My SF recently told me to say to myself when I sin through allowing myself to become despondent, “I deserve Hell.” This is curing me of my sin of despondency because as soon as I think this thought it brings me immediately to the state of REPENTANCE. And then I know how much He loves me and has forgiven me of, and I love him.
Hi ob grandma. I think our fear of hell comes from those fire and brimstone sermons we heard in protestant churches when we were young. Now I know if we live a spiritual life in repentance, communion with God and the church, we shouldn't have anything to fear. IMHO 🙏
@@LadyMaria Actually I didn't either. I was a protestant that grew up in a Roman Catholic community. My next door neighbor who was RC told me that his Nun teachers at his Catholic school were pretty mean. I went to the secular school. I did however go to the Catholic HS football games when my neighbor was on the team.
It seems to me that if we consider that we deserve nothing good (as sinners), then we can accept everything not from a posture of entitlement, but from a posture of gratitude. In my work as a hospital chaplain, I can always tell who is keeping their mind in hell and despairing not. They are not at all entitled about their circumstances as if they deserve anything good. Whatever ailment befalls them, they say, "I'm not surprised to be going through this, I am a great sinner, but God is good, loves me anyway, and is using this to draw me closer to Him".
Keep thy mind in Hell is referring to realizing our true spiritual condition apart from God, the sin we are capable of, and the fallenness of the world, yet not despairing and focusing on God, that's how I understand it
May we all have your blessings Father Peter ☦️ Saint Silouan referred to the hell that caused by his hidden sins revealed before him. Because of the hidden sins, the Grace left him, that is the experience of hell for him.
The important thing to consider in light of what Father said here, is to notice how habitually and consistently we (the old man) choose to ignore the blessings of God and communion with him. That doesn't mean we should whip ourselves on the back, but that we should strive for grace to overcome that tendency.
Thank you for Father. I repent for my sin daily and struggle with my challenges. You have helped me greatly with this understanding. Being without God to me would be hell and i feel when i sin i am seperating myself from God.
I get it now. Grew up Protestant, but I get it. So incredible, Galatians exploded for me this month. The grace is ON Christ- by being joined to Him (through His brothers!), all of the favor and power of God rests on us. Our salvation is a Person! who has become a many-membered Son! So incredible! My brothers, through loving them, become an actual conduit of the grace of God?! Am I reading this letter right?! The Jews, the "clean," didn't want to become blood-brothers with the "unclean," the uncircumcised gentiles- that's the false gospel?! It's not about works, about physical ordinance works. Works done in love are great, clean, praiseworthy. THE FATHER OF JESUS IS A TOTAL BRILLIANT GENIUS IN CREATING THIS COVENANT ON A PERSON, NOT LAWS. I can't wait to get joined with my local Orthodox brothers and be sent out, Lord willing.
We are remaining in our sins if we knowingly sin and are not struggling against them, trying to repent of them. If we struggle and fall anyway and quickly get back up, then we are struggling to repent rather than remaining in sin.
@@OrthodoxEthos but Father, aren't we knowingly sin all/most of the time? So then how is that repenting actually? 😐 I'm struggling understanding how to apply what you're saying and it drives me crazy because I don't see how to live sinless since I have my own passions which I cannot get rig of 😑
Hell is not some kind of outwardly expressed punishment and suffering, but the inner suffering of self-isolation. When Christ returns with glory, and God becomes "all in all" (1 Cor. 15, 28), those who have isolated themselves in the forest of their own egoism and for whom "hell is something external", will face the torments of His eternal presence. His presence will be judgment and punishment, because He is life and love, the ontological antithesis of the self-sufficient individuality. On that day there will be no place to hide, there will be no escape from His burning presence, because God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12, 29). In the words of one of the desert fathers - "Hellfire is the love of God."
What about the people who beg Christ to let them in heaven, but He rejects them anyway ? Does really anyone who wants to go to heaven get there successfully? I'm afraid not. That's why I also am not sure I will be accepted, even though I try.
