Theological commentary on the article

professor A.I. Osipov

"What awaits us at the Last Judgment?"

Orthodox Conversation No. 2, pp. 6 - 11

Let us know that there is some kind of decency, both in clothing, food, laughter and gait, and in word and silence; all the more since, apart from other names and powers, we also honor the Word in God.

St. Gregory the Theologian ... Episode 27, against the Eunomians and on theology, first or preliminary

1 . In this article, which touches upon such very important and deep provisions of faith as the doctrine of the Last Judgment and the fate of a person after death, first of all, a serious mistake was made in the method of presenting these truths for the readers of the spiritual and educational magazine .

“What does the Last Judgment mean? Do not think that throughout all human history God was love, let alone at the Last Judgment, excuse me - now only in justice. " (p. 6)

In this case, a purely rhetorical technique is used with the help of which the author tries to attract the interest of the reader to the article. First, this method is used by Protestant preachers. Secondly, this technique contains a subtle grin and pretense, which is inevitable in the reader will cause a frivolous attitude towards the topic in question.

St. John Chrysostom: “How many of the jokes come from perjury, how much harm, how much foul language! Now is the time of war and battle, beating and waking, arms and preparations for the struggle. At the present time there can be no laughter at all, for this is the time of peace ... Let's see where this vice comes from. Or let's see what a saint should be like? He should be quiet, meek, grieving, crying, contrite. Therefore, whoever speaks jokes is not a saint. This is only permissible for those who play on stage.

A joker is a person who is not permanent, ready for anything, unsteady, unsteady, changeable, done by everything.But this is not the case for those who serve Christ. ».

2 . “Nothing of the kind!” The author writes further, “it is unreasonable to represent God at this court as some kind of despot.The terrible Last Judgment is called not because God “forgets” about love and acts according to some soulless “truth” - no, but because here the final self-affirmation, self-determination of the person takes place: is she capable of being with God or will leave Him, will remain outside of Him forever. " (p. 6)

“At the Last Judgment, the final fate of a person is decided by himself, by his will, he regains the possibility of repentance, that is, spiritual renewal, healing ... Hence the peculiarity of the Last Judgment: man himself for the last time and finally determined, to be with God or voluntarily retreat into the inextinguishable flame and incessant tartar (cold) of eternal passions. Christ cannot violate human freedom. " (page 8)

• The article makes an attempt to oppose divine love to divine truth, justice and to exclude it from divine properties.

Nevertheless, the Church of Christ, relying on the testimony of Holy Scripture and the Holy Fathers of the Church, has always taught thatjustice is an essential property of God , which does not contradict His love and goodness, but accompanies it and dissolves into it.

St. Basil the Great : « The Lord is merciful and righteous. Scripture always unites truth with the mercy of God, teaching us that the mercy of God is not without judgment, and judgment is not without mercy. God, having mercy, with judgment and measure, renders mercy to those who are worthy, and judging, with mercy on our weakness, he performs judgment, punishing us more out of philanthropy than for rewarding equal for equal. "

Svt . Gregory the Theologian : "Forrighteous and benevolent The judge of our affairs always values \u200b\u200bour merits, considering the kind of life of everyone. "

Macarius (Bulgakov), Metropolitan of Moscow : “Under the name of justice or righteousness, here it is understood in God such a property, according to which He rewards all moral beings, each according to his merits, and namely: he rewards the good, and punishes the evil."

Venerable Justin Popovich : "The last universal judgment will be the judgment of the absolute truth and absolute mercy of God, since the Lord will judge each and every one according to His infinite truth and infinite mercy, so that no one can accuse God of injustice or disgrace."

• The article states that at the Last Judgment, a person himself determines his eternal fate.

This statement has no basis either in Holy Scripture or in Holy Tradition.

Firstly, because after his death, a person himself cannot change his position, since he is deprived of freedom of choice and the possibility of repentance.

St. Cyril Jerusalem : “... the time of repentance and absolution is limitedonly I sow life. "

St. Basil the Great: “Now there is a time of repentance and letting gorepentance of sins, and in the next century, righteous judgment and retribution ».

Secondly , both at the Private Court and at the Last Judgment, God Himself personally acts as a Judge and a Creator, He determines the fate of a person, and a person is a defendant.

Come to have the Son of man in the glory of his father with his angels: and then will reward comudes by his deed. (Matthew 16:27)

St. John Chrysostom : “After leaving this life, we will appear at the last judgment,we will give a report in all their deeds ”.

In none of the Holy Fathers of the Church, we do not meet the idea that during the Last Judgment a person regains the possibility of repentance. .

• The article also states that "The Last Judgment is a moment when the whole life and posthumous spiritual path will be summed up, when the process of growth, the process of becoming, self-determination of the individual will be completed" (p. 8 )

The Church only teaches that after the Last Judgment, the bliss of the righteous and the suffering of sinners will be aggravated and will reach fullness.

Message from the Eastern Patriarchs : “We believe that the souls of the dead are blissful or tormented, according to their deeds. Separated from the bodies, they immediately pass to either joy or sorrow; however, they feel neither perfect bliss nor perfect torment; for everyone will receive perfect bliss or perfect torment after the general resurrection, when the soul is united with the body ... ”.

Metropolitan Macarius : “This reward after the general judgment will be complete, perfect, decisive. Complete: that is, not for the human soul alone, as after a private trial, but for the soul together and for the body. "

The only thing that, before the Last Judgment, can change the temporary afterlife fate of a person, alleviate his condition is the prayer of the Church, and especially the offering of the Bloodless Sacrifice.

Epistles of the Eastern Patriarchs : “They receive relief, according to infinite goodness, through the prayers of the Priests and the beneficence performed for the dead; and especially by the power of the bloodless Sacrifice ... ”.

• The article states that the Last Judgment was named the Terrible because “ man himself for the last time and finally determined , to be with God or voluntarily retreat into the inextinguishable flame. "

However, as we have already noted above, no self-determination, as the Church of Christ teaches, does not occur at the Judgment Day.

The last Judgment is called the Last Judgment because:

The truth of God will be fully revealed on it.

St. Gregory the Theologian: “... this judgment will be the only, final and terrible,and even more righteous rather than terrible, or, better to say,because he is terrible because he is righteous ».

Venerable Justin Popovich : “The fear and horror of the Last Judgment for sinners will consist, first of all, in the fact that at this moment they all clearly realize and with all the evidence will see that Jesus Christ was really incarnate for the salvation of all, suffered for all ... He is the only Savior of people ... Then everyone who, during his life on earth, did not believe in Christ as God and Savior, will irresistibly feel with all his being that by this he condemned himself to eternal torment while still on earth (John 3:18; 5, 24 )».

3 ... The article argues that the torment of sinners is not eternal .

“Gregory the Wonderworker and Gregory of Nyssa, the brother of Basil the Great, also believed that eternal torment is not endless. For the concept of eternity does not mean infinity. " (p. 10)

The fallacy of the opinions expressed and their disagreement with the teaching of the Church consists in:

A) is that the word "century ”Used in the Holy Scripture is ambiguous. It means a century and many centuries describing earthly history, and an eternal age, that is, eternity.

B) in relation to future life, the wordcentury means endless eternity.

Venerable John Damascene : "And eternal life and eternal torment denote the endlessness of the century to come."

C) the opinion about the finiteness of torment and the general apocatastasis was expressed only by St. Gregory of Nyssa and were borrowed by him from Origen. However, this opinion is not accepted by the Church and rejected.

Acts V Of the Ecumenical Council : “And so, if both the divine Scriptures and the Holy Fathers clearly teach us thatthere will be no end to the torment of the wicked and their adored demons, then what kind of restoration do Origen's associates dream of whenthe torment is endless ? For the Holy Church of Christ as the righteous proclaimseternal endless life, so he declares to the wickedendless torment ».

The Church of Christ teaches about the eternity of the torment of sinners and the eternity of the bliss of the righteous.

Venerable John Damascene : “For the time after the resurrection will no longer be counted by days and nights, or better - then there will be onenon-evening day; for the Sun of righteousness will clearly shine on the righteous, and for the sinners there will come a deependless night ».

Regarding the statements of St. ... Isaac the Syrian, let us note that his views must be viewed through the prism of the teaching of the entire Church of Christ, and not try to contrast his personal opinions with the teaching of the Church. This is exactly what is not done in the article.

4. Statements about the provision of God to man "the opportunity to be where he can" after subsequent death .

However, this opinion of the author also contradicts the teaching of the Church about God as Judge and man as the accused. The inviolability of human freedom by God lies not in giving a person a choice during the General Judgment, but in the fact that God manifests his righteous judgment on the soul, enduring it in accordance with the life lived, without changing its spiritual and moral state.

5. The article also attributes the opinion of St. Gregory the Theologian "about the possibility of posthumous salvation through hell, or, as he himself put it, through baptism in fire." (p. 11)

• First, St. Gregory the Theologian, in the concluding part of his 39th Word, does not speak in the affirmative, but only makes a certain assumption. He says: "Maybe they will be baptized with fire there ... »
• Secondly, St. Gregory does not speak about the salvation of this type of baptism, but only about “his cleansing from sin,” which is not tantamount to salvation.
• Thirdly, in the same word, St. Gregory cites five types of baptism: Moses in the waters of the Red Sea, John the Baptist, Christ's baptism, baptism of martyrdom and blood, baptism with tears.

And only two of them are perfect, that is, salvific - this is the baptism given by the Lord and the baptism of martyrdom. ... The first, Moses', is the baptism of cleansing, the second, John's - repentance, and the fourth, with tears - mercy from God.“And as for the fact that souls are liberated thanks to some kind of help, purifying suffering and temporary fire, which possesses such purifying power, -we do not find this either in the Scriptures, or in the prayers and chants about the dead, or in the words of the Teachers ».

6. Hence the inconsistency of another phrase of the author with reference to

1 Cor. 3, 13-15: “A terrible way is to enter the Kingdom, having passed the Gehenic experience of“ good ”outside of God ... A beautiful image showing that the state of salvation can be different: for some it is with glory, honor, reward, another will be saved, but as from fire. ”(p. 11)

St. Mark of Ephesus, refuting the falsity of the teaching of the Latins about the salvation of sinners from fire, emphasized:

St. Mark of Ephesus : "For the expression that" a sinner will be saved as by fire "means that he will remain tormented in fire and will not be destroyed along with your evil deeds and spiritual evil dispensation."

Output :

From the above analysis of the theses of the article by prof. A.I. Osipov, it is necessary to conclude that in the article

• Serious distortions are made of the teaching of the Church of Christ about the Last Judgment, about the state of the souls of the departed after death,
• The quoted quotes of the Holy Fathers are torn out of the general Tradition of the Church and are actually opposed to it,
• Some of the Holy Fathers are ascribed opinions that were not expressed by them.

