We have already talked about hell with my readers. But to complete it, it is necessary to tell what heaven is on earth and in heaven. Are there really two of them, you ask? Exactly. Do you want to know where the earthly paradise is, in what specific place? Heavenly paradise naturally awaits in heaven. Everything is clear here. But what is your paradise, man? Do you know anything about him other than the priest’s tales? Then listen to what the bookish Old Believer Commissar Qatar will tell you.
There is a lot of talk about the fact that in paradise it is impossible for a person to feel good. But no one knows for sure where that paradise is. Therefore, there is no one to show the shortest route to it. No one has ever seen these heavenly milk rivers with jelly banks. The bookish man Qatar did not see them either. But he collected a lot of interesting things from libraries and museums, scraped together facts about the world of the galaxy. And he is ready to tell us where the earthly paradise is. What is heaven like?
Where is heaven on earth
Your miniature study “Welcome to Paradise!” Commissioner Qatar begins by deciphering the meaning of the words Irtysh, Irkutsk and other geographical names beginning with Ir. There are a huge number of them in Siberia.
“So Ir is Iriy or paradise,” writes Qatar. - The second interpretation is the heavenly world tree (Isn’t it a cedar?) ... The Irtysh is the side beyond paradise (tysh is the other side, the outer one). And Irkutsk is nothing more than a corner of paradise or a quiet corner. Do you feel, my friend, how close we are to heaven?
To get even closer to heaven on earth, Qatar examines the meaning of the name of the Angara River. A river flows from Baikal - from the SLEEPING LAKE (Bai-sleep, kol - lake, kolok - lake in the steppe.
Ar-ga-ra. Ga - go. For example, Vol-ga or walking ox (cow). Ra is the Sun and at the same time the god personified by the Sun. And even words have the same meaning. According to Ozhegov, this is a conjunction meaning if, now, INDa (emphasized by Qatar) and in the same spirit.
“That is, the meaning of Angara is the Now Walking Sun. How does the Sun move? That's right, from east to west! ...and one of the meanings of the word AN is INDA, that is, the same Indus. That is one of the names of God,” Commissioner Qatar reveals the meaning of the word Angara.
Rivers washing heaven on earth
The four biblical rivers, according to Qatar, are nothing more than four oceans, the waters of which wash the earth. To prove his theory, he conducts a semantic analysis of the word river.
Ka is in Egyptian mythology (which, in fact, is Slavic tribal or royal Christianity) one of the soul-essences of a person. At first, in the pyramid texts, Ka is inherent only to the pharaoh and is associated with the idea of his divine origin and power. Later, the idea of Ka as a double of every person develops. He is born with him and determines his fate. The Egyptians depict Ka as a man with his arms bent at the elbows above his head. Ka is the human soul.
The Russian sovereigns also knew about the existence of Ka. In their letters they referred to themselves as “We”. Thus, they told others that Russia was ruled by two people - the Tsar and his Ka.
The prefix re means renewal: reconstruction, reform, relaxation, etc. Hence the river is the renewal of Ka. And rivers flow into the World Ocean. They bring him the update. They are, as it were, blood vessels of one common and indivisible organism - a single river for irrigating paradise, flowing from Eden.
Purpose of lower Gan-Eden [↑]
According to Ramban, the earthly Gan-Eden serves as the place of comprehension of the Creator in the first year after the death of a person, since during this period the soul is still inclined to earthly perception and does not reach the level at which it is possible to completely switch to the spiritual perception of the Creator. This is how the Ramban explains the saying of the sages ( Shabbat 152 b
): “Until twelve months (after death) the body continues to exist, but the soul rises and falls. After twelve months the body ceases to exist, but the soul rises and never falls again.” According to Ramban, “rises” means “passes to a purely spiritual comprehension of the Creator”, and “descends” - comprehends the Creator at the level of earthly perception - as when the soul was clothed in a body. After a year, the soul finally leaves the connection with the physical world and moves to the spiritual Gan-Eden.
The earthly Gan-Eden will also be a place of material reward for people after the resurrection of the dead.
Appointment of the highest Gan-Eden [↑]
As is clear from the words of Ramban, the soul enters the highest Gan-Eden twelve months after the death of a person and after purification in Geinom (Hell). Higher Gan-Eden is a place of preliminary reward, where the soul remains until the coming of the World to Come, which will be marked by the resurrection of the dead and the reunification of the soul with a new, reborn body.
Earthly paradise is located... on Earth
And what is this main river, which, dividing into four oceans, irrigates paradise? This is the fifth ocean. But not the Southern one invented in recent years, but the air one. This is a sky with cirrus clouds and thunderclouds pouring rain on Iriy and Indus. Heavenly waters will flow through rivers into the oceans. Then they will rise again into the sky in the form of steam. And they will spill onto the ground again.
The Bible describes the cycle of nature in metaphorical form. Five oceans are involved in this life-giving process. But not a single church minister will tell you about this. Because he himself doesn’t know about it.
