AFTER DEATH,

WHAT HAPPENS?

\Whether there is life after death, whether there is a judgment of innocence or guilt, and who will be the Judge of all men, these things have in our days, even among nominal Christians, been reduced to simply a sharing of opinions which disagree with one another.  Many teach that death is the end of everything asserting that each of us merely go out of existence, saying: When your’e dead your’e dead; others  teach that death enables their particular group of believers to enter Paradise The Papacy teaches that most Roman Catholics will go to purgatory to be purified of their remaining sins.

     Many simply deny the existence of a Creator and Judge. These people have no infallible guide acceptable to all of them that could lead them truth and escape falsehood. Think of this! It is the most important subject in our entire lives, for if there is eternal life after death it is well worth, and even necessary to learn about it now.

It is good to start at the beginning: “In the beginning God made heaven and earth,” begins the account of the Old Testament in the book of Genesis. “In the beginning was the Logos and the Logos was with God and the Logos was God.”  begins the Gospel of John in the New Testament. God calls  us first through our conscience then through Holy Scripture.

   It is impossible that the material  universe is also its Creator, thus confusing the Creator with creation. It is no different than saying, that this car is a man, when we know the car is not man but was made by man. The sun did not establish itself did not set itself in the heavens, nor was it set in place by a fictional mother nature, but by the Lord God who placed it in a  precisely perfect position to sustain life and provide heat and light for creatures. Grass did not just appear out of nowhere, and then multiply itself, but was formed by the Creator, who established the means of propagation of all plants, animals and men. Man did not create himself for he is a creature formed by the hand of God, from whom He received life, intellect and ability to feel pain and pleasure, love and hate.

THE FALLACY OF PURGATORIAL FIRE

THE FALLACY OF 

PURGATORIAL FIRE

   It is the official teaching of the Papacy that faithful souls must endure the burning flames of purgatorial fire after death to purge their souls of any remaining sins , and this would render them pure and fit for paradise. To begin with there is absolutely nothing, not purgatorial fire or any other substance that can cleanse the souls of men in the entire universe, except, the only thing that can cleanse souls and render them sinless is the blood of Christ, a single drop of which can1 can purify the entire world, for it makes the spirits of men divine and thoroughly cleanse their souls.  If the papacy believed this they would never dream up a fictional purgatorial fire.

Only the blood of Christ’s sacrifice and His blood is the only remedy to purge anyone’s sins for He is the living sacrifice for all of us.  Protestants simply reject this thinking they are following the Bible. Followers of the Pope do not believe it or they would not be selecting another way – purgatorial fire, which even if it did exist could not cleanse the human being from sins.

The sinful man, according to papal teaching has his soul purified in purgatorial fire, but his body who helped him to sin and is therefore sinful as well as his spirit. So the man is not purified at all, even if this teaching was true. However, the sinful man is not cleansed, hence there is no possibility for this doctrine to be true.  These are important facts.  The soul of man is not the whole man. The body is not the whole man. The soul and body together with a spirit from God constitute the whole man, which can only be purified and deified by the Blood of Christ. These facts St. Paul affirms: “I pray God that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23).

This biblical testimony from St. Paul completely destroys any idea of improvement after death in a fictional purgatory. 

1. It describes the whole man as being body, soul and spirit not one or the other

2. Being blameless means being without any defects or sins, guilty of  nothing, but this process must take place before death and not after death.  Upon death we must already be totally purified, for after death comes judgment and its too late.

3. Man is not one of these three but the three together constitute man.

Further, who is going to control the fiery flames of purgatory, the demons? But they have not been given such authority by God.  The angels? but they would never1 burn people with fire to improve them, for they know well that only the blood of Christ can cure.

Numberless people have died over the centuries, believing the popes of Rome who promised them his fictional purgatorial fire and when they departed they found something they did not expect.

The only thing that happens after death, according to St. Paul.