Therefore, it must be recognized that this articledoes not express the teachings of the Orthodox Church, she distorts it, in a dangerous way introducing into the minds of readers the opinions and views condemned by the Church.

From the "Orthodox Apologist": Despite the fact that the article by prof. A. I. Osipova appeared more than a year ago on the pages of the well-known Orthodox magazine "Orthodox conversation", nevertheless, we considered it necessary to place her on our website. And the main reason for this was the active dissemination of the ideas of this article in the church environment and the Orthodox academic students. We hope that this article will provide an opportunity for an objective assessment of prof. A.I. Osipov ideas that cannot be called otherwise than non-Orthodox and heretical.

Hieromonk Sergiy Troitsky, Candidate of Theological Sciences

THE WEEK OF THE DREAD COURT

Meat Week (about the Last Judgment) - the penultimate Sunday before Great Lent, on which, according to the ustav, the eating of meat ends. On this resurrection, the coming Last Judgment is remembered (Matt. 25: 31-46).This reminder is necessary so that people who sin do not indulge in carelessness and carelessness about their salvation in the hope of the ineffable mercy of God. This is a reminder that we will be judged .

What does Last Judgment mean? This is the completion of human history in the form in which you and I now have and had before. And often, and very often people tried to look through time and imagine, but when will this Last Judgment come? Many tried to wishful thinking, appointed deadlines, times, said that they knew (when it would be), but this time passed, and these predictions did not come true. Because there is no need to engage in this unproductive speculation. For the Lord directly said at the end of the parable of the ten virgins, by the way, in the same 25th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, where the parable of the Last Judgment, that people should be vigilant, and He says: because you do not know either the day or the hour when the Son of Man comes. The only thing we can say with you is that the end of this story, the Second Coming of the Lord, will come not during the spiritual flourishing of humanity, but evidently during its spiritual decline.

Jesus Christ himself speaks of His Last Judgment: "The time will come when all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God and come forth those who have done good into the resurrection of life, and those who do evil into the resurrection of condemnation." (John 5: 28-29). From this it is clear that before the onset of the last judgment, all the dead, according to the voice of the Son of God, will revive, and good people will be resurrected for eternal blissful life, and evil people - for eternal condemnation. The picture of the Last Judgment is strikingly depicted also by Jesus Christ himself in the following:"When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the holy Angels with Him, then he will sit on the throne of His glory, and all nations will be gathered before Him."These words of the Gospel are about the mystery of the First and Second Coming of Christ. His first coming to earth was humiliated, so that he could not be distinguished from other people. The Lord appeared so humbly that no one noticed His appearance. The Second Coming will be completely different. The first time the Lord came not to judge, but to save the world. The second time He will come for the Last Judgment.

The Last Judgment seems to many to be abstract and distant, while the Lord is “near, at the doors”. People do not believe in eternal torment or believe, but they think that everything will not be as scary as the Gospel says. Why then? After all, our entire earthly life is a distant shadow of a true and full life in the Kingdom of God; like all torments on earth, they are but a distant shadow of the terrible torments of sinners in hellish fire. As Saint Nicholas (Velimirovich) said: “Life on earth - no matter how sublime it may be - is nevertheless dissolved in torment, for here there is no fullness of life; just like flour on earth - no matter how great it is - is still dissolved by life. But at the Last Judgment, life will be separated from torment, and life will be life, and torment will be torment. Both the one and the other will abide forever, each - by itself. What this eternity is - our human mind cannot contain it. To those who for one minute delight in contemplating the face of God, this delight will seem millennial. And to those who for one minute will suffer with demons in hell, this torment will seem millennial. "

This judgment will be so simple that it seems that we will not be asked about our faith, nor about how we prayed and fasted or theologized, but only about whether we were or were not human in relation to other people. However, in this ultimate simplicity, the mystery of the Incarnation of God and the Cross, and the Resurrection, and Pentecost is revealed. And His Second Coming in glory will be preceded by the appearance in heaven of the Cross, which reveals the secret of the two-fold commandment.

The mystery of the Last Judgment is the mystery of the general resurrection, the resurrection of each of the dead. And this is given to all of us - no one, not a single person is deprived of it. The martyrs bought the Kingdom with their blood, the desert fathers found grace through the exploits of abstinence, and we, living in the midst of the world, can achieve the glory of the Lord with the simplest human help - to feed the hungry, to give the thirsty one to drink, to give shelter to the homeless, to comfort the sick, to visit the prisoner - this is what can do any. This is offered to us every day; all life consists of it.

The Law of God: On the Last Judgment

Jesus Christ taught about His last, terrible judgment on all people, at His second coming:

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels are with Him, then He, as King, will sit on the throne of His glory. And all nations will gather before Him, and He will separate some people from others (the faithful and the good from the ungodly and the wicked), just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; And he will put the sheep (righteous) on His right hand, and the goats (sinners) on His left. Then the King will say to those standing on His right side: “Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry (was hungry) and you gave Me to eat; thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me. "

Then the righteous will ask Him with humility: “Lord! when did we see you hungry and feed you? or thirsty, and made drunk? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you in? or naked and clothed? When did we see you sick, or in prison and come to you? "

The king will answer them: "Truly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren (that is, for people in need), you did it to Me."

Then the Tsar will say to those on the left: “Depart from Me, you accursed ones, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his aggels. For I was hungry, and you did not give me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger and did not receive me; I was naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick and in prison, and they did not visit Me. "

Then they will say to Him in response: “Lord! when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not serve You? "

But the King will tell them: "Truly I say to you, since you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me."And they will go into eternal torment, and the righteous into eternal life.

This day will be great and terrible for each of us. Therefore, this judgment is also called the Terrible, since our deeds, words, and the most secret thoughts and desires will be open to everyone. Then we will have no one to hope for, for God's judgment is righteous, and everyone will receive according to his deeds.

Interpretations and sayings of the holy fathers on the gospel parable of the Last Judgment:

There will be great fear and trembling and ecstasy at the hour when the Lord gathers the impartial judgment seat and terrible books are opened where our deeds, words and everything that in this life were thought to be hidden from God, testing heart and womb ...

Everything there will be clothed in spiritual contrition, except for some perfect ones. The wicked will grieve, because they have not thought of the end; sinners - because they did not seek salvation in repentance and mercy towards others. Those who love the truth will grieve, if they have not remained constant, and those who repent, if they have not corrected themselves in good time. When they see the crowns of victors there, then they will bring their lives to themselves; they will recognize the fullness of the bliss of those who are toiling and burdened, they will learn how wonderful their life was, how good and merciful the Lord is to those who honor Him ... (Venerable Ephraim the Syrian).

The Last Judgment! The Judge is coming, surrounded by a myriad of Heavenly Forces. Trumpets blast to all ends of the earth and raise the dead. The rebels are flowing in regiments to a certain place, to the Throne of the Judge, already anticipating in advance what their sentence will sound in their ears, for the deeds of each will be written on the forehead of their nature, and their very appearance will correspond to their deeds and morals. Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us! Let us cry now, if not with rivers of tears, then at least with streams; if not by streams, even by raindrops; if we do not find this either, let us be contrite in our hearts and, having confessed our sins to the Lord, we beg Him to forgive them to us, vowing not to offend Him any more by breaking His commandments - and then being jealous to faithfully fulfill this vow (St. Theophan the Recluse).

Is there anyone now who would judge himself correctly and be judged faithfully by others? It will not be there: we will all be open to ourselves and others. This universal vision of sins shakes the sinner so that it would be easier for him if the mountains fell and covered him. No one can escape the judgment, everything will be as it is written in the Gospel. Get jealous in advance to justify yourself before God, having washed yourself in tears of repentance (St. Theophan the Recluse).

Today, the Holy Church reminds us of the Judgment of God and thus wants to inspire her children to great labors, and to awaken the negligent from sleep ... Our trouble is that we are used to alienating the hour of the Judgment ... But we will have to appear at the Judgment and give an account for the days and years of life ... Isn't it better to behave every hour as if the Lord were to appear now? .. The enemy knows the power of this thought and in every possible way obscures it in our memory ... Now or tomorrow death will come and seal our fate forever, for after death there is no repentance ... Wherever death finds us - in that we will appear at the Judgment ... Imprint the image of the Judgment of God in the mind and heart and always remember it (St. Theophan the Recluse).

Who, having brought to his memory the Last Judgment of Christ, will not immediately be embarrassed in his own conscience, will not be seized by fear and ignorance? If he is aware of the correction of life in himself, then, looking at the severity of the Court, where even the slightest oversights are examined, of course, he will be horrified by the expectation of terrible punishments, not knowing how the Court will end for him. Divine Judgment, following an incorruptible and truthful verdict, depending on our will, gives to everyone that a person has acquired for himself (St. Gregory of Nyssa).

What does the Last Judgment mean? Do not think that throughout all human history God was love, let alone at the Last Judgment, excuse me, - now only in justice.

Nothing like this! It is unreasonable to present God at this Judgment as some kind of despot. The Last Judgment is called terrible not because God "forgets" about love and acts according to some soulless "truth" - no, but because here the final self-affirmation, self-determination of the person takes place: if she is able to be with God or leaves Him, she will remain outside of Him forever. But could this be? Although this is the secret of the century to come, it is psychologically possible to understand the rejection of God.

I will cite one case as an example. Once, in the good old days, a village teacher saved a St. Petersburg aristocrat from death, who lost his way in winter. He was covered with snow, and he died. You yourself understand how grateful the saved one was to him. And after some time, he invited the teacher to St. Petersburg and arranged a high society reception in his honor, summoning his family and friends. Those who have attended large receptions imagine the situation in which the teacher found himself when he saw in front of him a multitude of forks, knives, plates and other accessories of the same table, which he had never seen with his eyes. Having never been to such receptions in his life, the poor man did not know what to do: he would take something with the wrong hand, he does not know how to start eating, he sits, drenched in a cold sweat. Toasts are made in his honor, but he does not know how to answer. Thirsty, he drank water from the oval saucer in front of his plates. And what was his horror when he saw the guests washing their fingers in these plates. Then he almost fainted at all. So this magnificent reception became a real hell for our teacher. Then, for the rest of his life, he often nodded at night in cold sweat for a century - he again dreamed of this high-society reception in his honor.

You probably understand why I am saying this. What is the Kingdom of God? It is spiritual union with God, who is the infinite fullness of love, meekness and humility. And now imagine how a person who is filled with completely opposite properties will feel in this Kingdom: hatred: malice, hypocrisy ... What would the Kingdom of God be for him if he suddenly found himself in it? Thus, what an aristocratic reception was for the poor teacher. For him, God's Kingdom would be hell to a hellish degree. An evil creature cannot be in the atmosphere of love, the atmosphere of the Kingdom of God.

