Carl:
. . . the remarkable conclusion by Dr. N. Burr Furlong to his warm and fuzzy essay on the role of Judas.
"Perhaps it is now time to reconsider Judas’s role to find in his life an inspiration for loving discipleship rather than the object for our self-righteous condemnation. In this light then, Judas becomes the noblest of the disciples – the one who knowingly took upon himself a role that would earn him the world’s vilification . . . .
Kinda makes you wanna join hands and sing “Kumbayah”, don’t it? I’ve never read anything by Furlong – and it looks like, in future, it’s a name I’ll skip over. I hope no one is tempted to lump me in with his ilk (and it’s been a long, long time since I’ve used the word “ilk”).
My, what a fascinating thread this has been!
Some of the Eastern Orthodox fathers had a unique way of looking at the afterlife: that the Light of Heaven and the Fires of Hell
are the same thing. Both are manifestations of the Glory and Presence of God. Both are
Reality. Some will choose to reject that Reality, but they can no longer escape it. God
in His Mercy seperates those who eternally attempt to reject the Reality that is *right before them always * from those who joyfully accept it – after all, for the two groups to be forever “together” would make the experience of the “acceptors” less “heavenly” and that of the “rejectors” all the more “hellish”. What
makes heaven heaven and hell hell
is within the souls themselves.
Is hell “empty”? That would certainly make Lucifer’s punishment more “hellish”, would it not? Whether hell is empty or not, I think it would be more prudent (keeping in mind to avoid speculating on the state of specific individuals now deceased) to *always assume that it is not * – to assume otherwise would be one of those slippery intellectual slopes too easily used to rationalize giving in to our own sinful desires (as in “What difference will it ultimately make? Hell is ‘empty’.”).
I get the feeling that there will be quite a few surprises (for us humans, anyway) at the Last Judgement: people we would never have allowed into our own personal “heaven” may well be welcomed warmly. we get a little hint of this in the “epilogue” of the Prodigal Son parable. While most of us remember most vividly that son being welcomed by his father, sometimes ignore tha other part: the undeniably upright, responsible, dutiful son who feels understandably (in human terms) miffed at his father’s largesse toward a son who – dare I say it? – betrayed him (okay, I’ll modify that by adding “…in a sense”).
I see another can on the shelf, plainly marked “Worms”. Let’s open it, shall we? Well know that there are certain things that we are required to do: we must be baptised with water and the Spirit, we must eat Christ’s Flesh and drink His Blood (or we have no life in us), we must forgive, if we wish to be forgiven, we must turn from our sins (again and again – and
again, in my feeble experience), confess Christ and believe in Him in our hearts, and so on (just a few here; you needn’t post will all the ones I “forgot”…). I plead ignorance, so educate me: in what part of Scripture or in the teachings of the Church does it say that one must do these things
before the time of death, or we cannot be saved? We are saved by Faith, surely – but
Love (or “Charity”, depending on your version of the Bible)
is greater than Faith ("…Faith, Hope, and Love abide, these three – but
the Greast of these is Love…")
“It is appointed for Man once to die, and then the Judgement…” Note what it does NOT say: “…and then the
Punishment.” Judgement is not punishment. If we stand before an
earthly judge, after being found “guilty” of a certain statute, are we not still given an opportunity for mercy? Christ’s is definitely the only name by which we are saved – aren’t we being a little presumptuous is believing that the poor
human – living in a world in which Truth is often shrouded – must invoke (or even be exprected to *know enough * to invoke) that Name? Much of the human race throughout history has never heard of Chirst. No matter how firmly or fervently we
Christians believe in Christ, our perceptions are just as flawed as out humanity, are they not?
I know the Catholic Church has always leaned on the side of God’s Mercy, so I suppose my questions are directed more toward our “Sola Scriptura” bretheren (who rely on a Canon of Scripture collated by Saint Jerome at the command of
the Pope, oddly enough – though often, they use a severely edited OT).