“And as it is appointed unto men to die, but after death is the judgment.”  St. Paul, speaking truthfully does not allow for a purging purgatorial fire, only judgment.

Further, the idea of purgatorial fire degrades the sacrifice of Christ, who alone endured the suffering meant from each of us. Or are we better than He that we should undergo suffering in place of Him? Insanity! Absolutely nothing untouched by Christ’s sacrifice, can be purified, for this is the only sacrifice acceptable to God. Any other suffering is inferior and of no benefit to anyone, for Christ did it all as the God-man. Jesus Christ says: “I am the bread which came down from heaven, and if a man eat this bread he shall never die. For my flesh is food and my blood is drink.":

WHY DO WE PLACE VIGIL LAMPS 

BEFORE HOLY ICONS

First – because our faith is light . . .  Christ says: “I am the light of the world, Whoever follows me shall not walk in darkness” (John 8:12).

Second – in order to remind us of the radiant character of the Saint before whose icon we light the vigil lamp. For Saints are called  “sons of light” (John 12:36;  Luke 16:8.

Third – in order to serve as a reproach to us for our dark deeds, for our evil thoughts and desires, and in order to call us to evangelical light; and so that we would more zealously try to fulfill the commandments of the Savior:  “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt 5:16).

Fourth – so that the vigil lamp may be our small sacrifice to God, who gave himself completely as a sacrifice for us, and as a small sign of our great gratitude and radiant love for Him from whom we ask in prayer for life and health, and salvation and everything that only boundless heavenly love can bestow.

Fifth – so that terror would strike the evil powers who sometimes assail us even at the time of prayer and lead away our thoughts from the Creator.  The evil powers love the darkness and tremble at every light, especially at that which belongs to God and to those who please Him.

Sixth – so that this light will arouse us to selflessness.  Just as the oil and wick burn in the vigil lamp, submissive to our will, so let our souls also burn with the flame of love in all our sufferings, always being submissive to  God’s will.

Seventh – in order to teach us that just as the vigil lamp cannot be lit without our hand, so too, our heart, our inward vigil lamp, cannot be lit without the holy fire of God’s grace, even if it were filled with all virtues.  All these virtues of ours, are, after all, like a combustible material, but the fire which ignites them proceeds from God.

Eighth – in order to remind us before anything else the Creator of the world created light, and after that everything else in order: “And God said, let there be light; and there was light ” (Gen. 1:3).  And it must be so also at the beginning of our spiritual life, so that before anything else the light of Christ’s truth would shine within us.  From this light of Christ’s truth subsequently every good deed is created, springs up and grows within us. 

May the Light of Christ illumine you as well: St. Nicloai Velimirovich

WHY WE ARE LIVING?

THE TRUE LIFE

       Life continues on and children are constantly being born.  With or without love and marriage children are born and without a father and mother not one of us would be living this present life. The process for a man and his wife to reproduce children has been around from the beginning but it has changed drastically and this is an essential factor in answering the question raise, why are we living? What is our purpose here on this earth that we live a very temporary life?

      Today the truth of what a family is has been greatly distorted and this distortion may increase even more in the future. The traditional family of the not too distant past was unlike today’s substitute. There was the father, who was a worker and organizer, a businessman, manufacturer, engaged in various pursuits. He was the provider and head of the group called a family. The father was usually stricter than the mother which gave a wonderful balance to the happy family. The mother prepared meals,   fed her family, helped her husband get off to work and the children to school. She not only cooked, but she cleaned the house and made the beds and did countless other things. A loving and industrious father and a sweet mother produced children that enjoyed the best environment for their ascent to adulthood, where they would carry on the traditions which they had experienced in their family life, and the bonds formed in such a family remained until death and after death in memories..

     World War II, accompanied a masculine labor shortage, then came economic situations, and other factors which destructured much of the family unit. Working mother flooded the factories and babysitters, contributed to the gradual fracturing of the family. Economic conditions often caused the fractured family to lack the joyous atmosphere except in rare cases.