death and the afterlife

quote

" then i saw a new heaven and a new earth;for the first heaven first earth had passed away" "i saw the holy city, new jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from god, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband' 'death shall be no more/mourning and crying and pain will be no more/for the first things have passed away' - revelation 21:1-4

the book of revelation similarly describes hell as a lake of fire:

"then death and hades were thrown into the lake of fire. this is the second death, the lake of fire; and anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire" revelation 20:14-15

even though pictorially heaven and hell are presented as being close to each other, spiritually and morally they are utterly different. the rich man's unreformed attitude to Lazarus reinforces why he has been punished to his request Abraham answers with a stern warning

'child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and lazarus in the like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. besides all this, between you ans us a great chasm has been fixed., so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us" luke 16;25 - 26

so for tillich

'heaven and hell must be taken seriously as metaphors for the polar ultimates in the experience of the divine' hell maintains its psychological power as life alienated from god

catholic church today teaches that the

'perfect life with the most holy trinity - this communion of life and love with the trinity, with the virgin mary, the angelsand all the blessed - is called heaven' it is a 'state of supreme, definitive happiness', where god reveals himself and gives people the capacity to know and contemplate him in a new glorious way. this is the beatific vision or blessed state of everlasting bliss. they teach that heaven is a community of immortal souls who continue to be obedient to god's will as they reign with christ for ever in this world and the world to come

catholic teaching on purgatory

- all who die in god's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to receive the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven

place

- another problem which has already been touched on is where the new kingdom would be located and would this be the same as heaven - john the divine's vision in the book of revelation, suggests that heaven is not a disembodied state but a continuation of the conditions of this world - he describes this in 2 ways. in the first, the saints who have undergone the 'first resurrection', rule in some form of heavenly state in this world for a thousand years - in the second, after the final vanquishing of satan, the world is replaced by a 'the new earth and new heaven'

thomas aquinas and catholicism

- aquinas' interpretation of augustine led the catholic church in a very different direction - whereas calvinism tends to stress the utter sinfulness of humanity and god's active abundant grace but at the loss of human free will, aquinas' did not consider the fall to have wiped out human freedom -the catholic church today teaches single predestination - this is the view that god elects the righteous for heaven but the wicked select themselves for hell by deliberately committing mortal sins -when god judges the wicked it is to reward them with their just desserts, which is their place in hell

the questions are:

- are hell and heaven eternal? - is heaven the transformation and perfection of the whole of creation? - is purgatory a state that everyone goes through? - does god's judgement take place immediately after death or at the end of time?

the kingdom as future redeemed state

- but in other respects jesus' eschatology is traditional and he preaches that the future kingdom is a state where the righteous live in perfect harmony with God in a redeemed world - st paul argues that jesus' resurrection is the first sign that the fallen world is restored and that humans can at last 'see' and 'know' god face to face, 1 corinthians 13:12 st paul says that before christ, humans were only able to see the future heavenly state dimly or through a 'dark glass' but now it is possible to glimpse what the future will be like 'clealy' john the divine, the author of the book of revelation, says that jesus' sacrificial death has washed away sin so that the righteous may live in the New Jerusalem and experience the joy of God's presence (revelation 21:1-4) other writers of the New Testament use a wide range of images to express the future state as a time of perfection and completion of the god-human relationship

catholic teaching on the beatific vision

- dante's beautiful vision of heaven depends on a cosmology which thought that the world was at the centre of the cosmos and the planetary spheres - beyond the final sphere, god rules in his heavenly court - today, our cosmology is very different and while dante's vision presents a psychologically evocative expression of the final human - god relationship, it would be wrong to think of heaven as occupying actual space and time

time and judgement

- even though the exact moment of judgement day at the 'end' of time is uncertain, many of the New Testament writers suggest that 'final' judgement may be less important than personal judgement - we have already seen in the story of The Rich Man and Lazarus, that judgement is immediate after death - an in luke's gospel, jesus says to the penitent robber who was crucified alongside him, 'today you will be with me in paradise' luke 23;43