Now it becomes clear what can happen at the Last Judgment. It is not violence against a person, like a current like the ancient Greek goddess Themis with a blindfold sends people - one to the right, the other to the left - depending on their deeds. Not! God is love. It is no accident that the Monk Isaac the Syrian says: “... those who are tormented in Gehenna are struck by the scourge of love ... they suffer torment that inflicts ... acts in two ways: she torments sinners ... and rejoices those who have observed their duty. "

Perhaps there will be individuals who have deliberately rejected the love of God. But a person who rejects God leaves himself, and this is good for him, because his hatred is unable to endure the flame of God's love. Just as a great reception in his honor was a torment for the village teacher.

God does not violate our freedom. And therefore the doors of hell, if you like, can be locked only from the inside - by its inhabitants themselves. There remain only those who themselves did not want or do not want to leave it.

The idea that the reason for the stay of sinners in hell, not excluding the devil himself, is their free "I do not want", was expressed by a number of fathers: Clement of Alexandria, St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great, St. Maximus the Confessor, St. John of Damascus, St. Isaac Sirin, Saint Nicholas Cabasilas and others.

Here it is necessary to say about a fundamentally important change that will happen to a person at the end of the existence of this world. It follows from the teachings of the holy fathers that after the general resurrection a person regains his natural fullness and with it freedom and will to self-determination. At the Last Judgment, the final fate of a person is decided by himself, by his will, he also regains the possibility of repentance, that is, spiritual renewal, healing - in contrast to the posthumous state of the soul, which was completely determined by the nature of its spirituality. Hence the peculiarity of the Last Judgment: a person himself for the last time and finally determines whether to be with God or voluntarily withdraw into the inextinguishable flame and incessant tartar (cold) of eternal passions. Christ cannot violate human freedom.

And one more fact can be said with full confidence: at the Last Judgment before every person who believed and disbelieved, the great feat of Christ, His sacrificial love, His tremendous self-abasement for the salvation of mankind will be revealed in all power and brightness. And it is difficult to imagine that such a Sacrifice would not touch, or rather, not shake the hearts of the resurrected people. See how impressive, for all its faults, Gibson's The Passion of the Christ made. And here the very reality of the Cross and the Glory of the Risen will open before everyone's face. No doubt this will greatly determine the positive choices of a great many people. This choice, of course, will be facilitated by the sad experience of ordeals, which showed the real "sweetness" of passions and being without God.

Let me stress once again: the Last Judgment is a moment when the whole life and posthumous spiritual path will be summed up, when the process of growth, the process of becoming, self-determination of a person will be completed. This moment is really scary, and God forbid that it be accomplished with great benefit for all people.

Gehenna

What is the eternal fate of those who did not try to live virtuously, but spent their lives in passions, in evil, like all of us, or even did not believe in God at all? The question of a person's future life has always worried everyone. But the difficulty of understanding it lies not only in the fact that it is closed to us by an impenetrable veil, but also in the fact that eternity is not at all time and for human consciousness, immersed in the flow of time, it is impossible even to imagine. But this is not necessary. The Lord gave His Revelation with only one single purpose - to bring a person to salvation (then we will see everything "face to face" - 1 Cor. 13:12), and not in order to prematurely reveal the secrets of the future century to a curious mind. Therefore, the entire Revelation is of a pedagogical, educational, and not an abstract, cognitive nature. For this purpose, heaven and hell are announced. There are no useless messages in Revelation, everything in it is deeply soteriological. It says only so much and what is necessary and useful to a person in earthly life for the inheritance of future life. Therefore, the Church, through the lips of the holy fathers and the voice of the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, simply proclaims, repeating the Gospel: yes, for the righteous there will be a kingdom of eternal life and light, and sinners will go into eternal torment. And the point. With rare exceptions, such a tormenting question for many was not even posed: how to understand the doctrine of the God of love, if He, knowing that these people will fall for nothing, gave them life?

The question has a serious apologetic reading. But any reasonable person understands that if even in the knowledge of this created, space-time world we come across insurmountable boundaries, then all the more this should take place in relation to that world, future life is just a mystery. Berdyaev said precisely that this problem "is an ultimate mystery that does not lend itself to rationalization."

Perhaps that is why the most reasonable answer to this question could be such a sincerely humble answer. We do not know what eternity is; it is not revealed to us what the new heaven and the new earth are; we will not understand life in a new body, therefore we will leave the dream of solving an equation with many unknowns; let us bow down to the love and wisdom of God, believe that He can have neither untruth nor revenge, but only unlimited love, and, therefore, eternity for each person will be the most useful and corresponding to his spirit. The Monk John Damascene wrote about this quite definitely: “God always grants good things to the devil, but he does not want to accept. And in the next century God gives good things to everyone - for He is the Source of good things, pouring out goodness on everyone, everyone partakes for good, as far as he himself prepared himself as a perceiver. "

In this regard, I will quote the thought of Saint Isaac the Syrian, a great ascetic of the 7th century and an indisputable authority in spiritual life: “If a person says that only in order for His longsuffering to be manifested, He reconciles with them (sinners) here, so that to torment them mercilessly there - such a person thinks inexpressibly blasphemous about God ... Such (a person) ... slanders Him. " “Where there is love, there is no retribution; and where there is retribution, there is no love. Love, when it does good deeds or corrects past deeds, does not thereby repay the deeds of the past.

But she cares about what is most useful in the future: she examines the future, not the past. "

"Although (it is said) about rage, anger, hatred and so on in relation to the Creator, we should not imagine that He also does anything out of anger, hatred or envy. Many images are used in divine Scriptures in relation to God, which are very far from His nature. "

"He (God) (does) nothing (does) for the sake of retribution, but looks at the benefits that should come from His (actions). One of such (objects) is Gehenna ... Not for this, the merciful Master created rational beings in order to mercilessly subject their endless sorrow - those about whom He knew before their creation, into what they (will become after creation), and whom He (nevertheless) created. "

Gregory the Wonderworker and Gregory of Nyssa, the brother of Basil the Great, also believed that eternal torment is not endless. For the concept of eternity does not mean infinity. A multitude of people who stumbled over ordeals and found themselves in eternal torment, through the prayers of the Church, leave from there and enter the Kingdom of God. Let us recall the story of Emperor Trajan! All this suggests that the state of eternity does not mean unconditional finality, it can change, and only in a positive direction. And here are the words of Isaac the Syrian: "If the Kingdom and Gehenna from the very appearance of good and evil were not foreseen in the consciousness of our Good God, then God's thoughts about them would not have been eternal; but righteousness and sin were known to Him before they manifested Thus, the Kingdom and Gehenna are the effects of mercy, which in their essence are designed by God for His eternal goodness, and not (the consequences of) reward, even if He gave them the name of reward. "

Let's pay attention: Isaac the Syrian wants to say that all the acts of God are providential, that they come only from love. God has no reward, that is, no revenge, no anger, no punishment, as it happens here on earth when we are punished by people for some wrongdoing. All God's actions are dictated only by love.

He likens God to the father, who, not for the sake of punishment, but for the sake of benefit, and only benefit, puts the child in a situation that he, due to unreasonableness, can perceive as punishment, but it turns out to be given for his good. Isaac the Syrian's assertion that Gehenna itself is nothing more than the last providential means of love, which God uses as the salvation of man, is striking: "It was not for this that the merciful Master created rational beings in order to mercilessly subject them to endless sorrow!" Here, one might say, for the first time with such clarity the patristic answer to the question: why does Gehenna exist? And he gives up hope for the coming of that "time" when "God will be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28).

"The kingdom of God and hell of fire are the results of mercy, not reward, even if God gave them a name - reward!" How to understand this? A definite answer is the words of St. John Chrysostom: "Therefore, He (God) prepared Gehenna, because He is good." These words indicate that for a person with a hellish state of mind it is unbearable to be with God, and the Lord, by His goodness, enables such a being to be outside of Himself. That is, God, while preserving the inviolable freedom of an intelligent creature to the end, manifests his goodness towards it by giving it the opportunity to be "where" it can be. For "hellish torment," as Archpriest Sergiy Bulgakov wrote, "stems from the unwillingness of truth, which has already become the law of life."

Saint Gregory the Theologian, not daring to appropriate the Judgment of God for himself, as you know, admitted the possibility of posthumous salvation through hell or, as he himself expressed it, through baptism in fire. He wrote, however, about those people who died outside the boundaries of the historical Church: "Maybe they will be baptized there with fire - this last baptism, the most difficult and longest one, which eats matter like hay and consumes the lightness of all sin."

From the statements of the holy fathers, suggesting the possibility of salvation from hellfire, a foolish (forgive this expression) person can conclude:

Yeah, so if the torment is not endless, then you can live without looking back at them, live for your own pleasure!

But listen, with what power Saint Isaac the Syrian warns such frivolity: "Let us beware in our souls ... and we will understand that, although Gehenna is subject to limitation, the taste of being in it is very terrible, and beyond our knowledge is the degree of suffering in it."

A terrible path is to enter the Kingdom after going through the Gehenna experience of "good" outside of God. The Apostle writes: "Every deed will be revealed; for the day will show, because in the fire it is revealed, and the fire will test everyone's deed, what it is. Whoever's work that he built will stand, he will receive a reward. And whoever's work is burned up, he will suffer damage; however, he himself will be saved, but as if from fire "(1 Cor. 3: 13-15). A beautiful image showing that the state of salvation can be different: for some it will be saved with glory, honor, reward, the other will be saved, but as from fire.

Who would want to receive any colossal inheritance, but after going through the long and cruel torture of terrible sadists? I am sure none of those who have an idea about this, and even more so the experience of severe suffering. When Russian representatives at one international conference showed videotapes, where it was recorded what the bandits in Chechnya were doing with the prisoners of war, many could not bear it: they closed their eyes and left the hall. It’s impossible to even watch - what if you experience something like this yourself? Indeed, not for any good! So it is with hell: if only it was possible to show what kind of suffering a person suffers, when passions open up in all their strength and begin to operate in him, then no one would probably want to live "properly" now - and there - what will happen. No, God forbid - just not to fall into those terrible hands!

That is why we hear in the Holy Scripture such powerful warnings: "... and these will go away into eternal torment" (Matt. 25:46), "they will be cast out into outer darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 8:12 ). That is why with such persistence, with such force, referring to the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, the Church warns us about the threat of eternal torment. Love cannot fail to do all that is possible to save a loved one from suffering. Therefore, "let us beware in our souls, beloved!"

Alexey Osipov,
Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy
Orthodox Conversation No. 20, 2007

Choose life with Christ!

"For God so loved the world,

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

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

The combination of words "Last Judgment" is not in the Holy Scriptures. However, the Church uses it as corresponding to that event.

What does this judgment mean? Let us not think that throughout all human history God was love, and now, excuse me, there is only justice. Nothing like this! St. John Chrysostom said very strongly about Divine justice to man: “ If you demand justice, then according to the law of righteousness we should have perished immediately at the beginning.”.

