
Hell
circa 1185
Hortus Deliciarum (Garden of Delights)
Abbaye Mont Sainte-Odile (Abtei Hohenburg)
Mont Sainte-Odile (Odilienberg) (Département Bas-Rhin. Région Alsace) FRANCE
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Do note the abbot being led to Satan in the lower left… I could think of some contemporary churchmen who could fit that bill… can’t you?
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Editor’s Foreword:
A friend sent me the following… it’s GOOD STUFF… I’d classify it as “read n’ heed”… ‘nuff said! This is important for us as Jillions shares ALL of the Blunder’s theological errors with the added baggage of having a nastier personality and having a harpy harridan as a wife.
NB:
All of the below is from my friend up until the Afterword.
BMD
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Divine Mercy Congress Ends… Spiced By Theological Disagreement
7 April 2008
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna celebrated Mass in St Peter’s Basilica on Sunday, 6 April, to close the First World Apostolic Congress of Divine Mercy. The conference was marked by a respectful theological disagreement between the Russian Orthodox Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Cardinal Schönborn. The Orthodox prelate, in his presentation, argued that God’s mercy is so great that He doesn’t condemn sinners to everlasting punishment. The Orthodox understanding of hell, Bishop Hilarion said, corresponds roughly to the Catholic notion of purgatory. Cardinal Schönborn politely disagreed, noting that the idea expressed by Bishop Hilarion “isn’t a doctrine of the Church. While hell is a reality, it’s God’s Will for all men to be saved, and all Christians should pray that no one will be lost”.
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I understand that the Roman Catholic (and, therefore, Uniate) dogma concerning the Reality of Purgatory is as follows:
- The souls of the just which, in the moment of death, are burdened with venial sins or temporal punishment due to sins, enter Purgatory
- Purgatory is a place and state of temporal penal purification
- Purgatory will not continue after the General (Last) Judgement
Inveighing against their Orthodox interlocutors at the so-called “Union” Councils of Lyons (1274) and of Florence (1439), the Roman Catholics upheld and affirmed the teaching of the purifying fire (i.e., Purgatory) and the expiatory character of the penal sufferings:
The souls of those who depart this life with true repentance and in the love of God, before they have rendered satisfaction for their trespasses and negligence’s by the worthy fruits of penance, are purified after death with the punishment of purification.
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Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky on the Ultimate Things
Concerning the state of the soul after the Particular Judgement (the Judgment of an individual after his/her soul departs the body), the Orthodox Church teaches thus: “We believe that the souls of the dead are in a state of blessedness or torment according to their deeds. After separation from the body, either they immediately pass over to joy or into sorrow and grief; however, they don’t feel either complete blessedness or complete torment. For complete blessedness or complete torment, one receives that after the General Resurrection, when the soul is reunited with the body in which it lived in virtue or in vice” (The Epistle of the Eastern Patriarchs on the Orthodox Faith, paragraph 18). Thus, the Orthodox Church distinguishes two different conditions after the Particular Judgement… one for the righteous, another for sinners; in other words, paradise and hell. The Church does not recognise the Roman Catholic (and Uniate) teaching of three conditions:
- Blessedness
- Purgatory
- Gehenna (hell)
The Fathers of the Church usually use the name “Gehenna” to refer to the condition after the Last Judgement, when both death and hell will be cast into the “lake of fire” (Apocalypse of St John 20.15). The Church, basing itself on the word of God, acknowledges the torments of Gehenna to be eternal and unending, so, therefore, it condemned at the Fifth Ecumenical Council the false teaching of the Origenists that demons and impious people would suffer hell only for a certain definite time, and, then, would be restored to their original condition of innocence (apokatastasis in Greek). The Apocalypse of St John the Theologian calls the condemnation at the Universal Judgement the “second death” (Apocalypse of St John 20.14). However, it’s not for us to define the boundaries between the unutterable mercy of God and His justice or righteousness. We know that the Lord will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth (I Timothy 2.4); but man is capable, through his own evil will, of rejecting the mercy of God and the means of salvation. Worthy of attention likewise is the simple comment in this regard of Bishop Theophan the Recluse:
The righteous will go into eternal life, but the satanised sinners will go into eternal torments, in communion with the demons.
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My Own Thoughts
Alfeyev, in his presentation, argued that God’s mercy is so great that He doesn’t condemn sinners to everlasting punishment. He said, “The Orthodox understanding of hell corresponds roughly to the Catholic notion of purgatory”.
- The absence of the possibility of everlasting punishment in Gehenna after the Last Judgement for incorrigible sinners who relentlessly reject God’s love and mercy contravenes Church teaching because it denies man’s Free Will. Men must come to God and Faith freely.
- As attested to by The Letter of the Eastern Patriarchs (1848)… itself a compendium and exposition of the teachings of the Holy Fathers throughout the ages… the Church knows of no state or place corresponding to the Roman Catholic (and Uniate) notion of purgatory, roughly, or in any other way.
Fr Michael was fond of saying that, strictly speaking, there are only three Theologians in the Church (St John the Apostle, Evangelist and Theologian, St Gregory Nazianzen the Theologian, St Symeon the New Theologian). Metropolitan Hilarion is certainly not cut from the same bolt of cloth. Speaking for myself, I’m going follow the Eastern Patriarchs, St Theophan, Fr Michael, and others such as the ever-memorable Fr Daniil Sysoev and Deacon Yuri Maksimov. I’d suggest your dear readers follow suit. After all, their ETERNAL lives depend on it. Frankly, we can do without Western-educated “wise men” trying to “teach” us.
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Editor’s Afterword:
I can think of no one more thoroughly Orthodox than Fr Michael Pomozansky (I had the privilege of meeting him once, fleetingly, at Jordanville). Reflect on this… John Jillions is antipodes removed from Fr Michael… and is totally in agreement with the Blunder. In short, John Jillions isn’t Orthodox at all in his soul… like the Blunder, he’s a Uniate at heart and the sooner that’s exposed, the better off we’ll all be. After all, Jillions takes his salary from the Uniates… he’s their faithful servant and lickspittle supporter. Why would grounded Orthodox wish to give any responsible office to such a rebellious apostate? Reflect well on that…
BMD
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