once again on his painful bed, the sufferer from that time already endured his sufferings with meekness, remembering the hellish horrors, where it is incomparably worse (from the letters of the Holy Mountaineer, p. 183, letter 15, 1883).

Here is a story about two friends, one of whom went to a monastery and led a holy life there, while the other remained in the world and lived sinfully. When a friend who lived in sin suddenly died, his monk friend began to pray to God to reveal to him the fate of his comrade. Once, in a dream, a dead friend appeared to him and began to talk about his unbearable torments and about how the unsleeping worm gnawed at him. Having said this, he lifted his clothes to the knee and showed his leg, which was all covered with a terrible worm that ate it. Such a terrible stench emanated from the wounds on his leg that the monk immediately woke up. He jumped out of the cells, leaving the door open, and the stench from the cells spread throughout the monastery. Since the stench did not decrease from time to time, all the monks had to move to another place. And the monk who saw the prisoner of hell, all his life could not get rid of the stench that stuck to him (from the book "Eternal Secrets of the Afterlife", a publication of the St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos).

In contrast to these horror pictures, the descriptions of Heaven are always bright and joyful. So, for example, Foma N., a world-famous scientist, drowned in a pool when he was five years old. Fortunately, one of the relatives noticed him, pulled him out of the water and took him to the hospital. When the rest of the relatives gathered in the hospital, the doctor announced to them that Foma had died. But unexpectedly for everyone, Thomas came to life. “When I was under water,” Thomas later said, “I felt that I was flying through a long tunnel. At the other end of the tunnel, I saw a Light that was so bright that you could touch it. There I saw God on the throne and below the people or perhaps the angels surrounding the throne. As I approached God, He told me that my time had not yet come. I wanted to stay, but suddenly I found myself in my body." Thomas claims that this vision helped him find the right path in life. He wanted to become a scientist in order to better understand the world created by God. He certainly made great progress in this direction (Melvin Morse, MD, Closer to the Light Ivy Books, published by Ballantine Books, 1990. "To Hell and Back," 1993, p. 167).

Betty Maltz, in her book I Saw Eternity, published in 1977, describes how, immediately after her death, she found herself on a wonderful green hill. She was surprised that having three surgical wounds, she stands and walks freely and without pain. Above it is a bright blue sky. There is no sun, but light is everywhere. Under her bare feet is grass of such a bright color as she has never seen on earth; every blade of grass is alive. The hill was steep, but the legs moved easily, without effort. Bright flowers, bushes, trees. To her left is a male figure in a robe. Betty thought, "Isn't this an Angel?" They walked without speaking, but she realized that he was not a stranger and that he knew her. She felt young, healthy and happy. "I felt like I had everything I've ever wanted, been everything I've ever wanted to be, going where I've always wanted to be." Then her whole life passed before her eyes. She saw her selfishness, and she was ashamed, but she felt care and love around her. She and her companion approached the wonderful silver palace, "but there were no towers." Music, singing. She heard the word "Jesus." Wall of gems; pearl gate. When the gate opened for a moment, she saw the street in golden light. She did not see anyone in this light, but she realized that it was Jesus. She wanted to enter the palace, but she remembered her father and returned to her body. This experience brought her closer to God. She loves people now.

Saint Salvius of Albia, a sixth-century Gallic hierarch, came back to life after being dead for most of the day and told his friend Gregory of Tours the following; “When my cell shook four days ago and you saw me dead, I was raised by two angels and carried to the highest peak of Heaven, and then under my feet, it seemed, not only this miserable earth, but also the sun, moon and stars could be seen. "Then I was led through a gate that shone brighter than the sun and led into a building where all the floors shone with gold and silver. The light that cannot be described. The place was filled with people and stretched so far in all directions that there was no end in sight. before me was a path through this crowd, and we entered the place to which our eyes were directed even when we were not far away.A bright cloud hovered over this place, which was brighter than the sun, and from it I heard a voice like the voice of the waters many.

Then I was greeted by certain creatures, some of which were dressed in priestly clothes, and others in ordinary clothes. My escorts explained to me that they were martyrs and other saints. While I was standing, such a pleasant fragrance enveloped me that, as if nourished by it, I did not feel the need for food or drink.