The Lord became incarnate, lived and taught on earth, was crucified, died, rose from the dead and ascended to heaven to send down the Holy Spirit and establish His Church for the salvation of all. This is the Orthodox Church which has continued from Pentecost to today and has remained faithful to Apostolic teaching. We are rescued from sin, death and eternal Hell not simply by begging but by entering the Orthodox Church and learning to live a life of repentance in obedience to Christ and His Church, which does include constantly praying and crying out for mercy when we fall into sin. The saints are those that the Church holds up as having lived in obedience to Christ and who are eternally glorified with Him. We need to read the lives of the Orthodox saints and struggle to follow their teachings and examples and not simply live however we want, hoping that we can be delivered from Hell by rejecting God our entire life only if we beg hard enough in our last moments of life on earth. We cannot expect certitude of salvation while on earth because as long as we are on earth we can turn away from God and lose our soul if we don’t repent. We can have assurance that if we struggle to love God and to repent each day, then we will obtain the salvation we seek.
@@OrthodoxEthos Thank you wholeheartedly for your response, father. It will take me time to think it through. Pray for me, a sinner with paralyzed will.
@@panokostouros7609 We must not sweeten orthodoxy. Saint Siluan says that he considers himself worthy of eternal works and that he sees himself worthy of being taken by the devils and taken to hell when he dies and that he knows that most people do not want to hear about this thought because it throws them into despair and no longer they can't even pray, and they don't even want to hear anything about God. But that is because of pride. Let's not forget that the tears of gratitude, the quiet crying of joy, belong to those who have gone through the hell of repentance in which painful tears flow, sometimes for years in a row for our wickedness to have assaulted God. Today we are skipping stages and we just want gratitude. Those who skip this stage do not advance. For several years the painful tears flow even in sleep and while we eat and whatever we do, and it is a painful cry, but also accompanied by a beautiful caress. When pain hits the limit unexpectedly, God shows himself to the soul, and the soul sees the uncreated light in the abyss of his despair, in pure darkness, not on the surface, only when he goes beyond the limit of any power and hope, when he says he is done, that the devils have won and he sees himself completely lost and forever alienated from God. After the soul is cleansed through this burning cry, man reaches perfect rest in God. Just like after the flood, the rainbow comes out and the tears flow quietly and full of gratitude, the thoughts calm down and the dispassionate state is close and the soul is resurrected. Through hell to resurrection, that's the route.
I deserve hell and I'm not entitled to anything. I am enjoying God's grace. It's important for me to understand my circumstances to be aware, accept God's grace, and have discernment, but I don't need to obsess about hell. Being vigilant against sin and my enemy is also the same as worshiping God and keeping his commands.
Hmmm. This is the only disappointing doctrine of Orthodoxy I can't wrap my head around and disagree with. What are we to do with people like Hitler, Pot, Stalin, murderers, rapists, etc? Are these type of people just sitting around in a Godless existence and not suffering like they made those whom they murdered suffer? There's no justice in this kind of doctrine. I believe it's the weak spirited Christians who are concerned and fret over if they are going to hell. I believe all of us are deserving of hell. Yes, we deserve an eternity in a burning sulfuric acidic environment! We sinned against a holy God. God's customary love of mankind was sending His Son Jesus Christ (His Gift to the world). God's love is conditional, conditional upon whether or not I or mankind accepts His Son as the propitiation for sins. Psalm 5 tells us what God hates. If you want peace get serious about your relationship with God the Father, through God the Son. Sin is to be resisted to the point of shedding blood. I believe Scripture is clear that Hell is a place made for the devil and his angels. Whether Scripture states if Hell was "created" or not is the same argument that can be used debating the word "Trinity." Trinity is not in the Bible and therefore, the Bible does have to say God created Hell. I love the teachings of Fr. Peter but can't agree with this idea just yet.
The love of God is unconditional. You are wrong. The love of God is what is experienced as the flames of hell. God is Love and does not create beings to hate them. God is described as 'just', but He is not said to be 'justice' as He is Love. You're moralizing. This makes Christianity arbitrary and God into a capricious and possibly evil character.
