Paradise of Christians. What heaven looks like in different religions. Love gives names

The Second Coming of Christ, the resurrection of bodies, the presence of people at the Last Judgment and the final decision of their subsequent eternal fate - all this ends in heaven or hell. The righteous will inherit paradise, eternal blissful life, and the sinners will inherit hell. Paradise was at the beginning of human history. At the end of it, there will be not only heaven, but also hell. After all, the Holy Scriptures speak of both heaven and hell.

The teaching of Holy Scripture that man, after his creation, was placed in paradise, and subsequently, having lost communion with God, lost it, is the key. Since the time of the fall, the desire to regain the life of paradise continues to live in man. By His incarnation, Christ gave every person the opportunity to acquire communion with the Trinity God and return to paradise. Now a person, especially one who lives in the Church, must struggle throughout his life and try to keep the commandments of God in order to partake of divine grace, be saved and re-enter Paradise.

Paradise is spoken of in three places in the New Testament. The first place is Christ's promise given to the thief crucified with Him: “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). The Paradise that Christ speaks of is the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of God and paradise, which is very characteristic, are identified. The thief asks Christ: “Remember me, Lord, when you come into Your Kingdom!” (Luke 23:42) - and Christ promises him entrance to paradise. The interpretation of the blessed Theophylact on this place is noteworthy: “For the thief, although already in paradise, or in the kingdom, and not only he, but also all those numbered by Paul, nevertheless he does not enjoy the entire possession of goods.”

The second passage that speaks of paradise is found in the Epistle of the Apostle Paul; it is connected with his personal experience: “And I know about such a person (I just don’t know - in the body or out of the body: God knows) that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words that a person cannot retell” (2 Cor. 12 , 3-4).

Interpreting this passage, St. Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer says that “paradise is a Persian word meaning a garden planted with various trees...” At the same time, he says that the “rapture” of the Apostle Paul into paradise, according to some interpreters, means that "he was initiated into the mysterious and inexpressible words about paradise, which are hidden from us to this day." As St. Maximus the Confessor says, during contemplation, the Apostle Paul ascended to the third heaven, that is, he passed through the “three heavens” - active wisdom, natural contemplation, and esoteric theology, which is the third heaven - and from there he was caught up into paradise. So he was initiated into the mystery of what the two trees were - the tree of life, which grew in the middle of paradise, and the tree of knowledge, into the mystery of who the cherub was and what the fiery sword was, with which he guarded the entrance to Eden, and also into all the other great truths presented by the Old Testament.

The third place is found in the Revelation of John. The Bishop of Ephesus, among other things, says: “To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God” (Rev. 2:7). According to St. Andrew of Caesarea, the tree of life allegorically means eternal life. That is, God gives the promise to "participate in the blessings of the age to come." And according to the interpretation of Aretha of Caesarea, "paradise is a blessed and eternal life."

Therefore, paradise, eternal life and the Kingdom of Heaven are one and the same reality. We will not now delve into the analysis of the correlation of the concept of "paradise" with the concepts of "Kingdom of God" and "Kingdom of Heaven". The main thing is obvious: paradise is eternal life in communion and unity with the Trinity God.

The word "hell" (Greek - flour) comes from a verb and has two meanings. The first meaning is “to cut the branches of the tree”, the second is “to punish”. The word is used in Holy Scripture mainly in the second sense. Moreover, in the sense that it is not God who punishes a person, but a person punishes himself, because he does not accept the gift of God. Breaking communion with God is punishment, especially if we remember that man is created in the image and likeness of God, and this is precisely the deepest meaning of his existence.

Two scriptures clearly speak of hell.

One of them is in the gospel text, where Christ speaks of the future Judgment. Christ said: “And these shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46). If this verse is connected with the previous one, “depart from Me, you cursed, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41), then it becomes clear that hell is identified here with eternal fire, which is prepared not for man, but for the devil and his angels.

The second place of Holy Scripture, which contains the word hell, is in the message of the Evangelist John: “Perfect love casts out fear, because in fear there is torment. He who fears is imperfect in love” (1 John 4, 18). Of course, hell is not spoken of here as a mode of existence for sinners after the Second Coming of Christ, but as a state of torment that is alien to love and therefore associated with fear.

In addition, the state of hell is conveyed in the Holy Scriptures by the following words and expressions: “eternal fire” (Matt. 25:41), “outer darkness” (Matt. 25:30), “gehenna fiery” (Matt. 5:22), and etc.

The same sun "enlightens the healthy eye and darkens the sick." Obviously, it is not the sun that is to blame, but the state of the eye. The same thing will happen at the Second Coming of Christ. One and the same Christ “lies to fall and rise: to fall for the unbelievers and for the faithful to rise.”

Therefore, according to St. Gregory the Theologian, both heaven and hell are the same God, because everyone partakes of His energy in accordance with their state of mind. In one of his doxologies, Saint Gregory exclaims: “O Trinity, by which I have been honored to be an unfeigned servant and preacher! O Trinity, which will someday be known to all, some in radiance, others in torment.

I would also like to mention St. Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, who also insisted on this teaching. Turning to the words of John the Forerunner, which he said about Christ, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt. 3:11; Lk. 3:16), St. Gregory says that here the Forerunner reveals the truth that people will perceive accordingly either the tormenting or enlightening quality of grace. Here are his words: “He, says (the Forerunner), will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire, showing an enlightening and tormenting property, when each person receives an appropriate disposition.”

In addition, from the teaching of the Church we know that the uncreated grace of God receives various names depending on the nature of the action it performs. If it purifies a person, then it is called purifying; if it enlightens, it is enlightening; if it deifies, it is deifying. Also, sometimes it is called natural, sometimes life-giving, and sometimes wise. Consequently, the whole creation partakes of the uncreated grace of God, but partakes in different ways. Therefore, we must distinguish for ourselves the deifying grace, with which the saints partake, from other manifestations of the same Divine grace.

The ascetic experience of the saints confirms that at the beginning of their journey they feel the grace of God as a fire that scorches the passions, and later, as the heart is purified, they begin to feel it as light. And modern God-seers confirm that the more a person repents and in the process of his feat receives the experience of hell by grace, the more this uncreated grace can, unexpectedly for the ascetic himself, be transformed into light. The same grace of God, which first purifies a person like fire, begins to be contemplated as light when he reaches a great degree of repentance and purification.