Then a voice from the cloud said, "Let this man return to earth, for the Church needs him." And I fell on my face on the ground and wept. "Alas, alas, Lord," I said. "Why did You show me all this just to take it from me again?" But the voice answered, "Go in peace. I will look upon you until I bring you back to this place." Then I went back crying through the gate through which I had entered.

Another remarkable vision of Heaven is described by St. Andrew Christ for the sake of the fools, a Slav who lived in Constantinople in the ninth century. Once, during a harsh winter, Saint Andrew was lying on the street and dying of the cold. Suddenly he felt an extraordinary warmth in himself and saw a beautiful young man with a face shining like the sun. This young man led him to paradise, to the third Heaven. That's what St. Andrew said, returning to earth:

“By Divine pleasure, I stayed for two weeks in a sweet vision ... I saw myself in paradise, and here I marveled at the inexpressible charm of this beautiful and wondrous place. There were many gardens filled with tall trees, which, swaying with their peaks, cheered my sight, and from their branches a pleasant fragrance emanated ... These trees cannot be compared in beauty to any earthly tree, In those gardens there were countless birds with golden, snow-white and multi-colored wings. They sat on the branches of paradise trees and sang so beautifully that from their sweet-sounding singing I did not remember myself ...

After that, it seemed to me that I was standing at the top of the heavenly firmament, while some young man was walking in front of me with a face as bright as the sun, dressed in purple ... When I followed him, I saw a high and beautiful cross similar to a rainbow, and around it are fire-like singers who sang and praised the Lord, who was crucified for us on the cross. The young man walking in front of me, approaching the cross, kissed it and gave a sign to me to do the same ... Kissing the cross, I was filled with unspeakable joy and felt a fragrance stronger than before.

Going further, I looked down and saw under me, as it were, the abyss of the sea. The young man, turning to me, said: "Do not be afraid, for we need to rise even higher," and he gave me his hand. When I grabbed hold of it, we were already above the second firmament. There I saw marvelous men, their joy indescribable in human language... And so we rose above the third heaven, where I saw and heard many powers of heaven, singing and glorifying God. We approached a veil that shone like lightning, in front of which young men stood, looking like flames ... And the young man who led me said to me: "When the veil opens, you will see the Lord Christ. Then bow down to the throne of His glory." ... And then some kind of fiery hand opened the veil, and I, like the prophet Isaiah, saw the Lord Himself sitting on a high and exalted throne, and the seraphim flew around Him. He was dressed in scarlet clothes; His face shone, and He looked at me lovingly. Seeing this, I fell prostrate before Him, bowing to the Most Luminous and the Throne of His glory.

What joy seized me at the contemplation of His face, that cannot be expressed in words; Even now, when I remember that vision, I am filled with unspeakable joy. In awe I lay before my Lord. After this, the entire heavenly host sang a wondrous and inexpressible song, and then I myself do not understand how I found myself in paradise again.

(It is interesting to add that when Saint Andrew, not seeing the Virgin Mary, asked where She was, the Angel explained to him: “Did you think to see the Queen here? She is not here. Her holy place, but now there is no time, for you must return.")

So, according to the lives of the saints and the stories in Orthodox books, the soul enters heaven after it has left this world and passed through the space between this world and Heaven. Often this passage is accompanied by intrigues on the part of demons. At the same time, Angels always lead the soul to Heaven, and it never gets there on its own. St. John Chrysostom also wrote about this: “Then the angels took Lazarus away… for the soul does not depart of its own accord to that life, which is impossible for it. in the guidebooks the soul plucked out of the body and presented to the future life. Obviously, modern stories about light and places of marvelous beauty do not convey actual visits to these places, but only "visions" and "foretastes" of them at a distance.

