Why is God so different in the OT?

[Fidelis]

Fidelis:
I don’t understand how this can be correct. I mean, the Day of Judgment hasn’t even happened yet. The dead have not risen (1 Thesselonians). Furthermore, the dead know “not any thing” (Ecc 9:5). There are also countless examples of death described as being asleep. If judgment day is when we are all judged, how can people already be in hell? Furthermore, Jesus descended into hell. This makes perfect sense only if hell means the grave. I don’t think it makes sense that Jesus would be sent to a fiery pit to be tortured. Nor do I think there is any number of sins you can commit that would justify torture for eternity. God is a just God. A just God would not do that.God destroys things that offend him; He does not torture them.

The concept of “soul sleep” as you describe is based on a misunderstanding of the use of the term in the Bible. Early Christians used it as a euphemism for death. For example, in Acts 7:60, after Stephen was stoned, it says he “fell asleep.” Since “devout men came and buried him” (Acts 8:2), we know he died.

When we say that Jesus descended in to hell (see 1 Peter 3:19; 4:6) , what is not meant is the hell of the damned, but what is also called “hades” or “sheol” by the Jews. It was a shadowy place of the dead where souls went before heaven was opened to them. It was a temporary place of comfort for the just, and torment of the wicked. The story of Lazarus and the Rich Man may be a description of this (Luke 6:19-31).

An eternal hell makes just as make sense as an eternal heaven: why should we be rewarded eternally if we can’t be punished eternally? Nowhere in the Bible does it say that souls are “annihilated.” In fact, both heaven and hell are described as eternal (see Matthew 25). To say that a just God wouldn’t do that overlooks the fact that God doesn’t send us to hell–we make that choice for ourselves in this life.

As for the rest of your questions, here is what the Church has to say, in a nut-shell:

When each of us dies, our souls are immediately taken to the presence of God and judged. This is called the Particular Judgment. At this point we begin our eternal destiny. If we are going to hell, our souls go directly there. If we are deemed worthy of heaven, our souls will go directly to heaven, or if we are going to heaven but are in need of purification, we may go to Purgatory first (everyone in Purgatory will eventually go to heaven). Whatever our fate, our souls will stay there until the end of time.

At the Second Coming at the end of time, those Christians still alive will be taken to heaven (what some Protestants think of as of the rapture). Then will occur the General Judgment. At that time the living and the dead will be reunited with their bodies and brought together in God’s presence and judged before all. Those who have already been judged in the Particular Judgment will be brought from wherever their souls were -heaven, hell or Purgatory-- and have their judgment confirmed before all.

After this, time and Purgatory will be no more and all will enter with their souls and bodies into their eternal destiny, either hell or heaven.

This is an extremely bare-bones sketch, so if you want to get the details, see the five articles I linked below:

rosary-center.org/ll57n1.htm
rosary-center.org/ll57n2.htm
rosary-center.org/ll57n3.htm
rosary-center.org/ll57n4.htm
rosary-center.org/ll49n6.htm

 

[dkward2]

Good post and thank you for taking the time to make it. I found a lot of it very interesting. As you may have realized, I am not Catholic, but I am always interested in learning the teachings of other religions.

I knew there are two deaths. The second death occurs after the second coming. However, I was unaware that people were judged twice.

Revelations 20:11-15 seem to say that hell gives up the good and bad, and that each one is there judged by what is in the Book of Life.

However, I read what you linked to about the Particular Judgment. It gives three good examples of immediate judgment that I hadn’t thought of in that light.