I will give two simple examples to show that the above teaching is the conviction and experience of the entire Church.

The first example is Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. Divine Communion acts in accordance with the state of a person. If a person is unclean, it scorches him, but if he strives to purify himself or, moreover, is already in a state of deification, it acts in a different way.

The Apostle Paul writes about this to the Corinthians: "Whoever eats this bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:27). Below he confirms his thought: “Therefore, many of you are weak and sick, and many die” (1 Corinthians 11:30). And this happens because “he who eats and drinks unworthily, he eats and drinks condemnation to himself” (1 Corinthians 11:29). Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, becoming life for people purified and deified, for the unclean is condemnation and death, even bodily death. Many illnesses, and sometimes even death, as the Apostle Paul affirms, are caused by the unworthy Communion of the Blessed Gifts. Therefore, the Apostle gives this advice: “Let a man examine himself, and in this way let him eat from this bread and drink from this cup” (1 Corinthians 11:28).

Another example is from icon painting, which, of course, is a visible expression of the teachings of the Church. On the image of the Second Coming, as it is presented in the vestibules of the monastery churches, we see the following: from the throne of God comes light, embracing the saints, and from the same throne of God comes a river of fire, scorching unrepentant sinners. The source of both light and fire is one and the same. This is a wonderful expression of the teaching of the Holy Fathers of the Church, the teaching we have considered above about the two actions of Divine grace - enlightening or scorching, depending on the state of a person.

1. Paradise and hell are the actions of God's grace on people, uncreated actions. According to the holy Fathers of the Church, the created paradise and created hell, about which the Franco-Latin tradition teaches, do not exist. Frankish Catholic theologians, following Augustine, considered the fire of hell to be created. They believed that those in hell would not see God. Dante's Hell, his descriptions of hellish torments are widely known. The Franks believed that the world consists of three levels: an unchanging heaven for the blessed, a changeable earth for testing people, and the underworld for those in the torments of hell and in the torments of purification (which results in the teaching of Catholic theologians about the fire of purgatory). In some cases, paradise is called not only light, but also darkness. From the point of view of linguistics, these words express opposite meanings: light is opposite to darkness, and darkness is opposite to light. But in the patristic tradition, the Divine light "because of the lordship surpassing all" is sometimes called darkness. Hell is also described in the form of "fire-darkness". Although these two words are also opposite to each other.

That is, hell is neither fire nor darkness in any of the senses known to us. Likewise, paradise is neither light nor darkness, as we know them. Therefore, in order to avoid confusion of concepts, the Holy Fathers prefer apophatic terminology.

One thing is clear: both heaven and hell are not created realities - they are uncreated. Both the righteous and the sinners will see God in the future life. But while the righteous will be in blessed fellowship with Him, sinners will be deprived of this fellowship. This is evident from the parable of the mad rich man. The rich man saw Abraham and Lazarus in his bosom, but did not have fellowship with God and therefore was on fire. He perceived God as an external scorching action. That is, this parable expresses the actual state of things. Truth is conveyed in the form of an allegory.

2. The difference in the experience of receiving Divine grace will depend on the spiritual state of people, on the degree of their inner purity. Therefore, purification is required already in this life. Purification, according to the Holy Fathers, should be carried out mainly in the heart and mind of a person. The mind is the “dominant” of the soul; through the mind, a person joins God. As a result of the fall, the mind of man was darkened. He was identified with logical thinking, merged with passions, mixed with the surrounding world. Now the purification of the mind is necessary.

St. Gregory the Theologian speaks about this succinctly: “Therefore, first purify yourself, and then talk with the Pure One.” If, however, someone desires to reach God and acquire knowledge of Him, without having first passed through the appropriate test, which consists in the purification of the heart, then something will happen that we so often encounter in Holy Scripture, about which St. Gregory speaks. What will happen is what happened to the people of Israel, who could not look at the face of Moses shining with the grace of God. What happened to Manoah, who exclaimed: “We perished, wife, because we saw God” (cf. Judges 13:22). What happened to the apostle Peter, who, after the miracle of catching fish, said: “Get out of me, Lord! because I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8). The same thing will happen as with the Apostle Paul, who, not yet cleansed, suddenly saw Christ persecuted by him and lost his sight. What happened to the centurion who asked Christ for healing can also happen. He trembled and therefore prayed to the Lord not to enter his house, for which he received praise from Him. Giving the last example, St. Gregory the Theologian makes one remark. If one of us is still a “centurion”, that is, he works for the “prince of this world” and is therefore unclean, let him also acquire the sensations of a centurion and say with him: “I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof” (Matt. .8,8). However, let him not always remain in such a conviction. But desiring to see Christ, let him do what Zacchaeus did; having first ascended the fig tree, that is, “having killed the members of the earth and having transcended the body of humility,” let him receive the Word of God into the house of his soul.
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Hierotheos (Vlachos)- Metropolitan of Navpaktsky and Svyatovlasievsky, Greek Orthodox Church.

Born in 1945 in Ioannina (Greece). From 1964 to 1968 studied at the theological faculty of the University of Thessaloniki. In 1971 he was ordained a deacon, and the following year a priest. Until 1987 he served in the Metropolis of Edessa, then in the Metropolis of Thebes and Levadia, and until 1995 he served in the Archdiocese of Athens. All this time he was engaged in church preaching and missionary work with youth. He represented the Church of Greece in various public organizations to address the problems of demography, drug addiction, hunger and poverty, as well as organizations that support people with Down syndrome and their families.

For three years he taught Greek and bioethics at the Lebanese theological school "Saint John of Damascus". In addition, he was the leader and teacher of various theological schools and courses for candidates for the priesthood.

In 1995 he was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan Nafpakt and St. Vlasia.

Vladyka Hierofey is known as a prolific writer - about 70 books by the Metropolitan, written in the spirit of the Orthodox patristic tradition, are devoted to various topical issues of the Church. Many of these books have been repeatedly reprinted in Greek. About 60 works of the Metropolitan were translated into 20 foreign languages.

Paradise is what people call the highest bliss that a person can experience. The Bible gives a description of paradise in Orthodoxy on various levels: spiritual, spiritual and physical. Very often, Christians call the Kingdom of Heaven a paradise, a place given by the Creator for a happy life for the glory of the Creator.

