Rev. Tatiana Cantarella

Eternal Life (Life after death or death after death?)

For over two months we have been looking at Jesus' dream for this world. To see this dream come true Jesus came, lived, died and rose again. We have talked about what it means to follow Christ and what the Christian life here and now is – a life of justice, love, peace, wisdom, and moral purity. However, according to Jesus the Christian life reaches beyond the "here and now”. Together today we proclaimed the Apostles' Creed, the foundation of our faith. However, according to recent polls, many "Christians” in reality do not believe the words "I believe in the resurrection of the body and life eternal”. According to a number of polls in Russia, of the 73% who believe in God, only 46% believe in heaven and even less in the existence of hell. Only 26% of Orthodox believers believe in the resurrection of the dead and 54% even deny it! The situation in the USA is not much different: fewer people believe in the existence of hell than they do in the existence of heaven. The problem, I think, is that most people's understanding of heaven and hell was formed either by the caricatures of Soviet magazine "Krokodil” (in which heaven was everlasting Communism, and hell a huge frying pan where sinners are tortured in scolding oil) or by the images in Dante's "Divine Comedy”. But their understanding is hardly formed by the Bible.  

Yet we Christians believe in eternal life because Jesus refers to it. We believe in heaven because Jesus believed in heaven. We believe that God has prepared for his children eternal life in His presence – a life with no evil, no tears, no illness, no death; but rather peace, love, and justice. At the same time, we believe in hell, because Jesus talked about hell. Jesus said, "Whoever believes in me has eternal life” (John 6:47). And not thinking about one's eternal destiny is foolish. A Christian must learn to live here and now in light of eternity. Because Scripture very clearly says that eternity will look differently for different people: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.” (John 3:36) So, what did Jesus teach about what awaits us after death, in relationship to heaven and hell? Here it is:

You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it. (Мt. 7:13-14)

Every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. (Мt. 7:19)

Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven.

 (Мt 10:32-33)

So if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand or one foot than to be thrown into eternal fire with both of your hands and feet. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. (Мt. 18:8-9)

Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons.  (Мt. 25:41)

It is quite clear that Jesus believed in life after death, but also in what we could call "death after death”. Jesus did say that after death we all will stand before our Creator and give an account as to whether we entered through the narrow gate, produced good fruit, confessed Jesus publicly, lived a good life of compassion towards others. Jesus also said that the Creator will decide for some to go into "life” and for others to go to "death”. Human life is this: we are born, live, die and then rise again to stand before our Judge. But we don't necessarily like talking about this and thus more people decide to believe in heaven than in hell, unwilling, as they are to think about bad things. But closing one's eyes on reality is foolish, even if reality is bitter.  

We talked about justice a lot. But believing in justice does involve believing to some extent in retribution, right? And the Scriptures numerous times say that a day will come, the Day of the Lord, when God will establish justice once and forever. It's not a secret that the world in which we live is unjust and full of lies, evil, and hatred. And all of our dreams about justice are built on the hope that there will come a day when God will rectify the wrong and put everything in place, and "His will is done on earth as in heaven”.

Typically, any discussion about life after death and the Kingdom of God raises questions about who is going to receive Eternal life and who is not. Very often we answer these questions through stereotypes. One NT professor (Dale Allison) wrote: "I do not know what happened to Mother Theresa when she died; and I do not know what happened to Joseph Stalin. But I doubt that the same thing awaited both of them.” Such approach, however, does not help us find the right answers because it gives us the place of judges. But we need to start elsewhere and understand that  

God is the Judge of all, and we are not. God's judgment will be brilliantly righteous and impregnated with divine mercy and grace. We hope in the last day – a day wrapped in grace that will destroy all sin and injustice.

When Jesus spoke of eternal death, he used the word "Gehenna," which in Russian is translated "hell".  "Gehenna” is, a proper name - the name of the valley south of Jerusalem where garbage was piled up and burned; in the Old Testament times it was also the place of child sacrifice and pagan worship. And so Gehenna became symbolic for a place where terrible sins were committed, and the prophets of God called it a place of judgment, death and unquenchable fire, where worms will devour all that is left after the fire. And this place - Gehenna or "hell" in Scripture became a symbol and metaphor for God's final judgment. 

Since "Gehenna" is a symbol, we should avoid understanding hell literally as a place of fire and darkness, and remember - that "Gehenna" is rather the image of God's Court, a word that is used to describe eternal death - the image that Jesus used in order to awaken people to God's call to repent, to forsake sin and turn to God. Revelation 20:11-15: «And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire. ».

Scripture speaks in images, but does not explain clearly what hell is like: is it eternal torment in which a person is aware of everything, or some unconscious nothingness in which people will be forever? We do not know, and speculate about it won't help. One thing is clear – Jesus talked about the fact that there are consequences to how we choose to live here and now: either eternal life, which he promised, or eternal death, which he warned us about. He talked about it to awaken people to the need to Him and understand that the way we live now and the choices we make now have eternal consequences.