It is unreasonable to present God at this Judgment as some kind of blindfolded Greek goddess of justice Themis. This last act in the history of mankind, which opens the beginning of his eternal life, is called the Last Judgment because here at the last trumpet (1 Cor. 15; 52) each person will make the final decision - whether to be with God or to leave Him forever and remain "outside" the Kingdom. Christ at the Last Judgment will remain unchanged by Divine love and will not violate the freedom of human will.

Here it is necessary to recall the fundamentally important change that will happen to a person at the end of the existence of this world. According to the teachings of the Church, the general resurrection man again receives a body, the fullness of his spiritual-bodily nature is restored. This returns a person and will to self-determination, therefore, last opportunity turning to God, spiritual renewal and complete healing - in contrast to the posthumous state of the soul, which was completely determined by the nature of earthly life. Hence and horror The last judgment - man forever and ever decides his eternal fate.

It is, of course, difficult to imagine that a person who endured the experience of Gehenna, where she was powerless to get rid of suffering on her own, now in resurrection regaining the longed-for freedom, chose the former captivity. But this is the secret of the next century. Although, reasoning from the earth, one can somehow understand the terrible choice of hell by demon-like people. After all, an alcoholic will not voluntarily agree to live among non-drinkers, a libertine - together with a chaste person, a drug addict - with healthy ones ... A being with properties opposite to God cannot be in an atmosphere of Divine love, purity, holiness. The Kingdom of the Holy Spirit for a being with a hellish spirit will be hell to a hellish degree. For this reason, St. John Chrysostom says: “Because He[God] and prepared Gehenna that He is good " ... Here is the thought that since it is unbearable for an evil being to be with God, then the Lord in His goodness gives him the opportunity to be outside of Himself in "outer darkness" (Matthew 8,12). That is, God, while preserving the inviolable freedom of a rational creature to the end, manifests his goodness towards her even by allowing her to be in eternity where she can and wants to be.

So you can somewhat understand what will happen at the Last Judgment. Not violence against a sinful person, not revenge on him for his earthly abominations. Not! God, and at the Last Judgment, I repeat, remains love. And at the Judgment, the eternal destiny of each person will be determined by this Love in full accordance with the spiritual properties and freedom of self-determination of the person himself. It is no accident that the Monk Isaac the Syrian said: “ It is inappropriate for a person to think that sinners in Gehenna are deprived of God's love ... But love by its power works in two ways: it torments sinners ... and rejoices those who have observed their duty” .

It is possible that there will be those whose hardness will not be able to endure the humility of God's love. And God will not violate their freedom. Because the doors of hell can be locked only from within by its inhabitants themselves, and not sealed by the Archangel Michael with seven seals, so that no one could get out of there, even if they wanted to. For hell, according to the thought of the Monk Macarius of Egypt, lies “ in the depths of the human heart”.

The idea that the reason for the stay of sinners in hell, and above all the devil himself, is their free "I do not want God", was expressed by a number of Fathers: Clement of Alexandria (+ 217), St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great (+379) , prep. Maxim the Confessor, Venerable John Damascene, St. Isaac the Syrian, St. Nikolay Kav andpower(XIV century) and others.

“God always provides the devil with benefits, but he does not want to accept, - writes Rev. John Damascene. - And in the age to come, God gives good to everyone - for He is the source of goodness, pouring out goodness on everyone, and everyone partakes in goodness, as far as he himself has prepared himself for those who perceive ” .

Also, St. Nikolay Kav andpower: " And this is the difference between the righteous and the wicked, who were in some bonds and were also subject to slavery, that some with displeasure endured this enslavement and slavery and prayed that the prison would be destroyed and that bonds would be resolved, and wished that the head of the tyrant would be broken by captives , and to others nothing real not only seemed strange, but they still consoled themselves, being in slavery. And in those blessed days there were people like them, who did not accept the sun that shone in them, and tried, as much as possible, to extinguish Him, doing everything that, in their opinion, could destroy His rays. Therefore, some were freed from slavery in hell when the King appeared, while others remained in chains.» .

And one more thing must be said with full confidence: at the Last Judgment before every person, regardless of his earthly convictions, all the moral greatness of the feat of the cross of Jesus Christ, His tremendous self-abasement for the sake of our salvation, will be revealed in all power and evidence - His inexpressible love will be revealed. As the modern Athonite Elder Archimandrite Ephraim (Moraitis) wrote: “ Christ during His Second Coming will show us the sufferings of His flesh as proof of love for us". And it is difficult to imagine that such Love would not touch, or rather, not shake the hearts of resurrected people. Look what a strong impression, despite some shortcomings, was made by the film "The Passion of the Christ" by M. Gibson. And here the very reality of the Cross, the entire power of the Risen One's love, will open before everyone's face. No doubt this will greatly determine the positive choices of a great many people. This choice, of course, will be facilitated by the experience of earthly life, filled with the dreamy illusion of its eternity, and the sad experience of ordeals that showed the real "sweetness" of passions - the fruits of life without God. That is why Saint Isaac the Syrian wrote: « The kingdom and Gehenna are the effects of mercy, which in their essence were designed by God according to His eternal goodness, not retribution. "

So, at the Last Judgment, the process of the formation and self-determination of the individual will be finally completed. It will be a kind of summing up of not only earthly, but and posthumous the spiritual path of man, that is, his entire being in a state of fall. Here, in the face of God's love, each resurrected person will say his final "Yes" or "no" to God. That is why this Judgment is terrible, and not because on it the Lord, having forgotten love, will judge human deeds "in all justice." Saint Theophan wrote: “ Even at the Last Judgment, the Lord will not exact, how to condemn, but how to justify everyone. And it will justify everyone, if only there is even a small opportunity» .

It is difficult to ignore the theological inconsistency of the argumentation of Alexei Ilyich Osipov, which he cited in refutation of the "Conclusions of the Synodal Biblical and Theological Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church" on his "controversial theological views." At least, we can speak about this with all unambiguity in relation to the first point of these "controversial views" - the question of hellish torment.

« About the eternity of hellish torments ... the conclusion [of the theological commission] is this: "the opinion about the finiteness of hellish torments and related theological views do not find a basis in the Holy Scriptures" ... I never said "the teaching of the Church speaks of the finiteness of hellish torments." I say that we find in Holy Scripture two lines of testimony ... in Holy Scripture, among the holy fathers, in liturgical books ... two lines of testimony: some speak of the eternal torment of sinners and the eternal bliss of the righteous; others say that Christ's Sacrifice ... ultimately God will be all in everything ... True, this will not be right away, everyone will endure corresponding suffering in eternity for their crimes ... Two lines, I say ... None their these statements have no absolute meaning in the Holy Scriptures, they are directly balanced ...»

Further A.I. gives examples of the "second line", that is, the Scriptures, which, in his opinion, testify to the finiteness of torment. " He [Christ] came down and preached to the spirits in prison as well, who had once been disobedient to God's longsuffering that awaited them ”(1Pet 3: 19-20). Speculativeness, tendentiousness and (or) thoughtlessness of the interpretation of prof. Osipov of the fragments of the New Testament cited by him is found, first of all, by the simplest method of considering the context. “Have a good conscience, so that those for which they reproach you as evildoers may be ashamed of those who condemn your good life in Christ. For, if it is God's will, it is better to suffer for good deeds than for evil; because Christ also, in order to bring us to God, once suffered for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, being mortified according to the flesh, but revived by the spirit by which He and the spirits in prison, descending, preached, once disobedient to God's longsuffering awaiting them, the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved from the water. Likewise, baptism similar to this image now also saves us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who, having ascended into heaven, remains at the right hand of God, and to whom the Angels and Authorities and Powers have been submitted "(1 Pet 3: 16-22 ). As we can see, St. ap. Peter is talking about “preaching” to all “disobedient”, for whose salvation, as an indispensable condition, a “promise of a good conscience” is required, which, by definition, is of a purely individual and not universal character, therefore, both then (under Noah) and now “not many” are saved, that is, human hearts seeking God. Therefore, there is no "second line" in this Apostolic Epistle in general and in this particular place and is not even close.

The same applies to the patristic interpretation of the Epistle, which A.I. cites: “ As Maxim the Confessor explains these words of Peter: "so that they, being dead, would come to life according to God in spirit" ". But this is what St. Maxim: “Some say that Scripture calls people who died before the coming of Christ, for example, those who were at the flood, during the pandemonium, in Sodom, Egypt, as well as others, who, at different times and in various ways, received manifold retribution and terrible troubles. divine judgments. These people were punished not so much for the ignorance of God as for the insults inflicted on each other. She was preached to them, according to [St. Peter], the great sermon of salvation - when they were already condemned according to man in the flesh, that is, they received, through life in the flesh, the punishment for crimes against each other - in order to live according to God in spirit, that is, being in hell, they received the sermon Theology of God, believing in the Savior, who descended into hell to save the dead. So, in order to understand [this] passage [of Holy Scripture], let us assimilate it this way: for this, the gospel was preached to the dead, condemned according to man in the flesh, so that they might live according to God in spirit. Or, perhaps, [Holy Scripture] secretly calls “dead” those who bear the deadness of the Lord Jesus in their bodies (2 Cor. 4:10) and who truly, thanks to their deeds, have been given the divine Gospel (for the Gospel establishes the renunciation of the fleshly life and spiritual confession); those who always die according to man, that is, for human life in the flesh and for this age, live according to God only in spirit, like the divine Apostle (Gal. 2:20, 5:25) and his co-workers, who do not live their own lives but having only Christ who lives in them. This is how the dead are judged by the flesh in this age for God's sake, undergoing many sorrows, torments and hardships and joyfully enduring persecution and thousands of types of temptations "(Venerable Maximus the Confessor. Questions Answers to Thalassius. VII). Again, the context leaves almost no room for the interpretation of A.I., because, of course, the monks are told the same thing as the holy apostle: an analogy is drawn between those who save here on earth, Christians (as living after the Atonement and preaching the Gospel), and there , in the afterlife (those who died before the Coming of the Savior and did not have the opportunity to make their choice, to respond to the good news during their lifetime). Just as here by no means all are voluntarily made "dead according to the flesh" ("those who die according to man, that is, for human life in the flesh and for this age, live according to God only in spirit") and revived in Him according to the spirit, so and there, it turns out, not all the dead are physically spiritually revived (otherwise the symmetry would have been skewed in the opposite direction - and those who died before the Resurrection of Christ would have found themselves in incomparably more favorable conditions for salvation, if the preaching by Christ who descended into hell would make it inevitable for them “the resurrection of the spirit "). And in general, an attempt by prof. Osipov to lean on prep. Maxim is untenable due to the fact that in those works where he directly concerns the professed A.I. and the teachings of St. Gregory of Nyssa, he, in fact, refutes it, speaking of “ staying in a dream according to how each one has positioned himselfand how it is.And correspondingly involvement or non-involvement in the proper sense of the Existing, the Blessed and the Ever-Being there is an increase and increase in punishment for those who are unable to take the sacrament and enjoyment - for those who are capable».