A true visit to Heaven is always accompanied by obvious signs of Divine grace: sometimes a wondrous fragrance, accompanied by a miraculous strengthening of all the powers of a person. For example, the fragrance so nourished Saint Sabelius that he did not need food or drink for more than three days, and only when he told about it, the fragrance disappeared. The deep experience of visiting Heaven is accompanied by a sense of reverence for the majesty of God and the consciousness of one's unworthiness. At the same time, the personal experience of Heaven is inaccessible to an accurate description, because "the eye did not see, the ear did not hear, and it did not enter the mind of a person that God had prepared for those who love Him" ​​and "now we see, as it were, through a dull glass, guessingly, then but we see face to face" (1 Cor. 2:9 and 13:12).

Alexander Mileant,
From the book "On the Threshold of Life and Death".

Choose to live with Christ!

"For God so loved the world,

that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16)

"Choose life, that you and your offspring may live, love the Lord your God, hearken to His voice, and cling to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days..." (Deut. 30:19-20)

In the first nine chapters of this book, we have attempted to outline some of the main aspects of the Orthodox Christian view of life after death, contrasting them with the widely held modern view, as well as views that have appeared in the West, which in some respects have departed from the ancient Christian teaching. In the West, the true Christian teaching about Angels, the airy realm of fallen spirits, about the nature of people's communication with spirits, about heaven and hell, has been lost or distorted, as a result of which the "post-mortem" experiences that are currently taking place are completely misinterpreted. The only satisfactory answer to this false interpretation is Orthodox Christian teaching.

This book is too limited in scope to give a full Orthodox teaching on the other world and the life after death; our task was much narrower - to expound this teaching to the extent that it would be sufficient to answer the questions raised by modern "posthumous" experiences, and point the reader to those Orthodox texts where this teaching is contained. In conclusion, here we specifically give a brief summary of the Orthodox teaching on the fate of the soul after death. This presentation consists of an article written by one of the last outstanding theologians of our time, Archbishop John (Maximovich), a year before his death. His words are printed in a narrower column, while explanations of his text, comments and comparisons are printed as usual.

Archbishop John (Maximovich)

"Life after death"

I look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come.

(Nicene Creed)

Boundless and unsuccessful would be our grief for dying loved ones, if the Lord did not give us eternal life. Our life would be aimless if it ended in death. What would be the use of virtue and good deeds then? Then those who say: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" would be right. But man was created for immortality, and Christ, by His resurrection, opened the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven, eternal bliss for those who believed in Him and lived righteously. Our earthly life is a preparation for the future life, and this preparation ends with death. Man is destined to die once, and then the judgment (Heb. IX, 27). Then a person leaves all his earthly cares; his body disintegrates in order to rise again at the General Resurrection.

But his soul continues to live, not ceasing its existence for a single moment. By many appearances of the dead, we have been given a partial knowledge of what happens to the soul when it leaves the body. When vision with the bodily eyes ceases, spiritual vision begins.

Addressing his dying sister in a letter, Bishop Theophan the Recluse writes: “After all, you will not die. Your body will die, and you will move to another world, alive, remembering yourself and recognizing the whole world around you” (“Soulful Reading”, August 1894).

After death, the soul is alive, and its feelings are sharpened, not weakened. St. Ambrose of Milan teaches: “Since the soul continues to live after death, there remains goodness that is not lost with death, but increases. The soul is not held back by any obstacles set by death, but is more active, because it acts in its own sphere without any connection with body, which is rather a burden than a benefit to her" (St. Ambrose "Death as a blessing").

Rev. Abba Dorotheos summarizes the teaching of the early fathers on this issue: “For souls remember everything that was here, as the fathers say, and words, and deeds, and thoughts, and none of this can be forgotten then. And it is said in the psalm: On that day all his thoughts will perish (Psalm 145:4), which refers to the thoughts of this world, that is, about the structure, property, parents, children, and every deed and teaching. All this about how the soul leaves the body perishes. .. And what she did regarding virtue or passion, she remembers everything and none of this perishes for her ... And, as I said, the soul does not forget anything from what she did in this world, but remembers everything after leaving body, and, moreover, better and clearer, as having been freed from this earthly body" (Abba Dorotheos, Teaching 12).