hell as a symbol of alienation

- for many theologians, the power of dante's terrifying descriptions of hell is that they force us not only to think about the consequences of our actions but also the kind of people we become through our actions

but there are other considerations as well

- god's goodness and love requires that all humans achieve salvation - if humans have free will, then every person must eventually be able to achieve salvation

heaven

- heaven is the ultimate state in which humans come to see god 'face to face' 1 corinthians 13:12 IT IS the state of pure knowledge when sin has been purged and the soul experiences the fullness of joy 15:11

jesus taught that

- his life was a sacrifice for sin - his death would prompt God to establish a new world order/kingdom - he would be raised up with the saints and martyrs who had died before him and his followers would have a place in the new kingdom

punishment and justice

- in answer to the question often posed in the Old Testament, notably by the prophet Jeremiah, why is it that the wicked prosper and the good suffer, the response is that whereas the good will be rewarded, the wicked will be punished - as jesus' says, the wicked have enjoyed their 'reward' and so as a matter of justice, the wicked will be excluded from the future kingdom

4 problems: the delay of the parousia

- it seems that the first generations earnestly hoped for Jesus' return and the arrival of the Kingdom for one of the earliest prayers recorded in the NT uses the Aramaic term Maran Atha meaning 'O Lord, come!'

the ambiguities of jesus resurrection

- jesus' teaching on life after death and the coming of the kingdom of God was deeply rooted in the Jewish eschatology of his day- especially in the teaching of the Pharisees - DISCUSSION OF THE LAST THINGS - battlle bw good and evil, judgement of the world by god, trans of world to final perfect state - pharisaic judaism had, to a certain extentm absorbed greek philosophical ideas about the soul and immortality. but jesus' teaching on death and its significance is not just about immorality but the establishment of a new world order

hell

- of all christian doctrines the notion of hell in recent times has been the least acceptable - this is due in part to the rejection of the over literal interpretation of hell as a place and the reinterpretation of it in psychological terms but more significantly its contrary purpose to god's love and desire for the redemption of the world

that is

- on reflection many recalled that Jesus himself had warned against making exact calculations when the present age would end and judgement day take place. referring to himself as the Son of Man, Jesus says: 'But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father' Matthew 24:36 - reviewing jesus' parables some emphasised that the theme of delay and sudden return of a master 'like a thief at night' 1 Thessalonians 5:3). with this came a warning that despite the delay of the kingdom, there was every reason to be morally vigilant because the end when it arrives will be without warning

dante's vision of purgatory

- purgatory, according to dante, is for those souls who believe in christ and have repented before death - they now have the opportunity to purge themselves of all wrongful desires and actions - as they are now unable to sin, the process is entirely positive and is totally unlike hell where punishment perpetuates the initial sin - dante poetrically describes how the soul ascends various 'terraces of the mountain' whose summit or goal is the beatific vision -at the end of the journey the mountain shakes and the soul ascends to heaven - each of the terraces represents one of the seven deadly sins and is overseen by angels - the soul's driving force is love and increasingly towards the end of the ascent, reason

john calvin and calvinism

- the doctrine of predestination in the popular mind is mostly closely associated with calvin -while it is true that calvin developed his distinctive version of the eternal decree from augustine - it was his followers who pushed his ideas further and developed a strong version of limited election

john hick on the intermediate stat e

-although purgatory has a significant place in catholic theology, its lack of biblical support has meant that many protestants have rejected it, preferring instead to focus on judgement, hell and heaven - however, many recent protestant theologians have increasingly seen the value of purgatory, inspired by the arguments of origen and gregory of nyssa, as it makes sense morally and philosophically to consider the state after death as a continued dynamic journey of soul or self - john hick argues that the need for an intermediate state makes a great deal of logical sense as the gap between the individual's imperfection at the end of this life and the perfect heavenly state in which he is to participate has to be bridged -he rejects the roman catholic teaching that god judges who enters heaven, hell or purgatory at death and then makes his final judgement at the end of time