So let me see if I understood, you are telling us that being far from God is no suffering? That this is no punishment? That this is not the burning furnace? Everone who did wrong will suffer,
If there is a hell, wouldn't it need to be created? If God didn't create hell, how could there even be such a place? Furthermore, how could there be a place beyond space and time? The only conclusion is that there is no such place. God didn't create such a place. And there are no places that exist beyond space and time.
Ummm....even science posits multiple dimensions. So a statement like "there are no places that exist beyond space and time" especially given developments in quantum physics, are pretty unsupported.
@@seraphimc.2231 If such dimensions exist, that's fine. By "beyond space and time," I mean beyond the manifest cosmos, including all possible dimensions, from the most subtle to the gross. If hell exists, it would exist in such a place. The rest of my comment applies just the same. God didn't create a hell, just like He didn't create evil. For anything to exist, it must be from God. Hell is simply the state of being which is a life lived not in communion with God, but rather rejecting His energies - His love.
@@Aaron-xb4rq Yeah but its stated in the video (and the bible) that God created hell for the demons... so it seems he did create a place to contain these spiritual, inter-dimensional beings, so that would mean such a place exists SOMEWHERE, if demons exist somewhere
@@seraphimc.2231 God certainly didn't create evil, demons, etc, but that also doesn't mean that such spirits don't exist in those states by their own free will. I have experienced such subtle manifestations on several occasions. Hell, however, isn't a place of active torture by God of such creatures, but simply a reflection of their state of being.
My SF recently told me to say to myself when I sin through allowing myself to become despondent, “I deserve Hell.” This is curing me of my sin of despondency because as soon as I think this thought it brings me immediately to the state of REPENTANCE. And then I know how much He loves me and has forgiven me of, and I love him.
Hi ob grandma. I think our fear of hell comes from those fire and brimstone sermons we heard in protestant churches when we were young. Now I know if we live a spiritual life in repentance, communion with God and the church, we shouldn't have anything to fear. IMHO 🙏
@@stevelenores5637 I'm glad I didn't grow up in one of those Protestant communities. I don't think I'd be where I am now if I did.
@@LadyMaria Actually I didn't either. I was a protestant that grew up in a Roman Catholic community. My next door neighbor who was RC told me that his Nun teachers at his Catholic school were pretty mean. I went to the secular school. I did however go to the Catholic HS football games when my neighbor was on the team.
❤️⛪️🙏☦️ GOD HAVE MERCY ON US SINNERS ☦️🙏🕊️☀️
I know that i deserve nothing for sure.☦
It seems to me that if we consider that we deserve nothing good (as sinners), then we can accept everything not from a posture of entitlement, but from a posture of gratitude.
In my work as a hospital chaplain, I can always tell who is keeping their mind in hell and despairing not. They are not at all entitled about their circumstances as if they deserve anything good. Whatever ailment befalls them, they say, "I'm not surprised to be going through this, I am a great sinner, but God is good, loves me anyway, and is using this to draw me closer to Him".
It’s very heavy..
Lord have mercy☦️
Keep thy mind in Hell is referring to realizing our true spiritual condition apart from God, the sin we are capable of, and the fallenness of the world, yet not despairing and focusing on God, that's how I understand it
May we all have your blessings Father Peter ☦️
Saint Silouan referred to the hell that caused by his hidden sins revealed before him. Because of the hidden sins, the Grace left him, that is the experience of hell for him.
The important thing to consider in light of what Father said here, is to notice how habitually and consistently we (the old man) choose to ignore the blessings of God and communion with him. That doesn't mean we should whip ourselves on the back, but that we should strive for grace to overcome that tendency.
Beautiful explanation of hell and what it is. Thank you. Living in reality.
Great video. Thank you.
I wish you knew just how much this has helped me. Thank you Father.
Thank you, Father. I really needed this. I struggle with despondency and a moralistic mindset a lot.
Thank you for Father. I repent for my sin daily and struggle with my challenges. You have helped me greatly with this understanding. Being without God to me would be hell and i feel when i sin i am seperating myself from God.
The doors to hell are locked from inside.