But when we look at what Jesus believed, we see how our oversimplified notions of "heaven" and "hell" are primitive. Most people believe that when they die they go to heaven. But our understanding often boils down to the belief that we'll soar into the sky like angels playing harps and will possess super abilities. But according to the New Testament, the eternal home for the followers of Jesus is described not as some sort of picture perfect "heaven", but as "a new heaven and new earth." Life after death is not an escape from life on earth, but the perfect transformation of this life into what it was supposed to be from the start. And according to Scripture, we are better off thinking of eternal life in terms of a perfect life on earth, with tennis courts, parks, homes, friends, concerts, writers who write great books, greater than any book we have ever read, and businessmen leading transparent, honest businesses - it is a world in which everything is done correctly, righteously; where there are peace, wisdom and love, because people living there are completely devoted to God and others.

Listen to Revelation 21:1-8, 10-11, 22-27:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, "Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” And the one sitting on the throne said, "Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, "Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” And he also said, "It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.

"But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

So he took me in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God and sparkled like a precious stone—like jasper as clear as crystal.

I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light. The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the world will enter the city in all their glory. Its gates will never be closed at the end of day because there is no night there. And all the nations will bring their glory and honor into the city. Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty—but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

The New Jerusalem - on earth as in heaven - it is justice and peace, love and wisdom; it is eternal life, the participants of which are those who love God and people with every cell of their being, and always long to know the eternal life that God wants to give. His plan was always to eliminate all evil - all traces of evil in this world, and transform creation into a new heaven and new earth. That is why in this new world, by definition, there can be no evil or sin: "Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty" And the words that "only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life" is a reminder that none of us deserves the entrance to eternal life by his/her own efforts or gets there by chance. Jesus said, "You did not choose me, but I chose you." God found us and received us. And when God chooses, He redeems. When God chooses and redeems, he also changes our lives, our thoughts, will and actions so that we begin now to experience eternal life (even if imperfectly)

«Look, I am making everything new! I am the Alfa and the Omega, the beginning and the end», Jesus says. And only in light of who God is - God the Creator, the source and goal of all things - we can find the peace that our hearts long for our entire life; we can hear the promises made to those who are going to follow Christ to the end. And only then, in all seriousness, can we hear the warning that in the future God has no place for those who are afraid to stand up for God's truth, and for those who are unfaithful, or impure, or immoral, or idolatrous; for all those who are unhappy with, or even hate God's peace and what He calls us to. There is no place for those who decide to live a lie and do everything to turn the world into what they prefer it to be. 

Human sin is responsible for the fact that the road to God's original plan is long, winding, and often filled with tears and precious blood, mostly the tears and blood of God himself, whose Son became the Lamb slain for our sins so that whosever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. But Jesus warned us: this new creation is closed to those who choose to sin and the apostle Paul warns about the same: «You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.» (Еph. 5:5). And in 1 Cor. 6:9-11 continues: «Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.» 

People who continue living in sin and refuse to accept forgiveness and new life are not allowed in the new creation of God for the same reasons why at a concert hall, or at the conservatory you would not allow someone with a radio; and why and you would not allow in a library someone smoking a cigarette or holding a torch in his hand. Anything that could destroy the beauty and holiness of God's new city just cannot be there by default. And it's not that God is merciful to some and merciless others; the thing is that what we are doing now, we will also do in eternity since here on earth we refused to learn to do otherwise, not because God condemned us to hell.

In Todorovsky's film, "Land of the Deaf," a scene perfectly conveys how Christians should perceive hell. The main character of the film is a young girl. Her boyfriend is gambler who owes a huge amount of money. Risking her life, she collects for her man the money he needs, but before returning the money, being a gambler, he decides to try his luck once again. And once again he loses everything, to the last penny. Then follows a scene of amazing strength and insights: there's no reproach, no words of accusation on her side. All the girl tries to do is comfort her loved one. She keeps reassuring him that he should not be concerned about the money; that money is not important; that she is going to work. The most important thing is that they love each other, and at the end everything is going to be OK. In response to this behavior the boyfriend blows up and begins driving away the girl. He yells that he cannot be with her, that he's in pain from knowing that he – a senseless bastard - has lost her hard-earned money. He can't accept that her response is not a single word of reproach, but only the promise to love him in spite of what he had done.

Such love is beyond his comprehension and he cannot be with her, being so aware of his own baseness! He was hurt by her kindness, and he sent her away. But of course, it will only get worse and more painful. Having sent away his love, he will suffer all of his life because such love can hardly be found elsewhere. But, you would agree with me, it's hard to blame her in this situation and accuse her of causing lifelong pain to her boyfriend.

Similarly, for us, if we did not follow Christ in this life, if we do not allow Him to transform our hearts and cleanse us from all sin; if we do not learn to live a life of love, justice, peace, wisdom and moral purity here and now, after death, when we'll be face to face with God, we will flee from His presence because we cannot be with Him knowing that He is holy and we are sinful. We cannot have the life that He promises. And without the presence of God man only has one option - death.

Before us is God's dream of a new world and the promise that there will come a day when all creation will appear before God and His dream will become reality –  "new heavens and a new earth". We all still have a chance to think about where our present life leads us  - whether to eternal life or eternal death. God, by his grace, gives us a chance to repent (to make a 180º turn); He gives us a chance to leave our life of sin and follow after Him in order to learn the life that awaits us for eternity. Consequently, what we choose today, will await us even after our bodily death.

There is a choice before us – either continue living as before, avoiding the goodness of God because in His light we see all our sins, but do not want to admit it; or, let God's goodness cause in us a painful revolution of repentance, forsake our former life and follow Christ into eternal life already now.

The choice is ours. Let us live here and now in the light of eternity, like those who were washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.