On the Eternal Torments of Sinners
April 3
(The Word of Saint John Chrysostom on those who say that there is no torment for sinners.)
By Archpriest Victor Guryev
April 3
(The Word of Saint John Chrysostom on those who say that there is no torment for sinners.)
By Archpriest Victor Guryev
Some say there will be no eternal torment and that God threatens it only to instill fear in sinners. But is this really true?
Saint John Chrysostom says: “Some sin-lovers say that there will be no eternal torment. Such will be condemned with the heretics... That there will be eternal torment, the Lord showed by punishing sinners even in this life. Thus, we accept punishment for our sins even now: either an unfortunate war happens to us, or a fire, or famine, or the death of livestock, or death visits our families, or we suffer from illness. All this also comes to us now for our sins. Besides what has been mentioned, sometimes fire scorches us, and water drowns us, and thunder and lightning strike... And this in this life... But in the future, eternal torment awaits sinners. And believe, brethren, that truly eternal torment awaits sinners. Ask the Jews and heretics, and finally, the demons themselves, and they will tell you unanimously that there is judgment, torment, and retribution for each according to his deeds, and that God punishes sinners and crowns the righteous with glory. So assure your soul and teach it not to invent false doctrines.
Adam, before his sin, experienced no torment and never heard of it. But we have heard of them a thousand times, and yet we lack faith. We have heard of the fratricide Cain, of how the human race perished for its vile sins, of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. But we have also heard that Noah was delivered from the flood for his righteousness, and Lot from the fire. So you should have been convinced that God is just and preserves the righteous while punishing the wicked. And even here on earth, you see that the wicked do not go unpunished. O, brethren, believe truly that there is torment for sinners, and let the example of the Sodomites remind you of it."
Therefore, brethren, it is certain that eternal torment will befall sinners, and that sinners will not escape it. And these torments will be terrible. “There will be,” says one of the Church teachers, “a most agonizing sensation of emptiness and languor in the heart and a feeling of unbearable thirst without hope of quenching it; there will also be a bitter memory of the past life, a clear and joyless picture of one’s sins, which will then appear before one’s consciousness in all their disgusting nakedness and ugliness, terrible reproaches of conscience and the most tormenting, yet useless, regret about the lost time and means of acquiring a blessed eternity, and, finally, a heavy feeling of God’s wrath. All this, of course, will constitute that incessant worm which, according to the word of Scripture, will then gnaw at the hearts of sinners (Mark 9:44-46 ). It will constitute that sorrow and distress which, according to the word of the Apostle, await those who do evil (Rom. 2:9 ) and will be the cause of that bitter weeping and gnashing of teeth which is often spoken of in the Gospel (Matt. 22:13 )” (Dogmatic Theology of Archbishop Anthony (Amfiteatrov), pp. 269–270).
O Lord, deliver us from eternal torment and the fire of Gehenna; O Lord, accept us in repentance, grant us the thought of confessing our sins and instill in us the root of good things, the fear of You in our hearts! Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
