An Orthodox Church View on Hell

41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

I see a microcosm of this in my own life. It is painful for me to be righteous, to give up my own desires for a higher good. If I were confronted with the highest possible good it would be unbearable torture.

This just blew my mind

im paraphrasing cause i dont remember exactly. but i remember someone saying to me a few years ago, "the reason people suffer is cause their feeling the 'Fire' of Gods love"

Very interesting. Newly orthodox curious agnostic here. Thanks for explaining.

I'm a cradle Catholic and this makes more sense to me than the Catholic version of Hell.

I just cant accept this as the way scripture teaches it.

The LORD Jesus said in Matthew 25:41“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (angelois). We know from Scripture that messengers (angelois). can be either spiritual or human. So do we believe the perfect incarnate Lord recorded in infallible Scripture or some council made up of fallible men?

I've somehow had this opinion for a while, I'm Orthodox but not so well versed on theology so it's surprising that I formed the correct understanding 😅

The Bible says God prepared hell for the devil and his angels. People go there because they don't want anything to do with a loving, but Holy God.

You describe r*pe. The Catholic teaching is: because God is not a r*pist, so he created a shadow place you don't have to feel God's love if you don't want too. Coptic also teach this. Eastern Orthodox view is an innovation.

Western view on Hell was influenced by Islamic view on Hell. Heaven and Hell dichotomy is a dualistic concept.

This is not true at all. Im sorry, I don’t believe in comment section arguments but this is very inaccurate. There have been many saints who have spoken about the agonizing reality of hell and nothing I have learned sounded even remotely similar to what you described at all!

Gosh it's like ur whole identity as Orthodox is whatever Catholics aren't it's impossible for you to kot bring them up on any time u talk about what you believe

My dad told me it was like a everlasting lonely and burning feeling like you’ve lost everything (which you kind of have) and you can no longer feel god.

Can someone change their mind about god after death and leave this state?

This is some dumb shit

Yah that’s a stretch

As a cradle Catholic I like the Orthodox view of Hell rather than the Catholic view of Hell.

Thank you for this - I’m glad you put this up as many folks that don’t know anything about Eastern Orthodox assume we (Eastern Orthodox) are “like” roman catholic. It’s not just the fillioque- it’s much much more. God Loves us and did not create us to destroy us or torture us or throw us in some fiery Hellfire. I would also add that when the day does come and non believers etc are left with satan and his demons - I am under the impression there will be a disconnect with God, which is painful in itself.

Your all powerful god can’t send us a message that people actually understand. What a joke

I think of sponge bob and squidward

Live in the same place, one has a child like joy and happiness, the other is always miserable

This is my personal thought: for those who are going to hell, the absence of Gods love will be the hell, but i think Gods anger will be the extra pain , remember we are talking about pedos, rapists, murders etc. Gods accumulated anger will have its target one day. I just think paradise is beautifull and amazing, but hell is more terrible then we think.

Herasy

This explains Hebrews 12:29 which implies burning in a literal sense

Except all of that "wailing and gnashing of teeth.." Too bad St. Isaac just made all his crap up and didn't base it in scripture.

Hell really exist on earth too!…look at what bad people done!😢
And maybe this ‘hell’ in the clip is not what we think or not the same as real hell on earth!…😢
Afterdeath cannot be verify then i think hell in real life are much more teriifying!.😢
Good people suffer from bully from criminal or their own fault!…😢
They are not suffer from god….god did not bully human….😮

That's kind of confusing given that the scriptures do show that God HATES the wicked.

It also shows that there is a furnace or fire, separate from God and that we are cast into it to be destroyed.

It doesn't really make sense that one's experience of hell is due to their own personal and finite disposition. Rather, it would make sense that it is something with an explicit nature appointed and authored by God.

it's an interesting take, I'm not sure if I agree. Is this something that is ecumenical and binding? Asking as a recent inquirer of catholicism and orthodoxy

The scriptures say the lake of fire was created for the devil and his angels..

Jesus is in ortodoxy .

So true!!! 🙏

My grandmother, who is Orthodox like I am, though she is now deceased, God bless her soul. She described the afterlife as a banquet, and this banquet was taking place at a table that stretched infinitely far in both directions. Everyone is sitting at the table, and the table is full of all the most delicious food that you could possible imagine. However, All of the forks are very long. So on one end of the table, everyone is trying to eat the food with their fork, but they cannot, because of the length of the fork. On the other end of the table, everyone is using the same forks, except in stead of trying to eat with their fork, they use their fork to feed the people around them, and they are fed by the people around them. I thought it was an absolutely beautiful description of heaven and hell

This is all knowledge where is your faith

Americans and some more western countries truly took Christianity and made it a power tool to control and punish...orthodoxy was never about politics or the human nature

God bless you brother

I'm protestant and I came to this conclusion on my own. I honestly thought I was the only human being who held this view. I usually keep it private.

"Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels."

Except the Bible explicitly says that hell was created for the devil and his angels so

Bible not philosophy and wishful thinking.

Sounds great ....unbiblical in the extreme.

So, on the qiestion of whether the heterodox can be saved, here is what I know: Christ gave us one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, to take care of us spiritually. He gave us one set of Sacraments, to engage our souls in the act of formal, canonical worship as required by Him, he gave us a Priesthood to minister to us in the material world, and a guide to show us how to live. He said we must eat of His Divine Body and Drink of His Precious Blood. Even many of His followers abandoned Him at this teaching (and given they all ran off after hearing this "hard saying", it is clear they weren't simply misunderstanding what Christ meant by the Eucharist).

Can you be saved outside the Church? Maybe? If you are thoroughly righteous, like Abraham, or Joseph, or one of the Prophets. Maybe God will give you His Divine Grace. But here's the thing: given what I have received through the teaching of the Church, if I tell you you have to be in the Church and be Orthodox to be saved, and you don't follow that, but you are saved anyway, who cares? We will be in Paradise together, in bliss.

But if I tell you instead "do your own thing, God will love you anyway, you don't need the Church, it is just a social club, and a piece of bread and some wine" ... and then you end up not being saved, your loss as a sinner is added onto my account, and I will answer very serious charges at the Day of Judgement.

So, it is pretty clear what I have to do right? I have to tell you "there is no salvation outside the Orthodox Church, none that I know of".

I'm pretty sure God does not approve of that haircut

That’s dandy, but how do you make sense of the pit and other references to it in the Scriptures as that thing for the devil and his angels?

This is completely wrong this is not what hell is Jesus told us what hell is and hell is not Gods presence for those who hate him also orthodox church have bunch of pictures they praise mary its all idolatry

Wow 🥺🥺🥺❤️❤️❤️ Praise God

Um no

I heard a view of hell and Idk who said it but it was that Hell was created for Satan and the demons, not for those who hate and do not believe and those who choose not to believe are putting themselves in hell not God putting them their since they choice to not believe. Idk if its right or wrong but to my mind I can see the sense in it.

But Lord Jesus says that the Fire was "prepared" for the Devil and his angels. How can Hell be eternal if it was prepared?