Posted on 09/23/2002 12:04:16 PM PDT by Quester
Saturday, August 14, 1999
New ideas about heaven and hell are being suggested
By JUDY TARJANYI
Toledo Blade
A multitude of words about heaven and hell lies within the pages of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the writings of Christianity's church fathers. But when Pope John Paul II chose a few to elaborate on in two recent addresses, he made headlines, even though he was merely drawing on current church teaching in his descriptions of the afterlife.
"The Pope drastically lowered the temperature of hell," crowed a report from the British newspaper, The Guardian. An July 29 article from Reuters News Service said: "Forget the flames and the devils with pitchforks. A week after telling the Roman Catholic faithful that heaven was not up in the clouds, Pope John Paul II said yesterday that hell was not a physical place either."
Even in Italy, home of the Catholic Church's Vatican, the Pope's thoughts on eternity unleashed a discussion in the Italian press in which Catholic theologians weighed in on the subject, according to the National Catholic Register.
In this premillennial time, when mediums who claim to have received reports of the hereafter are frequent guests on TV talk shows and their books are big sellers, no one should be surprised that talk of the afterlife from one of the world's best-known religious leaders would spark the kind of interest it did. The popularity of books by and about such mediums as George Anderson, James Van Praagh, and John Edward in which they share messages from the "other side" that describe what it's like over there indicates people want their curiosity about what comes after death satisfied by more than blind faith.
Such curiosity often stems from the desire to know the state of loved ones who have died. Indeed, much of Anderson's work has been in giving readings, or as he calls them, discernments, to bereaved survivors about their deceased family members. What they have to say is far more detailed than anything the Pope has said in describing heaven and hell, but in some ways it is similar to his characterizations of heaven and hell as closer to a state of being than a place.
The Pope's comments stand in sharp contrast to popular images of heaven as a mass of fluffy clouds and hell as a pit of fire. Heaven, the Pope said, is neither abstraction nor a physical place, but a "living and personal relationship with the Holy Trinity," the Christian understanding of God as one being in three persons of Father,Son, and Holy Spirit. Hell, he said, is "the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy."
However, none of this is new as far as the Catholic Church is concerned, said the Rev. Brian Daley, a Jesuit and professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., who said he found reports of the Pope's talks "completely unremarkable."
"It was kind of a standard Catholic presentation of heaven and hell." The church's view, he said, is based on the Christian hope that the relationship with God begun in this life continues in the next and that humans have the freedom to turn away from that relationship if they choose, knowing that it will lead to destruction. "The rest is imagery about what we can't describe."
Much as the Pope did, the Catholic Catechism describes heaven as a communion of life and love with the Trinity, with Mary the mother of Christ, the angels and "all the blessed." Hell is defined in the text as a state in which the chief punishment is "eternal separation from God."
Father Daley, whose background is in patristics, or the writings of the church fathers, said that the authors of the early church do some of their own imagining about the hereafter. St. Gregory of Nyssa , an early church father, for example, spoke of a spiritual fire, the anguish of knowing one is separated from God and consumed with longing, sadness, and frustration, Father Daley said.
Although St. Gregory offered a spiritual notion of what heaven and hell might be like, he said that humans can only form metaphors or images of it for themselves. "He imagines heaven as a kind of perpetual growth, becoming more and more united with God, more and more satisfied in a sense."
St. Thomas Aquinas, who was called the "Great Synthesizer" because of his ability to relate faith to reason and theology to philosophy, has a lot to say about what heaven and hell might be like, Father Daley said. "He emphasizes that the center of happiness and fulfillment for a person will be the beatific vision, a sort of direct understanding of God which makes us fully happy. He kind of put it in terms of a vision, not just with physical eyes, but with our minds."
Much imagery about the afterlife, however, comes straight from the Bible. In the Christian gospels, Jesus Christ speaks about hell as a fiery place where unrepentant sinners will be cast. Hell as a place of eternal fire where sinners will be thrown forever also is found in some late Jewish writings that would have been written about the time of the Christian scriptures or later, Father Daley said.
The hell of eternal damnation sometimes is confused with the hell to which Jesus is said to have descended after His resurrection from the dead. That hell, however, is seen as a subterranean place, like the Jewish idea of Hades or Sheol, where those who had died were in a kind of waiting room until Christ's resurrection from the dead, when Christians believe He went there to proclaim their redemption.
