Thoughts about death frighten each of us, because death is the unknown. Will it hurt us? Will it happen quickly or slowly? Will we realize that we are dying? All these questions can fill us with horror. It is even more difficult for Christian believers, because each of them knows that after death everyone will face the Last Judgment. This is a place where every person will have to answer to the Lord for the actions they have committed in life. How God's judgment proceeds, what events precede the Last Judgment, how to be saved before it - we will find out below.
What awaits the soul at God's judgment after death?
Often, when thinking about our death, we think about what will happen to us after. And after, as Orthodoxy claims, God’s judgment awaits us. He will determine where our soul will be in anticipation of the Last Judgment.
The Holy Scriptures state that for the first 3 days after death, the soul of the deceased remains on earth next to the body. At this time, she remembers her entire life journey. If a person dies without repentance, the soul will face 20 ordeals (trials). All of them bear the names of sins: lies, laziness, anger, despair and others.
The soul will spend the next 6 days in Paradise, where it will forget all earthly sorrows. Then he will go to Hell, where he will see sinners and their torment. On the 9th day the soul will appear before the Lord. And on the 40th day after death, God’s judgment will be carried out on the soul, which will determine its position. Having studied all the good and bad deeds of a person during life, the Lord will determine what awaits the soul - Heaven or Hell. There she will remain until the Last Judgment.
It is worth noting that during this difficult time for the soul, relatives can help the deceased. You need to read akathists and order a memorial service.
What precedes the Last Judgment?
Even in the Old Testament there is a mention that the Last Judgment awaits us all. The Gospel mentions that it is not the Lord who will judge people, but Jesus Christ, since He is the son of man.
The Orthodox Church says that on the Day of Judgment, Christ is expected to come to earth a second time. At this time he will separate the righteous and the sinners.
The revelations of John Chrysostom tell us about the chronology of the events of the Apocalypse. At the same time, no one knows the exact date. Thus, each person will constantly be in a state of comprehension before choosing between good and evil. At the same time, the revelations indicate that the Last Judgment will not come suddenly - it will be preceded by special events.
Coming to earth for the second time, Jesus Christ will hold in his hands a book with 7 seals and a lamp with 7 torches. Every time he opens one of the seals, disasters will fall on humanity in the form of diseases, natural disasters, hunger, thirst or death.
Then 7 angels will come and notify people about the end of the world. As a result of the signals of the first three angels, some of the trees and grass will burn, some of the seas will become bloody, and the fresh water will become bitter. The signal from the fourth angel will lead to an eclipse, and the fifth will open the way for locusts in iron armor. She will be like scorpions and sting people for 5 months. The signals of the last two angels will bring disease to humanity and riders in armor that will emit smoke and brimstone.
After this, the Kingdom of Christ will begin on earth and a church will appear that will help everyone be saved.
How to pray correctly
The same Alexey Osipov says that without attention there is no prayer. This is simple “reading”, nothing more. What is the benefit to God and the salvation of the soul from such a prayer, which a person throws like a bone to a hungry dog, “Here you go, just leave me alone.”
The acquisition of the Holy Spirit occurs when all thoughts and emotions stop. Only under such conditions does the energy of the Great Savior or the Holy Spirit begin to enter through the top of the head. A person feels unity with the Almighty. God hears and answers such a prayer for the salvation of the soul.
So how to pray correctly? After all, a person is subject to passions, it is really difficult for him to concentrate on the text, especially when its meaning is not always clear. The Holy Fathers recommend acquiring a translation from Old Church Slavonic into Russian so that you can understand what is being said in the prayer.
If you are distracted by your thoughts, “fly away”, return to the place where the separation with Divine energy supposedly occurred. One of the frequent guests of the Spas TV channel, Father Artemy, gives TV viewers advice to make the Sign of the Cross more often.
Just as a cow drives flies away from its face while eating with the help of its tail, so a believer during prayer must drive away all irritating factors and unnecessary thoughts from himself with the Sign of the Cross.
Alexey Osipov recommends starting to read the prayer for the salvation of the soul with the shortest, most succinct and complete of all prayers - the Jesus Prayer. Many justify themselves and their reluctance to pray by saying that they do not have time for it. But what prevents you from saying just a few words? “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” And that’s all, but few people do it.
But if you try to say it just a few times a day, then after a while you can notice positive changes not only in yourself, but also in your life.
How to be saved before the Last Judgment?
Christianity claims that there is always hope for salvation. Moreover, in Orthodoxy, the onset of the Last Judgment is anticipated with joy, since after it the Kingdom of God will reign on earth and a person will meet Jesus Christ.
The main measure that the Supreme Judge will resort to will be mercy. If you go to church, fast, read prayers, confess and receive communion, and also do good deeds, then you can hope for a better outcome. After all, all these actions bring a person closer to the Lord, cleanse and heal his soul.
Scripture says that before the Last Judgment, the Antichrist, false prophets and Satan will arrive on earth, who will rampage and tempt people constantly. Therefore, every time you want to sin, think about whose will you are doing: God or the Devil.
Remember that every day the Lord comes to us in the form of other people. And if you helped a person, then you helped Him too. Be merciful, kind and patient. Don't forget about sincere repentance. Then you will be able to save your soul.
What is required of a person in the matter of saving the soul?
