Question on Tollhouses

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I understand the teaching/theory on tollhouses is more of an Eastern Orthodox position than an Eastern Catholic one. I’ve tried reading about it online but a lot of the orthodox lingo gets lost in translation for me. Can someone summarize what the belief in tollhouses is? I understand it’s akin to Purgatory though it functions in a completely separate way? Almost like a test? Am I close on this one?
 
While there are some parallels between purgatory and the aerial realm, the spiritual realm where these tollhouses lie, I would equate them more to a demonic form of judgement before coming to heaven. In the soul’s journey in this aerial realm, they come into these tollhouses. Inside, there is a demon who accuses you of your sins which are attributed to that tollhouse: lies, lust, anger, magic, etc. If you cannot offer up good deeds which you have done to balance these sins, you cannot pay the toll and the demon drags you to hell.

Generally, modern Orthodox Christian bishops have condemned tollhouses as a form of gnosticism.

Hope this helps.

God Bless,
Br. Ben, CRM
 
It does. So most Orthodox Christians no longer hold to this teaching? I encountered a small group on a facebook page that were pushing it as though it were dogma. But, the internet being the internet, I wanted to do my own research and outreach first before re-engaging them.
 
It was probably from the Orthodox Church of America. One of their Archbishops, Lazar Puhalo, was a defrocked deacon from the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad who was expelled specifically for the issue of promoting tollhouses as part of legitimate Orthodox theology.

There is evidence in many of the Orthodox spiritual writers of the concept of tollhouses, but it is primarily seen nowadays as a popular allegorical accounting of sins rather than an event on another plane of being.
 
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I’ve heard and seen various explanations. For example, some claim the dead must travel through several aerial toll booths manned by demons who judge all the departed one’s sins to see if the departed one’s soul belongs in heaven or hell (I don’t think this is compatible with the faith). On the other hand, some say they are part of a process where satisfaction is exacted for particular sins before the soul can enter Heaven–in other words, it seems compatible with the dogma of Purgatory. For example, here’s how St. Cyril of Alexandria puts it:

St. Cyril of Alexandria, Homily on the Departure of the Soul
At Our soul’s separation from the body, there will stand before us on one side warriors and powers of Heaven, and on the other side the powers of darkness, the princes of this world, the aerial publicans, the torturers, the prosecutors of our deeds… Seeing them, the soul is dismayed, it shudders, and in consternation and horror will seek protection from the angels of God; but being received by the holy angels and passing through the aerial space, lifted on high under their protection, it encounters the toll-booths, as it were, certain gates or toll houses in which taxes are exacted which will bar its way into the Kingdom, will halt and hold back its progress towards it. At each of these toll-booths an account is demanded for particular sins.
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Here, the soul is held back from entering the Kingdom, not permanently, but until the taxes are paid. This seems to line up with other expressions of the EO doctrine on the final purification, which seem just like ours:

Synod of Jerusalem 1672
And the souls of those involved in mortal sins, who have not departed in despair but while still living in the body, though without bringing forth any fruits of repentance, have repented — by pouring forth tears, by kneeling while watching in prayers, by afflicting themselves, by relieving the poor, and finally by showing forth by their works their love towards God and their neighbor, and which the Catholic Church has from the beginning rightly called satisfaction — [their souls] depart into Hades, and there endure the punishment due to the sins they have committed. But they are aware of their future release from there, and are delivered by the Supreme Goodness, through the prayers of the Priests, and the good works which the relatives of each do for their Departed; especially the unbloody Sacrifice benefiting the most; which each offers particularly for his relatives that have fallen asleep, and which the Catholic and Apostolic Church offers daily for all alike. Of course, it is understood that we do not know the time of their release. We know and believe that there is deliverance for such from their direful condition, and that before the common resurrection and judgment, but when we know not.
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You should pay when you go through a toll house or get a Texdot sticker wherby they take money directly from your account.
 
Any notion that righteous deeds can offset the guilt of sin or that sins which have been absolved can still condemn the sinner to Hell is heretical. Only by grace is the sinner pardoned, and anyone who dies in a state of grace will get to Heaven eventually. Depending on the sins one has committed and the acts of charity and penance one has done, the soul may have to pass through Purgatory, or even stay there until Judgment Day, but every soul in Purgatory will go to Heaven one day, and no later than Judgment Day at that.
 
As for the limbo thing, let’s not reduce this disputed question to pure emotivist discourse. What may not seem fair to you may be ontologically necessary in the eyes of God. Frankly these children do not have the grace or merit necessary to reach heaven, neither have they committed actual sins. There must metaphysically be a middle ground.
 
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It can, but it doesn’t make it any less true. However, I hope there’s some factor Aquinas didn’t take into account. Beatitude is by far greater than natural happiness.
 
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I think there are similarities between this and the Catholic c0ncept of purgatory. The Aerial Toll House concept seems to imply some intermediate state between life and ascent to Heaven or descent to Hell. Somewhat like Purgatory the individual seems to be on a path to heaven but is reminded of their sins in an enticement by demons to make them feel unworthy. They are guided and protected by a Guardian Angel on their ascent. In the reading of its accts the journey seem terrifying but also possibly reassuring that you are ultimately ascending to heaven.
 
CRM_Brother said:
It was probably from the Orthodox Church of America. One of their Archbishops, Lazar Puhalo, was a defrocked deacon from the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad who was expelled specifically for the issue of promoting tollhouses as part of legitimate Orthodox theology.

There is evidence in many of the Orthodox spiritual writers of the concept of tollhouses, but it is primarily seen nowadays as a popular allegorical accounting of sins rather than an event on another plane of being.
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The amazing things I learn and hear on CAF. Thanks, again, for this authoritative comment @CRM_Brother.
 
Inside, there is a demon who accuses you of your sins which are attributed to that tollhouse: lies, lust, anger, magic, etc. “If you cannot offer up good deeds which you have done to balance these sins, you cannot pay the toll and the demon drags you to hell.”

This sounds an awful lot like “earning” ones way into Heaven. I’m surprised the Orthodox would hold to such an unbiblical notion. Our good works certainly don’t counteract our sins. We can’t measure our salvation.

Thank you for your insight. God Bless!
 
I think Limbo seems like a mercy since the alternative would mean that unbaptized babies go straight to hell. That is, from what I understand, been the official stance (not necessarily defined teaching) of the Church. Only recently (Vatican II era) has the Church been flirting with the idea that unbaptized babies might go to Heaven. My sister had a miscarriage so I very much want to believe that unbaptized babies go to Heaven since they do not have any “actual” sin.

Eastern Catholics do not believe in original sin the way we Latin Catholics understand it. They see original sin as our mark as fallen creatures, prone to death (of the body and of the soul-without Christ’s intervention). Who is to say who has the right of it? The more I read about Eastern Catholicism, the more I find peace in their teachings and the more I feel the need to become a Byzantine Catholic.
 
Rather than support Aerial Toll Houses, I thought Puhlo spoke out agaist them . So much so He actually called Toll Houses heretical. Am I wrong on this? Father Seraphim Rose was a big supporter of the concept and cited many early church Fathers back it. You can read about it in his book, The Soul After Death.
 
I apologize for my mistake, you are correct. I rechecked my source and found that the mention of Pulho had since been edited, correcting a misprint.

Thank you for the correction.
 
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