Bogumil Katar, having revealed the secret of the biblical text, continues:
“Indus is water, life-giving moisture that gives life to everything on Earth. And all the dry land of our world is heaven on earth. After physical death, the moisture from the body will rise along with the Ka to Eden from which the sky flows. The minerals (ashes) will remain to Iria-Ray. And the soul will soar, along with the STEAM. Hence the expression “to soar above the Earth.”
Paradise now and in the future
Part 1: The Mystery of the Primordial Paradise
It is difficult for those living on earth to understand Heavenly things. Paradise is shrouded in mystery. In Paradise there is eternity. In the world of mortal people - time. Time melts away like the wax of a burning candle. But the mystery of eternal Paradise is reflected in the mysteries that happen on earth. And the perception of time may turn out to be completely different than what we are used to.
Time and eternity
A priest close to me, Father Vladimir, told how, when he was very young, long before taking holy orders, he took part in a pilgrimage to holy places. In one ancient monastery, with two other participants in the pilgrimage, he found himself in a cave with an icon of the Mother of God. The Most Holy Theotokos once performed a miracle above this place, and now there is a temple there. Not everyone is allowed into the holy cave itself, and few people know about its existence. A novice of the monastery led Vladimir and his companions there, and the rest of the group settled down in the temple to read the akathist.
It seemed to Vladimir that they had only spent a few minutes in the hidden cave. But when they came out to the group, they had already finished reading the second akathist. About an hour passed. The pilgrims who met them asked: “Where have you been? You just shine, glow.” This visit itself left a deep impression in Vladimir’s soul for the rest of his life. It was as if the Mother of God Herself touched him with Her merciful hand.
This is sometimes served to people. God's grace delights you from the earthly world, brings joy to your heart, and time ceases to rule over you. And this partly helps to understand the secret of Paradise.
Where God is, eternity reigns. Without fuss and haste, without soul-tearing anxieties. About a life filled with the grace of God, you cannot say that you are tired of it. Where God's grace operates, time itself is not perceived as the languid passage of everyday life. Time, illuminated by the gracious presence of the Lord, takes on the characteristics of eternity. Therefore, communication with grace-filled people - if anyone has had such experience, knows - carries an important property - it is as if you have come into contact with something genuine, eternal, sacred.
Many people know the story about a monk who marveled at the words of Scripture: “With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 3:8). Is it possible for a thousand years to pass like one day? The monk had the courage to pray that God would enlighten him. Once left alone in the temple, he saw a small bird. Her beauty struck him so much that the monk wanted to take at least a feather from her. But the bird flew away, dragging the monk along with it. In the forest, outside the monastery, she sat down on one of the trees and began to sing such a wondrous, wonderful song that the monk had never heard in his entire life. Listening to the singing, he thought that probably about an hour had passed, and it was time to return to the monastery. But when he approached the gates of the monastery, he did not recognize the monastery. None of the monks could recognize him either. It turned out that 300 years had passed since he left the fence. Having received the Holy Mysteries of Christ on the same day, the monk rested and passed into eternity, which the Lord gave him to come into contact with in such an amazing way.
God can both speed up time for you and stretch it out inordinately. When necessary, the Lord gives the opportunity to seem to dissolve in the moments of eternity - and time becomes unnoticeable, as if it does not exist at all. About the last, most terrible temptations of history, it is said that the Lord “for the sake of the elect whom He chose, He shortened those days” (Mark 13:20). And when necessary, God can lengthen, as if stretch out, our earthly time so that you have time to complete what you were afraid not to complete. Thus, the Lord helped Joshua in defeating the enemy - the day lasted longer than usual (Joshua 10, 12-13). Many testify to this unique experience: when you pray, time seems to be filled with new, more extensive content, and you manage to complete what you have undertaken (for example, Alexander Nikolaevich Uzhankov speaks about this in his article “Space and Time”).
Through humble, sincere prayer, the soul ascends to God, and in Him comes into contact with eternity
The essence of this phenomenon is simple: God is outside of time. Through humble, sincere prayer, the soul ascends to God, and in Him comes into contact with eternity. Timeless God shortens or stretches time on earth for us, depending on what is required at the moment. In Paradise, in the eternal Kingdom of God, there are no rough boundaries of time and space that are familiar to us. Everything is completely different there.
For Paradise, the question is inappropriate: “What to do?” The question is also inappropriate: “How can I make it in time?” The earth is a web of contradictions. The question “what to do?” means that your life is not filled with content. The question “how to make it in time?” means that there is a matter in your life, but you cannot cope with it. Heaven is higher than both. In Paradise there is fullness of life and Life, such fullness that we never dreamed of. There no one is in a hurry, no one is in a hurry for fear of not being able to cope or of ruining what they have undertaken, there everyone manages to do everything.
There are no clocks, no stopwatches, no calendars in the heavenly abodes. What is the need for them if no one grows old there, is not approaching death, and existence is not commensurate with the rotation of the planets around the Sun? There is no need to urge the slow ones or bother the drowsy ones. This current life is passing like a dream. In that life everyone will awaken.