Eden - heaven on earth

By carefully reading the Bible, we see that the word "paradise" is first described in Genesis 2:8.

Before that, the Almighty created Heaven and earth, luminaries, plants and wildlife, and only then in the east he founded the paradise of Eden, the location of which can be determined by a geographical map. The Bible says that one river flowed out of Eden, which divided into four: Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates.

garden of eden

If the first two rivers have sunk into oblivion, then the Tigris and Euphrates exist to this day, which serves as an indisputable proof of the existence of Eden for atheists. Modern Christians equate the concepts of paradise and Eden, although Eden is the name of the area, and paradise is the place of residence of the Divine essence. Amazing is the mercy of the Lord and His concern for His children. The loving Father first prepared everything for the bliss of the first people, and then created them themselves.

Adam and Eve were expelled from the place of bliss, but the first earthly couple did not lose the love of God. Adam and Eve could be in direct communication with the Creator, they saw Him and were filled with His mercy. It is difficult to imagine the feelings of people who were "shrouded" in the Creator's love.

In the arrangement of the Garden of Eden, the theologians of the world traced three components connected together:

• Eden;
• external world.

Eden became the prototype for the creation of the tabernacle, a tent created according to the descriptions given by the Creator. The Tabernacle served as a place of temple services for the Jews during their journey through the wilderness and consisted of the Holy of Holies - paradise, the Sanctuary - Eden, the outer court - the outer world.

The Tabernacle and Ministry in It

In the arrangement of modern temples, one can also draw a parallel with the habitat of the first people. The altar is a symbol of the heavenly corner, the meal is associated with Eden, and the porch is a symbol of the outside world.

You should not look for the location of the Garden of Eden on modern maps, because it was created before the flood, after which the earth's crust changed.

For Orthodox believers, the Garden of Eden has become a place given by the Creator, where there is no suffering, no illness, no death itself. Great is the promise of the Most High given in the Revelation of John. It says that on earth a heavenly corner will be restored. (Rev. 21:1)

Important! The description of paradise in Orthodoxy implies not only the geographical location of the Garden of Eden, but the bliss of being in the love of the Creator in spirit and soul, both now and in eternity.

Kingdom of God - heavenly Eden

A great consolation for people who have lost their loved ones is a possible meeting in heaven. The kingdom of heaven promised by Jesus Christ is in heaven and on earth, in the hearts of Christians.

The purpose of earthly life, filled with suffering, wars, cataclysms, excitement for tomorrow and their descendants, is the transition to Heavenly Jerusalem.

In Matthew 25:34 there is a promise to inherit the prepared corner of Eden in Heaven, Jesus promises to drink wine with his disciples in the kingdom of the Father. (Matthew 26:29)

The Revelation of John describes heaven in heaven, which the prophet saw with his own eyes.

Vision of John the Evangelist

According to the testimonies of St. Theodora, St. Euphrosyne, St. Andrew the Holy Fool (each of them at one time was raised into heaven to the third heaven), a heavenly corner exists.

Testimony of Andrey Yurodivy

I saw myself clothed in the brightest robe, as if woven from lightning; a crown was on my head, woven from great flowers, and I was girded with a royal belt.

Rejoicing at this beauty, marveling with my mind and heart at the inexpressible beauty of God's paradise, I walked around it and rejoiced. There were many gardens with tall trees: they swayed with their peaks and amused the eyesight, a great fragrance emanated from their branches ... It is impossible to liken those trees to any earthly tree: God's hand, not a human one, planted them. There were countless birds in these gardens ...

I saw a great river flowing in the midst (gardens) and filling them. There was a vineyard on the other side of the river... Quiet and fragrant winds breathed there from four sides; gardens swayed from their breath and made a marvelous noise with their leaves ... After that, we entered a wonderful flame, which did not scorch us, but only enlightened us.

I began to be horrified, and again the angel who guided me turned to me and gave me his hand, saying: “We must ascend even higher.” With this word, we found ourselves above the third heaven, where I saw and heard a multitude of heavenly powers singing and glorifying God... (Climbing still higher), I saw my Lord, as once Isaiah the prophet, sitting on a high and exalted throne, surrounded by seraphim.

He was clothed in a scarlet robe, His face shone with unspeakable light, and He lovingly turned His eyes to me. Seeing Him, I fell before Him on my face... What joy then from seeing His face seized me, it is impossible to express, so even now, remembering this vision, I am filled with indescribable sweetness. prepared for those who love God,” and heard “the voice of joy and spiritual gladness.”

Kingdom of God within man

The message of the Kingdom of God, given by Jesus Christ, runs like a red thread through the entire New Testament. The Creator is love, filled with this feeling for other people, a person fills his heart with special bliss, heavenly paradise.

Jesus Christ sent His disciples to bring people the good news about the future life in eternity. (Luke 9:2)

Realizing the truth of the existence of a corner of bliss in heaven, a person ceases to be afraid of death, he tries to live his earthly, very short path so that he can spend his eternal life not in hell, but surrounded by angels and the light of the Holy Trinity. A churched person, filled with the love reigning in the Orthodox Church, performs the feat of preparation for the transition to Heavenly Jerusalem with his earthly life.

Forgiveness of sins from God

One of the ways Orthodox can get surrounded by angels in heaven is forgiveness. Throughout his earthly life, a person voluntarily or involuntarily offends people, and he himself takes offense at them. The Holy Church, by the great Grace of the Creator, bestowed upon the faithful people the sacraments of Communion and Confession.

Read about confession and communion:

• What prayers are usually read before confession and communion?

The response of the truly Orthodox to the words "Forgive me" is striking, after which it sounds "God will forgive." People have great confidence in God, if a person has forgiven from a pure heart, then the Almighty will surely forgive, this is His promise. "God will forgive" is not just an excuse, it is faith in the love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Very often an Orthodox person, weak in spirit, looks at the sins of another and compares his life with someone else's. The worst thing is that on the Day of Judgment, every believer and non-believer will have to meet God face to face, and there will be no relatives, relatives, neighbors and friends nearby. Everyone will give an answer on their own, why they did not accept Jesus Christ in their hearts, did not receive an “entrance ticket” to heavenly paradise.

The Son of God said that only He is the road leading to God the Father. (John 14:1-6) Only I have faith in Christ, through His revelations a person is transformed from within, filling his heart with the Kingdom of God.

