10.02.2016

Egbert Brink

So is there really a hell?

1. Unrequited love

Will anyone else dare to defend the existence of hell? Anyone who believes in God, who “holds” hell, should be prepared for such accusations: “Isn’t it blasphemous the very idea that there exists a place where insatiable worms wriggle and furnaces burn in anticipation of the dead who have not followed the correct creed? fire and brimstone? Rather, it is precisely those who want to believe in such a sadistic god who should beware. It is these Christians, who can say so much about other Christians, who should think about worms and flaming fire, from which there is no way out.” This was said in relation to Christians who have a different faith. However, today this can easily be rephrased: that such a fate cannot be avoided by all people who hold different beliefs. Those who dare to assert the existence of hell are easily suspected of wishing the rest of the people a fate in hell.

Misconceptions

Hell is inevitably associated with horror. Who can think of him without shuddering? The Word of God speaks very little about hell. And, in all likelihood, for this reason we are overcome by fantasies, and there is a serious danger of various conjectures arising. There are many misconceptions about this terrible place that make the Word of God unjust. One example of a false belief is a blazing furnace fueled by demons who torture and torment people. Terrible worms eat their bodies for all eternity. And the pain - endlessly and without edge - to which these people are subject... However, much more important is that such misinterpretations completely trample the justice of the Lord God Himself. This happens in cases where He is portrayed as a tormenting God who created hell according to His unheard-of arbitrariness. The protest against such a concept of a sadistic God is legitimate, but no less legitimate is the protest against sentimental humanism. In this case, God appears to be a meek Lamb with no rights on which He could insist. He obscures the God of love, the foundation of whose throne is eternal righteousness (Ps. 96).

Detours

At all times, people have rejected hell, or downplayed the scale of its suffering. I will consider three such positions in the broadest sense. All these detours, as a rule, stand on the fact that God is true love. Eternal hell cannot be reconciled with His love and is contrary to God's righteousness. First of all, it will mean that God has been defeated and His victory over the forces of evil will be called into question.

1.Hell as the penultimate reality. This means that temporary suffering and hellish turmoil will indeed occur, but sooner or later, after being in hell, heavenly glory will come. At the same time, it is believed that the biblical word “eternal,” especially when mentioning hell, does not contain the meaning of infinity, but has the meaning of “ages,” a long period of time. Hell is something in-between, a purgatory where temporary punishment occurs, but the possibility of a second chance remains.

2. Hell exists, but by the end of time it will be empty. God is only giving a warning. His warning is an objective reality, but it is intended to inspire repentance, to bring about change here and now. The judgment will not be completed - just as Nineveh was pardoned after the warning addressed to it through the preaching of Jonah. The danger does exist, hell is real, but by the great grace of God, no one will remain there forever.

3. Hell will turn into nothing. The theory about “ non-existence» , that is, about the cessation of existence. The second death is represented as splitting into nothingness (annihilation). Just as Sodom and Gomorrah disappeared, so there will be nothing left of those who died in unbelief. Their lives simply lead to nowhere, and people do not even realize it, since "hell" means resting in death without the possibility of returning to life. God will ultimately be able to be “all in all.”

Pathetic attempts

Let us briefly comment on these three approaches.

1. Indeed, the single word “eternal” in the Bible can mean a period of time as long as imaginable. But this will not be true of this word in the texts referring to hell. In Matthew 25:46, eternal life is mentioned at the same time as eternal damnation. Also in Revelation 14:11 the concept "all eternity"(synod. rev. - "forever and ever") is explained further: “And they that worship the beast and his image, and those that receive the mark of his name, shall have no rest day or night.”(see also Rev. 20:10). It is unlikely that in this context the meaning of the word “eternal” can be other than “infinite” and “unlimited”.

2. It cannot be denied that a warning can be completely real, but then the prediction does not come true, or the sentence is postponed, and that this happens with the aim of calling people to repentance. But even if there are similar examples, this does not necessarily mean that this is how it will always happen. Holy Scripture contains many texts that say the opposite; and where there is no repentance, the sentence is carried into effect. Can hell be empty if it is the place God has prepared for Satan and his fallen angels forever and ever (Jude 6; Rev. 20:10)? How then can we speak of “those who perish” (2 Thess. 2:10) if this reality does not exist?

Moreover, the warning is not only addressed to unbelievers, but it is also intended to provide comfort to those who are experiencing persecution (2 Thess. 1; 1 Pet. 4; 2 Pet. 2)! Based on the Bible, it is impossible to get around the fact that there are two categories of people: one for the resurrection of life and the other for the resurrection of condemnation (Matt. 25:31-34; John 5:29; Rom. 2:7; Rev. 20: 15).

