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ἔσχατος – last

Eschatology

 

 

The end of ordinary reality and the reunion with the Divine

 

  Fuldaer Dom Saint Salvator und Grabeskirche des heiligen Bonifatius – In Fulda Cathedral, also the home of the relics of Saint Boniface – Bonifatius – Heiligen Bonifatius  
  in Fuldaer Dom – Fulda Cathedral  

 

 

  God Is Sovereign, you teach orthodoxy!  

 

  If you are imagining that God, like a human father, intends all along to enforce a more lenient rule than that which He announced, do you also imagine tenable the proposition that God in His inscrutable judgements will show more mercy to those whom presume upon that Mercy and to their disciples, to those whom assume that they and theirs get exceptions to, exemptions from, His stated terms for acceptance of His free gift of Salvation?  

 

  You shall not tempt the Lord your God.  
    Matthew 4:7 and Luke 4:12
(and Deuteronomy 6:1-9,16)		  

 

 

  It depends on how one looks at the matter. At one level of course, any revelation touching on the Godhead is incomparably more important than anything else. But for us humans, how very little comfort it would be to hear at the Final Judgement that, while we were on the right side, had gotten it right as against the heresiarchs on all disputed points regarding Trinitarian and Christological and Marian and all other essential doctrines, still we do not inherit to the beatific vision, we do not go to Heaven, but to Hell. At this fundamental level, this is what religion and Christianity are about. This is the most important thing. This is the ultimate question.  

 

 

 

Cantate Domino of Pope Eugene IV (r. 1431-1447), 1441 during Council of Ferrara-Florence.    
Satis Cognitum, of Pope Leo XIII (r. 1878-1903) on the Unity of the Church, 29 June 1896.    

 

 

 

  Last Judgment – Страшный суд by Тимофей (Father Timothy of Rostov) и ярославскими мастерами Дмитрием Григорьевым, Федором и Иваном Карповыми (and Yaroslavl masters Dmitry Grigoriev, Fedor and Ivan Karpov) on the western wall of the Церковь Спаса на Сенях в Ростове Великом – Church of the Saviour on Seni in Rostov Veliky  
  Церковь Спаса на Сенях в Ростове Великом – Church of the Savior on Seni in Rostov Veliky  
  In 1953 there was a tornado which hit Rostov and collapsed the roof of this Church, built 1675. Its western wall attempts to depict the Last Judgment – Страшный суд. This and the other Church frescoes are the work of Тимофей (Father Timothy of Rostov) и ярославскими мастерами Дмитрием Григорьевым, Федором и Иваном Карповыми (and Yaroslavl masters Dmitry Grigoriev, Fedor and Ivan Karpov).  

 

 

  Might the circumstance that God and His Heaven Are not in Time, Are rather in the Eternal Present, mean also that Hell, or at least Divine condemnation to Hell, are not eternal?  
     

 

 

  The Rich Man and Lazarus  
     
 

And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ – Luke 16:26 –

  
     
  There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.’  
    Luke 16:19-31  

 

     
  Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours [In 1 Corinthians 1:1-2, Apostle Saint Paul already makes clear that the entire epistle is addressed to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, that is, to believers on Jesus] ....... Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts ["ἀρσενοκοῖται" = "a male who lies with males."], nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.  
    1 Corinthians 1:1-2; 6:9-11  
     
  Now the works of the flesh are plain: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, [Other ancient authorities add murder] drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
  
    Galatians 5:19-25 [emphasis added]  
       
  And he who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water without price from the fountain of the water of life. He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be his God and he shall be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”  
    Revelation 21:5-8  

 

 

 

  Nothing written about the mastering of sin being optional?   ... And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”  
      Genesis 4:4-7