According to Metropolitan Hilarion, paradise is a state of a person's soul, a bliss that can only be felt by the Orthodox who are filled with the love of the Creator. The statements of the metropolitan echo the words of the Evangelist Luke, who wrote that the Kingdom of God is within Christians. (Luke 17:20)

Learning to serve God through love for people, to become the hands of Jesus on earth, to fill the world with Christian love - these are the ways to fill the hearts of Orthodox with the presence of God.

Return of paradise to earth

Psalm 37:29 states that the truly righteous will be the heirs of the new earth that God will create on our planet. Based on the prayer "Our Father", one can trace the idea that Christ indicated to Christians the coming of the Kingdom of God to earth.

Our Father who art in heaven! May your name be hallowed; let your kingdom come; may Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven

New Heaven and New Earth in the Bible

The prophet Daniel (Dan. 2:44) wrote about the world government on earth, headed by Christ, when God's government will gather the nations and a new paradise will reign.

The new time was also preached by the prophet Isaiah, promising that the old times would seem like a terrible dream. On the new Mount Zion there will be joy and gladness, and sorrow and sorrow will be removed.

Say to the timid in soul: be firm, do not be afraid; behold your God, vengeance will come, the recompense of God; He will come and save you.

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be opened.

Then the lame one will spring up like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb one will sing; for waters will break through in the desert, and streams in the steppe.

And the phantom of the waters will turn into a lake, and the thirsty earth into fountains of waters; in the dwelling of the jackals, where they rest, there will be a place for reeds and reeds.

And there will be a great road, and the way along it will be called the holy way: the unclean will not walk on it, but it will be for them alone. Those who follow this path, even the inexperienced, will not get lost.

The lion will not be there, and the predatory beast will not climb on it; he will not be found there, but the redeemed will walk.

And those redeemed by the Lord will return, they will come to Zion with a joyful exclamation; and eternal joy will be over their heads; they will find joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing will be removed.

The prophet John was instructed to tell people the good news that God promises to return paradise to earth as it was in Eden without pain, sorrow and problems. New Jerusalem, the kingdom of joy, love and bliss is described in the 21st chapter of Revelation, the apostle emphasizes that at this time people again receive the gift of seeing and communicating with the Creator.

In order to meet God in the future, according to Archpriest Chaplin, you need to be filled with faith in God so that you know Him on the earthly level and be sure that you will recognize the Creator in heaven, and He will recognize you.

God offers people His love in exchange for fidelity, obedience, and then He will fill the believers with wisdom on one condition - they will not independently seek the truth, eating the fruit of Good and Evil, eating sin.

Important! A person who tries on his own, without knowing God's instructions, to deal with sins and righteousness will surely be blinded by the devil through money, sex, power, pride and unforgiveness. Only the word of God reveals true paradise - the bliss of being in God's presence.

What is paradise in Orthodoxy and how to get there

It is difficult to talk about heaven for several reasons. One of them is that in our ordinary language there are no suitable words, and we do not know the heavenly language. We have words for tables and chairs, computers and telephones, stairs and elevators - things we deal with all the time. But heaven is beyond our experience; it is difficult for us to talk about it, as, for example, it is difficult for a blind person to talk about color, and for babies in the womb (if they could talk) it would be difficult to talk about the world that awaits them after birth. We believe that we have to see the light, to be born into another life, but it is difficult for us to understand what kind of world awaits us. But does it make sense in this case to start this conversation at all? Yes. It cannot be said that we do not know anything at all - both Scripture and Tradition tell us about paradise, and we must pay attention to these words and try to understand them. When it comes to spiritual realities, language inevitably becomes figurative, metaphorical; and Scripture speaks of heaven in familiar terms.

Home, Garden, City, Kingdom, Wedding Feast

In our country, the word "metaphor" is often associated with something vague and unrealistic. In fact, we are talking about things in the highest degree concrete and real. You cannot explain to an African what snow is like without resorting to allegories, but you (unlike your interlocutor) know that snow is absolutely real, you remember how it melts in your hands and crunches under your feet. Paradise is absolutely real, genuine, undoubted - more real than the world we live in now - but we can only speak of it figuratively. Various metaphors can be useful because in our world, in our experience, there are glimpses of paradise - we live in a fallen world, but not in hell, and those good and good things that we know can serve as pointers to us.

For we know says the apostle, that when our earthly house, this hut, is destroyed, we have from God a dwelling in heaven, a house not made by hands, eternal. That is why we sigh, desiring to put on our heavenly habitation(2 Cor 5 :1,2). Paradise is our home; we are for him, and he is for us. We do not go to a distant land; on the contrary, we return home. Sergei Yesenin has famous lines: “If the holy army shouts: /“ Throw you Russia, live in paradise! / I will say: “There is no need for paradise, / give me my homeland.” It may be great poetry, but it is a misconception about paradise. Paradise is our true Motherland, and what is holy in holy Russia carries the reflections of paradise, points to paradise and will definitely be in paradise. It may be remembered that at the other end of Christian Europe, in the Celtic world, holy places, such as the famous monastery of Aion, were called "thin" - places where the heavens "shine" through the earthly landscape - for those who have eyes to see them. The beauty of the universe - as well as the beauty of the Church - helps us, albeit "guessingly, as through a dull glass", to see the reflections of paradise.

Scripture calls paradise a city - heavenly Jerusalem. It must be said that the "city" in biblical times was not like a modern metropolis, where people, even squeezed in a subway car, remain strangers to each other. The city was an organism, a unity in which people were bound together by bonds of mutual fidelity, common memory and common hope. Saved, as the prophet says, inscribed in the book for living in Jerusalem(Is 4 :3). Entering the Church, we acquire heavenly citizenship; we have a native city, where, as the apostle says, we are no longer strangers and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God(Eph 2 :19).

Another image of paradise is the image of the Kingdom. In our time, "kingdom" is often understood as a "country", "territory". In Gospel times, it was about something else - about dominion. We belong to the Kingdom of God if our King is Christ. As He himself says, the Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21). It is a reality in which Christ is Lord and lawgiver, a reality in which His love rules.