Man on earth is an unhappy creature. He either languishes in everyday life, not knowing how to kill his time. Or he is in a hurry to live and does not have time - time evaporates, like steam under the rays of the sultry sun. In the eternal Paradise Kingdom it is always real.
Yes Yes exactly. Paradise eternity is contact with the fullness of Life, which is experienced as a constant present. Therefore, what is given in eternity will not go away and will not become the past. Love will not fade, grace will not dry up, joy will not be replaced by boredom or melancholy.
What is Heavenly peace?
Boredom is the result of emptiness. Or emptiness. The mirror is boring when it is empty. And when the Sun shines in it, the mirror emits golden rays. A person shines when God is reflected in him. There is never a dull moment with the Lord. If, of course, you are really with God. Is it boring for those who dote on each other? Is it boring for those who love each other dearly?
Earthly life is built on contrasts: hopes and disappointments, victories and defeats, inspiration and extinction, joy and boredom. Mood swings, changes in emotions, falls and ups are like a turbulent river flow, with cascades, a noisy bed and an unstoppable desire to move forward. At the same time, the boat of life is pretty much frayed in this frantic current. But the worst thing is the constant loss of loved ones, health and happiness in life, what you created and tried to give as a gift to others. This is the earthly path. This is life outside of Heaven. All in the fight, it does not leave a person alone.
Some people think that if there are no rapid turns of fate, no emotional outbursts, then they will sour in the monotonous flow of everyday life. But over the years it all gets tiring. And to imagine the eternal struggle, eternal losses and mind-stirring shocks is something terrible.
What is the usual outcome of a person’s earthly journey when he looks at what he has lived through? – An endless struggle for existence, and in the end a feeling as if I had never lived at all. We were educated and studied in order to live. They got a profession and earned money to live. They built buildings, purchased real estate, did renovations - in order to live. They got married and had children - in order to live. And so, everything flew by. But where is life itself?
The peace of Paradise - its whole essence is that “they may have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). The peace of Paradise is a calm from soul-tearing anxieties, from meaningless labors in which you create, and someone else will destroy, or it will decay and disappear on its own. Sisyphus endlessly lifting a stone up a mountain so that it rolls down again - this is what earthly labors are. In Paradise this nonsense will be abolished.
The peace of Paradise is not a frozen state, not the numbness of the figures of the dead kingdom. The peace of Paradise is peace and silence of the heart, the opposite of confusion and anxiety. On earth, a person, even idle, can remain anxious and non-peaceful. But it also happens differently - in the most diligent labors, a pure heart that has acquired the Holy Spirit keeps within itself peace, silence and tranquility. In this sense, Christ says:
“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29).
Heavenly peace is multifaceted, just as a precious stone shines with many facets. On earth we grieve for the loss of loved ones. There we will find them again. In Paradise those who separated on earth and lost the opportunity to communicate will find each other. Parents and children, great-grandfathers and great-grandchildren, friends and everyone who is dear and close to the heart. And in this sense, they will also find peace - they will calm down, because the anxiety of loss that was tearing their souls will be eliminated. But the even greater joy of Paradise is that we will meet the One who gave us the opportunity to love, who Himself is Love.
On earth we grieve for the loss of loved ones. There we will find them again
Actually, Paradise is not just peace, a kind of rest. Heaven is always where there is participation, communion with God. “He is our peace” (Eph. 2:14), says the apostle caught up to the third heaven, and the “Kingdom of God” is “joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17). I mean, yes, this is joy. But the joy is because the soul has communed with the Holy Spirit of God. Hell is alienation and deprivation of God. It is good in Paradise not because people were freed from earthly affairs and labors, not because they found peace from all kinds of suffering and troubles, but because there they found long-awaited communication with the Lord, to whom they were going, whom they heartily hoped for throughout their earthly journey . Here,
“The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them; they will be His people, and God Himself with them will be their God” (Rev. 21:3).
Paradise is the harmony of man with God, harmony with each other, harmony with the world created by God. And this harmony is reflected in the soul as long-awaited peace.
Happiness of Paradise
Here is a small example from life. Olga, a professional actress who loved the stage and worldly life, began to take small steps towards God. This happened after a series of mistakes in life, when my soul was unbearably sick. Confessed. Got married to my husband. Incredibly, they had four children! Before the birth of her fourth, Olga received Holy Communion of Christ, and in the maternity hospital, as much as she could, she prayed to the Mother of God. Doctors scared her in advance that the child would be born with Down syndrome. She did not leave the temple for six months - the child was born healthy. But at the very moment of childbirth, as soon as the begged son was born into the world, the unexpected happened to Olga. Vessels near the uterus burst and internal bleeding began. Olga died. More precisely, what is now called “clinical death” occurred.
What she experienced affected the rest of her life. She parted with the profession of an actress, devoting herself entirely to the Church. With the blessing of the bishop, she became the artistic director at the diocesan spiritual center. He doesn’t shout about his experience anywhere, but, in fact, he doesn’t hide anything.
What did she see “there”?