Yes
I get it now. Grew up Protestant, but I get it. So incredible, Galatians exploded for me this month. The grace is ON Christ- by being joined to Him (through His brothers!), all of the favor and power of God rests on us. Our salvation is a Person! who has become a many-membered Son!
So incredible! My brothers, through loving them, become an actual conduit of the grace of God?!
Am I reading this letter right?! The Jews, the "clean," didn't want to become blood-brothers with the "unclean," the uncircumcised gentiles- that's the false gospel?! It's not about works, about physical ordinance works. Works done in love are great, clean, praiseworthy. THE FATHER OF JESUS IS A TOTAL BRILLIANT GENIUS IN CREATING THIS COVENANT ON A PERSON, NOT LAWS.
I can't wait to get joined with my local Orthodox brothers and be sent out, Lord willing.
4:17 aren't we keep doing sins everyday, intentionally? How are we not remaining in our sin actually?
We are remaining in our sins if we knowingly sin and are not struggling against them, trying to repent of them. If we struggle and fall anyway and quickly get back up, then we are struggling to repent rather than remaining in sin.
@@OrthodoxEthos but Father, aren't we knowingly sin all/most of the time? So then how is that repenting actually? 😐 I'm struggling understanding how to apply what you're saying and it drives me crazy because I don't see how to live sinless since I have my own passions which I cannot get rig of 😑
Eschatology and soteriology are two very interrelated systems
I am deserving of hell ial always ask forgiveness and repent
Hell is not some kind of outwardly expressed punishment and suffering, but the inner suffering of self-isolation. When Christ returns with glory, and God becomes "all in all" (1 Cor. 15, 28), those who have isolated themselves in the forest of their own egoism and for whom "hell is something external", will face the torments of His eternal presence. His presence will be judgment and punishment, because He is life and love, the ontological antithesis of the self-sufficient individuality. On that day there will be no place to hide, there will be no escape from His burning presence, because God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12, 29). In the words of one of the desert fathers - "Hellfire is the love of God."
Does anybody know where is this excerpt from? I can't find the original video
Anyone else Not hear Audio? Thankfully Captions still work tho!
Happens with youtube app at times. Close it, then re-open it.
What about the people who beg Christ to let them in heaven, but He rejects them anyway ?
Does really anyone who wants to go to heaven get there successfully?
I'm afraid not.
That's why I also am not sure I will be accepted, even though I try.
The Lord became incarnate, lived and taught on earth, was crucified, died, rose from the dead and ascended to heaven to send down the Holy Spirit and establish His Church for the salvation of all. This is the Orthodox Church which has continued from Pentecost to today and has remained faithful to Apostolic teaching. We are rescued from sin, death and eternal Hell not simply by begging but by entering the Orthodox Church and learning to live a life of repentance in obedience to Christ and His Church, which does include constantly praying and crying out for mercy when we fall into sin. The saints are those that the Church holds up as having lived in obedience to Christ and who are eternally glorified with Him. We need to read the lives of the Orthodox saints and struggle to follow their teachings and examples and not simply live however we want, hoping that we can be delivered from Hell by rejecting God our entire life only if we beg hard enough in our last moments of life on earth. We cannot expect certitude of salvation while on earth because as long as we are on earth we can turn away from God and lose our soul if we don’t repent. We can have assurance that if we struggle to love God and to repent each day, then we will obtain the salvation we seek.
@@OrthodoxEthos
Thank you wholeheartedly for your response, father.
It will take me time to think it through.
Pray for me, a sinner with paralyzed will.
Answer is yes
But for the mercy of God .... Lord Jesus have mercy on me a sinner
You don't know what you deserve or don't deserve.
Listen to Fr. Peter.
@@panokostouros7609 We must not sweeten orthodoxy. Saint Siluan says that he considers himself worthy of eternal works and that he sees himself worthy of being taken by the devils and taken to hell when he dies and that he knows that most people do not want to hear about this thought because it throws them into despair and no longer they can't even pray, and they don't even want to hear anything about God. But that is because of pride. Let's not forget that the tears of gratitude, the quiet crying of joy, belong to those who have gone through the hell of repentance in which painful tears flow, sometimes for years in a row for our wickedness to have assaulted God. Today we are skipping stages and we just want gratitude.