Christ speaks of heaven as a wedding feast. It is difficult for the modern reader of Scripture to understand the meaning of these two images, feast and marriage. Let's start with the feast. In 1st century Palestine, people perceived the value of food in a very different way; they ate in moderation - often forcedly, due to lack of food, sometimes voluntarily, taking on a fast. Now, when food is sold on every corner, we have lost consciousness of its value, and only church fasts can restore us to an understanding of what a feast is, a joyful acceptance of the abundance of God's gifts.

But food had another function, lost in modern society. Today we live in a fast food culture, we often eat alone or on the go, and we don't care about the person with whom we accidentally shared a table at a fast food restaurant. But for the people of that time, eating with someone together was the deepest manifestation of human communication and community. Something similar has been preserved in our time, when the family gathers at the same table. All of us, gathered at the table - relatives or close friends, share not only food, but also life of each other. The feast was the opposite not only of hunger, but also of loneliness, it satisfied the need not only for food, but also for human brotherhood.

This was especially true for the wedding feast, when the love of a young man and a girl united not only them, but also their families - people became relatives to each other. Marriage was a manifestation of what in biblical Hebrew was called "chesed" - faithful, unchanging love. The vague languor of first love, the expectation of something great, was realized when the lovers became spouses, created a family. A happy family full of love and care is the image of paradise; the closeness and understanding that exists between kindred people is an image - albeit imperfect and damaged - of that love that will be the air and light of the future age.

You can starve and crave not only food and drink, but also love, truth, beauty, meaning. The Lord Himself uses this image of thirst and hunger when He speaks Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied(Matt 5 :6). In Paradise, the deepest thirst of the human heart will be quenched - we will come to the very Source of all goodness, beauty and truth, never to leave Him again.

For they will be comforted

Paradise is a place of consolation; Lazarus, who suffered grievously in earthly life, is consoled in paradise; The Lord promises comfort to those who weep, and the Revelation of John says that God will wipe away every tear from their eyes(Open 21 :4). This teaching was (and remains) the subject of especially fierce attacks: some say that people simply invented paradise in order to somehow console themselves in the face of pain, hunger, cold and unbearable cruelty of the world around them; others - that this invention was a completely conscious attempt to distract the working people from the struggle for the improvement of their position on earth.

Both of these objections fall into the same obvious logical fallacy - from the fact that a certain doctrine brings consolation, it does not follow that it is false, just as from the fact that a certain doctrine brings despair, it does not follow that it is true. We can assume that people who live in hope are fools, but a sober approach to life consists in hopelessness. It can be assumed that a martyr who gives his life in the hope of eternal life is a prisoner of illusions, but a suicide looks at life realistically, but there are no logical grounds for believing this.
Another objection is more serious: there are things after which consolation is impossible. A child who has lost a toy will be comforted if he receives another; an adult who has lost a child will never be consoled - he will learn to live on, but grief will forever remain with him. You can compensate for property damage, such as a broken laptop, but you can't compensate for genuine grief. As the prophet says - and the Evangelist quotes him, talking about the massacre of babies by Herod - A voice is heard in Rama, weeping and sobbing and a great cry; Rachel weeps for her children and does not want to be consoled, for they are gone.(Matt 2 :eighteen). There is pain that leaves in the human soul too deep ulcers for anything to fill. This world has nothing to offer in consolation - and the very attempts to offer look almost blasphemous. But heaven is not this world.

In the prophecy of Isaiah, which tells of the suffering of the Savior, there are amazing words: He will look with contentment at the feat of His soul(Is 53 :eleven). Usually, when people experience something really terrible - like torture - they don't remember it "with satisfaction" at all. Consciousness tries to force out unbearable memories, but they still remain a source of pain that poisons the rest of life. Crucifixion is an inexpressibly terrible and painful death, the details of which are terrifying to read; but Scripture says that Christ entered into glory looks upon it "with contentment." Something similar is said about the suffering of Christians, which produces eternal glory in immeasurable excess(2 Cor 4 :17).

The Holy Apostle Peter says that how you participate in Christ's sufferings, rejoice, and at the manifestation of His glory you will rejoice and exult e (1 Peter 4:13). Suffering will not just remain in the past - they will turn into glory and triumph. The terrible wounds that cover the bodies of the martyrs will be transformed into signs of heavenly glory; unbearable sorrow will turn into eternal joy, families will be reunited in one great family, whose Father is God. Looking back at their earthly path, the saved will see all - including the most difficult and painful - days of their lives, and especially them, flooded with that heavenly light that will reveal to them the true meaning of everything. God will turn the shadow of death into a clear morning (Am 5 :8) of the common resurrection and on the never-ending day of eternal life.

And no one devoted to abomination and lies

The doors of Paradise are wide open; we are all strongly invited. Both Scripture and Tradition constantly assure us that any person, no matter how sinful he may be, can repent, believe and be saved. The first to enter heaven was the thief, crucified at the right hand of the Lord.

But what happens if we refuse to enter? The answer is obvious both from the point of view of Scripture and from the point of view of common sense: if we refuse to enter the door, we will remain outside the door, in outer darkness. And nothing unclean will enter into it, and no one given over to abomination and falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.(Open 21 :27), says the very last verse of the Bible. A paradise in which something unclean would enter, a paradise in which abomination and falsehood would be possible, would no longer be a paradise. We are firmly promised that if we surrender to the Lord, He will cleanse us and lead us into His city.

But we can resist, not want to, love the darkness, not the light, moreover, we can become stagnant in this state forever. Then, Scripture warns, we will remain in outer darkness. The "undying worm" and "unquenchable fire" about which the Lord speaks can be regarded as allegories, and the vivid images of medieval iconography as conditioned by the epoch and culture. But in any case, we cannot deny that the Lord is urgently warning us of something unspeakably terrible.

People often do not want to hear these warnings, and sometimes they directly dispute them: there is nothing to worry about, God is too good to condemn and reject anyone. Their mistake is not at all that they affirm the goodness of God; “His goodness is immeasurable and humanity is inexpressible” is a deeply traditional and orthodox doctrine proclaimed at every Liturgy. Their mistake is that they deny human freedom. God so desires to save every person that “he put on flesh, was crucified and buried for us, the ungrateful and malevolent.” But man has a genuine, real choice - he can say "no" to God.

I once saw a documentary about the partition of India in the late forties (and the massacre that followed). There was an interview with a Sikh, already a very old man, who, lovingly stroking a curved saber, boasted that at that time not a single Muslim had left him alive. When asked if he did not regret the murders he had committed, he replied indignantly: “And why should I be sorry? Those damn Muslims massacred half of our people!”