Images of hell as a fiery place, Father Daley said, are not generally interpreted literally by theologians. "More and more the church has taken these things as being metaphors, a way of imagining what we can know from our present faith: which is to choose not to accept God's love is to choose a situation and image of ourselves that is self-destructive."
Father Daley said one of his favorite presentations on heaven and hell was given as a sermon by John Henry Newman before he converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism in 1845. "He has this idea, which is very fascinating, that heaven and hell are in the same place, that we all come to be in the presence of God, but for the person who has lived in faith, coming into the presence of God is tremendously fulfilling and happy. And for the one who lived for self, power, and material things, it's hell."
People are likely interested in the hereafter, Father Daley said, because of their inherent awareness of the fragility of life. "There is something in us instinctively that doesn't want to see death simply as annihilation of any of us, because our experiences seem to be more long-lasting and valuable than that. We want to believe and have some sort of intuition that there is something permanent in the human person."
Most religious faiths, he said, claim there is some lasting value and existence to individual people, even if they speak of it in poetic ways. When people think about the hereafter, Father Daley said, they draw on their present experience of faith and sense of God and the invisible realm and then imagine what it would be like to share in that in some lasting way.
In art, more of those imaginings seem to deal with hell than with heaven. Hell in art often is depicted with monster images, said Iva Lisikewycz, associate curator of European paintings at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The first devils in art were merely dark figures, meaning that they didn't possess the light, she said. "Early images of devils were fallen angels, and that then was united with the idea of the grotesque, so that devils look like monsters with big teeth, pointy ears, and bat's wings --because they were night creatures."
In one painting of Christ pulling Adam and Eve from hell, hell is seen as a great mouth with flames and tormented creatures within, Lisikewycz said. Heaven is more difficult to depict, she went on. "Very often, it's related to gardens, paradise, the enclosed garden, the idea of water and plant life. "Heaven is where God is and hell is where God isn't. I think that's what his holiness the Pope is talking about now. Just the fact that you should be unhappy you're not there, because those who are are happy."
Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.
yea Steve into ice and steam:>)
it is interesting because the LDS believe our resurrected bodies are made of flesh and bone ,no blood because blood is impure ..
1- BTW, LDS communion uses bread and water as the elements, can water be transsubstantiated yea Steve into ice and steam:>)
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THE DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS SECTION 27
Revelation given to Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Harmony, Pennsylvania, August 1830. HC 1: 106—108. In preparation for a religious service at which the sacrament of bread and wine was to be administered, Joseph set out to procure wine for the occasion. He was met by a heavenly messenger and received this revelation, a portion of which was written at the time, and the remainder in the September following. Water is now used instead of wine in the sacramental services of the Church.
1—4, The emblems to be used in partaking of the sacrament are set forth; 5—14, Christ and his servants from all dispensations are to partake of the sacrament; 15—18, Put on the whole armor of God.
1 LISTEN to the voice of Jesus Christ, your Lord, your God, and your Redeemer, whose word is quick and powerful.
2 For, behold, I say unto you, that it mattereth not what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink when ye partake of the sacrament, if it so be that ye do it with an eye single to my glory—remembering unto the Father my body which was laid down for you, and my blood which was shed for the remission of your sins.
3 Wherefore, a commandment I give unto you, that you shall not purchase wine neither strong drink of your enemies;
4 Wherefore, you shall partake of none except it is made new among you; yea, in this my Father’s kingdom which shall be built up on the earth.
5 Behold, this is wisdom in me; wherefore, marvel not, for the hour cometh that I will drink of the fruit of the vine with you on the earth, and with Moroni, whom I have sent unto you to reveal the Book of Mormon, containing the fulness of my everlasting gospel, to whom I have committed the keys of the record of the stick of Ephraim;
6 And also with Elias, to whom I have committed the keys of bringing to pass the restoration of all things spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began, concerning the last days;
7 And also John the son of Zacharias, which Zacharias he (Elias) visited and gave promise that he should have a son, and his name should be John, and he should be filled with the spirit of Elias;
8 Which John I have sent unto you, my servants, Joseph Smith, Jun., and Oliver Cowdery, to ordain you unto the first priesthood which you have received, that you might be called and ordained even as Aaron;
9 And also Elijah, unto whom I have committed the keys of the power of turning the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, that the whole earth may not be smitten with a curse;
10 And also with Joseph and Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham, your fathers, by whom the promises remain;
11 And also with Michael, or Adam, the father of all, the prince of all, the ancient of days;
12 And also with Peter, and James, and John, whom I have sent unto you, by whom I have ordained you and confirmed you to be apostles, and especial witnesses of my name, and bear the keys of your ministry and of the same things which I revealed unto them;
13 Unto whom I have committed the keys of my kingdom, and a dispensation of the gospel for the last times; and for the fulness of times, in the which I will gather together in one all things, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth;
14 And also with all those whom my Father hath given me out of the world.
15 Wherefore, lift up your hearts and rejoice, and gird up your loins, and take upon you my whole armor, that ye may be able to withstand the evil day, having done all, that ye may be able to stand.