Great ascetic of the 5th century, St. John Cassian clearly formulates the active state of the soul after death in response to heretics who believed that the soul is unconscious after death: “Souls after separation from the body are not idle, they do not remain without any feeling; this is proved by the gospel parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke. XVI, 19-31) ... The souls of the dead not only do not lose their feelings, but do not lose their dispositions, that is, hope and fear, joy and sorrow, and something of what they expect for themselves at the universal judgment, they they begin to anticipate... they become even more alive and zealously cling to the glorification of God. And indeed, if, having considered the evidence of Holy Scripture about the nature of the soul itself, according to our understanding, we will think a little, then whether it will not be, I do not say, extreme stupidity, but foolishness - to even slightly suspect that the most precious part of a person (i.e., the soul), in which, according to the blessed apostle, is the image of God and the likeness (1 Cor. XI, 7; Col. III, 10), after putting off this bodily in which she walks in real life, as if it becomes insensible - that which contains all the power of the mind, by its participation even the dumb and insensible substance of the flesh makes sensitive? It follows from this, and the property of the mind itself requires that the spirit, after the addition of this carnal corpulence, which is now weakening, bring its rational forces to a better state, restore them to be purer and more subtle, and not lose them.

Modern "post-mortem" experiences have made people remarkably aware of the consciousness of the soul after death, of the greater sharpness and speed of its mental faculties. But by itself this awareness is not enough to protect the person in such a state from manifestations of the out-of-body realm; one should master ALL Christian teaching on this subject.

The Beginning of Spiritual Vision

Often this spiritual vision begins in the dying before death, and while still seeing those around them and even talking to them, they see what others do not see.

This experience of the dying has been observed for centuries, and today such cases with the dying are not new. However, here it is necessary to repeat what was said above - in Chap. 1, part 2: only in the grace-filled visits of the righteous, when saints and angels appear, can we be sure that these were indeed beings from another world. In ordinary cases, when a dying person begins to see deceased friends and relatives, this can only be a natural acquaintance with the invisible world into which he must enter; the true nature of the images of the deceased, appearing at this moment, is known, perhaps, only to God - and we do not need to delve into this.

It is clear that God gives this experience as the most obvious way to communicate to the dying that the other world is not a completely unfamiliar place, that life there is also characterized by the love that a person has for his loved ones. His Grace Theophan touchingly expresses this thought in the words addressed to the dying sister: “Batiushka and matushka, brothers and sisters will meet you there. You'd be better off than here."

Encounter with spirits

But upon leaving the body, the soul finds itself among other spirits, good and evil. Usually she is drawn to those who are closer to her in spirit, and if, while in the body, she was under the influence of some of them, then she will remain dependent on them after leaving the body, no matter how disgusting they may be when they meet.

Here we are again seriously reminded that the other world, although it will not be completely alien to us, will not turn out to be just a pleasant meeting with loved ones "at a resort" of happiness, but will be a spiritual clash that our soul's disposition experiences during life - did it bow more to the angels and saints through a virtuous life and obedience to the commandments of God, or, through negligence and unbelief, she made herself more fit for the company of fallen spirits. The Right Reverend Theophan the Recluse well said (see above the end of Chapter VI) that even a test in aerial ordeals can turn out to be rather a test of temptations than an accusation.

Although the very fact of the judgment in the afterlife is beyond any doubt - both the Private Judgment immediately after death, and the Last Judgment at the end of the world - the external judgment of God will only be a response to the internal disposition that the soul has created in itself in relation to God and spiritual beings. .

First two days after death

During the first two days, the soul enjoys relative freedom and can visit those places on earth that are dear to it, but on the third day it moves to other spheres.

Here Archbishop John is simply repeating a doctrine known to the Church since the 4th century. Tradition reports that the angel who accompanied St. Macarius of Alexandria, said, explaining the church commemoration of the dead on the third day after death: “When an offering takes place in the church on the third day, the soul of the deceased receives from the Angel guarding her relief in sorrow, which she feels from separation from the body, receives because the doxology and the offering in the church of God has been made for her, from which a good hope is born in her. For for two days the soul, together with the angels who are with her, is allowed to walk the earth where she wants. Therefore, the soul that loves the body sometimes wanders near the house, in where it parted from the body, sometimes near the tomb in which the body was laid, and thus spends two days like a bird, looking for nests for itself. risen from the dead, commands, in imitation of His resurrection, to ascend to heaven for every Christian soul to worship the God of all "(" The words of St. Macarius of Alexandria on the outcome of the souls of the righteous nyh and sinners", "Christ. reading", August 1831).