As I already wrote in a previous publication, citing the teaching on this matter of St. John Cassian the Roman: “In essence, with all its relative breadth, this teaching... boils down to what... the holy fathers of antiquity, great ascetics and ascetics said: in the matter of salvation For a person, everything is accomplished by the grace of God, but something is also required from the person himself. And this, in turn, corresponds to what the Lord said in response to the question of the apostles: “So who can be saved?” The Savior answered them: “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19: 25.26).” And I also added that there is something incomprehensible in this statement of mine. What exactly is not clear here? The fact is that, as we see, the Holy Fathers taught: something is required from a person in order to be saved. And the Lord says: “This is impossible for humans,” which means, it would seem, nothing depends on humans in this matter?! But that's just how it seems. In fact, a person himself brings into the matter of saving his soul, oddly enough, this very own impossibility, weakness of being saved. Why did Apostle Paul, in response to his request to remove from him “the thorn in the flesh, the angel of Satan,” who oppressed him, Christ answered: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12: 7.8.9) . Indeed, the first thing that is required of a person approaching the Savior and salvation is the understanding that this is impossible for him! And how this legally happens, I have already written about this (in the publications “Trojan” and “The Law of Moses and the Law of Christ”). I will quote again: “The holy fathers also wrote that every Christian begins his asceticism as a Jew, thinking of being saved through observance of what he considers the “law of Christ.” Which, however, by a “strange” coincidence, is very similar to the Law of Moses: they say, clear commandments are given: “do this and do not do the opposite of this.” It is enough to observe them, he thinks, and you will achieve the Kingdom of Heaven. And only later is he convinced that “by the works of the law no flesh will be justified before Him (i.e., before God); For by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20). Or, as St. Paul speaks in more detail about spiritual obstacles: “The law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. So, has what is good become deadly to me? No way; but sin, which turns out to be sin because through good it causes death to me, so that sin becomes extremely sinful through the commandment. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For I don’t understand what I’m doing: because I don’t do what I want, but what I hate, I do. If I do what I do not want, then I agree with the law that it is good, and therefore it is no longer I who do it, but the sin living in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; because the desire for good is in me, but I don’t find it to do it. I don’t do the good that I want, but I do the evil that I don’t want. If I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin living in me. So I find a law that when I want to do good, evil is present to me. For according to the inner man I delight in the law of God; but in my members I see another law, warring against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. Poor man I am! who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank my God Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore I also serve with my mind the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin” (Rom. 7:12-25). In the last words (Rom. 7:25), the apostle hints that salvation is not in the law, by which it is impossible to be saved, but only in Christ, for the law is “a teacher to Christ” (Gal. 3: 24). So, it is not the law that saves, but only the grace of Christ, for, as John the Theologian popularly explains to us in different languages every Easter: “The Law was given through Moses; But grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Therefore, “by grace you have been saved, through faith; and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). Actually, this is how it has always been. A sensible and kind person, through attempts to fulfill the law, ultimately came to Christ, whose teacher the law itself is (Gal. 3:24). But... in our time this is extremely difficult due to the very sad fact that in the Russian Orthodox Church, since the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, constant attacks have been carried out on the dogma of the Atonement, which is declared “Catholic”, mockingly called “legal theory”, etc. and so on. Meanwhile, the image of piety, as the Holy Fathers teach, consists of right faith and good deeds; and one without the other does not constitute Christian piety. Therefore, it is extremely difficult for a Russian Orthodox Christian to find the right path and be pious in this stream of false teachings about the dogma of the Redemption. Orthodox confession of which is the simplest and most direct path from the law of Moses to the grace of Christ.” The essence of all of the above is that a Christian neophyte who begins his path of salvation with the proud opinion that he will be saved through keeping the commandments of Christ, i.e. through the law, eventually comes to the conclusion that this is impossible for him. Thus, he comes to what the Lord said: “With men this is impossible” (Matthew 19: 26). The trouble with such a neophyte today is that he can very easily forget the second part of this saying of Christ: “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26), having decided that salvation is generally impossible for him. Where is the direct path to the diabolical vaccination against Christianity mentioned in previous publications? Which follows very logically from the defamation, silencing and denial of the dogma of the Redemption taking place in the Russian Orthodox Church. However, a novice Christian may not even live to see such equivocations. Because “good uncles” - theological liberals even earlier planted a spiritual mine in him in the form of a false teaching about “our supposed innocence of original sin.” And if the neophyte listens to them, then, having encountered in himself the action of the law of sin, about which the Apostle Paul writes (Rom. 7: 23), he will sooner or later understand that this law of sin operating in him is precisely a consequence of original sin. “But if I am innocent of this sin, then it turns out that God, without any fault of mine, put this sinful law into my nature, which again and again inevitably and steadily pushes me into my new, now personal sins, and then He punishes me for these sins He also punishes, even to the point of eternal torment in hell and Gehenna: where is the truth and even elementary justice here,” the neophyte argues! Which is the most direct path not only to the aforementioned vaccination against Christianity, but also to rebellion against God. Moreover, most of today's neophytes come to Christianity from atheism, which is this very rebellion against God. So, the dog conveniently returns to his vomit (cf. 2 Pet. 2:22)! A reasonable Orthodox Christian, realizing his weakness in the matter of salvation, asks for God’s help and seeks His grace. And so, through understanding one’s weakness one is saved by the grace of God, whose power is made perfect in human weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). True, it should be noted that in our time this power of God, i.e. grace acts in human weakness long before his Christianity. Which, God willing, I will tell you about in the next publication.