the kingdom as present moral and spiritual state

-jesus' own teaching on the kingdom of god as presented in the gospels was a call for moral and spiritual reform now - in many of jesus' teachings he presents the kingdom of God as if it has already started - scholars refer to this as 'inaugurates eschatology' - jesus' healing miracles where he cures the lame, gives sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf are the signs of the age to come as promised by the Old Testament prophets such as Isaiah - jesus' parables and moral example frequently emphasise the 'nowness' of the Kingdom as a time to overcome racial prejudice, discrimination against the poor and marginalised, and the failings of established religious practices

the main teaching points of the parable are, 1:

FOR THE members of Matthew's community the theme of reversal of expectation is particularly prominent in this parable. the righteous would have been understood to refer to those who have kept the commandments of the torah and have assumed that this was sufficient to earn themselves a place in heaven. it therefore comes as a great shock to learn that being righteous or religiously observant is not enough to be rewarded with eternal life. it is those who have pursued justice for the marginalised, oppressed and poor without thinking of heavenly reward who are given eternal life

developments in christian eschatological teaching

according to J.N.D. Kelly, in the early Christian period Christian eschatology focused on the four things: parousia, resurrection, judgement, the end of the present order

karl barth

although karl barth is a calvinist theologian and not strictly a universalist, his original theology of election also contributes a distinctive way or understanding universalism

foretaste of heaven and hell

ambrose considered purgatory to be a place where souls wait for judgement and have a foretaste of what is in store for them - either heaven or hell

these two ideas do not necessarily fit easily together

and the two broad versions of election which emerge are incompatible for reasons which will become clear

2,

another surprise is that those who are rewarded are not necessarily christians but all those who have pursued justice/ this point is particularly emphasised by theologians today when considering the question of whether non-christians can be saved or receive god's grace. the answer is based on this parable is that th god of love rewards all people of good will

the existentialist theologian

argues that there is a place for hell-type language if the traditional metaphors are reinterpreted as psychological and spiritual descriptions of human alienation

firstly

as a matter of fairness by allowing a person who had not fully prepared themselves for god's final judgement to do so

both views lead to considerable speculation

as alister mcgrath comments, election and predestination are often regarded as one of the most enigmatic and puzzling aspects of christian theology

the problems have not gone away

as each generation deals with these difficult ideas in its own historical and cultural context, it has to re-think life and death and the 'art of dying well'

jesus' resurrection and its implication

as important as Jesus' resurrection is for the writers of the New Testament, there is no systematic explanation of resurrection and the afterlife nevertheless there is broad agreement that for those early writers: - jesus' death and resurrection did not mark the end of the world but the beginning of the jesus movement and the foundation of christianity - JESUS' resurrection was a moment of hope over despair - jesus' resurrection was a moment in which God acted in a mysterious and spectacular way as time went on the early christians reflected on these ideas and began to give them greater theological and philosophical emphasis

calvin is

associated with double predestination, as set out in the westminster confession of faith

it is for these reasons that the catholic church teaches that judgement is particular and general

at death each person's soul will receive its 'eternal retribution' with a particular judgement depending on how they have lived their life in relation to christ

secondly

because of the ambiguity between personal and final judgement. a frequently cited passage in support of purgatory is the following verse from st paul's letter to the corinthians

5.

both elect and non elect have a duty to act morally. the elect must do so, so that they become more aware of their sinful state. by rejecting gospel values the non elect are therefore without excuse when it comes to judgement and punishment in hell

the elect are chosen not because god foreknows every action they will make

but because he knows they will accomplish the good end for which they are called but the problem of the relationship between god's foreknowledge and human freedom is one which challenges all aspects of predestination and limited election because it appears to diminish human moral responsibility and the validity of trying to live the good life

heaven is not just the restoration of the god-human relationship

but of the whole of creation. this raises some important contemporary questions. is 'heaven' a state of life after death or just this world restored, can nonhuman animals enter heaven, are all humans capable of achieving the 'beatific vision'?