In the Orthodox rite of burial of the departed Ven. John of Damascus vividly describes the state of the soul that has parted from the body, but is still on earth, powerless to communicate with loved ones whom it can see: “Alas, what a feat for me to have a soul that is separated from the body! lift up your eyes to the angels, idlely praying: stretching out your hands to people, not having someone to help. In the same way, my beloved brethren, having thought of our short life, we ask the reposed rest from Christ, and to our souls we have great mercy "(Following the burial of worldly people, stichera self-voiced, voice 2).

In a letter to the husband of her dying sister mentioned above, St. Theophan writes: “After all, the sister herself will not die; the body dies, but the face of the dying remains. It passes only to other orders of life. In the body lying under the saints and then carried out, she is not, and they do not hide her in the grave. She is in another place. Just as alive as now. In the first hours and days she will be near you. - And only she won’t speak, but you can’t see her, otherwise here ... Keep this in mind. We who remain weep for those who have departed, but it is immediately easier for them: that state is gratifying. Those who died and were then introduced into the body found it a very uncomfortable dwelling. My sister will feel the same way. She is better there, and we are hurting ourselves, as if some kind of misfortune had happened to her. She looks and, of course, marvels at it ("Emotional Reading", August 1894).

It should be borne in mind that this description of the first two days after death gives a general rule that by no means covers all situations. Indeed, most of the passages from Orthodox literature cited in this book do not fit this rule - and for a completely obvious reason: the saints, who were not at all attached to worldly things, lived in constant expectation of transition to another world, are not even attracted to places, where they did good deeds, but immediately begin their ascent to heaven. Others, like K. Ikskul, begin their ascent earlier than two days by the special permission of God's Providence. On the other hand, all modern "post-mortem" experiences, no matter how fragmented they are, do not fit this rule: the out-of-body state is only the beginning of the first period of the disembodied wandering of the soul to the places of its earthly attachments, but none of these people has been in a state of death. long enough to even meet the two Angels who are supposed to accompany them.

Some critics of the Orthodox doctrine of life after death find that such deviations from the general rule of "after death" experience are evidence of contradictions in Orthodox teaching, but such critics take everything too literally. The description of the first two days (as well as the subsequent ones) is by no means dogma; it is simply a model that only formulates the most general order of the "post-mortem" experience of the soul. Many instances, both in Orthodox literature and in accounts of modern experiences, where the dead instantly appeared alive on the first day or two after death (sometimes in a dream), serve as examples of the truth that the soul does indeed remain close to the earth for some short time. (Actual apparitions of the dead after this brief period of freedom of the soul are much rarer, and always by God's will for some special purpose, and not by anyone's own will. But by the third day, and often earlier, this period comes to an end. .)

ordeal

At this time (on the third day) the soul passes through the legions of evil spirits, which block its path and accuse it of various sins, in which they themselves have involved it. According to various revelations, there are twenty such obstacles, the so-called "ordeals", at each of which this or that sin is tortured; having gone through one ordeal, the soul comes to the next. And only after successfully passing through all of them, can the soul continue its path without being immediately plunged into hell. How terrible these demons and ordeals are can be seen from the fact that the Mother of God Herself, when the Archangel Gabriel informed Her of the approach of death, prayed to Her Son to deliver Her soul from these demons, and in answer to Her prayers, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself appeared from Heaven accept the soul of His Most Pure Mother and take Her to Heaven. (This is visibly depicted on the traditional Orthodox icon of the Assumption.) The third day is truly terrible for the soul of the deceased, and for this reason prayers are especially needed for it.