16 Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, which I have sent mine angels to commit unto you;
17 Taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked;
18 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of my Spirit, which I will pour out upon you, and my word which I reveal unto you, and be agreed as touching all things whatsoever ye ask of me, and be faithful until I come, and ye shall be caught up, that where I am ye shall be also. Amen.
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2- it is interesting because the LDS believe our resurrected bodies are made of flesh and bone ,no blood because blood is impure ..
***
The resurrection consists in the uniting of a spirit body with a body of flesh and bones, never again to be divided. The resurrection shall come to all, because of Christ’s victory over death. Jesus Christ was the first to be resurrected on this earth (Acts 26: 23; 1 Cor. 15: 23; Col. 1: 18; Rev. 1: 5; cf. Matt. 27: 52-54). Others had been brought back from death, but were restored to mortality (Mark 5: 22-43; Luke 7: 11-17; John 11: 1-45), whereas a resurrection means to become immortal, without blood, yet with a body of flesh and bone.
All will not be raised to the same glory in the resurrection (1 Cor. 15: 39-42; D&C 76), nor will all come forth at the same time (see 1 Cor. 15: 23; Alma 40: 8). Christ was first; the righteous have precedence over the wicked, and come forth in the first resurrection, whereas the unrepentant sinners come forth in the last resurrection (cf. Rev. 20: 5-13).
True, but water works, and the Holy Spitit is with us.
<> No WINE? What do they think Jesus did at the Wedding Feast at Cana? Change water into , um, water? What do they think Jesus was drinking at the Last Supper, water?<>
But not so fast... You need a Temple Marriage Keep all the rules including 10% to the LDS church, wearing your Temple undergarments, etc. And then get the nod from Joseph Smith who has the keys of the Celestial Kingdom.
<> Ok, I am reconsidering this. No wine but more than one Barbarella....<>
This means the chart is likely right on the money.
***
I come to the conclusion you are dishonest through and through, and you wanted a little fond spot in my heart, Steve ~ you are hopeless!
The Catechism of the Catholic Church
631 Jesus "descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens."[475] The Apostles' Creed confesses in the same article Christ's descent into hell and his Resurrection from the dead on the third day, because in his Passover it was precisely out of the depths of death that he made life spring forth:
Christ, that Morning Star, who came back from the dead, and shed his peaceful light on all mankind, your Son who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.[476]
632 The frequent New Testament affirmations that Jesus was "raised from the dead" presuppose that the crucified one sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection.[477] This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ's descent into hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead. But he descended there as Saviour, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there.[478]
633 Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, "hell" - Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek - because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God.[479] Such is the case for all the dead, whether evil or righteous, while they await the Redeemer: which does not mean that their lot is identical, as Jesus shows through the parable of the poor man Lazarus who was received into "Abraham's bosom":[480] "It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Saviour in Abraham's bosom, whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell."[481] Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him.[482]
634 "The gospel was preached even to the dead."[483] The descent into hell brings the Gospel message of salvation to complete fulfilment. This is the last phase of Jesus' messianic mission, a phase which is condensed in time but vast in its real significance: the spread of Christ's redemptive work to all men of all times and all places, for all who are saved have been made sharers in the redemption.
635 Christ went down into the depths of death so that "the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live."[484] Jesus, "the Author of life", by dying destroyed "him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and [delivered] all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage."[485] Henceforth the risen Christ holds "the keys of Death and Hades", so that "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth."[486]
Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence and a great stillness. A great silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. . . He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow Adam in his bonds and Eve, captive with him - He who is both their God and the son of Eve. . . "I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. . . I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead."[487]
636 By the expression "He descended into hell", the Apostles' Creed confesses that Jesus did really die and through his death for us conquered death and the devil "who has the power of death" (Heb 2:14).
637 In his human soul united to his divine person, the dead Christ went down to the realm of the dead. He opened heaven's gates for the just who had gone before him.
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