What will happen to this soul on the other side of death? How can a man enter paradise who insists vehemently that he is right and does not think to repent of his sins? Where will he be? There are many examples of how human pride and malice turns the earth into hell - what will it turn eternity into? What can the love of God do for those who have finally chosen the path of rebellion? God provides a "great chasm" between the saved and the lost, so that evildoers can no longer harm the innocent. And God gives them as much knowledge of the truth as they can contain - and this knowledge turns into suffering for them. On earth, evildoers can revel in evil and derive perverted joy from the suffering of others; in hell, sin and evil turn into what they should - flour.

But the warnings about hell don't just apply to some stranger from a distant land, like this Sikh in the example above. And not only to unrepentant murderers.
There are only two paths - ascending or descending, to or from God. You can grow in love, knowledge and discovery of your God-given purpose. You can - in pride and hostility. We inevitably choose one path or another, and when our choice is multiplied by eternity, it will inevitably lead us to one destination or another.

The Christian life is not a life in fear of hell; we rely on our Savior to be able and willing to deliver us from such a fate. On the contrary, Christians live “with the thoughts of the things above” and expecting eternal salvation with heartfelt hope. But we are called to be mindful of the reality of our choices and their consequences—and to be mindful of our responsibility to ourselves and our fellowmen.
path of salvation

Talking about heaven and hell is by no means abstract theorizing. We are rushing to one place or another at a mind-boggling sixty seconds a minute, constantly, day and night, and we cannot stop or even slow down. The great French thinker Blaise Pascal was extremely surprised that people are worried about anything but their eternal salvation: “The same person who spends so many days and nights in annoyance and despair over the loss of a position or some imaginary insult to his honor - the same person knows that with death he loses everything, and this does not bother or excite him. It is an ugly phenomenon that in the same heart, at the same time, such sensitivity to the smallest things and such indifference to the most important things are found. The most important thing in our life journey is where we end it. When a person realizes this, he asks himself: “How can I be saved? How can I reach heaven?

And Scripture answers this question: believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you and your whole house will be saved(Acts 16 :31). To believe means to submit to Jesus Christ as Lord and trust Him as the Savior, to accept Baptism, to approach the Sacraments of the Church, as He commanded, to sincerely strive to keep His commandments. Faith means a new life, perhaps a rejection of something we are accustomed to, a break with old sins and old views. But when we see the goal before us, when the light emanating from paradise illuminates our path, we realize how little is really required of us, and how much we will gain.

The material is illustrated with paintings by Mikalojus Čiurlionis

Paradise(Gen 2:8, 15:3, Joel 2:3, Luke 23:42,43, 2 Cor 12:4) is a word of Persian origin and means garden. This is the name of the beautiful dwelling of the first man, described in the book. Genesis. Paradise, in which the first people lived, was material for the body, as a visible blissful dwelling, and for the soul - spiritual, as a state of grace-filled communion with God and spiritual contemplation of creatures. Paradise is also the name of that blessed dwelling of the celestials and the righteous, which they inherit after the Terrible Judgment of God.

Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev): Paradise… Bliss of the soul united with Christ

Paradise is not so much a place as a state of mind; just as hell is suffering resulting from the inability to love and non-participation in the Divine light, so paradise is the bliss of the soul, resulting from an excess of love and light, to which one who is united with Christ fully and completely partakes. This is not contradicted by the fact that paradise is described as a place with various "mansions" and "halls"; all descriptions of paradise are only attempts to express in human language that which is inexpressible and transcends the mind.

In the Bible "paradise" ( paradeisos) is called the garden where God placed man; the same word in the ancient church tradition called the future bliss of people redeemed and saved by Christ. It is also called the "Kingdom of Heaven", "the life of the age to come", "the eighth day", "new heaven", "heavenly Jerusalem".

The Holy Apostle John the Theologian says: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the former heaven and the former earth had already passed, and the sea was no more; And I, John, saw the holy city of Jerusalem, new, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, they will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death: neither weeping, nor crying, nor sickness will be anymore, for the former has passed. And He who sits on the throne said: Behold, I create all things new... I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end; to the thirsty one free from the fountain of living water... And he (the angel) lifted me up in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, holy Jerusalem, which descended from heaven from God. He had the glory of God… I did not see a temple in him, for the Lord God Almighty is his temple, and the Lamb. And the city has no need of either the sun or the moon for its illumination; for the glory of God hath illumined him, and his lamp is the Lamb. The saved nations will walk in its light... And nothing unclean will enter into it, and no one given over to abomination and falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life" (Rev. 21:1-6, 10, 22-24, 27 ). This is the earliest description of paradise in Christian literature.

When reading the descriptions of paradise found in hagiographic and theological literature, it must be borne in mind that most of the writers of the Eastern Church speak of paradise, which they saw, into which they were raptured by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Even among our contemporaries who have experienced clinical death, there are people who have been to paradise and told about their experience; in the lives of the saints we find many descriptions of paradise. The Monk Theodora, the Monk Euphrosyne of Suzdal, the Monk Simeon Divnogorets, Saint Andrew the Holy Fool and some other saints, like the Apostle Paul, were “caught up to the third heaven” (2 Cor. 12:2) and contemplated the heavenly bliss.

Here is what St. Andrew (X century) says about paradise: “I saw myself in a beautiful and amazing paradise, and, admiring the spirit, I thought: “what is this? .. how did I find myself here? ..” I saw myself clothed in the most a light robe, as if woven from lightning; a crown was on my head, woven from great flowers, and I was girded with a royal belt. Rejoicing at this beauty, marveling with my mind and heart at the inexpressible beauty of God's paradise, I walked around it and rejoiced. There were many gardens with tall trees: they swayed with their peaks and amused the eyesight, a great fragrance emanated from their branches ... It is impossible to liken those trees to any earthly tree: God's hand, not a human one, planted them. There were countless birds in these gardens ... I saw a great river flowing in the middle (gardens) and filling them. There was a vineyard on the other side of the river... Quiet and fragrant winds breathed there from four sides; gardens swayed from their breath and made a marvelous noise with their leaves ... After that, we entered a wonderful flame, which did not scorch us, but only enlightened us. I began to be horrified, and again the angel who guided me turned to me and gave me his hand, saying: “We must ascend even higher.” With this word, we found ourselves above the third heaven, where I saw and heard a multitude of heavenly powers singing and glorifying God... (Climbing still higher), I saw my Lord, as once Isaiah the prophet, sitting on a high and exalted throne, surrounded by seraphim. He was clothed in a scarlet robe, His face shone with unspeakable light, and He lovingly turned His eyes to me. Seeing Him, I fell before Him on my face... What joy then from seeing His face seized me, it is impossible to express, so even now, remembering this vision, I am filled with indescribable sweetness. prepared for those who love God,” and heard “the voice of joy and spiritual gladness.”

