LAST THINGS.

 WE ARE GOING TO CONSIDER ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN TEACHING CONCERNING "LAST THINGS." THERE IS SOME RESISTANCE TO DEAL WITH SOME OF THESE ISSUES IN MANY THEOLOGICAL CIRCLES. ONE REASON PUT FORTH BY ERASMUS IN THE EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY . COMMENTING ON THE ENTHUSIASM WITH WHICH CERTAIN PARIS THEOLOGIANS WROTE ABOUT HELL, ERASMUS REMARKED THAT THEY MUST HAVE BEEN THERE THEMSELVES! INTEREST IN HELL REACHED A CLIMAX DURING THE MIDDLE AGES WITH ARTISTS OF THE PERIOD TAKING, ONE ASSUMES, A CERTAIN DELIGHT IN PORTRAYING THE RIGHTEOUS WATCHING SINNERS BEING TORMENTED BY BURNING AND OTHER MEANS OF TORTURE. THE MOST GRAPHIC PORTRAYAL OF THE MEDIEVAL VIEW OF HELL IS THAT OF DANTE, IN THE FIRST THREE BOOKS OF HIS DIVINE COMEDY. DANTE PORTRAYS HELL AS NINE CIRCLES AT THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, WITHIN WHICH SATAN DWELLS. ON THE GATE, DANTE NOTICES THE INSCRIPTION  "ABANDON ALL HOPE. ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE!
 THE FIRST CIRCLE OF HELL IS POPULATED BY THOSE WHO HAVE DIED WITHOUT BEING BAPTIZED, AND VIRTUOUS PAGANS. ( THIS CIRCLE CORRESPONDS TO THE IDEA OF "LIMBO." DANTE DECLARES THAT IT IS THIS CIRCLE WHICH WAS VISITED BY CHRIST DURING HIS "DESCENT INTO HELL." BETWEEN THE TIME OF THE CRUCIFIXION AND THE RESURRECTION. THERE IS NO TORMENT OF ANY KIND IN THIS CIRCLE. AS DANTE ADVANCES FURTHER INTO HELL, HE DISCOVERS THOSE WHO ARE GUILTY OF INCREASINGLY SERIOUS SINS. THE SECOND CIRCLE IS POPULATED BY THE LUSTFUL, THE THIRD BY THE GLUTTONOUS, THE FOURTH BY THE MISERLY, AND THE FIFTH BY THE WRATHFUL. THESE CIRCLES, TAKEN TOGETHER, CONSTITUTE  "UPPER HELL."  AT NO POINT DOES DANTE REFER TO FIRE IN THIS PART OF HELL. DANTE THEN DRAWS UPON GRECO- ROMAN MYTHOLOGY IN SUGGESTING THAT THE RIVER STYX DIVIDES "UPPER AND "LOWER HELL." NOW WE ENCOUNTER FIRE. FOR THE FIRST TIME. THE SIXTH CIRCLE IS POPULATED BY HERETICS, THE SEVENTH BY THE VIOLENT., THE EIGHTH BY FRAUDSTERS  (INCLUDING SEVERAL POPES), AND THE NINTH BY TRAITORS. THE STATIC MEDIEVAL VIEW OF HELL WAS UNQUESTIONABLY OF MAJOR INFLUENCE AT THE TIME, AND CONTINUES TO BE IMPORTANCE INTO THE MODERN PERIOD. IT MAY BE FOUND CLEARLY STATED IN JONATHAN EDWARDS FAMOUS "SERMON," SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD,"  PREACHED ON 8 JULY 1741:
 IT WOULD BE DREADFUL TO SUFFER THIS FIERCENESS AND WRATH OF ALMIGHTY GOD FOR ONE MOMENT; BUT YOU MUST SUFFER FOR ALL ETERNITY. THERE WILL BE NO END TO THIS EXQUISITE... HORRIBLE MISERY... YOU WILL KNOW THAT YOU MUST WERE OUT LONG AGES, MILLIONS OF MILLIONS OF AGES, IN WRESTLING AND CONFLICTING WITH THIS ALMIGHTY MERCILESS VENGEANCE.