In the sixth chapter there are a number of patristic and hagiographic texts about ordeals, and there is no need to add anything else here. However, here we can also note that the descriptions of ordeals correspond to the model of torture that the soul undergoes after death, and individual experience can differ significantly. Minor details such as the number of ordeals, of course, are secondary in comparison with the main fact that the soul is really subjected to judgment soon after death (Private Judgment), which sums up the "invisible battle" that it waged (or did not wage) on earth against fallen spirits. .

Continuing the letter to the husband of the dying sister, Bishop Theophan the Recluse writes: “For those who have departed, the feat of crossing through ordeals will soon begin. She needs help there! - Then stand in this thought, and you will hear her cry to you: "Help!" all attention and all love should be directed towards her.I think that the most truly testifying of love will be if, from the moment your soul departs, you, leaving the worries about the body to others, step aside yourself and, secluded where possible, immerse yourself in prayer for her in her new condition, about her unexpected needs. Starting like this, be in an unceasing cry to God - for her help, for six weeks - and beyond. In Theodora's legend - the bag from which the Angels took to get rid of publicans - these were prayers her elder. So will your prayers... Don't forget to do this... Behold love!"

Critics of Orthodox teaching often misunderstand that "bag of gold" from which the Angels "paid for the debts" of Blessed Theodora during the ordeals; sometimes it is erroneously compared with the Latin concept of the "excessive merits" of saints. Here, too, such critics read Orthodox texts too literally. Here we have in mind nothing more than the prayers for the departed of the Church, in particular, the prayers of the holy and spiritual father. The form in which it is described - there is hardly even a need to talk about it - is metaphorical.

The Orthodox Church considers the doctrine of ordeals so important that it mentions them in many divine services (see some quotations in the chapter on ordeals). In particular, the Church especially expounds this teaching to all her dying children. In the "Canon for the Exodus of the Soul", read by the priest at the bedside of a dying member of the Church, there are the following troparia:

"The prince of the air, the rapist, the tormentor, the terrible ways of the defender and the vain words of these words, grant me to pass unhinderedly departing from the earth" (Song 4).

“Holy Angels, lay me to the sacred and honest hands, Lady, as if I covered those wings, I don’t see the dishonorable and stinking and gloomy demons of the image” (Ode 6).

“Having given birth to the Lord Almighty, the bitter ordeals of the head of the world-keeper are far from me, whenever I want to die, but I will glorify Thee forever, Holy Mother of God” (Song 8).

Thus, the dying Orthodox Christian is prepared by the words of the Church for the coming trials.

forty days

Then, having successfully passed through ordeals and worshiped God, the soul visits heavenly abodes and hellish abysses for another 37 days, not yet knowing where it will stay, and only on the fortieth day is a place assigned to it until the resurrection of the dead.

Of course, there is nothing strange in the fact that, having gone through ordeals and done away with the earthly forever, the soul should get acquainted with the real other world, in one part of which it will stay forever. According to the revelation of the Angel, St. Macarius of Alexandria, a special church commemoration of the dead on the ninth day after death (in addition to the general symbolism of the nine ranks of angels) is due to the fact that until now the soul has been shown the beauties of paradise, and only after that, during the rest of the forty-day period, it is shown the torment and horrors of hell, before on the fortieth day a place is assigned to her where she will await the resurrection of the dead and the Last Judgment. And here too, these numbers give a general rule or model of the after-death reality, and, of course, not all the dead complete their journey according to this rule. We know that Theodora really completed her visit to hell on the fortieth - by earthly standards of time - day.

State of mind before the Last Judgment

Some souls after forty days find themselves in a state of anticipation of eternal joy and bliss, while others are in fear of eternal torment, which will fully begin after the Last Judgment. Before that, changes in the state of souls are still possible, especially thanks to the offering of the Bloodless Sacrifice for them (commemoration at the Liturgy) and other prayers.

The teaching of the Church about the state of souls in Heaven and hell before the Last Judgment is set forth in more detail in the words of St. Mark of Ephesus.

The benefits of prayer, both public and private, for souls in hell are described in the lives of the holy ascetics and in patristic writings.