The next passage of Holy Scripture, allegedly representing the "second line" in it, according to A.I .: " St. John the Theologian writes: "He is the atonement for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the [sins] of the whole world" (1 John 2: 2). "- The same story (it's amazing, of course, that the professor has to say all this, but what to do). Literally the next four verses of the Apostolic Epistle do not leave the slightest opportunity for the optimistic exegesis of Prof. Osipova: “And that we have come to know Him, we learn from the fact that we keep His commandments. He who says, “I have known Him,” but does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and there is no truth in him; but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected: from this we know that we are in him. He who says he abides in Him must do as He did. " The arbitrariness of A.I. of this passage is so obvious that it does not even need confirmation by Holy Tradition (however, doubters can easily be convinced of this). Again, we see in the sacred text the same soteriological principle of synergy: salvation is not unconditional (inevitable “in the final analysis”), but is strictly conditioned by the fulfillment of a God-defined algorithm of actions on the part of a person who actualizes, or “hypostatizes,” in it the “fruits of the Atonement”. Of course, the Sacrifice of Christ is the Atoning Sacrifice for all the sins of the world because of its immensity and pricelessness. But it becomes relevant in soteriological terms only in a human individual “revived by the spirit”: “And that we have cognized Him, we learn from the fact that we keep His commandments”. Accordingly, if we do not observe, then we are “liars”, as we were and remain “sons of anger”, “offspring” of the “father of lies”, those in whom “the love of God has not been accomplished”, that is, passed by of our own free will person.

Surprising as it may seem, all the other quotes (except for the frankly original ones) quoted by A.I. are built on this false and theologically primitive identification of the common goals of the Incarnation ("salvation of the world", or "human race") and the universal character of the Atonement ( "Sins of the world"), on the one hand, and universal actual salvation, on the other; or, more simply, on the false identification of the “called” and the “chosen” (Matt 20:16; 22:14; Luke 14:24). " ... what Athanasius the Great wrote when he said: “the whole human race has redeemed from death". - Of course, he redeemed, for the Atonement is the action of Christ in relation to God, and not in relation to the person being saved, in fundamental difference from deification, or salvation as such. Thanks to the Atonement, following Christ, everyone will be resurrected at the last day. But precisely because not all who, by the mercy of God, have been resurrected in the incorruptible flesh, deigned to be resurrected in spirit, being in the old nature, the Last Judgment appointed by God's justice to everyone according to his deeds, after which "these will go into eternal torment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Mt 25:46). "" Death of the sinners of fierce "; understands death of the soul, which will be followed by eternal fire, pitch darkness, unbroken worm, crying and gnashing of teeth; for hell and darkness await sinners "(St. Athanasius the Great. Commentary on Psalms 33:22).

«... what St. Basil the Great: "I came to justify everyone with my blood"". And what? Does this mean that unrepentant sinners will sooner or later be justified? Or - unconfessed sins were left along with confessed and attested (in repentance for them) a new life according to the commandments as attributes of the Christian faith as such? And if not (which is obvious), then, according to the teachings of A.I. (according to his other lectures and books on this issue, which we have already written in detail about), the former will be gradually corrected (after condemnation at the Judgment) by the very enduring of hellish sufferings, thereby acquiring from the judicially punishing character of “retribution” - a soteriological character “ apocatastasis ”(restoration of the original state). “For the Lord had to taste death for everyone, and, becoming an atoning sacrifice for the world, justify all by His blood. Therefore, You, Who has been taught from above about the Lord, will be touched by some struggle. And this is a weapon. "Thoughts will open from many hearts." It makes it clear that behind the temptation at the Cross of Christ, both in the disciples and in Mary herself, there will soon be a certain healing from the Lord, for the Lord should have tasted death for everyone and, becoming a propitious Sacrifice for the world, justify everyone by His Blood. Therefore, You, Who has been taught from above about the Lord, will be touched by some struggle. And this is a weapon. "Thoughts will open from many hearts." It makes it clear that behind the temptation at the Cross of Christ, both in the disciples and in Mary herself, there will soon be a kind of healing from the Lord that affirms their hearts in faith in Him. Thus, we see that Peter, after being offended, clenched more firmly to faith in Christ. Therefore, the human is clothed with weakness, so that the strength of the Lord may be revealed. Thus, we see that Peter, after being offended, clenched more firmly to faith in Christ. Therefore, the human is clothed with weakness, so that the strength of the Lord may be revealed » (St. Basil the Great. Dogmatic letters. 252 (260). To Optimus, bishop). Even if the Most Holy Theotokos and the Holy Apostles needed “some kind of healing from the Lord, which would strengthen their hearts in faith in Him », how can we conclude from this that unbelievers will be saved “in the end” (“cleave in faith in Christ”)? At least, we can say with complete confidence that St. Basil does not state anything of the kind in the passage quoted. But he directly speaks of the eternity of hellish torments at the beginning of the same letter to Bishop. Optimu (“And this is the essence of the images of this age, which takes place with us in a seven-day cycle, and in which for less serious sins, due to the benevolent care of the good Lord, punishments are imposed so as not to give us over to torment in an endless age”) and in many other places ... Could he, like the other Fathers to whom A.I. refers, in one place assert one thing, and in another - the exact opposite?

The following quote confirms the theory of gradual universal restoration in “ godlike beauty", Of course, from the First Epistle to the Corinthians:" When all things are subdued to Him, then the Son Himself will submit to Him who subdued all things, may God be all in all "(15:28). A.I. refers to the interpretation of St. Gregory the Theologian: “ “God will be all kinds of things in everyone,” writes Gregory the Theologian, “during the restoration of everything, when we become completely godlike,” he writes about all ". And again, an elementary consideration of the context shows that the thought of the holy father is far from that which is attributed to him by our interpreter. “The Son is called reigning, - in one sense as the Almighty and King of the wanting and unwilling, and in the other, as bringing us to obedience and submitting to His Kingdom those who voluntarily acknowledge Him as King. And His kingdom, if you understand it in the first sense, will have no end, but if you understand it in the second, will there be any end? - He who will take us saved by His arm (for those who have submitted still need to be brought to obedience?), And then will rise up as the Judge of the earth (Psalm 93: 3) and separate the saved from the perishing, then God will become among the saved gods in order to judge and determine who is worthy of glory and abode. Add to this the submission that you subdue the Son to the Father! What are you saying? Isn't the Son subdued now? But being with God, He absolutely must submit to God. Or about what kind of robber and enemy of God do you speak? On the contrary, consider the following. As he is called an oath for me (Gal. 3:13) He who permits me to swear, and by sin (2 Cor. 5:21) - He who takes the sin of the world (John 1:29), and Adam is made new from the old, so also my disobedience, as the Head of the whole body, He makes His disobedience. Therefore, as long as I am rebellious and rebellious with my passions and the fact that I deny God, until then Christ, only for me, is called rebellious. And when everything will be submitted to Him (it will submit itself, since it will know Him and change), then He, having brought me saved, fulfilled His obedience. For in this, in my opinion, at least, the obedience of Christ consists - in the fulfillment of the will of the Fathers ”(St. Gregory the Theologian. Word 30). What, then, will the obedience of the “perishing” who have not “submitted to God” “voluntarily” not “recognize Him as King”? - Is it not that they will be wholly "fulfilled [the royal] will of God," which will consist in the eternal punishment of their rebelliousness that has passed into eternity? In this case, the traditional soteriological dualism of “the saved and the perishing” is removed here by the monism of universal obedience to the will of God only in this, that is, in a very conventional, figurative sense (in which the Son is also called “disobedient” to the Father and “oath”). We find confirmation of this in another "Word" of St. Gregory, where, firstly, the distinction between personal spiritual and universal bodily "resurrections", which is paramount for the understanding of orthodox soteriology, is drawn, and secondly, the theory of corrective-healing (and not legally- repressive) hellish torment. “Do not become dead again, do not dwell with those who live in the graves and do not be bound by the chain of your own sins. It is not known whether you will rise again from the graves until the last and general resurrection, which will bring all creation to judgment, not for healing, but to hear the verdict and give an account of everything, what is acquired for good or bad"(St. Gregory the Theologian. Word 40).

Here (as a final beating of this "trump card in the pack" of arguments of Prof. Osipov), we will once again give an orthodox interpretation of this passage of St. John Chrysostom (whom he also mentions in his lists of imaginary voices of the "second line": John Chrysostom that he writes: "Hell is abolished, be dead, and the dead is not one in the grave"“):“ So that when you hear the words: “all will come to life”, you don’t think that sinners will be saved, he adds: “each in his own order” ( 1 Cor. 15:23 ). When you hear about the resurrection, do not think that everyone will receive equal reward; if the punishment is not all equal, but very different, then all the more there will be a great difference between sinners and righteous. The beginning is Christ, then Christ's, i.e. believers and godly. "And then the end" (1 Cor. 15:24). When (the dead) are resurrected, then everything will end; and not as now, after the resurrection of Christ, when deeds still remain without final reward.<...> Incidentally, it should be noted that Paul is talking about the resurrection, which was considered an impossible work and which was completely disbelieved, and that he wrote to the Corinthians, who had many philosophers who always laughed at such truths.<...> Defending a truth that was so little believed and laughed at, because of prejudice, just as much because of the difficulty of the subject itself, and wishing to prove the possibility of resurrection, (the apostle) proves this first by the resurrection of Christ. Having proved (this truth) by the testimony of prophets, eyewitnesses and believers, and having brought the opposite opinion to absurdity, he finally proves the (resurrection) of people.<...> Death (the apostle) supplies the last so that the unbeliever, hearing about the victory over other enemies, would sooner accept this truth, because if (Christ) deposed the devil who produced death, then all the more he will destroy his work. When in this way he attributed (to Christ) everything: the abolition of rulership and authority, the establishment of the kingdom, i.e. the salvation of believers, the peace of the universe, the extermination of evils - and to build a kingdom means to exterminate death<...> What does it mean: "may God be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28 )? So that everything depends on Him, so that no one imagines two beginningless beginnings or another separate kingdom. When the enemies are brought down under the feet of the Son, and He, having them under His feet, will not act against the Father, but preserve perfect union with Him, then (God) will be all in all.<...> (The Apostle) speaks here about death not of the soul [that is, "the second death" (Rev 20:14), which is the torment of hell. - AB], but bodily. How will it be destroyed?<...> God, with His omnipotence, will resurrect bodies captivated by death "(St. John Chrysostom. Conversations on the First Epistle to the Corinthians. Conversation 39: 3,5-7).