each soul is rewarded with the blessed state, heaven, purification, purgatory, or everlasting damnation, hell

but the word is yet to find completion and this can only happen when at the last judgement all people will be judged. 'in the presence of christ, who is truth itself, the truth of each man's relationship with god will be laid bare'

4.

christians have a duty to preach the gospel to all kinds of people/ christians must treat this ans unlimited election, even if, unknown to us, god has chosen particular individuals

finally

dante is lef by his guide to the 9th circle which is populated by the most heinous of vices, the sin of fraud through treachery - betrayal of this kind is condemned because it is the ultimate misuse of reason and the cause of social and religious discord - this is the deepest and darkest part of hell where lucifer has his throne

barth argued against the simplistic idea that election is choosing a few for heaven and condemning the rest to hell

election describes every revelatory action of god where god always acts freely from the general to the particular/ we can know this because in the incarnation jesus christ reveals that he is both the subject of election as god and the object of election as a human being . he is elector and elected

but there is more to election than this

election is about the nature of god and his relationship with his creation and particularly his just and gracious nature

limited and unlimited election

election is often associated with the closely related idea of predestination, whilst for some theologians the ideas are distinct for others election and predestination are interchangeable terms

the old testament

equivalent to hades is sheol, the underworld of departed spirits. matthew combines all these ideas to warn the unrighteous that the state of hell is fire, torment, wailing and lament

in our contemporary cosmology, we know that hell is not situated at the core of the earth and heaven above

even though we may use the language of above and below

what does it mean to be alienated from the divine

existentially it means to find no purpose in life, to lie to one's self, to escape from reality into trivia, to find no joy in music, art, nature and so on. HELL IS NOT A PLACE BUT A STATE OF BEING

as this passage suggests:

for god so loved the world that he gave his only son, that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. indeed, God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already

the author of John's Gospel offers the most radical interpretation of judgement

for him, what matters is the way in which individuals respond to Christ: judgement is personal and continual. those who reject christ's teaching effectively condemn themselves

traditionally, though, final judgement is universal and the punishment eternal

for those who support this notion of hell, its purpose illustrates the necessity of belief in christ and the need for repentance. far from diminishing god's love, hell illustrates god's love and justice. if the wicked are not punished then god is diminished and his goodness questionable

antelapsarian decree

god decreed who were the elect (and reprobate) at the moment of creation before the fall

postlapsarian decree

god decreed who were the elect - and reprobate - after the fall

single predestination

god elects only those whom he ordains to enter heaven and eternal life

double predestination

god elects only those whom he ordains to enter heaven and eternal life and also decrees that the reprobate or sinners are destined for hell and heaven

romans 11:2

god has not rejected his people whom he foreknew

as subject and elector

god in christ elects to redeem all fallen humanity by dying and overcoming death on its behalf

as object and elected

god in the person of jesus christ reveals his friendliness towards humanity by entering fully into its fallen state and even dying on the cross

the church's teaching is that

god predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a wilful turning away from god, a mortal sin, is necessary, and persistence in it until the end

within these two versions of predestination inspired by augustine's work, scholars propose a further division as to when god issues his divine decree

god's judgement or ruling

calvin argues that 1.

god's will is hidden, voluntas abscondita, and we shouldn't presume to know what he has in store, even though god foreknows all that will happen

god's grace is key to augustine's doctrine of predestination

grace is not prompted by the human condition or as a reward for human moral behaviour or human merit, because in each case god would be obliged to act. as god is the only completely free agent. his grace is freely given, uncoerced and unprompted

conscience

gregory of nyssa argued that judgement and the torture of hell are the result of a guilty conscience when a person is placed in front of christ

redemption of the whole of creation

gregory of nyssa held a similar view to origen and emphasised the purifying purpose of purgatory is so that all people, both wicked and good, can be cleansed of their sins and enter heaven. in this way god, completes his purpose to redeem and restore the whole of creation