When she found herself outside the body, everything was similar to the experience of many who have gone through the mystery of death and been returned back; we will not retell this. But Olga was given the opportunity to come into contact with the Ineffable. It is impossible to convey this in words. The Lord is such Love and such Light that everything earthly turned out to be just a faded shadow. It turned out to be so good there, everything breathed with such indescribable Love that there was simply nothing to compare it with. All previous worries, anxieties, desires have become like children's toys that we forget as we grow up. Only life in communion with the Lord appeared to be true, real life. And Olga wanted to stay there forever. She felt that everything would be fine with her children and husband on earth: they would not be abandoned, they would be cared for from above. But when she was shown her whole previous life, she was horrified, and at that moment she was returned to her body.
We cannot convey the secret of Paradise in human language. But if you still try to do this, then the secret of Paradise is the secret of Ineffable Love, which none of our pleasures can compare with. The life of Paradise is filled with Life. The happiness of Paradise is filled with Happiness. To an immeasurable, superlative degree!
The mystery of Paradise is the mystery of Ineffable Love, which none of our pleasures can compare with.
A person experiences authenticity in rare moments of his life. Thus, intense grief removes the mask from the soul. The naked heart, stripped of the rubbish of former empty aspirations, stands before God in its spontaneity. Pain (sorrow) cuts off everything unnecessary from the soul. But the touch of God’s grace to the soul, that which brings true joy, awakens and resurrects the soul. And so, it turns out that without the Father we are orphans, without Love we are extinct embers, without Life we are dead, burying ourselves in our dead deeds. And when He reveals Himself, then this is an eternal, inexhaustible source of Life, Love, the return of the child to the Father.
If we had in the recesses of our hearts a living unity with the Lord, if we were granted even small glimpses of those contemplations that the saints had, then we would clearly feel how immeasurably the blessings of God surpass all earthly joys. The heavenly is different from the earthly, like the living from the inanimate, the rational from the unreasonable, the healthy from the sick. And the whole stream of sinful life, in comparison with the eternal bliss of the saints, is like footprints in the slush before a picturesque picture of the Garden of Eden.
Contemplation, knowledge, service
Our God is not the God of the dead. He is the God of the living. In Paradise there are only the living, that is, those who participate in Life. Life is not inaction, but just as God is boundless and infinite, so the communion with Life, the knowledge of God, is an endless prospect for human improvement.
The work of heaven is incomprehensible to the children of earth. There, no one hammers or planes, just as no one sits in front of a computer monitor or electronic systems control panel. They don’t deal with IT technologies, they don’t design, they don’t repair, they don’t mend. And at the same time, they don’t mess around there. It is in vain to think that the inhabitants of heaven rest in detached bliss on the clouds.
Since Paradise is the Kingdom of God, the work of the celestials is entirely consistent with this. There is contemplation, knowledge, and service to the Lord God, mysterious for us.
The three powers of the soul - mind, feeling, will - will not dry up, on the contrary, they will manifest themselves perfectly in Paradise. The mind is in knowledge, the feeling is in love, the will is in service. A lover glorifies his beloved with his very love, and is ready, for the sake of love, to joyfully serve his beloved.
Everything on earth is very rough and complicated. The very word “service” is perceived as something formal and routine, performed thoughtlessly according to someone’s orders from above. Service as free, joyful self-giving, dedication to the One you love and Who loves you - very few people on earth touch this. To become involved in the ministry of Heaven, in which are the Mother of God, holy angels, St. Nicholas, Matronushka and a countless host of wonderful people (and not scoundrels and scum) - is this really thoughtless, formal and boring? Serving the One who Himself served you and “gave His soul as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28) - this is the happiness of Paradise!
The joy of serving God, like the joy of finding God, is difficult to explain to others. This is that unique experience that you either have or you don’t. But, by and large, everything that is given on earth, in its hidden depths, leads to the knowledge of God. Only few people reach these depths.
Here, a scientist explores the secrets of the Universe. But these secrets were put into the Universe by its Creator - God. Here, a musician masters the harmony of sounds, an artist masters the harmony of colors, a poet masters the harmony of words. But all harmony - in sounds and colors, in poetry and architecture, in meanings and forms, even in incense and in the sweetness of tastes, in general - in everything where harmony is captured - is an intuitive search for the original Paradise harmony. The soul of every person yearns for her. And the talent of a musician, artist, poet, architect and everyone else is God’s gift, like a reflection of the reflections of Heaven on our sinful earth.
A doctor, a policeman, a builder, and a kindergarten nanny, if they delve into the essence of their service, will certainly come to know God - the true Healer, Protector, Creator, Educator. All work and knowledge on earth, if correctly accepted, leads to the knowledge of God.
In Paradise there will be revealed what everyone yearns for, what everyone is looking for, without which they become depressed, thirsty and suffocate. Three hidden values attract every person - life, happiness and beauty. A person wants to live, seeks happiness and is irresistibly drawn to beauty. But all this is also an intuitive search for God. As the holy fathers say, God is absolute Being (Life), the highest Good (Happiness) and true Beauty. In Paradise, the fullness of life, unspeakable happiness, and incomparable beauty will be revealed.
