I really should just ignore this stuff when I come across it, but so help me, it lights my fuse like nothing I have ever experienced. What gets me going is that the people I am about to quote appear to do nothing more than parrot the popular opinion with absolutely NO THOUGHT as to what they are saying or what this means about the God in whom they believe. With that said, let’s start the article:
Questions concerning divine justice and man’s ultimate destiny have always been equally important to theologians and philosophers, as well as to ordinary people. We are all concerned about what awaits us after death and how we can influence our fate in the afterlife. In this article we will turn to the opinions of the holy fathers and contemporary priests in matters pertaining to the perpetuity of hell’s torment and heavenly bliss. Is eternal punishment for temporal transgressions fair? Can a loving God punish forever? Why does God allow eternal suffering and suffering in general? Why does hell even exist? Find out in our article.
Are the torments of hell eternal?
Yes, the Lord repeatedly declares this unambiguously: “Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels…” (Matt. 25:41, see also Matt. 25:46, Mark 9:43, Rev. 14:11).
NO. HE. DID. NOT!
If our Lord so clearly said this as the author infers, then how did the first 500 years of Christians, with a number of highly revered saints, get this so wrong, especially since they were Greek-speaking saints and would have read the Scriptures in their native tongue? How could men like St. Gregory of Nyssa (called “The Father of the Fathers”) and St. Isaac of Syria have read the Scriptures and come up with the idea that eventually all men will be saved if the Scriptures clearly teach an unending and eternal punishment? Why don’t you know that it was the Latin Church, beginning with St. Augustine, who formulated several horrid doctrines which are anathema in the Orthodox Church, that began to attack Apokatastasis. Why are you not aware at all that the Greek word “aionios” does not mean eternal, but means “age-lasting?” If you are going to make a statement, you better have some serious proof upon which to base your allegations, and you better have an answer to Greek scholars, such as Dr. Illaria Ramelli, who clearly teach that the Greek word “aionios,” found in Matthew 25:46, for instance, in no way means “eternal.” There is a clear and different word in Greek for eternal – adidios.
Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) “Perplexity about the eternity of hell reveals a narrow formal understanding of the issue. Hell is eternal, not because Divine Justice so desires, but because a soul bound to sin remains so forever.”
And HOW do you know this? Have you been on the other side of death and entered into the secret councils of the Lord? The Orthodox Church claims that the three-legged stool of truth is Scripture, the ecumenical councils, and the Fathers. Well, this statement violates all three. The Scriptures do not teach an eternity of hell. They are violently mistranslated in some places, such as Matthew 25:46. None of the ecumenical councils teach an eternal hell (Constantinople II does not in its true canons). And authors such as this one conveniently ignore men like St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Issac of Syria, along with the Cappadocian Fathers, St. Macarina, and a host of others, in favor of mistranslated quotes from Fathers which support the idea of an eternal hell. Furthermore, unlike the heretical statements of the Roman Catholic Church, there is neither a set catechism of Orthodoxy, nor is there any teaching from the ecumenical councils on this issue, yet the Orthodox treat it as if it is a set dogma.
Can God punish forever?
Venerable Barsanuphius of Optina: “At the present time, the laity, as well as young clergy is coming to believe that eternal torment is incompatible with God’s infinite mercy and that, therefore, torment of hell is not eternal. […] An incurable bodily disease ends in death, but how can a mental disease end when there is no death for the soul?”
Utterly false analogy. If you are going to use the analogy of disease, then you are saying that God is incapble of healing a soul. It also defies the position of Orthodoxy regarding the salvific work of Christ on the Cross. Orthodoxy does not believe in or teach a “legal punishment” from the Cross. What we are told is that salvation is medicinal, that is, that the work of the Cross is for the healing of the soul, not for its damnation. Furthermore, in two days, all Orthodox will be singing, with considerable gusto: “Christ is risen from the dead, by DEATH HE CONQUERED DEATH.” Did the author even THINK about this when copied this quote? If an eternal hell, which is the state of death (separation from God) is true, then Christ DID NOT conquer death and this hymn is a damnable LIE!
Finally, look at that picture! Is that justice in any sense of the word? No, that is sick and twisted Medieval Roman Catholicism at its worst. How dare you try to say in the same breath that God is love and yet post such a picture, as if love would EVER do such a thing to the object of its love. This picture is completely out of sync with both love and justice.
If one thinks that the cause of eternal punishment and torment is God, then it is certainly not God described in the Bible. The Lord desires for every sinner to repent, “turn from his way and live” (see Ezek. 33:11; 2 Pet. 3:9). Christ died for all of us (see 2 Corinthians 5:15) atoning for the sins of the whole world (see 1 John 2:2). It is a mistake, therefore, to think that God would torment those for whom He has shed His blood, for whom He desires and offers Salvation.