the overwhelming emphasis of the new testament

he argues, is reconciliation with god for example one of john's gospel's great themes is abundant life; jesus' resurrection is the triumph of life over death not eternal damnation. furthermore what purpose does it serve to punish someone eternally? if earthly existence is a journey of moral and spiritual education, then it makes more sense to see hell existentially as continuation of that journey from which a person learns to amend their ways and strive for perfection

therefore, even though god has called all people to salvation

he knows from the beginning that only some are eligible for a place in heaven, these are the elect. there are also those who are not capable of receiving grace and are therefore predestined to perdition/

in Hades

he rich man is in torment and desperate for a drink because of the flames from hell the rich man can see Lazarus in heaven and requests that he comes and 'dip the tip of his finger in water and cool' his tongue

dante's vision of heaven

heaven or paradise is beyond description, as dante says, 'to go beyond the human cannot be put into words' - whereas those who enter hell lack faith and reason, in paradise the rational soul yearns for the ultimate good and harmony with god's love - the end of the journey is Empyrean, from which god's light - the source of knowledge and illumination - descends - just as there are nine spheres of hell, there are ten heavens or mobiles of paradise, each representing a different intellectual level of truth. - each soul, therefore, finds its own intellectual resting place and different degree of bliss

a dramatic example of existential hell of this kind is not given by a theologian but the atheist playwright philosopher jean-paul sartre in his play huis clos, no exit

his place is occupied by three people who have just died and think they are in a room waiting for the conventional religious hell of fire, brimstone and torture

so barth once said

i dont believe in universalism, but i do believe in christ, the reconciler of all

dante's quote

i was already - and with fear i set it down in verse - where the shades were wholly covered and showed through like straws in glass; some were lying, some erect, this with the head, that with the soles uppermost, another like a bow, bent face to feet

finally, based on Revelation, there is the problem of millenarianism

idea that christ will return and rule on earth for a thousand years followed by the last judgement

paul tillich follows the argument going back to origen that

if out of love god reconciles all things to himself, then it would be contradictory and immoral to exclude some of his creatures

st paul's letter to the corinthians

if what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. if the work is burned, the builder will suffer loss; the builder ill be saved, but only as through fire

Parousia

in Greek means 'arrival'. for christians, the term came to refer to the second coming or arrival of Christ after his resurrection when he will judge the living and the dead and usher in the kingdom of God

hades,

in greek thought, was a shadowy half existence of human spirits after death awaiting judgement whereas gehenna, in later jewish thought, was a place of torment and suffering for the wicked

the gospel of matthew

in particular refers to the state as Hades and sometimes as Gehenna often translated as hell

but as kelly comments, these were not well thought-out systematised ideas:

in the primitive period they were held together in a naive, unreflective fashion, with little or no attempt to work out their implications or solve the problems they raised

for some, the phrase 'only as through fire'

is interpreted to be the process of purging or cleansing required when at his personal judgement his work's or deeds on earth were found to be inadequate or 'burned up'/ however, many theologians don't find this interpretation at all convincing

but the vision of purgatory

is not merely a description of what lies in store after death, but an allegory of how life should be lived now. earth, like the mountain, provides various temptations which the soul has to conquer in its journey to achieve salvation in heaven

the attraction of universalism

is that it includes those who have no religious faith or belong to another religious faith tradition for many christians, especially those in plural or multifaith societies, it is reasonable to suppose that for geographical, cultural and political reasons, people follow different belief systems but this should not exclude them from eventual reconciliation with god

nevertheless, even though john's gospel largely marginalises the idea of last judgement

it does not dismiss it completely. for example, in the following passage jesus is presented as acting on Gods behalf as the judge of the good and the evil

election and predestination

it is from augustine that the idea of predestination develops as a doctrine and which whom subsequent theologians take their lead