In Paradise, the fullness of life, unspeakable happiness, and incomparable beauty will be revealed.
On earth, prayer itself, worship, and spiritual knowledge involve considerable effort. We pray, but as if an abyss separates us from the Heavenly world. We try to know God, but often as if it were something external to us. Lethargy and inertia, rapid fading, impoverishment of feelings - this is what earthly prayer is. The veil of mental and physical infirmities obscures our contemplation of the Lord. To achieve integrity and purity, hard internal work is necessary, as it is said:
“The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force, and those who use force take it by force” (Matthew 11:12).
Paradise is not a place of destruction, sinful disintegration of the soul. There is the Kingdom of integrity and purity. In Paradise there is pure, frank, direct communication with the Lord. It is like the shining light of the rising Sun, which dispelled the darkness and reflected joy on your face.
“Now we see as if through a dark glass, fortune-telling, but then face to face; Now I know in part, but then I will know, even as I am known” (1 Cor. 13:12).
Do the celestials remember us?
Now in Paradise the inhabitants of heaven show special care and diligent care. About what? Not about anything, but about whom – about us!
Here is how the Monk Silouan of Athos speaks about it:
“The saints have reached the Kingdom of Heaven and there they see the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ; but by the Holy Spirit they also see the suffering of people on earth. The Lord gave them such great grace that they embrace the whole world with love. They see and know how exhausted we are from sorrows, how our insides have dried up, how despondency has shackled our souls, and they continually intercede for us before God.”
How beautifully it is said: the inhabitants of heaven embrace the whole world with their love! And in this sense, they also cultivate and preserve Paradise (Genesis 2:15) - they take care of the education of new celestial inhabitants. They are trying to cultivate and preserve the remnants of Paradise rays on earth - virtues - among people on earth.
Familiar employees of the Investigative Committee shared this story. They knew a very elderly man who, at one time, while still a young and zealous employee of the KGB (or NKVD, as these structures were called), was involved in the arrests and even executions of people who believed in God. One could only envy his composure and restraint. But when he himself was dying, having suffered for some time in a serious illness, he unexpectedly asked those around him: “Call the priest.” - “You’re a communist. What's happened?" – the people nearby asked in bewilderment. He said that he saw the people tortured by him in Heaven, how they were praying for his salvation.
This vision revealed two unique truths to him. Firstly, the confessors of faith in God gained something that he could not even come close to achieving. His life passed like hell or some kind of abyss of torment, and they are truly happy with an inaccessible, unspeakable Happiness. Secondly, their compassionate love for him, their prayer for his persecutor, so that he too would be saved and go to Heaven, simply shocked him. He could not even imagine such selfless, sacrificial love, and the owners of this love themselves are incredibly happy, as if they had a treasure that surpasses everything in the world. This is what changed his entire worldview. A priest was invited, the former communist managed to confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.
Celestials help those who have not yet reached Heaven
And now the celestials are busy with very important, significant work. They help those who have not yet reached Heaven. The strength of their help depends on the strength of their boldness before God. It is one thing for a person who has repented of his sins to be accepted into Paradise, and another thing for a saint who has lived his entire earthly life in deep fidelity to God. About such the Monk Silouan of Athos wrote:
“The saints live in another world, and there, through the Holy Spirit, they see the glory of God and the beauty of the face of the Lord. But in the same Holy Spirit they see our life and our deeds. They know our sorrows and hear our fervent prayers. While living on earth, they learned the love of God from the Holy Spirit; and whoever has love on earth passes with it into eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven, where love grows and will be perfect. And if here love cannot forget a brother, then much less do the saints forget us and pray for us.”
The Saints are not hiding from us in Heaven, although it often seems so to us. Do we really think that Saint Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) is now less occupied with the needs of people than during his earthly life? Did he really help more when he was a surgeon than now, when he is a heavenly healer who sees us from the Paradise abodes?
And St. Nicholas the Wonderworker? Living on earth, he would not have heard so many thousands of people turning to him for help at one time (as now, for example, at a service on the day of his memory). In the Paradise abodes - he hears. He can easily help in Russia, America, Africa, and the Arctic. As long as the prayer comes from the heart, and there are no boundaries for such prayer either.
If a hundred people gather around you and ask: “Help! Help!”, then you simply won’t hear them and are unlikely to help. In the Heavenly, Paradise abodes there are no such boundaries and limits. Because there is communion with God, and in God the boundaries of space and time are overcome.
How many people in different churches, in different places pray and together ask St. Nicholas the Pleasant, the Great Martyr Panteleimon, St. Sergius of Radonezh, Seraphim of Sarov, Blessed Xenia and Matrona and other saints, on whose memorial day they gather for worship. And they cry to the Mother of God almost incessantly: “Save! Help! “And they hear us.” And even if a thousand people from different places ask in one minute, the saints in Heaven will hear everyone.