In all descriptions of paradise, it is emphasized that earthly words can only to a small extent depict heavenly beauty, since it is "inexpressible" and surpasses human comprehension. It also speaks of the "many mansions" of paradise (John 14:2), that is, of different degrees of blessedness. “Some (God) will honor with great honors, others with less,” says St. Basil the Great, “because “star differs from star in glory” (1 Cor. 15:41). And since there are “many mansions” with the Father, some will rest in a more excellent and higher state, and others in a lower one. 3 However, for each of his "abode" will be the highest fullness of bliss available to him - in accordance with how close he is to God in earthly life. All the saints in Paradise will see and know one another, but Christ will see and fill everyone, says St. Simeon the New Theologian. In the Kingdom of Heaven, “the righteous will shine like the sun” (Matt. 13:43), become like God (1 John 3:2) and know Him (1 Cor. 13:12). Compared to the beauty and luminosity of paradise, our earth is a "gloomy dungeon," and the light of the sun, compared to the Trinitarian Light, is like a small candle. 4 Even those heights of contemplation of God, to which the Monk Simeon ascended during his lifetime, in comparison with the future bliss of people in paradise, is the same as the sky drawn with a pencil on paper, in comparison with the real sky.

According to the teachings of St. Simeon, all the images of paradise found in hagiographical literature — fields, forests, rivers, palaces, birds, flowers, etc. — are only symbols of that bliss that lies in the unceasing contemplation of Christ:

You are the Kingdom of Heaven
You are the meek land of all, O Christ,
You are my green paradise.
You are my divine palace...
You are the food of all and the bread of life.
You are the moisture of renewal
You are the life-giving cup
You are the source of living water,
You are the light of all Your saints...
And "many abodes"
Show us what I think
That there will be many degrees
Love and enlightenment
That each to the best of his ability
Achieve contemplation
And the measure is for everyone
It will be greatness, glory,
Peace, pleasure -
Although to varying degrees.
So many chambers
various abodes,
Precious garments...
Various crowns,
And stones and pearls
Fragrant flowers...
All this there is
Just one contemplation
You, Lord God!

St. Gregory of Nyssa spoke of the same: “Since in the present age life is spent by us in various and varied ways, there are many things in which we participate, for example, time, air, place, food, drink, clothing, the sun, a lamp, and much more, serving the needs of life, and none of it is God. The expected bliss does not need any of this: all this in return for everything will be for us the nature of God, giving itself in proportion to every need of that life ... God for the worthy is both a place, and a dwelling, and clothing, and food, and drink, and light , and wealth, and a kingdom ... He who is in all, He is in all (Col. 3:11) ”. After the general resurrection, Christ will fill with Himself every human soul and all creation, and nothing will remain outside of Christ, but everything will be transformed and radiant, changed and remelted. This is the never-ending "non-evening day" of the Kingdom of God, "eternal joy, eternal Liturgy with God and in God." Everything superfluous, temporary, all unnecessary details of life and being will disappear, and Christ will reign in the souls of the people redeemed by Him and in the transfigured Cosmos. This will be the final victory of Good over evil, Light over darkness, heaven over hell, Christ over Antichrist. This will be the final abolition of death. “Then the word that is written will come true: “Death is swallowed up in victory. Death! Where is your pity? Hell! Where is your victory?..” (Hos. 13:14) Thanks be to God, who gave us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Cor. 15:54-57).

Metropolitan Anthony of Surozh: Heaven is in love

Adam lost paradise - that was his sin; Adam lost paradise - this is the horror of his suffering. And God does not condemn; He calls, He supports. In order for us to come to our senses, He puts us in conditions that clearly tell us that we are perishing, we need to be saved. And He remains our Savior, not our Judge. Christ several times in the Gospel says: I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world (Jn.Z.17; 12.47). Until the fullness of time comes, until the end comes, we are under the judgment of our conscience, we are under the judgment of the Divine word, we are under the judgment of the vision of Divine love embodied in Christ - yes. But God does not judge; He prays, He calls, He lives and dies. He descends into the very depths of human hell, so that only we can believe in love and come to our senses, not to forget that there is a paradise.

And heaven was in love; and Adam's sin was that he did not keep love. The question is not in obedience or in listening, but in the fact that God offered all of Himself, without a trace: His being, love, wisdom, knowledge - He gave everything in this union of love, which makes one being out of two (as Christ says about Himself and about the Father: I am in the Father and the Father is in Me [John 14:11], as fire can pierce iron, as heat penetrates to the marrow of bones). And in this love, in inseparable, inseparable union with God, we could be wise with His wisdom, love with all the scope and bottomless depth of His love, know with all Divine knowledge. But the man was warned: do not seek knowledge through eating the fruit from the tree of Good and Evil, - do not seek cold knowledge of the mind, external, alien to love; do not seek knowledge of the flesh, intoxicating and intoxicating, blinding... And this is precisely what man was tempted to do; he wanted to know what is good and what is evil. And he created good and evil, because evil consists in falling away from love. He wanted to know what it is to be and not to be, but he could know this only if he was established forever through love, rooted to the depths of his being in Divine love.

And the man fell; and with him the whole world was shaken; everything, everything was clouded and shaken. And the judgment to which we aspire, that Last Judgment, which will be at the end of time, is also only about love. The parable of the goats and the sheep (Mt. 25:31-46) speaks of precisely this: did you manage to love on earth with a generous, affectionate, courageous, kind love? Did you manage to feel sorry for the hungry, did you manage to feel sorry for the naked, the homeless, did you have the courage to visit a prisoner in prison, did you forget the person who is sick, in the hospital, alone? If you have this love, then you have a path to Divine love; but if there is no earthly love, how can you enter into Divine love? If what is given to you by nature, you cannot realize, how can you hope for the supernatural, for the miraculous, for God? ..