the notion of hell is to urge people to use their freedom wisely and to do good

it is the reason ultimately why the church has an urgent call or mission to convert people to christianity. hell is not something god wills for his creation but it is reserved for those who persistently reject goodness until final judgement

hick argues that

it makes more sense to think of the afterlife as a continuation of the 'person-making process' started on earth where there are many intermediate states which people pass through on their journey to being finally united with god

although the catholic church acknowledges that there is no specific teaching on purgatory in the new testament

it reasons that ideas such as 'cleansing by fire' suggests that some sins can be forgiven in this age and some in the age to come. if this is so, then purgatory as a post mortem and interim state is just another stage in the soul's journey to redemption

hell is not merely an idea that it is a real eternal state

its chief punishment is the 'eternal separation from god, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs

the kingdom of God

jesus' teaching on the age to come served several purposes depending on how we interpret what he meant by the kingdom of god, it could be: - an actual place - a spiritual state - a symbol of the moral life depending on which of these interpretations seems most likely will determine whether we think heaven, hell and purgatory are actual places, spiritual states, or symbols of the moral life.

it is ambiguous whether this judgement takes place at jesus own resurrection or at the moment of an individual's death or a collective event, at an unspecified time in the future

john 5:28-29 do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out - those who have done good , to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation john 5:28-29

dante singles out two examples of treachery

judas iscariot, who betrayed christ, and brutus and cassius who murdered caesar; together they represent those who have deliberately destabilised the god-given moral/spiritual order as well as the political order

augustine's analysis of human nature

led him to conclude that even faith in christ's redemption was insufficient to overcome sin and concupiscence this is so because the will has been so weakened by the Fall that it lacks any capacity to achieve salvation merit for eternal life, salvation is only possible because of god's mercy and grace

1 corinthians 16:22

let anyone be accursed who has no love for the Lord. Our Lord, come!

the parable of the Sheep and the Goats

matthew 25 forms part of the fifth section or discourse in the gospel.

some scholars, therefore, argue that whilst barth

might have rejected universalism as a principle of salvation nevertheless his own version of universalism was to be inclusive of all those who, through the incarnation, are 'in christ' - election to heaven or hell can only be truly known at the end time

this is an acute example of what Sartre calls bad faith

or the alienated and imprisoned human state. as the play draws to an end the terrible realisation is that there is no exit because there is no freedom to be a truly individual person. in the final words of the play, 'hell is other people'

in luke 10:18 lucifer is equated with satan

or the devil and whose giant wings fan the freezing cold air over the traitors who are condemned there it is co cold that they are unable to move or weep, incapable in other words to reason or repent and utterly unable to glimpse either purgatory or heaven

probationary school

origen argued that purgatory was like a probationary school when the soul is given the opportunity over 'many worlds' of experience, to develop and perfect itself

spiritual state

origen regarded hell as a spiritual state where 'each sinner kindles his own fire... and out own vices from its fuel'/ punishment is not inflicted by God through Satan but is rather each person's own 'interior anguish' at being separated from god - origen did not think hell was a permanent state; it too will pass away when the world is finally redeemed

dante's vision of hell

perhaps the most influential, powerful and imaginative account of hell, purgatory and heaven is that given by dante and his divine comedy hell in all respects, physical, mentally and spiritually, an utterly dysfunctional state it was created at the moment of jesus' death when, according to Matthew's gospel, an earthquake caused the dead to awaken from their tombs. it is the antithesis to heaven- here reason is abandoned to irrationality, its inmates lack faith in God and live without hope

but as time goes on they

realise that there is no hell of this kind, the hell they discover is living with the lies, deceits, false relationships, cowardices and murders each has committed on earth they torment each other about the other's failings until it dawns on them that they have each become psychologically the torturer they were expecting of the traditional hell

perdition

refers variously to: eternal punishment, hell, purgatory and damnation

apokatastasis

restoration/return in greek or universalism the belief that hell is not eternal and that the eschatological goal of the cosmos is perfection and restoration of the world to its pre fall state

