Let us say a few words about salvation, hell (Hades – the kingdom of the dead), hell (the fiery Gehenna), death, sin (as a disease, godlessness, mortality, corruption, passion) and sins (transgressions of the law, violations of God’s commandments, symptoms of sin). When a person in paradise stopped praying (communicating with God) and began to communicate with creation (with the devil), she embarked on a path of godless self-deification, a terrible catastrophe occurred – as a result of the fall, an impassable (by created forces) abyss formed between God and man. Death is the separation of a person from communication, communion with God, it is a state of godlessness. Hell (Hades) is the realm of death, the place-state (be careful – these are all metaphors: “place”, “distance”, “fall away”, “abyss, chasm” etc.), where the dead reside (Hades is the kingdom of the dead). In the Old Testament, all were dead, all were in hell (Hades) – both those who were in II f. e., and those who died (moved from II to III f. e.; the word “death” also indicates the transition from one form of existence to another – see II ch.), hence the saying: “let the dead bury their own dead.” (By the way, prayerlessness is death; the measure of spiritual life is prayer, proper prayer; whoever does not pray properly to God is dead!). By breaking off prayer, Adam became an individual, an isolated egoist, dead! But the Merciful Lord Jesus Christ overcame death by death and emptied hell (Hades) – from now on death does not exist – there is no longer a distance between God and man (in Christ God and man are forever one Hypostatic Divine Unity: unconfused, unchanged, indivisible and inseparable). The Lord destroyed objective death and objective hell (now everything is filled with the Light, Glory of God, the Presence of God – every being is already enveloped in Christ with the ocean of Divine Love-Grace), but subjective death and subjective hell-hell (fiery Gehenna) remain. Now God stands at every heart and knocks (the Kingdom of God has come, it is already here and now at the door of every heart; It is already everywhere among us and even already in Christians!): come out faithful to the resurrection! Whoever WANTS – come out into Eternal Life, the Eighth Day has already come, the night of sin and death of alienation from God is over! Unfortunately, few in II f. e. want to enter the Kingdom of God here and now (be baptized by the Holy Spirit, become a Christian), Which has already come and poured out in the Holy Spirit on all flesh! The gates of hell-hell (the fiery Gehenna, egoism-pride-ungratefulness-prayerlessness) are closed from the inside. A person himself does not want to let God, Jesus Christ into his heart-hypostasis-freedom. To this day, people suffer in their own hells-hells, fiery Gehenna, and do not want to humble themselves and call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to be healed and enter into Eternal Life (we all in Christ have been given the power to be children of God, and we use this power through repentance). God is Love! He waits for us! Waits long and will wait until the end of the age (until God becomes all in all and for all!)! He calls throughout all history (see Revelation): come to Me all (it will be better for you, you need it and it makes Me happy!). They do not hear! Do not want to hear! Do not understand and do not want to understand! God will wait and call everyone forever and ever! Let us please the Lord, let us begin to repent, lay the beginning of repentance: from lawlessness, unscrupulousness, self-will (egoism) let us begin the journey to the announcement: life according to conscience (do to others what you want them to do to you… and do not do what you do not want for yourself…) and according to God’s commandments. At least lay the intention to start, and this will already be some memory of God, the beginning of some prayer. Because now, before the flood, people have become selfish, individual flesh, thinking only about earthly things (what to eat, what to drink, what to wear and what to watch (on TV, on the internet, on social networks…) – bread and circuses!). Let us please the Lord – let us begin to repent, let us begin the journey from lawlessness to Resurrection, and the Lord will find us, reach us, save us! Glory, Lord, to Your Mercy and Long-Suffering! Lord, Glory to You!
Let us say a few words about sin and sins (transgressions of the law). The word “sin” in the Church refers to a disease, a deformity, the state of human nature after the fall, falling away from communion with God. Sin is godlessness, mortality, corruption, passion. And the word “sins” – we refer to the transgression of the Law, the violation of commandments, rules, decrees… Sins are crimes, transgressions of the Law. So, sin as a disease, godlessness and sin as a transgression of the Law, a crime – these are different things (for example, like a disease and its symptoms; at a certain stage of the disease, there may be no obvious symptoms; the disease is there, but there are no symptoms). In the Old Testament, all were sinners (and are): both righteous (who did not violate (keep) the Law, commandments), and sinners (who violated (keep) the commandments, did not follow the decrees of the Law). The difference between the righteous and sinners is only one: the righteous know they are sinful (severely, mortally, hellishly ill with godlessness; they are poor in Spirit and long for salvation, the Savior), and sinners do not know they are sinful (that is, severely ill with godlessness, the end of such a disease is eternal death of hellish torment). So, all (both righteous and sinners) are equally sinful – sick with the same disease (godlessness), only its symptoms manifest in everyone in different combinations! In the Old Testament, all are dead (what is the difference between the one who was torn to atoms by a mine and the one who “looks alive”? – none, they are both dead; therefore, condemning a neighbor – is complete nonsense: you are sick with the same disease as the one you condemn!? The righteous (those who know the truth about themselves and, as a result of self-knowledge, about others) no longer condemn anyone, and who condemns neighbors, is far from righteousness, such has not yet begun to repent! See below about condemnation), but only the righteous are resurrected, become Christians – those who long for salvation from hell-hell, who trust themselves to the Savior Jesus Christ! And the Doctor-Savior is needed only for the severely ill (conscious sinner, the one who knows his sin, his death, his selfish hell, his godlessness), the one who is perishing, and not the one who is all right-moral-pious, who is satisfied with everything (“just not worse”). The Law was given to people not to make them saints by fulfilling commandments (no one can fulfill the commandment of God, because the essence of the commandment is Love, Loving, and only God Loves and those who are in God, who have communion with God, are in the Prayer of the Holy Spirit; and in the Old Testament there was no Love on earth (in man), until the Incarnation, until Pentecost), in the Old Testament all (both righteous and sinners-idolaters) were godless, and a godless person cannot love by definition, because only God is Love, and those who partake of God by Grace become Love), but so that, by fulfilling God’s commandments, they recognize their sin (disease, abnormality), their hell-hell, their death, their godlessness, poverty of Spirit! Before the coming of the Son of God Jesus Christ into the world, all the Old Testament righteous were in Hades (the kingdom of the dead), waiting for the Savior. When the Lord with His Life-giving death destroyed death and emptied hell (Hades), then all the righteous entered the Kingdom of God, being baptized into the Church, into the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit! Not all the dead were resurrected, but only the righteous (who believed in Jesus Christ), and all other egoists (II and III f. e.) are still languishing in their hells-hells, fiery Gehenna, until they humble themselves by the labors of repentance, zealously fulfilling God’s commandments! Zealous fulfillment (attempt to fulfill) of God’s commandments teaches a person his impotence, sinfulness, knowledge of his sin, hopelessness in himself, breaks my heart, humbles my spirit, makes me capable of giving myself to Christ, believing in Christ and, as a result, being baptized by God the Holy Spirit!