If all the care and concern of the celestials for us were revealed to us, we would be horrified at how sacrificially they love us there, and how disgustingly we behave here. Heaven, whose essence is Love, cares about the earth, so that the earth also becomes involved in Heaven. But the innermost life of Heaven itself is much richer, wider, more significant, more joyful than we can even imagine.
Anticipating the Future
One can talk endlessly about Paradise, just as Paradise itself is endless. But it is possible to comprehend Paradise only for those who become partakers of Paradise. A baby has to grow up to understand an adult. And frogs, accustomed to sitting in their own slurry, do not even imagine what beauty and joy there is outside their swamp. We will not reveal even a small part of what awaits the saved.
Now in Paradise there is only an anticipation of bliss. In some ways it may seem that we are contradicting what we said earlier. We said that there is peace, happiness (more precisely, bliss), that there is eternity, a kind of constant present. In fact, Paradise knows the past, present and future. Paradise knows its first planting, pure people and their amazing naivety - trust in the resourceful serpent and distrust of the Father who loves us. Paradise knows its desperate desolation - the departure of prodigal children for the horns of a pig trough and the loss of everything. That's the past. Paradise knows the present - the Heavenly Father returns the children, opening the abodes prepared for them from eternity. At what cost? At the cost of the sacrifice of His Son! Paradise has a future. The General Resurrection is coming, souls will unite with bodies and after the Last Judgment they will receive full reward, and in the Holy Spirit they will find the fullness of bliss.
Paradise is currently in a state of waiting
And therefore now there is only partial peace in Paradise. Paradise is currently in a state of waiting. A soul without a body does not have complete bliss. Just as Heaven without earth does not have complete harmony. The celestials are waiting for the world to be restored to its former heavenly harmony, and for souls to find unity with their bodies. In this sense, spiritual reality seems strange - without the return to God of those on earth, those in heaven do not feel complete peace. But the strangeness disappears if we know that the secret of Paradise is the secret of Love. And that is why the celestials spiritually fight for us - so that we too can be where they are.
When resurrected eyes see a renewed world, when not only our hearts, but also our bodily eyes see the Risen Lord, then something new, incomparably greater, better, joyful, happy, and most importantly, infinite will be revealed, just as God Himself, the Giver of every good, is infinite.
About the future Paradise life it is said that the saved will reign. Yes, that’s exactly what it says: “And they will reign forever and ever” (Rev. 22:5). Is it bad to reign? Is it boring and uninteresting to reign forever and ever? The reign of Christ's children is participation in His Kingdom. “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). His Kingdom is the Kingdom of Love. And Love is always experienced as something new. Therefore, there will definitely be no boredom or idleness there.
Mysterious challenges of the future – overcoming the “five divisions”
It would be great impudence to talk about the future. But the saints, who came into contact with the mystery of Paradise while still on earth, reveal to us something about spiritual tasks that will have to be solved in eternity
There are five divisions in the universe, and man is destined to overcome them (Reverend Maximus the Confessor speaks about this, in particular). We will only mention them to show how vast the tasks of the future are.
- The first division is God and the world He created. Between the uncreated and the created there is an abyss of immense size. Neither people nor angels can even come close to imagining God’s existence, which is above time and space, which is above all categories of the created world.
- The second division is the sensory and intelligible world. That is, the world of matter in which we live, and the world of angels, spiritual entities, to which the human soul by nature belongs.
- The third division is earth and heaven (in the physical sense). They are spatially separated from each other. Heavy objects and most animals cling to the ground, others soar upward (birds, fire, air).
- The fourth division is Heaven and the rest of the earth. These are initially two different spheres. Paradise represented exceptional benefits for humans, and the rest of the earth still needed spiritual and creative transformation.
- The fifth division is man and woman. This is the division within the being of man himself, necessary for the birth of new children in the flesh.
Even in the primordial Paradise, people had to overcome these divisions. Sin has complicated man's spiritual tasks. But their decision is not canceled. Only the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated complete overcoming of the five divisions in Himself. And for Christians this is given as a prospect for endless spiritual development.
Overcoming occurs in reverse order. From the lowest and closest to us - to the infinitely high and surpassing everything.
The essence of the initial overcoming (the first step from below) is from males and females to angelic life. This is the overcoming of carnal sexuality, which grew like a cancerous tumor on the human body after original sin. A person looks at the opposite sex only as an object of his lust (even worse, of course, is carnal attraction to his own sex and all sorts of perversions). In Paradise eternity there is no place for carnal passion, much less perversion. “And the world passes away, and its lusts, but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17). In Paradise eternity, man is called, in the likeness of the angels, to rise above sexual desires.
The second stage is achieved through holiness - the sanctification by the grace of God of a person faithful to God. The earth is transformed into Paradise, wild animals are obeyed, and waterless places come to life where man lives with God and in God. The goal is to make the whole earth the Kingdom of God.
The third stage is the grace-filled spiritualization of a person, when his very body rises above the laws of physics. Thus, during prayer, the saints rose into the air, walked on water, and appeared with lightning speed where it was needed - even during their lives on earth. In the coming Resurrection, the bodies of saved people will be spiritualized, in the likeness of the body of the Risen Christ.