limited election

salvation and reward of heaven in the afterlife is only for those whom god, out of his graciousness, chooses and judges to be righteous. from this some theologians have developed the idea of 'limited atonement': that is, that christ died only for the sins of the elect

however, jesus' own teaching must have been sufficiently ambiguous for a variety of different views to have developed about when and how the kingdom would be established

sayings of jesus: - the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of god has come near -mark 1:14 - truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God has come with power - mark 9:1 - but if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you - Luke 11:20

but a generation later Jesus had not returned and

so a new eschatology emerged to deal with this problem, what contemporary scholars call the delay of parousia

just as calvin had left the question of whom god elects open

so barth also argues that it is not for humans to speculate on the mystery of salvation and the fate of individuals. as elector and elected god reveals in christ his friendliness towards all of humanity that through his grace it might be restored

no account is given of Lazarus' moral character

so it is assumed that he lived the best life that he could, given his circumstances but the real purpose of the story is to challenge the common belief that being rich on earth was a sign of god's blessing some scholars suggest that rich man may have been a wealthy sadduccee the sadducees were priests who maintained the temple in Jerusalem and did not believe in the afterlife the story therefore challenges a number of well held beliefs, but above all answers Jeremiah's question: the wicked will receive their just deserts if not now, then next life

millenarianism has always been popular at times when the world appears to be on the brink of political and natural disaster as these are the signs that the present age is about to come to an end

some millenarianists have positively encouraged environmental and nuclear destruction as a means of hastening the end for God to establish his kingdom

some passages of the new testament

suggest that many early christians thought they were living on the threshold of a new era they seem to have expected the resurrected jesus to return shortly and herald in the new glorious state the word in greek used to describe the arrival of jesus is parousia and it became a technical expression for the arrival of christ after his resurrection when he would usher in the kingdom of god the role of the Parousia is to judge the world and select those who have lived a good life to live eternally in the world, now restored and renewed by god

when calvin said of double predestination

that it is the most 'dreadful decree' he meant that even though it is too difficult for human reason fully ti comprehend, it does not undermine the moral life but encourages it calvin's criticism is in part aimed at the medieval scholars, such as aquinas, whom calvin accused of leaping 'over high roofs' by wanting to over intellectualize and systematize the doctrine of predestination

election and universalism

the basic notion of universalism or apokatastasis is that the hell is not eternal and that the eschatological goal of the cosmos is perfection and restoration of the world to its prefall state

hell as eternal separation

the catholic church teaches that hell is eternal for those who have committed mortal sins mortal sin includes hating one's neighbour and not meeting the needs of the poor and the weak to die in the state of mortal sin without repentance and 'accepting god's merciful love means remaining separated from him forever' CATECHISM hell is not something which god actively chooses for humanity, rather it is the result of free choice and is self-imposed, hell is self exclusion

unlimited election

the god of love calls all people t salvation and to achieve perfection the promise of heaven in the afterlife is possible for all. unlimited election leads to the doctrine of unlimited atonement, that is, that christ died only for the sins of the whole world

in later christian teaching

the idea that there is an intermediate state between death and everlasting life in heaven evolved for two reasons

3.

the list of good works reflects jesus' own ministry of attending to the poor, the sick and even those in prison

however, since the time of augustine

the more generally accepted interpretation of revelation 20 is that it is referring to the rule of the church in preparation for christ's return/ the role of the church is to administer god's judgement on earth until the last day when god will visibly judge the world

4.