In the life of the martyr Perpetua (III century), for example, the fate of her brother was revealed to her in the form of a reservoir filled with water, which was located so high that he could not reach it from that dirty, unbearably hot place where he was imprisoned. Thanks to her fervent prayer throughout the whole day and night, he was able to reach the reservoir, and she saw him in a bright place. From this she understood that he was delivered from punishment (Lives of the Saints, February 1).

There are many similar cases in the lives of Orthodox saints and ascetics. If one is inclined to be overly literal about these visions, then it should perhaps be said that of course the forms that these visions take (usually in dreams) are not necessarily "photographs" of the state of the soul in another world, but rather images that convey the spiritual truth about the improvement of the state of the soul through the prayers of those who remained on earth.

Prayer for the dead

The importance of commemoration at the Liturgy can be seen from the following cases. Even before the glorification of St. Theodosius of Chernigov (1896), the hieromonk (the famous elder Alexy from the Goloseevsky skete of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, who died in 1916), who was reclothing the relics, was tired, sitting at the relics, dozed off and saw the Saint in front of him, who said to him: "Thank you for your work for me. I also ask you, when you serve the Liturgy, to mention my parents"; and he gave their names (Priest Nikita and Maria). Prior to the vision, these names were unknown. A few years after canonization in the monastery, where St. Theodosius was the abbot, his own memorial was found, which confirmed these names, confirmed the truth of the vision. "How can you, saint, ask for my prayers when you yourself stand before the Heavenly Throne and give God's grace to people?" the hieromonk asked. “Yes, that’s true,” replied St. Theodosius, “but the offering at the Liturgy is stronger than my prayers.”

Therefore, a memorial service and home prayer for the dead are useful, as well as good deeds done in their remembrance, alms or donations to the Church. But commemoration at the Divine Liturgy is especially useful for them. There were many appearances of the dead and other events confirming how useful the commemoration of the dead is. Many who died in repentance, but failed to manifest it during their lifetime, were released from torment and received repose. Prayers for the repose of the departed are constantly lifted up in the Church, and in the kneeling prayer at Vespers on the day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit there is a special petition "for those who are held in hell."

St. Gregory the Great, answering in his "Conversations" the question "is there anything that could be useful to souls after death", teaches: "The holy sacrifice of Christ, our saving Sacrifice, brings great benefit to souls even after death, provided that their sins can be forgiven in a future life.Therefore, the souls of the departed sometimes ask that the Liturgy be served for them... Naturally, it is safer to do what we hope others will do about us after death. to make an exodus free, than to seek freedom in chains. Therefore we must despise this world with all our hearts, as if its glory had already passed, and offer daily the sacrifice of our tears to God as we offer His sacred Flesh and Blood. Only this sacrifice has the power to save the soul from eternal death, for it mysteriously represents to us the death of the Only Begotten Son" (IV; 57, 60).

St. Gregory gives several examples of the appearance of the dead alive with a request to serve the Liturgy for their repose or thanksgiving for it; once also one captive, whom his wife considered dead and for whom she ordered the Liturgy on certain days, returned from captivity and told her how he was freed from chains on certain days - precisely on those days when the Liturgy was served for him (IV; 57, 59).

Protestants generally believe that church prayers for the dead are incompatible with the need to gain salvation first of all in this life: "If you can be saved by the Church after death, then why bother fighting or seeking faith in this life? Let's eat, drink and be merry" ... Of course, no one who holds such views has ever achieved salvation through church prayers, and it is obvious that such an argument is very superficial and even hypocritical. The prayer of the Church cannot save someone who does not want salvation or who has never made any efforts for this during his lifetime. In a certain sense, it can be said that the prayer of the Church or individual Christians for the deceased is another result of the life of this person: they would not have been prayed for if he had not done anything during his life that could inspire such prayer after his death.

St. Mark of Ephesus also discusses the issue of church prayer for the dead and the relief it brings to them, citing as an example the prayer of St. Gregory Dialog about the Roman emperor Trajan - a prayer inspired by the good deed of this pagan emperor.

What can we do for the dead?

Anyone who wants to show his love for the dead and give them real help can best do this by praying for them, and especially by commemoration at the Liturgy, when the particles taken for the living and the dead are immersed in the Blood of the Lord with the words: "Wash, Lord, sins commemorated here by Your precious blood, by the prayers of Your saints."