The fourth stage is the introduction of a person to the world of angels, spiritual contemplation and knowledge through the pure eye of the soul. As a kind of sign of the future, people are occasionally given the opportunity to hear angelic singing or tangibly receive the help of angels. In the future, endless knowledge of the world of angels will open.
The fifth, endless step is grace-filled unity with the Lord, participation as a gift in those God's blessings that from eternity belong only to God. This mystery is expressed in a simple word - deification. It takes an infinite eternity to comprehend it.
Cultivate and store now
Earthly life is just the title of the book, and the content is the future eternity. The title page does not reveal the entire content of the book. But the title suggests what the book is about. Life on earth is short, like the title of a book. Its true content is ahead. But as you spent your life here, you designated the title of the future life. He dedicated its contents to either the Paradise Kingdom or the darkness of death. There is either joy with God, or melancholy outside communication with Him.
Earthly life is just the title of the book, and the content is the coming eternity
Once upon a time, man was ordered to cultivate Paradise and preserve it. Adam lived in Paradise, but Paradise also lived in Adam. That is, Paradise was not only outside Adam like a beautiful garden, but also inside him - like a wonderful harmony of the human soul with the Spirit of God. Therefore, it was necessary to cultivate and preserve not only outside, but also within oneself.
And therefore, here on earth, it is important to learn how to cultivate and store.
If you have a family, cultivate love, preserve pure, tender feelings - and Paradise will reign in your family. If you have a job, do it as assigned by God Himself, and the work will become the road to Paradise. If you go to church and stand for prayer, then understand: a dead, mechanically repeated prayer will not revive the soul. Pray as if the Lord Himself is present next to you - and this is how it really is. Cultivate and preserve everything that God has entrusted to you.
If you are a destroyer here, then who are you there?
If you don’t store anything here, what will they entrust to you there?
If you’re a slacker here, then really, what are you going to do there?
What is heaven in heaven?
In his epics, the Commissioner of Qatar writes the word paradise differently - with a capital letter and a capital letter. This is another mystery of paradise. This is how the word paradise is written in spiritual books. From them it is clear that there are, in fact, two places of human promise in bliss.
Let's listen to Bogumil Katara:
“In spiritual books, two paradises are clearly visible: one is written with a CAPITAL letter, and the second with a SMALL letter. So the dry land of the Earth is heaven on earth. And the place of residence of the soul after physical death is Paradise or the Kingdom of Heaven. This is where Ka ends up, unless, of course, she is doomed to eternal purification.”
Heavenly Paradise for a person is the 10th rank of angels, where he comes from and where his true home is. Those who are worthy of it will return to it. We are the angel People, imprisoned for the time being in a fleshy shell - the body. Because of their gullibility in Satanael's lies, people were expelled from Paradise in heaven to heaven on earth. Now we need to pass the earthly test with dignity and take our place in the angelic rank.
Questions and answers
When will Muslims go to Heaven?
Answer : According to Islam, believers will go to heaven after the Day of Judgment, and those who do not believe in the Lord will go to Hell and will remain there forever.
Is Paradise Eternal?
Answer : Believers in Paradise will forever enjoy the benefits that Allah Almighty has prepared for them.
What is the highest reward in Paradise?
Answer : the main benefit and reward for a Muslim will be the opportunity to contemplate Allah Almighty. Ibn al-Athir said: “The sight of Allah is the highest of pleasures in the Hereafter, the best of the generous gifts to Allah, and may the Almighty allow us to enjoy it as much as we wish.”
Muslim and others reported from the words of Suhaib ar-Rumi that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “ When the inhabitants of Paradise enter there, the Almighty and Most High Allah will ask: “Do you want more?” They will say: “Didn’t You make our faces white? Didn’t You bring us into Paradise and save us from the Fire?” Then He will lift the veil, and they will receive nothing more desirable than the opportunity to behold their Lord.” One of the versions reports that after this he read the verse: “For those who did good, the Best and the addition were prepared ” (Sura Yunus (Jonah), 26th verse).
Is Paradise Guarded?
Answer : Paradise is guarded by angels, which is headed by an angel named Ridwan.
How big is Paradise?
Answer : according to Islam, the size of Paradise is enormous, and different levels are provided for different categories of righteous people with love by the Lord. Read more about the levels of Paradise.
What is heaven and what is God
The bookish man Qatar continues his thoughts further and deeper into the essence of words and concepts:
“We should tell you what SKY is. The word itself says that this is not God. God created man in Eden from which Heaven flows. So Eden is higher than heaven? Or maybe on the contrary, below it? If we consider that there is a theory about the origin of man from the ocean, then everything will fall into place. Eden is in the sea! There God created the forefathers, in HIS IMAGE AND LIKENESS.
Now listen, reader, listen carefully. Have you heard anything about dead and living water, about the memory of water, about the information it contains? Finally, about the fact that a person is just a vessel with water? And you continue to believe that God is the Thunderer sitting on the heavenly throne? What if its likeness is WATER? The one who is omnipotent and sharpens even stones. That’s why the soul is immortal because it never disappears, just like water.”