3. The biblical opposition is not between being and non-being, but between life and death, as two ways of existence. Death is not the cessation of existence. Death is the cessation of all communication. Death means helplessness, powerlessness, emptiness. Texts such as Eph.2:1 - “you were dead” (synod. rev. - "and you, the dead...") – show that we are not talking about non-existence at all. These people were full of life, but they were far from God and left to their own devices. Death does not represent the cessation of existence at all. It is also not true that Sodom and Gomorrah disappeared forever. The inhabitants of these cities will be called on the day of judgment (Matt. 11:23-24).

What does Christ say?

Who in the Bible talks more about hell than others? Christ! He passionately repeats His message again and again, not to scare people half to death, but to give them comfort! After all, Christ came to save us from hell, and not only from what people consider the hell of today, but also from the hell of the future! Modern preachers claim that here on earth, in many places, hell is becoming visible (wars, AIDS, famine-stricken regions). But do they carry the Word of Redemption? No! First of all, they create panic because who can save this world from hell? Christ says of Himself that He is the only Redeemer. The Son of God knows better than anyone else what hell is. He speaks from His experience, for He Himself went through hell when He was on earth ( Heidelberg Catechism, V/O 44). And instead of expressing extreme concern, fear of hell, where all fear comes from, He speaks words of consolation. He is the only Person who can save us from hell.

unrequited love

The most compelling argument made against hell is that the existence of hell is contrary to God's love. Indeed, this can cause tension. Will anyone dare to say that he fully understands this contradiction and is able to interpret it satisfactorily? Yet the existence of a hell that is contrary to God's love is impossible. The “no” said to God’s love is the same as the “yes” said to hell. If someone rejects God's love, he will not be able to say that hell is contrary to God's love. Hell exists because man rejects this love. Hell is heaven rejected. The same love for which God gave His Son, and the same love for which Christ gave Himself, is the same love that carries out judgment. He who despises and rejects the love of God incurs the wrath of God (Heb. 12:25-29). And this righteous indignation comes not only from God the Father, but also from the Son: it is the wrath of the Lamb (Rev. 6:16). In hell, God asserts His right to love. Hell is a place reserved for God's unrequited love. God is grieved by those people who have completely rejected Him and His Son.

What is remarkable is the insistence with which Jesus speaks of hell to those people who rejected Him. This is why He reacts so strongly to the Pharisees and Sadducees, who speak of Him with disdain. They refuse to acknowledge Him. They watch everything He does. They are in close proximity to Him, they see and hear everything that happens. However, if you reject the Son of God, whom God sent out of His love to set everything right... If you reject the Beloved Son of God, you greatly irritate God. You wound the apple of His eye and show contempt for His love!

Imprinted Reluctance

God does not send torture to anyone, but He strengthens human reluctance. He takes our responsibility so seriously that hell is a consequence of His respect for us as members of the human race. “At the end of time there will be only two classes of people: those who once said to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God will say, “Thy will be done”” (C.S. Lewis). The doors of hell are closed, but the lock is on the inside. Man hides from God, God leaves him in the hardness of his own heart (cf. Canons of the Synod of Dort, I. 6).

God gives His Son, sending Him to suffer mortal suffering, but man’s response is: “Thank you, no need. I didn’t ask Him to take the world’s punishment upon Himself, I can handle it myself, I’ll go my own way.” These can be pleasant and friendly people who, in their own words, wouldn’t hurt a fly. And they can also be criminals. The minister visited Nazi Eichmann thirteen times before his execution. Eichmann thought: “I don’t need anyone to die in my place, I don’t need forgiveness, I don’t want it.” If people reject the Son of God, then they are left to their own unrighteousness. With all the ensuing consequences: they are forever left to themselves. Rejecting the Son of God seems to be the most difficult burden - knowing Him, or having received knowledge of Him, to continue to reject Him (Heb. 10:26-31).

Figuratively speaking

When Christ speaks of hell, it is obvious that He resorts to figurative speech. He uses symbols that are, to one degree or another, mutually exclusive: absolute darkness and fire. He resorts to vivid imagery that can be interpreted in different ways. Symbolism gives a description of the images, and not their photographic image (K. Schilder). However, the small description given by Jesus is enough to convey to us: hell is a terrible place where demons live. This is total darkness, because there God is unattainable for you, and you are not a partaker of His heavenly glory. And how could it be otherwise - after all, the work of Christ shines there in heaven, and at the same time the same brilliant work in hell blinds those who harden their hearts. Isn't the fire burning here the fire of God's indignant love? And the strong thirst described here, is it not a desperate desire for love and security that can no longer be satisfied (Luke 16:24), and therefore people in hell are left to their own devices? And did this wrenching pain come from the terrible awareness that you are missing something because you always have to do without this love?

amazing Grace

Sometimes it may seem that only a small part of people will be saved: many are called, but few are chosen (Matt. 22:14). Perhaps these words refer to the Jewish followers who lived during Christ's earthly ministry. Other Scriptures emphasize growth and increase (Matt. 8:11-12; 13), while mentioning a great multitude that no one could number (Rev. 7:9). How many of them were there before us? How many last will be first? How many smallest will become great?