At the same time, St. John in his other work also unequivocally refutes the apocatastasis of AI: “Let us turn, oh, dear chapter! and we will do the will of God. For this he created us and brought us into existence, in order to make us participants in eternal blessings, in order to grant the kingdom of heaven, and not in order to cast us into Gehenna and set us on fire; it is not for us, but for the devil, for us the kingdom has been arranged and prepared since ancient times. Explaining both, the Lord says " to those on His right hand: come, blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world"; and " to those on the left: Depart from Me, cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels"(Matt. 25: 34, 41). So, Gehenna is not prepared for us, but for him and his angels; and the kingdom is prepared for us even before the foundation of the world. Let us not make ourselves unworthy to enter the palace: while we are here, then, even if we have committed a multitude of sins, there is an opportunity to wash everything away, repenting of our sins; but when we go there, then, even if we show the strongest repentance, there will be no use anymore, and no matter how much we gnash our teeth, we grieve and pray a thousand times , no one from the end of the finger will give us a drop in flames, but we will hear the same as the famous rich man - that " a great gulf is affirmed between you and us"(Luke 16:26). Let us repent here, I exhort, and we will know our Lord, as it is necessary to know. Then only it will be necessary to give up the hope of repentance, when will we be in hell, because there is only powerless and useless this medicine"(St. John Chrysostom. Exhortation to Theodore, 1 st). Again and again we have before us the same doctrine: 1). the immutability of the will of God for all to be saved; 2). the need for this to fulfill the will of God and repentance in its violation; 3). “Gehenna” (along with the Kingdom of Heaven for those who are being saved), “prepared from the foundation of the world” for those who persist in resisting the will of God; 4). just retribution, and not "healing", "hell" for all "damned" as "angels of the devil."

The apogee of inadequate quotation, distorting the thought of patristic discourse to the exact opposite, is the reference of prof. Osipov to prep. John Climacus: " John Climacus writes ... Climber, it seems, should still know [the professor is ashamed of the "ignorance" of the members of the Synodal Theological Commission. - A.B.], well, especially, monks, should know ... "All those gifted by free will, God is both the life and salvation of all, faithful and unfaithful, righteous and unrighteous, pious and wicked, dispassionate and passionate, there is no more respect for God"". And here is what the phrase looks like in the original: “All those gifted by free will, God is both the life and salvation of all, faithful and unfaithful, righteous and unrighteous, pious and wicked, impassive and passionate, [monks and worldly, wise and simple, healthy and weak, young and old; since all use without exception the outpouring of light, the radiance of the sun and the changes in the air]; there is no more respect for God (Rom. 2:11). [The wicked is a rational and mortal creature, arbitrarily moving away from this life (God), and thinking of his Creator as nonexistent] "(Ladder. Word I, 3-4. In square brackets - omitted fragments). In other words, this is already just a collage, gluing together individual words of the text for the sake of obtaining a meaning in no way unusual for it. The authentic meaning is the same as in the 16th psalm: “Arise, Lord, warn them, put them down. Deliver my soul from the wicked by Thy sword, from people by Thy hand, O Lord, from the people of the world, whose lot in this life, whose belly You fill from Thy treasures; their sons are full and will leave the remnant to their children. But I will behold thy face in righteousness; when I awaken, I will be satisfied with Thy image ”(Ps.16: 13-15). That is, to the free - will, to the saved - paradise; for the wicked, God is life as a gift of the Creator common to all creatures, but by no means salvation, which is inherited, as in all the cited texts of Holy Tradition, only "arbitrarily" approaching "this life (God)." “All who zealously abandoned the worldly, no doubt, did it, either for the sake of the future Kingdom, or because of the multitude of their sins, or out of love for God” (Ladder. Word I, 5). As in the case of St. Vasily, even more inappropriate link prof. Osipov to prep. John Climacus does what in the most cited patristic creation the opinion about the finiteness of hellish torments is directly denied and condemned. “All, and especially the fallen ones, should be careful not to admit the ailment of the godless Origen into their hearts; for his bad teaching, instilling in God's love for mankind, is very pleasing to voluptuous people ”(Word V, 41).

Finally, even that St. father (Venerable Abba Isaiah), from which prof. Osipov precedes his "speech of justification" before the Synodal Commission ( "Whoever reads Holy Scripture and understands it, but stubbornly insists on his understanding, is deprived of the glory of God"), testifies against him, because the case of Alexei Ilyich himself is a clear illustration of this aphorism. Because prof. Osipov directly states that the Word of God, the teaching of Christ Himself about the eternal punishment of unrepentant sinners after the Last Judgment, “ has no absolute meaning in scripture"But" equilibrates"... by his conjectures taken out of context and arbitrarily interpreted by the idioms of the New Testament. Not to mention the fact that even this "epigraph" from St. Isaiah speaks of the presence of those who “will be deprived of the glory of God” (and, of course, in eternity, or in the orthodox sense of “the first line).

As for the third repository of the Orthodox faith - liturgical texts, in which there is supposedly a place for testimonies about the finitude of hell and universal salvation, it will be enough to cite only one fragment of these texts to at least doubt this: “To those who sweep away the immortality of the soul, the end of the century, future judgment and eternal reward for virtues in heaven, but for sins condemnation, anathema, thrice ”( Follow-up on the Week of Orthodoxy.1st week of Great Lent).

Thus, we can talk about the aggravation of the error of the respected professor on this specific issue, which can only be regretted (the same applies to the issue of the Atonement: here one can see one systemic distortion, which can be designated as theological romanticism, which is manifested in the well-known anti-legalism of this "organic" a doctrine historically rooted in German classical idealism and the "classical" heresies behind it). Even if we were talking about the theologian of Professor Osipov, about his private theological and purely hypothetical (rationalistic) reasoning on a dogmatic question, then even in this case it would be inappropriate in view of the Church's condemnation of this doctrine as heretical ... that A.I. claims the existence of " two lines in scripture"On this question, which, of course, is not even in sight, as stated by the Synodal Theological Commission. The presence of the “second line” in the history of theological thought, as it was said, is of a moderately origenic character and, as “having no foundation in Holy Scripture” (but conditioned by pagan philosophy), was condemned by the Church as a false doctrine, at least at three Local Councils (Constantinople 536, 543, 1082). The conscious opposition of prof. Osipov, the orthodox content of the doctrines of the Atonement and the eternal torment of sinners in the presented video is expressed in the derogatory naming of academic textbooks based on the symbolic books of the Church, “ our textbooks».

In conclusion, we quote from the decision of another recent theological commission in support of the assumption about the genesis of these views of prof. Osipov, once again drawing attention to the fundamental difference in the orthodox soteriology of the possibility of universal salvation (the calling of each person to the Kingdom of Heaven, opened thanks to the Atonement as the reconciliation of mankind in Christ with God) and the dualism of those who are actually being saved and perishing, which is in no way abolished by this, which passes by consciousness representatives of theological romanticism due to the weakening in it (up to denial) of such a concept as justice, as an equally inalienable attribute of the Divine nature, as love and mercy. “There is a tendency in the WCC to expand inter-Christian unity and include all religions of the world, because the salvation of God is supposedly intended for all people and the way in which God's love for mankind is manifested is unknown to us. Such unity is unacceptable for the Orthodox Church, because salvation is offered by God to all people, but people, rejecting it, follow paths that do not contribute to the acceptance of salvation.<...> A change in the Orthodox way of thinking of some theologians who participate in the WCC is fraught with serious dangers for the future of the Orthodox Church. " Confirms the last thought and the close proximity of similar quasi-patristic views with the depth of immersion in the ecumenical movement of Archpriest. John Meyendorff, to whom prof. Osipov gives an estimate as, “ perhaps the most outstanding theologianXX century”(Which involves the reception of ideas, because who else to learn from, if not the best of the best in the field). And although Aleksey Ilyich himself seems to have become disillusioned with ecumenism (which is gratifying), it is incomparably more difficult to get rid of such costs as “changing the Orthodox way of thinking”, as we can see.

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Comments 94

Comments

94. Lev Khoruzhnik : Pay attention!
2016-10-05 at 13:18

Judging by the facts, statements, behavior and methods of "polemics" - a TOTAL SECTION of admirers of Professor AI Osipov was formed.

Signs:


-substitution of concepts, attraction and distortion, ascribing to the critics of A.I. Osipov what they did not say;
- inventing various fables and attributing them to the critics of A.I. Osipov;
- open hatred for those who condemn the teachings of A. I. Osipov;

-personal humiliation of those who support the criticism of A. I. Osipov;
- attraction to "criticism", violent attacks on the Orthodox denunciators of false teachings A.I. Osipov, various kinds of sectarians, marginal, ambiguous personalities, dubious resources, including money (dollar, euro, shekel);
-invention and hanging of labels such as "Old Testament pants", "Catholics", "Judeo - Catholics";
-requirements to prohibit, to silence opponents of A.I. Osipov, to anathematize them, to court, attempts to draw the hierarchy into a squabble;

- cruelty, lack of external signs of the presence of love for people, the free opportunity to pour out their rage on the "marginalized";
- not a Christian outlook on the world, a gnostic eschatology, hatred of the whole world, a passionate desire for hell for the baptized, infants, the righteous, the Orthodox masses;
- the legitimacy of lying in relation to AI Osipov's opponents, but not in relation to his adherents, lies as the main weapon of war against critics of AI Osipov, hypocrisy;

The core of this party is made up of those who call themselves fighters for the freedom of Orthodox theology from Latin captivity.
In order for the sect to become full-fledged it lacks one GURU, so far no one has approached the role of the second.
Who will lead such a radical movement ?! Maybe a longtime schismatic Kuraev?

The fruits of their work - the SPLIT of the Orthodox - on the parties of those that are FOR and those that are AGAINST.
Satanic work.
Until now, the document itself or its scan "Equal to the Apostles Alexei Ilyich" has not been published ANYWHERE, no one knows who signed it.
It is published by A.I. Osipov himself (the initiator of the slanderous campaign against Orthodoxy and its main presenter), on his website, only the text of an e-mail that allegedly came to his mail, probably from his partner Kochetkov.

Until now, those who cry about their "true Orthodoxy" have not been able to find and formulate a single reliable FACT that does not testify to the heresy of A.I. Osipov, cursed by seven Ecumenical Councils.