And this is the world we live in.

The story of paradise is in some respects, of course, an allegory, because it is a world that has perished, a world to which we have no access; we do not know what it is to be a sinless, innocent creature. And in the language of the fallen world, it is possible only with images, pictures, likenesses to indicate what was and what no one else will ever see or know ... We see how Adam lived - as a friend of God; we see that when Adam matured, reached some degree of wisdom and knowledge through his communion with God, God brought all creatures to him, and Adam gave each creature a name - not a nickname, but the name that expressed the very nature, the very mystery of this creatures.

God, as it were, warned Adam: look, look - you see through the creature, you understand it; because you share My knowledge with Me, since you can share it with your still incomplete maturity, the depths of creation are revealed before you ... And when Adam peered into the whole creation, he did not see himself in it, because, although he was taken from the earth, although he is his flesh and his spiritual being a part of this universe, material and spiritual, but in him there is also a spark from God, the breath of God, which the Lord breathed into him, making him an unprecedented creature - man.

Adam knew he was alone; and God brought a deep sleep upon him, separated a certain part from him, and Eve stood before him. St. John Chrysostom speaks of how in the beginning all possibilities were laid in a person, and how gradually, as he matured, both male and female properties, incompatible in one being, began to appear in him. And when he reached maturity, God separated them. And it was not in vain that Adam exclaimed: This is flesh of my flesh, this is bone of my bone! She will be called a wife, because she is, as it were, squeezed out of me ... (Gen. 2:23). Yes; but what did these words mean? They could mean that Adam, looking at Eve, saw that she was bone from his bones, flesh from his flesh, but that she had an originality, that she was a full-fledged being, completely significant, which is connected with the Living God in a unique way, as and he is uniquely connected with Him; or they could mean that he saw in her only a reflection of his own being. This is how we see each other almost constantly; even when love unites us, we so often do not see a person in himself, but see him in relation to ourselves; we look at his face, we peer into his eyes, we listen to his words - and we are looking for an echo of our own being ... It's scary to think that so often we look at each other - and see only our reflection. We do not see another person; it is only a reflection of our being, our existence...

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin: Paradise - How to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?

Fragment lectures at the Polytechnic Museum as part of the Orthodox Youth Courses organized bySt. Danilov Stauropegial Monastery andChurch of the Holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University M.V. Lomonosov.

The Lord speaks clearly about who exactly will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. First of all, He says that a person who wants to enter this Kingdom must have faith in Him, true faith. The Lord Himself says: "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, and whoever does not believe will be condemned." The Lord predicts the condemnation of people to torment. He does not want this, the Lord is merciful, but He, at the same time, says that people who do not meet a high spiritual and moral ideal will face weeping and gnashing of teeth. We don’t know what heaven will be like, we don’t know what hell will be like, but it is obvious that people who freely choose a life without God, a life that contradicts His commandments, will not be left without a formidable reward, primarily related to the internal state of mind of these people. . I know that there is a hell, I knew people who left this world in the state of ready inhabitants of hell. Some of them, by the way, committed suicide, which I'm not surprised at. They could be told that this was not necessary, because eternal life awaits a person, but they did not want eternal life, they wanted eternal death. People who lost faith in other people and in God, having met God after death, would not have changed. I think that the Lord would offer them His mercy and love. But they will tell Him, "We don't need it." There are already many such people in our earthly world, and I do not think that they will be able to change after crossing the border that separates the earthly world from the world of eternity.

Why must faith be true? When a person wants to communicate with God, he must understand Him as He is, he must address exactly the one to whom he addresses, without imagining God as something or someone that and whom He is not.

Now it is fashionable to say that God is one, but the paths to it are different, and what difference does it make how this or that religion or denomination or philosophical school imagines God ─ all the same, God is one. Yes, there is only one God. There are not many gods. But this one God, as Christians believe, is precisely the God who revealed Himself in Jesus Christ and in His Revelation, in the Holy Scriptures. And by referring instead to God, to someone else, to a being with different characteristics, or to a being that does not have a personality, or to a non-being in general, we do not turn to God. We turn, at best, to something or someone whom we have invented for ourselves, for example, to "god in the soul." And sometimes we can also refer to beings that are different from God and are not God. It can be angels, people, forces of nature, dark forces.

For heaven is open to you , the tree of life is planted, the future time is intended, abundance is ready, a city is built, rest is prepared, perfect goodness and perfect wisdom.

The root of evil is sealed from you, weakness and aphids are hidden from you, and corruption flees to hell into oblivion. Diseases passed, and at the end the treasure of immortality appeared. Do not try any more to experience the multitude of those who perish.

For they, having received freedom, despised the Most High, despised His law and forsook His ways, and also trampled on His righteous ones, and said in their hearts: “There is no God,” although they knew that they were mortal.

Just as what was said before awaits you, so also their thirst and torment, which are prepared. God did not want to destroy man, but the created ones themselves dishonored the name of the One who created them, and were ungrateful to the One who prepared life for them. Ezra.

And I saw something new heaven and the new earth, for the former heaven and the former earth have passed away, and the sea is no more. And I, John, saw the holy city of Jerusalem, new, coming down from the God of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them; they will be His people, and God Himself will be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death; there will be no more mourning, no outcry, no sickness, for the former has passed away.
Foundations the walls of the city are decorated with all sorts of precious stones: the base is the first jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedon, the fourth smaragd, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth viril, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh hyacinth, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates are twelve pearls: each the gate was one of the pearls. The street of the city is pure gold, like transparent glass. I did not see a temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty is its temple, and the Lamb. And the city does not need either the sun or the moon to illuminate it, for the glory of God illuminated it and its lamp is the Lamb. The saved nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates will not be locked by day; and there will be no night.
Whoever does not enter Paradise: And nothing unclean will enter it, and no one devoted to abomination and lies, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. The Book of Revelation.

Then the wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie with the goat; and the calf, and the young lion, and the ox will be together, and the little child will lead them. And the cow will graze with the bear, and their cubs will lie down together, and the lion, like an ox, will eat straw. and the child will stretch out his hand to the snake's nest. They will not harm or hurt in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Book of Isaiah.