the phrase 'just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me' challenges the traditional teaching that one is only obliged to help those who belong to the same social and religious group as oneself. surprisingly for the so-called righteous, christ's image or presence is to be found in the least attractive members of humanity

the setting of the parable is drawn from farming life

the practice at that time was for goats and sheep to graze together during the day but to be separated out into different pens at night time. - as sheep are worth more than goats the farmer usually places them in more secure accommodation. so, the parable suggests that even though in this life there appears to be no particular advantage to living morally, there is when judgement day arrives as the reward of eternal life is offered to those who have lived righteously

purgatory

the state after death where those who have died in a state of grace may continue to seek forgiveness for their sins and receive due punishment until final judgement. some christians prefer to think of the soul continuing its journey through an intermediate state to heaven

one of the most influential passages for later christian theologians is the story told by jesus of The Richman and Lazarus

the story relates how a rich man steadfastly ignored Lazarus, a poor and ill man who lay at his gate, while he 'feasted sumptuously' and dressed in the finest clothes it so happened that both died on the same day and in a great reversal of fortunes Lazarus found himself in heaven with the righteous (described as being far away in Abraham's bosom) and he rich man in hades

election

the word elect is used by the new testament writers and means choice and refers to those who have been chosen or called by god for eternal life

IN MATTHEW'S GOSPEL

the writer describes how the righteous, who have died before jesus, are resurrected at the moment when jesus dies and his death establishes the new covenant with God (MATTHEW 27:51-53)

election: mark 13:27

then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from four winds, fro the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven

although the new testament doesn't use the term purgatory

there is a widespread view that after death those who have died in a state of grace may continue to seek forgiveness for their sins and receive due punishment until final judgement

purgatory and intermediate states

there is no clear idea of purgatory in the new testament but it is part of both the catholic and protestant traditions as a way of extending the chance of repentance beyond this life

in dante's hell:

there is no escape and no redemption because all have alienated themselves from God's love. we might think his hell is unduly harsh on those who are there because they have never had the opportunity to know christ, but hell in a sense is of our own making. his vivid descriptions were not intended to be taken literally but nor were they merely symbolic

as dante and beatrice, his guide, rise up the spheres

they are surrounded by the brightness of the souls. the light increases as the souls' bliss intensifies -they arrive in heaven illuminated by christ's light and beatrice takes her place amongst the saints. - st bernard now takes on the role of guide. he prays to the virgin mary on dante's behalf and dante finally ascends to the vision of god - the overwhelming experiencing is that god is the source of love which governs the universe

this was augustine's interpretation of a much discussed passage from one of st paul's letters to timothy

this is good, and is acceptable in the sight of god our saviour, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth - 1 timothy 2:4

dante records the terrifying sign over the gate to hell:

through me the way into the woeful city

but in simple terms both election and predestination are attempts

to explain why it is that some people will be granted eternal life and others will not

john hick

universalism is attractive to liberal christian theologians such as john hick because he does not think that the god whom jesus preached is the god of judgement and exclusion which hell requires

jesus' parables

variously describe the restored world using metaphors of weddings, feasts and harvest time, but the fullest descriptions are to be found in the Book of Revelation where the author depicts the age to come as a time when there would be no more suffering and a new heavenly Jerusalem would descend to Earth as a symbol of the renewed world

hell is characterised by the Aristotelian and Christian

vices each of which occupies one of the nine circles of hell. in some graphic descriptions every sin is matched with an appropriate punishment - he sees a man carrying his head and swinging it like a lantern because in life he had taught lies and caused rebellions

2.

what god reveals to humans takes into account their limited knowledge

the art of dying well depends on

what the christian thinks this life means and what happens next. in addition to considering whether heaven, hell and purgatory are places or spiritual states, christian theologians over the years have also debated the following key questions

the belief that

when christ returns he will rule for a thousand years with the saints on earth and at the end judgement would follow for the rest of humanity

3.

when st paul says that god chooses all people he is not referring to individuals but all kinds of people. god wills his mercy and grave for all

so the question is

whether hell-type language has any meaning or should be abandoned altogether as outmoded

however calvin's own position was more subtle than calvinism

whilst he is in broad agreement with augustine's interpretation of 1 timothy 2:4

purgatory also explains

why the church prays for the souls of the departed. this practice predates christianity. the catechism refers to the example of Judas Maccebeus who prayed that the souls of the dead should be freed from sin