Those who skip this stage do not advance. For several years the painful tears flow even in sleep and while we eat and whatever we do, and it is a painful cry, but also accompanied by a beautiful caress. When pain hits the limit unexpectedly, God shows himself to the soul, and the soul sees the uncreated light in the abyss of his despair, in pure darkness, not on the surface, only when he goes beyond the limit of any power and hope, when he says he is done, that the devils have won and he sees himself completely lost and forever alienated from God. After the soul is cleansed through this burning cry, man reaches perfect rest in God. Just like after the flood, the rainbow comes out and the tears flow quietly and full of gratitude, the thoughts calm down and the dispassionate state is close and the soul is resurrected. Through hell to resurrection, that's the route.
I deserve hell and I'm not entitled to anything. I am enjoying God's grace. It's important for me to understand my circumstances to be aware, accept God's grace, and have discernment, but I don't need to obsess about hell. Being vigilant against sin and my enemy is also the same as worshiping God and keeping his commands.
HELL IS BOUGHT! REPENT ORTHODOX!
Hmmm. This is the only disappointing doctrine of Orthodoxy I can't wrap my head around and disagree with. What are we to do with people like Hitler, Pot, Stalin, murderers, rapists, etc? Are these type of people just sitting around in a Godless existence and not suffering like they made those whom they murdered suffer? There's no justice in this kind of doctrine. I believe it's the weak spirited Christians who are concerned and fret over if they are going to hell. I believe all of us are deserving of hell. Yes, we deserve an eternity in a burning sulfuric acidic environment! We sinned against a holy God. God's customary love of mankind was sending His Son Jesus Christ (His Gift to the world). God's love is conditional, conditional upon whether or not I or mankind accepts His Son as the propitiation for sins. Psalm 5 tells us what God hates. If you want peace get serious about your relationship with God the Father, through God the Son. Sin is to be resisted to the point of shedding blood. I believe Scripture is clear that Hell is a place made for the devil and his angels. Whether Scripture states if Hell was "created" or not is the same argument that can be used debating the word "Trinity." Trinity is not in the Bible and therefore, the Bible does have to say God created Hell. I love the teachings of Fr. Peter but can't agree with this idea just yet.
The love of God is unconditional. You are wrong. The love of God is what is experienced as the flames of hell. God is Love and does not create beings to hate them. God is described as 'just', but He is not said to be 'justice' as He is Love. You're moralizing. This makes Christianity arbitrary and God into a capricious and possibly evil character.
So let me see if I understood, you are telling us that being far from God is no suffering? That this is no punishment? That this is not the burning furnace?
Everone who did wrong will suffer,
If there is a hell, wouldn't it need to be created? If God didn't create hell, how could there even be such a place? Furthermore, how could there be a place beyond space and time?
The only conclusion is that there is no such place. God didn't create such a place. And there are no places that exist beyond space and time.
Ummm....even science posits multiple dimensions. So a statement like "there are no places that exist beyond space and time" especially given developments in quantum physics, are pretty unsupported.
Or hell like a blackhole. 😂
@@seraphimc.2231 If such dimensions exist, that's fine. By "beyond space and time," I mean beyond the manifest cosmos, including all possible dimensions, from the most subtle to the gross. If hell exists, it would exist in such a place. The rest of my comment applies just the same.
God didn't create a hell, just like He didn't create evil. For anything to exist, it must be from God. Hell is simply the state of being which is a life lived not in communion with God, but rather rejecting His energies - His love.
@@Aaron-xb4rq Yeah but its stated in the video (and the bible) that God created hell for the demons... so it seems he did create a place to contain these spiritual, inter-dimensional beings, so that would mean such a place exists SOMEWHERE, if demons exist somewhere
@@seraphimc.2231 God certainly didn't create evil, demons, etc, but that also doesn't mean that such spirits don't exist in those states by their own free will. I have experienced such subtle manifestations on several occasions. Hell, however, isn't a place of active torture by God of such creatures, but simply a reflection of their state of being.