ONE OF THE MAJOR DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PROTESTANT AND ROMAN CATHOLIC UNDERSTANDINGS OF THE "LAST THINGS" RELATES TO THE QUESTION OF PURGATORY. IS PERHAPS BEST UNDERSTOOD AS AN INTERMEDIATE STAGE, IN WHICH THOSE WHO HAVE DIED IN A STATE OF GRACE ARE GIVEN AN OPPORTUNITY TO PURGE THEMSELVES OF THE GUILT OF THEIR SINS BEFORE ENTERING HEAVEN. THE IDEA DOES NOT HAVE EXPLICIT SCRIPTURAL WARRANT, ALTHOUGH A PASSAGE IN 2 MACCABEES 12: 39- 45 ( APOCRYPHAL, AND HENCE AS LACKING IN AUTHORITY, BY PROTESTANT WRITERS) SPEAKS OF JUDAS MACCABEUS MAKING "PROPITIATION FOR THOSE WHO HAD DIED, IN ORDER THAT THEY MIGHT BE RELEASED FROM THEIR SIN."
 THE IDEA WAS DEVELOPED DURING THE PATRISTIC PERIOD.. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA AND ORIGEN BOTH TAUGHT THAT THOSE WHO HAD DIED WITHOUT TIME TO PERFORM WORKS OF PENANCE WOULD BE "PURIFIED THROUGH FIRE."
IN THE NEXT LIFE. (NOT REALIZING THEY WERE SAVED BY GRACE, NOT WORKS. THE PRACTICE OF PRAYING FOR THE DEAD- WHICH BECAME WIDE-SPREAD IN THE EASTERN CHURCH IN THE FIRST FOUR CENTURIES- EXERCISED A MAJOR IMPACT UPON THEOLOGICAL  DEVELOPMENT AND PROVIDES AN EXCELLENT CASE STUDY OF THE MANNER IN WHICH LITURGY INFLUENCES THEOLOGY. WHAT WAS THE POINT OF PRAYING FOR THE DEAD, IT WAS ASKED, IF THOSE PRAYERS COULD NOT ALTER THE STATE IN WHICH THEY EXISTED? SIMILAR VIEWS ARE FOUND IN AUGUSTINE, WHO TAUGHT THE NEED FOR PURIFICATION FROM THE SINS OF THE PRESENT LIFE, BEFORE ENTERING THE JOYS OF THE NEXT. WHILE THE PRACTICE OF PRAYING FOR THE DEAD APPEARS TO HAVE BECOME WELL ESTABLISHED BY THE FOURTH CENTURY, THE EXPLICIT FORMULATION OF A NOTION OF "PURGATORY" SEEMS TO DATE FROM TWO CENTURIES LATER, IN THE WRITINGS OF GREGORY THE GREAT. IN HIS EXPOSITION OF MATTHEW 12:31,) DATING FROM 593 OR 594), GREGORY PICKS UP THE IDEA OF SINS WHICH CAN BE FORGIVEN " IN THE AGE TO COME. HE INTERPRETS
THIS IN TERMS OF A FUTURE AGE IN WHICH SINS THAT HAVE NOT BEEN FORGIVEN SUBSEQUENTLY. NOTE ESPECIALLY THE REFERENCE  TO THE "PURIFYING FIRE"  (PURGATORIUS IGNIS) WHICH BECAME INCORPORATED INTO MOST MEDIEVAL ACCOUNTS OF PURGATORY,  AND FROM WHICH THE TERM " PURGATORY DERIVES.
 AS FOR LESSER FAULTS, WE MUST BELIEVE THAT, BEFORE THE FINAL JUDGEMENT, THERE IS A PURIFYING FIRE, FOR HE WHO IS THE TRUTH DECLARES THAT " WHO EVER UTTERS BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE "HOLY SPIRIT" WILL NOT BE PARDONED EITHER IN THIS AGE OR IN THE AGE TO COME. (MATTHEW 12:31). FROM THIS STATEMENT IT IS TO BE UNDERSTOOD. THAT CERTAIN OFFENCES CAN BE FORGIVEN
 IN THIS AGE, WHEREAS CERTAIN OTHERS WILL BE FORGIVEN IN THE AGE WHICH IS TO COME.
REMEMBER PURGATORY WAS TO LACK ANY SUBSTANTIAL SCRIPTURAL FOUNDATIONS. IT WAS INCONSISTENT WITH THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH, WHICH DECLARED THAT AN INDIVIDUAL COULD BE PUT "RIGHT WITH GOD"
 THROUGH FAITH, WHICH OBVIATED THE NEED FOR PURGATORY. AND THE PRACTICE OF PRAYING FOR THE DEAD, CONTINUE TO FIND ACCEPTANCE WITHIN ROMAN CATHOLICISM.