93. M. Yablokov : Reply to 92., Kiram:
2016-10-05 at 11:25

Any sect starts with a guru. And adepts gather around him. But not the other way around!
Although Vaskin hid under a nickname, he cannot hide from us))

92. Kiram : Answer to 89., Seek and Obey:
2016-10-05 at 08:33

Judging by the facts, statements, behavior and methods of "polemics" - a SECT of opponents of Professor AI Osipov was formed. Signs: - lack of critical thinking; - inability to perceive other points of view; - substitution of concepts, - attracting and distorting, attributing to A.I. Osipov what he did not say; -inventing heresies and attributing them to A.I. Osipov; -open hatred to those who do not condemn A.I. Osipov; -division into friends and foes, strangers (all disagreeing) are called heretics; -personal humiliation of those who do not support criticism of A.I. Osipov; - attraction to "criticism", violent attacks on Osipov by sectarians, marginal, ambiguous personalities, dubious resources, including monetary ones; -invention and labeling, such as "Osipov's teachings", "Osipovtsy", "osiplians"; - demands to ban , to silence Osipov, to anathematize, to court, attempts to draw the clergy into a squabble; -creation of one's own, in its understanding of the "Orthodox" teaching, aggressive imposition of one's opinion on others; -brutality, lack of external signs of the presence of love for people, a free opportunity to pour out one's rage to a "heretic"; - negative outlook, dark eschatology, hatred of the whole world, passionate desire for hell for the unbaptized, infants, sinners, huge popular masses; - the legitimacy of lying in relation to A. I. Osipov, but not in relation to his followers , lies, as the main weapon of war with A.I. Osipov, hypocrisy; -neroot and hostility to church tradition. The basis of this party is made up of those who call themselves followers of Father Daniel Sysoev. Who will lead such a radical movement ?! Maybe longtime schismatic Vershillo? The fruits of their work - SPLIT. Orthodox - on the parties of those who are FOR and those who are against. Satanic work. Until now, the document itself or its scan "Conclusion of the SBBC" has not been published anywhere, it is not known who signed it. Lyulka himself publishes (the initiator of the slanderous campaign and its main presenter), on his website, only the text of an e-mail allegedly sent to his mail from the SBBC (probably from his partner Mahler). This does not prevent him from claiming that the "conclusion" was signed by the patriarch. Until now, - the screaming "heresy" could not find and formulate a single reliable FACT indicating heresy. Only lies, forgeries, slander, personal attacks, chattering of the topic.

What is this if not nonsense?

In order for the sect to become full-fledged, it lacks its own GURU, so far no one has been suitable for this role.

You already have it. Can you guess who I am? Things are bad, for having your own GURU is not a good sign. On the thief, they say, the hat is on fire!

89. Seek and Obey :
2016-10-04 at 22:16

Judging by the facts, statements, behavior and methods of "polemics", a SECT of opponents of Professor AI Osipov was formed.

Signs:
-lack of critical thinking;
-inability to perceive other points of view;
-substitution of concepts, - attracting and distorting, attributing to A.I. Osipov what he did not say;
- inventing heresies and attributing them to AI Osipov;
- open hatred for those who do not condemn A.I. Osipov;
-division into friends and foes, strangers (all disagreeing) are called heretics;
-personal humiliation of those who do not support criticism of A. I. Osipov;
- attraction to "criticism", violent attacks on Osipov of sectarians, marginal, ambiguous personalities, dubious resources, including money;
-invention and labeling, such as "Osipov's teachings", "Osipovtsy", "Osiplyane";
- demands to prohibit, to silence Osipov, to anathematize, to court, attempts to draw the hierarchy into a squabble;
-creation of one's own, in one's understanding of the "Orthodox" teaching, aggressive imposition of one's opinion on others;
- cruelty, lack of external signs of the presence of love for people, the free opportunity to pour out their rage on the "heretic";
-negative outlook, gloomy eschatology, hatred of the whole world, passionate desire for hell for the unbaptized, infants, sinners, huge popular masses;
- the legitimacy of lying in relation to A. I. Osipov, but not in relation to his adherents, lies, as the main weapon of war with A. I. Osipov, hypocrisy;
- unrootedness and hostility to church tradition.

The basis of this party is made up of those who call themselves followers of Father Daniil Sysoev.
In order for the sect to become full-fledged, it lacks its own GURU, so far no one has been suitable for this role.
Who will lead such a radical movement ?! Maybe longtime schismatic Vershillo?

The fruits of their work are the SPLIT.
Orthodox - on the party of those that are FOR and those that are AGAINST.
Satanic work.
Until now, the document itself or its scan "Conclusion of the SBBC" has not been published ANYWHERE, no one knows who signed it.
Lyulka himself (the initiator of the slanderous company and its main presenter) publishes on his website only the text of an e-mail that allegedly came to his mail from SBBC (probably from his partner Mahler).
This does not prevent him from claiming that the "conclusion" was signed by the patriarch.
Until now, - the screaming "heresy" could not find and formulate a single reliable FACT, testifying to heresy.
Only lies, forgeries, slander, personal attacks, chattering about the topic.

88. YES : About Osipov
2016-07-11 at 23:46

After Osipov's video, where he recommends young spouses not to conceive children, because this may turn out to be a "tragedy" for them, and with the help of modern medicine to "outwit" nature, I do not want to see and hear this "theologian".

87. M.E. : Re: "Justification" of Professor Osipov
2016-06-23 at 12:15

Saint Theophan the Recluse on eternal torment:
http://blagogon.ru/digest/290/
Editors BO: Unfortunately, in your preface you did not dispense with, to put it mildly, liberty inherent to your famous member, to say the least, calling St. Theophan "not the worst Christian." (((

86. Buzdalov A. : Answer to 80., Alexander Vaskin, Russian priest, officer of the Soviet Army:
2016-06-19 at 22:17

Happy Trinity Day, Alexander! Sincerely.

Happy holiday, Father Alexander! (sorry for the belated answer, just saw).

85. M.E. :
2016-06-19 at 19:22

Exactly. I agree with Rev. Justin (Popovich). Only such could accept the preaching of our Lord and were led out of Hell by Him. How many Jews turned to the true Trinity during the First Advent? How many are being saved now? What kind of heresy is it that someday one of the heretics, the unrepentant and atheist, can be saved? The answers are known. A. Osipov will answer for the temptation that he sowed in the souls of many thousands of people. I wish him to repent and publicly renounce his false teachings.
I congratulate all Orthodox Christians on the Day of the Holy Trinity!

84. M. Yablokov : Answer to 83., Priest Ilya Motyka:
2016-06-19 at 19:09

83. priest Ilya Motyka : Re: "Justification" of Professor Osipov
2016-06-19 at 17:13

In the words of the Monk Justin Popovich, “While living in hell, the human-loving Lord preached the Gospel to all human souls, not excluding the most sinful, because the holy Apostle specifically points out that the Savior preached to souls and those who suffered from the flood for their depravity (1 Pet. 3:20 Undoubtedly, souls in hell could respond to the Savior's preaching either by accepting it or rejecting it, because immortal human souls are in the kingdom of death precisely because they have human feelings, human reason, human free will. reason and free will, bearing in itself the experience and imprint of earthly life, which probably influenced their choice either in favor of Christ's preaching or against it. ”Another thing: if human souls in hell did not have the ability to self-determination, then would it be Would the Savior preach to them the Gospel, which is neither by force, imposed, nor mechanically acquired, but accepted voluntarily? learning preaching would be inappropriate and unnecessary. There is no doubt that in the Lord Jesus Christ they cognized the Savior and the Redeemer and accepted Him as such, first of all, the chosen sons of Israel, who, even during their life on earth, piously awaited Him and divinely predicted Him. "Venerable Justin (Popovich). Dogmatics of the Orthodox Church / Collection of Creations Venerable Justin (Popovich) M. Palomnik 2006.v.3 p.194

81. priest Ilya Motyka : Mikhail Yablokov
2016-06-19 at 14:31

So about Judas Iscariot and other conscious theomists, no one speaks. What about Plato, Socrates and Aristotle? Their images are in the vestibules of Greek temples. Saint Justin Martyr called them Christians before Christ. Because in a pagan environment, they reached the maximum of natural revelation.

79. Savva : Answer to 78., M. Yablokov:
2016-06-18 at 16:59

Nowhere do the holy fathers claim that Christ brought unbelievers out of hell, for example, Judas of Iscariot.

John 17.12
When I was in peace with them, I kept them in your name; those whom You gave Me, I have kept, and none of them perished, except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
John 17.24
Father! whom You gave Me, I want them to be with Me where I am, that they may see My glory, which You gave Me, because you loved Me before the foundation of the world.

The first verse says "those you gave me, I have kept"

The second verse says "whom You gave Me, I want them to be with Me where I am."

It is also said that Judas died, and if this is not accepted, then it logically follows that he sees the glory that the Father gave to the Son, which is certainly blasphemy.

77. priest Ilya Motyka : Re: "Justification" of Professor Osipov
2016-06-17 at 19:09

This is what the professor passes off as the teaching of the church fathers the ends of hellish torment: Follow-up of Matins of Good Friday "The Lord Thou hast tore our manuscripts of sins, and being imputed to the dead, thou bound the teacher there, delivered everyone from the bonds of mortals by Thy resurrection."
On Holy Saturday: "Hell reigns, but does not last forever over the human race" (troparion 6 of the canon).
Matins of Holy Easter: Christ emptied hell, descended into hell, hell abolished ... being killed ... deposed ... Where is your death's sting? Hell where is your Hell Victory? Christ is risen, and demons fall ... Christ is risen, and the dead is not one in the grave "
Athanasius the Great: He is the one who brought the people out of Egypt in ancient times, and finally, all of us, or better to say the whole human race, redeemed from death and raised from hell.
Epiphanius of Cyprus "Christ suffered for us ... descended into the underworld to break the adamantine locks ... He brought out captive souls, made hell a desert."
An ordinary Christian will remember that Christ, having descended into hell on Holy Saturday, brought people out of there. There are controversies among the holy fathers over whom He brought the Old Testament righteous or all who wanted to hear Him. This is not the point.
A.I. Osipov starts his hurdy-gurdy about the finiteness of torment, as an analogue of Catholic purgatory. What his thoughts were about earlier. At the same time, he refers to the work of Ambrose of Mediolansky, not translated into Russian, according to the Catholic edition of Abbot Min, Latin Patrology: "A sinner after death will go through the sufferings of fire, so that being purified by fire, he will be saved and not be tormented incessantly."
A.I. Osiprv Uk. Op. p. 92-93

76. : Answer to 74., Priest Ilya Motyka:
2016-06-17 at 11:23

I will not give links to the articles of Archpriest Valentin Asmus and Yuri Maksimov, since 5 or 6 people brought them on the forum with your participation. You reacted to them, what kind of gossip they were. Although these were the full texts of articles taken from reputable websites, but the famous video called Professor Osipov's Review of the SBBC's decision, where he treats his opponents in a completely cheeky tone, with mockery and open mockery, as if they were first-year seminary students themselves. ... And this is addressed to adults, almost the same age, who have an equal or even higher theological educational qualification, a metropolitan, bishops and elderly archpriests, as that is not respectable.

In my opinion, you are a "C grade".

75. Alexander Vaskin, Russian priest, officer of the Soviet Army : Answer to 73., Priest Ilya Motyka:
2016-06-17 at 11:21

Thank. So what?

74. priest Ilya Motyka :
2016-06-17 at 11:08

I will not give links to the articles of Archpriest Valentin Asmus and Yuri Maksimov, since 5 or 6 people brought them on the forum with your participation. You reacted to them, what kind of gossip they were. Although these were the full texts of articles taken from reputable sites.
Well, the well-known video called Professor Osipov's Review of the SBBC's decision, where he treats his opponents in a completely cheeky tone, with mockery and open mockery, as if they were first-year seminary students themselves. And this is addressed to adults, almost the same age, who have an equal or even higher theological educational qualification, a metropolitan, bishops and elderly archpriests, as that is not respectable.