Confession of the Orthodox Faith adopted by the Synod of Jerusalem in 1672:”We know that “God cannot be tempted with evil and He himself tempts no one (James 1:13). God equally desires the salvation of all, with no respect to persons. We confess that condemnation is justly reserved for those who, by their own evil choice and unrepentant heart, have become vessels of filth. We will never say that God, who tells us that there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7), is the cause of eternal punishment and torment, [which would mean that He is full of] cruelty and hatred toward man.”
The Synod of Jerusalem is NOT an ecumenical council, therefore, the ideas that they put forth are in no way binding upon my conscience, nor are they dogma in the sense of the Scriptures.
It is not God who punishes. Every person chooses to live his earthly life with or without God, disposing himself either to good or to evil. This determines whether his life in eternity will be with or without God. In the latter case, a person’s conscience will convict and punish itself.
So, and I repeat myself for about the hundredth time, the souls who never heard of Christ, the pagans in foreign lands, those who have been born mentally deficient, and all babies (as Augustine taught) who have never repented, are going into the eternal flames? Lovely. Can you imagine that for a couple of centuries, the Roman Church actually taught Augustine’s wretched idea that unborn babies burn forever?
Can eternal punishment for sins committed during a finite lifetime be considered just?
No one would think to reproach a human court for the injustice of giving punishments far exceeding the duration of the crimes. For example, a murder happens instantly, but the punishment could last for the rest of the offender’s life.
Indeed, the word “fair” does not describe the Judgement of God. Human judgement punishes deeds. If God’s judgement were to be so, then, as St. John Chrysostom noted, we would all immediately be condemned. However, the Lord will also look inside people’s hearts. Therefore, a person who has stumbled in life, but obeyed the voice of his conscience, trusted God, and wished to be disposed to good, may be justified at the Judgement. Yet if a man has pursued evil and lived in sin all his life, how is the eternity to which he has condemned himself by his own actions and volition unjust? Why should God’s gift be given to someone who has been rejecting it all his life?
Well, then, let me ask you this question in turn. How is it that God allows men to be born in lands where there is no Gospel, allows the devil to trick people, allows our fallen human nature to drag us into sin, and permits demons to lead us astray with false teachers, pastors, and miracles? Your statement is very Pelagian in nature in that it assumes that mankind, left to itself, would naturally seek God. The Fifth Council of Orange said otherwise, and our behavior proves it. Asking why God’s gift should be given to someone who has been rejecting it all his life is like asking why a wild animal in a trap simply does not free itself and go elsewhere. This question is not only dishonest and disingenuous, but it also denies the power and nature of sin and the treachery of the devil and our fallen natures. It is asking us to become our own saviors rather than to believe that the Savior of the world, who said in Holy Scripture that He would have mercy on ALL, would save ALL, and that He died for ALL, would actually have the power, desire, and authority to do just that.
St. John Chrysostom: “Sins are not judged by time, but by the nature of the transgressions.”
And I ask you this simple question: what sin is worth an eternity in torture and torments? Believing in pagan gods when you never heard the Gospel? Stealing a loaf of bread when you are hungry? The Scriptures tell us that God’s justice is lex talionis – that is, the punishment fits the offense. So what offense is worth never-ending torture? Or perhaps the author of this wretched screed is a secret Augustinian who believes, as did Augustine, that just by being born we are worthy of being tortured forever. This is a quote taken out of context of the brilliant St. John Chrysostom. Sins are judged by nature of transgression, and no transgression deserves unending torment. Period.
Is Salvation Possible after Enduring Torment in Hell?
After the Last Judgement, no change of state will be possible: there will be only eternity. In this case, the perpetuity of punishment or bliss is rather eternity in terms of a qualitative state of the soul, rather than pertaining to time. It is a synonym for immutability, since time will cease to exist (see Rev. 10:6). That which man comes to by the end of his life, with that he will remain.
For someone who fancies himself a theologian, this is an incredibly off-base statement. In Orthodox, I was told that theosis, that is, becoming like Christ, will be an unending adventure of entering ever deeper into the love of the Trinity, yet never arriving at a final point. To arrive at a final point of unchangeability and no potential to change would mean that we would be God, for only God is immutable and unchangeable.
Time exists because of the potential to change. In other words, I am here, but I have the potential to be there, thus, time exists because I can move from here to there. We are told that in heaven there will be hymns of praise to God, therefore, in order to sing a hymn, I have to go from one note to another. Without time, that is, the potential to go from one note to another, we would have no ability to sing to God. Only God is timeless and beyond time because He alone is perfect in every way and has no potentiality to be anything other than what He is.
People see the statements in Scripture regarding no time and think it means that this applies to them. No. It is about God, with whom there is no potential for change, and thus no time. He is above and outside the time that was created when mankind was created with the potential for change.
Once again, I have to say that I completely understand David Bentley Hart’s abrasive responses to those who fancy themselves deep thinkers and theologians when in fact, they are nothing more than regurgitators of the same old tired thinking that has infested the Church like fleas on a dog for the last 1500 years.
Muddling Through Life 