We can do nothing better or more for the departed than to pray for them, commemorating them at the Liturgy. They always need this, especially in those forty days when the soul of the deceased follows the path to the eternal villages. The body then does not feel anything: it does not see the gathered loved ones, does not smell the smell of flowers, does not hear funeral speeches. But the soul feels the prayers offered for it, is grateful to those who offer them, and is spiritually close to them.

Oh, relatives and friends of the dead! Do for them what is necessary and what is within your power, use your money not for the external decoration of the coffin and grave, but to help those in need, in memory of your dead loved ones, in the Church, where prayers are offered for them. Be merciful to the dead, take care of their souls. The same path lies before you, and how then we would like to be remembered in prayer! Let us ourselves be merciful to the departed.

As soon as someone has died, immediately call the priest or tell him so that he can read the "Prayers for the Exodus of the Soul", which are supposed to be read over all Orthodox Christians after their death. Try, as far as possible, for the funeral to be in the church and for the Psalter to be read over the deceased before the funeral. The funeral should not be carefully arranged, but it is absolutely necessary that it be complete, without reduction; then think not of your own comfort, but of the deceased, with whom you part forever. If there are several dead in the church at the same time, do not refuse if you are offered that the funeral service be common to everyone. It is better that the funeral service be served simultaneously for two or more deceased, when the prayer of the assembled relatives will be more fervent, than for several funeral services to be served consecutively and services, due to lack of time and effort, were shortened, because each word of the prayer for the deceased is like a drop of water for the thirsty. Immediately take care of the magpie, that is, the daily commemoration at the Liturgy for forty days. Usually in churches where the service is performed daily, the deceased, who were buried in this way, are commemorated for forty days or more. But if the funeral was in a temple where there are no daily services, the relatives themselves should take care and order a magpie where there is a daily service. It is also good to send a donation in memory of the deceased to monasteries, as well as to Jerusalem, where unceasing prayer is offered up in holy places. But the forty-day commemoration should begin immediately after death, when the soul especially needs prayer help, and therefore the commemoration should begin at the nearest place where there is a daily service.

Let us take care of those who have gone to the other world before us, so that we can do everything for them that we can, remembering that blessed are mercy, for they will receive mercy (Matt. V, 7).

Resurrection of the body

One day this whole perishable world will come to an end and the eternal Kingdom of Heaven will come, where the souls of the redeemed, reunited with their resurrected bodies, immortal and incorruptible, will forever abide with Christ. Then the partial joy and glory that souls in heaven even now know will be replaced by the fullness of the joy of the new creation for which man was created; but those who did not accept the salvation brought to earth by Christ will be tormented forever - along with their resurrected bodies - in hell. In the final chapter of the Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Rev. John of Damascus describes this final state of the soul after death well:

“We also believe in the resurrection of the dead. For it truly will be, there will be a resurrection of the dead. But, speaking of the resurrection, we imagine the resurrection of the bodies. For the resurrection is the second resurrection of the fallen; define as the separation of the soul from the body, then the resurrection is, of course, the secondary union of soul and body, and the secondary exaltation of the living being resolved and dead. from the dust of the earth, can resurrect it again, after it again, according to the Creator, was resolved and returned back to the earth from which it was taken ...

Of course, if only one soul practiced the exploits of virtue, then only she alone will be crowned. And if she alone was constantly in pleasure, then in justice she alone would have been punished. But since the soul did not aspire to either virtue or vice separately from the body, then in justice both will receive a reward together ...

And so, we will rise again, as the souls will again unite with the bodies, which become immortal and take away corruption from themselves, and we will appear before the terrible judgment seat of Christ; and the devil, and his demons, and his man, that is, the Antichrist, and wicked people, and sinners will be delivered into eternal fire, not material, like the fire that is with us, but such as God can know about. And having created good things, like the sun, they will shine together with the Angels in eternal life, together with our Lord Jesus Christ, always looking at Him and being visible by Him, and enjoying the uninterrupted joy that flows from Him, glorifying Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit in endless ages of ages . Amen" (pp. 267-272).