73. priest Ilya Motyka : Archpriest Alexander Vaskin
2016-06-17 at 10:53

Here is an example of an apology for the doctrine of purgatory - What does it mean to be saved, as if from fire? Only those who have never burned themselves or seen heavily burned people can easily relate to this. People who find themselves in such a state experience the most severe suffering! No one will agree to be exposed to fire again for what money. Burning has always been the worst kind of execution. The Apostle cites this image in order to show all the horror of suffering that a person will have to endure, who has built the house of his life from passions and vices - wood, hay, straw (1 Cor. 3:12). And although he was saved, but in what condition? - As if from fire. If only this one thought would be deeply rooted in human consciousness, then no doubt, many would have a different attitude to life. / A.I. Osipov. God. M. 2014. Orthodox Brotherhood of the Holy Apostle John the Theologian p. 102

72. M. Yablokov : Answer to 69., Priest Ilya Motyka:
2016-06-17 at 07:02

A.I. Osipov taught that every soul will hear the preaching of Christ in the afterlife and can make its own choice.

Blessed are not those who believe, but those who see))) He still needs to correct the Gospel.

71. Alexander Vaskin, Russian priest, officer of the Soviet Army : Answer to 70., Priest Ilya Motyka:
2016-06-17 at 01:49

70. priest Ilya Motyka : Re: "Justification" of Professor Osipov
2016-06-16 at 22:24

Unfortunately, the highly respected Aleksey Ilyich worked super creatively with the works of Hegumen Illarion Alfeyev, drawing his amazing conclusions from the well-meaning patristic reader. The temptation was the publication of the following text Rev. Isaac the Syrian. About Divine Mysteries and Spiritual Life. M, 1998. I don’t know what about Nestorianism, but the apology of purgatory was borrowed from there for sure. At one time, Archpriest Valentin Asmus made well-deserved criticism and publications and theological attempts to justify the doctrine of the finiteness of torment. Let Vladyka Hilarion not immediately agree with these arguments. But someone ate his lot and rushed over the bumps calling his colleagues in the Academy and members of the SBBC fools.

69. priest Ilya Motyka : Alexey Petrovich
2016-06-16 at 21:56

The fact of the matter is that Metropolitan Hilarion's theological concept of Christ's descent into hell has a serious evangelical, patristic exegetical and liturgical basis. It is quite traditional and in no way contradicts the conclusions of the SBBC. And it is fundamentally different from the teachings of Professor A.I. Osipov taught that every soul will hear the preaching of Christ in the afterlife and can make its own choice.

68. M.E. : Answer to 57., Buzdalov A .:
2016-06-16 at 19:01

Alexander, as you can see, your "opponents" have nothing to argue with. The most reliable "argument" they have is insults and exaltation over others. Some turned out to be smarter and refrained from commenting. And I cannot pass by when my brothers in Christ are humiliated. But in order not to move the "opponent" you mentioned to the sin of damnation, I will end here. I want to wish you only one thing: write easier, otherwise some complain about incomprehensible terms (see "Hodegetria"). But in general and in essence, your criticism is justified and hits right on target.
Respectfully,
Mikhail Ershov
Thanks to the moderator for your patience.

67. Alexey Petrovich : Re: "Justification" of Professor Osipov
2016-06-16 at 18:13

Here: http: //www.bibliotek...ditel_ada/txt15.html A small piece from the book of the head of the SBBC commission, Vladyka Hilarion, "Christ is the Conqueror of Hell". Read it, there is only one page with conclusions.

Here is just one paragraph:
"At the same time, both in the Eastern and Western traditions it is spoken of Christ's driving out of hell the Old Testament righteous, headed by Adam. However, if in the West this is perceived in a restrictive sense (Christ brought only the Old Testament righteous, and left all the others in hell for eternal torment) , then in the East ADAM IS CONSIDERED AS A SYMBOL OF THE WHOLE HUMAN KIND, standing at the head of mankind redeemed by Christ (THE OLD TESTAMENT RIGHTS FIRST FOLLOWED THE OLD TESTAMENT RIGHTS IN THE HEAD OF ADAM, AND THEN HAVE BEEN FROM THE OTHERS, HAVE ANSWERED THE OTHERS). (emphasis mine - A.P.)

I do not understand how this fits in with the conclusions of the commission headed by Vladyka. It is also interesting, what are the views of Metropolitan Hilarion himself, or is he a pure politician and views can be changed according to circumstances?

65. M.E. : Answer to 64., Alexander Vaskin, Russian priest, officer of the Soviet Army:
2016-06-16 at 15:35

After that, a colorful, untranslatable miner's speech poured out ...

And you have a balm for your soul ... ((
Poor flock, poor "shepherd" without "vegetation" ... ((

64. Alexander Vaskin, Russian priest, officer of the Soviet Army : Reply to 63., M.E .:
2016-06-16 at 14:34

Everything is written on your face with shaved cheeks and ... eyes.

First, there is no vegetation on my cheeks. What can I do, these are my physiological characteristics.
Secondly, my friend from his student days (by the way, he graduated from the "Polytechnic" with a "red" diploma and held very high positions in the coal industry), after reading our correspondence with you, he said: "Sasha, why are you contacting them ... "After that, a colorful, untranslatable miner's speech poured out ...

63. M.E. : Answer to 60., Alexander Vaskin, Russian priest, officer of the Soviet Army:
2016-06-16 at 12:30

What good is fashionable to hear from a person who has such an evil face in a photograph.

In essence, there is nothing to say, there is also nothing to answer to direct questions, so again go to the individual. You didn't like Alexander's photo (quite decent) ... But take a look at yours: On your face with shaved cheeks and ... eyes, everything is written. Take care of yourself before throwing yourself at Orthodox Christians. Sorry, but you dishonor your dignity with your writings here on the forums. This is what blind reverence and adherence to such false teachers as A. Osipov lead to. See paragraph 1014 at the link below, study each line in the word Rev. Ephraim the Syrian.

62. Alexander Vaskin, Russian priest, officer of the Soviet Army : add. p. 60
2016-06-16 at 12:13

Buzdalov, if you still dare to write on theological topics, then precede them with an announcement: "I have no spiritual education, but I am a CULTURALIST, that is, I HAVE THE RIGHT to speak out on any issues!"
In general, you are a proud and narcissistic person, theologically insignificant and dishonorable.

61. Kiram : Answer to 57., Buzdalov A .:
2016-06-16 at 11:57

See: p. 40.

I would like to write to you that this appeal is useless. While I was going, a "meaningful" answer has already appeared. It turns out that you didn't come out as a face. Do not answer, because you will not receive an answer in essence anyway. And vis-a-vis the priest of the Lord, let him bear the burden of responsibility for his ministry.

60. Alexander Vaskin, Russian priest, officer of the Soviet Army : Answer to 57., Buzdalov A .:
2016-06-16 at 11:19

I looked. As always with you, nothing but unfounded assertions, due to their polemical weakness, quickly turning into personal attacks, and other greediness ... In his two articles on eschatology and soteriology, prof. Osipov, I have revealed the topic in the most detailed way, it has shown "the full thought of the theologian" (com. 40) on this issue. I have not heard anything from you but nonsense and pathetic attempts to compromise the identity of the opponent. Due to your general theological weakness, "hoarse people", I will facilitate your task. There is no need for a "second line of evidence" of the apocatastasis in St. John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, St. John Climacus (as prof. Osipov authoritatively states). Show at least a "dotted line" of such evidence ...

Very convincing and authoritative. Your "dogmatic" word "redneck" looks especially "theologically" verified and flawless. You have made an outstanding "discovery" in the field of dogmatic theology. Congratulations on your creative discovery. However, the source of your revelations is by no means the Holy Spirit.
P. S. What good is it fashionable to hear from a person who has such an evil face in a photograph?

58. Lebyadkin : Reply to 52., Novikov A.A .:
2016-06-16 at 08:37

apocatastasis was invented by Origen, whose teaching was condemned at the ecumenical council

Completely (that is, absolutely) outside the topic of references to the person involved in Osipov - we (that is, in theology in Orthodoxy, both Russians and Greeks) often cite Origen as an example or talk about his merits, without hushing up his condemnation - so that one gets the impression that Origen is just that "convict" without whom the system cannot exist.
An interesting state of affairs ....)))

57. Buzdalov A. : Answer to 49., Alexander Vaskin, Russian priest, officer of the Soviet Army:
2016-06-16 at 07:29

I looked. As always with you, nothing but unfounded assertions, due to their polemical weakness, quickly turning into personal attacks, and other greediness ... In his two articles on eschatology and soteriology, prof. Osipov, I have revealed the topic in the most detailed way, it has shown "the full thought of the theologian" (com. 40) on this issue. I have not heard anything from you but nonsense and pathetic attempts to compromise the identity of the opponent. Due to your general theological weakness, "hoarse people", I will facilitate your task. There is no need for a "second line of evidence" of the apocatastasis in St. John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, St. John Climacus (as prof. Osipov authoritatively states). Show at least a "dotted line" of such evidence ...

54. Lebyadkin : Answer to 1., M. Yablokov:
2016-06-15 at 21:40

A.I. Osipov .... (c)

Eck you are blown. You, Mishiko, are far from lukewarm, and I think they already know this. But so extensively - why would it? Either they disliked Osipov, or they are not indifferent to Buzdalov .... You are a staunch shash, beware, that is, beware - how would you not get out of the fire and into the fire, from one heresy into another.

53. Lebyadkin : Re: "Justification" of Professor Osipov
2016-06-15 at 21:32

I would like to know - the most important thing is, why is it uv. Buzdalov was so puzzled by precisely these questions of the afterlife - it seems that the previously respected author was not very interested in this topic - that is, he was not in that. Second, the author was very much focused on the figure of A.I. Osipova - and suddenly such enchanting interest. Two reasons to be curious - this is already serious.

49. Alexander Vaskin, Russian priest, officer of the Soviet Army : Answer to 41., Buzdalov A .:
2016-06-15 at 14:55

The citation abbreviations that I make are intended not to clutter up the article with verbosity, they do not at the expense of meaning, which is obvious to the sane. In contrast to the A.I. abbreviations as shown in the article No matter how you expand the context, you will not get the meaning that St. John Climacus, St. John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Athanasius the Great, Venerable Maxim the Confessor is taught the apokatastasis of A.I. And vice versa (which A.I. does not teach him).

To prove the opposite, you must show what, in your opinion, the "true thought of the theologian" Osipov and the indicated Sts. Fathers on the question of eternal torment.

You must show this, for it is you who accuse Honored Professor A. I. Osipov of "heretical".

Who are you talking to?