Heaven exists in many religions; it means different places, but always pleasant for humans
We often use our own terminology for other religious traditions. This confuses us. We will not see a paradise like that of Christians.
Muslims, for example, are convinced that they will actually end up in the garden. His description borrows a lot from the Old Testament, although it introduces many of its own details. If you look at this description with an open mind, then heaven is considered here as a place for bodily pleasures. Although there is an idea that the highest pleasure there is seeing Allah.
The ancient Scandinavians were completely convinced that after death they would have a noisy feast in the company of the supreme deity Odin. To get there you had to die in battle.
Valhalla is a place where valiant warriors enjoy a feast. An analogue of heaven among the ancient Scandinavians. At the head of the table is God Odin. Photo: militaryarms.ru
The Greeks believed that the Champs Elysees awaited the chosen ones - a place without grief.
Buddhists believe that life is a source of suffering. Therefore, the highest pleasure is purification from attachments and desires. The degree of this purification may differ in different traditions, up to complete non-existence. This is also a kind of heaven - Nirvana.
Hindus of many schools agree that heaven is a general name for many worlds better than ours. You can get there on merit. But existence there will not last forever. Actually, our world is hell in relation to heaven.
At the same time, not a single tradition indicates a specific place for paradise, showing that it is outside our world.
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Heaven on earth, hell underground
So, the pure soul will soar upward along with the steam and go from the earthly paradise to Paradise in heaven. What happens to a dirty or sinful soul? Here we come to the concept of biblical hell. For this, Qatar also has a very specific and sensible explanation. You can learn more about the nature and essence of hell by following the link below.
For a general understanding, the explanation of the Commissioner of Qatar is sufficient:
“If the water is dirty, then it, like the soul, must be cleansed. And then she goes underground, and Hell, into the underground river Styx (sixth ocean). Where, after going through all sorts of changes, it will come to the surface with spring water - a clean spring. The one that is given by God. Isn’t this where all the ordeals of souls in Hell come from, where hellish fire burns, purifying the water and its memory of the sins of the soul committed by man and his Ka on Earth? Isn’t that why we are baptized with water, we charm water for Baptism?”
Questionable authenticity
The point of biblical archeology is to find reliable confirmation of what is said in the Holy Scriptures or the history of the Church. It is possible to clarify something, to exclude a false version. Of course, this is important: church scientific activity must be on a par with modern secular science. But even the most grandiose ecclesiastical and archaeological discoveries cannot by themselves either add or subtract from faith. We believe not because we find reasoned evidence. Much the same can be said about miracles. If a person is not able to believe, then even such miracles as the resurrection of the dead or the sight of those born blind will never make a person believe in God. And on the contrary, neither the refuted authenticity of a biblical archaeological find, nor a “miracle” that turned out to be a simple trick of some rogue (alas, this also happens) can shake the faith of an Orthodox Christian. It's no secret that the reliability of many church and archaeological relics or places associated with sacred events is, to put it mildly, very conditional. For example, in Jericho, at least three trees “claim” that it was the tree that the publican Zacchaeus climbed. At least two places represent the site of the Ascension of the Lord. In ancient times, the inhabitants of Ephesus categorically refused to recognize Jerusalem as the place of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary - they were firmly convinced that this place could only be Ephesus. And such famous shrines as the Chiton of Christ in Trier or even the Shroud of Turin also do not have indisputable evidence. Or, for example, the place of the Transfiguration of the Lord. The Gospel only says that the Lord ascended a high mountain. But it is not specified which one exactly. Until the 4th century, the prevailing opinion in the Church was that this was the Mount of Olives. But after St. Elena built a monastery on Tabor, and the opinion was established that the Transfiguration of the Lord took place there. Although many researchers dispute the possibility of this. Scientists agree that this was one of the spurs of Mount Hermon. Whether this is true or not is not important for us today. At least, no one today can know the exact location of the Transfiguration. After all, Favor is not a separate hill, but a mountain range. But there are guides who are ready to show gullible pilgrims supposedly “this is the place.” And the pilgrims then return home “with pockets full of happiness”: “And I was honored to visit the site of the Transfiguration of the Lord!”
Where is your heaven, man?
It is no coincidence that the gods in myths and legends always live on the tops of mountains. And the purest water, in the form of snow and ice, is there. Are our angelic souls languishing amid the eternal cold, waiting for their time to be incarnated into living people?
There is no need to look for heaven on earth. It's all around you. This is the entire planet Earth. And only man himself is capable and must transform the place in which he lives into an earthly paradise. Then Paradise in heaven will open its doors for him. Now I understand where your paradise is, man.
Ivan Ivanovich A.
Garden of Eden on Mars
In Brinsley Le Poer's book, Trench stated that the biblical description of the fourth section of the River Eden does not correspond to natural rivers. He wrote that only channels could be created in this way.
He then points to Mars as a place for a garden, since canals have been presented as a theory for life on the red planet. He claims that the descendants of Adam and Eve were forced to come to Earth.