God's mercy prevails over judgment (James 2:13). It is not our business to determine the measure of God's mercy, let alone to teach God about mercy. We should never create some closed system and then impose it on God, as if we were defining the minimum knowledge required for salvation. What is a person? It is impossible to reach the place from which God executes judgment. It’s not our business to talk about whether he will be there, or whether she will be there... When we add something, compare it, form our own opinion, diligently engage in judgments and evaluations, we forget to look inside our own heart (K. Schilder) . God is greater than our hearts (1 John 3:20). All that is required of us is to believe in God Almighty. He is perfectly merciful and perfectly just! Who loves us more than Him?

In Christ

What, then, should we do with those who have never heard of Him, but, at best, have some idea of ​​a certain god? What about the numerous followers of other religions? What will happen to them? What is the fate of those children who have never been raised in the spirit of the gospel? Will children without hope find their end in a hopeless hell? The Bible doesn't have much to say about ignorance, but never underestimate God's mercy. God's heart is much larger than we think.

Augustine, Luther, Zwingli, Melanchthon all left open the question of whether God would grant forgiveness to some pagans during the final judgment. They based their opinion on the texts: the first will be last; many will come from the east and west (Matt. 8:11; 19:30; 20:12). It is possible for God to declare righteous people who have not heard a sermon and have not been baptized. Being sovereign, God can do this. However, no matter who they are, no one can be saved without the saving work of Christ! However, we should not speculate on this matter or rely too much on it. We must be satisfied with this: “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12). Be that as it may, life outside of Christ is hell.

2. Holy justice

How does God's love allow the existence of hell? Can we sing in verse His love along with eternal flame, eternal grief, eternal remorse? And worse, if hell exists, wouldn't that mean God's love is failing? How can God allow a place to exist where His influence is not felt? Is it right and fair to judge a person based on only one life lived? Can this short life, from cradle to grave, really be decisive for an eternity that never ends? You won't be able to live a second time, you won't have a second chance. Doesn't this contradict God's love? Doesn't this contradict His justice?

Love and Justice

The word “justice” evokes in us thoughts of strictness - “an agreement is more valuable than money”, “adhere to the established rules”, “follow the law”. The word “mercy” pictures in our imagination friendliness - loving, radiating warmth, driven by compassion. The human heart tends to pit one against the other. But God has no such opposition. He is not dualistic. There are no contradictions in God. In the Bible we find no conflict between His love and justice. “Mercy and truth meet, righteousness and peace kiss each other” (Ps. 84:11). His justice can seek retribution if He takes vengeance to restore justice (Jer. 51:56; Rom. 2:8; Matt. 22:13). His justice is full of love, and his love is imbued with justice. We cannot understand this, it may contradict our feelings, but this does not make this truth any less true. In all this, God remains holy, unique and incomparable. God's love would fade if He did not insist on His justice. God's love would be that He overlooks evil; His love would be contrary to His righteousness. And that would be unworthy of God. This would make God's love superficial. However, God shows His love in a manner worthy of Himself. In perfect love He gave His Son, but He never for one moment compromised His justice. God demands righteousness. And He cannot help but love.

Maintaining justice

Hell is not a place where one ends up by an absurd accident, but the result of the fulfillment of divine justice! There is not a shadow of untruth in Him. His righteousness is perfect. Everything He says and does is just, He takes vengeance that man cannot take. He never makes mistakes. Righteous and true are His ways (Rev. 15:1-4), therefore He will evaluate everything as the Righteous Judge. He does not do any injustice. He will bring everything to light. He will judge everyone according to his deeds, taking into account his whole life, all circumstances. In hell God will preserve His justice. God was, is, and remains eternally offended by those people who completely reject His Son.

Various measure

What about all those who have never had anything to do with Christ? How could they sin against His love? Surely God cannot blame them for this? But he won't. His righteousness is perfect. The Lord Jesus speaks often and a lot about this. Tire and Sidon will be better off on the day of judgment (Matthew 11:24), and even Sodom and Gomorrah will be better off than those to whom Christ appeared closely (11:24)! Nowhere and not once is there any talk of some kind of “gray mass” in the “gray zone” of hell. But we are talking about different degrees of punishment. To whom much has been entrusted, the more will be required of him (Luke 12:48-49). God will punish everyone according to every idle word that people say (Matt. 12:36-37; 2 Cor. 5:10). Every person who has ever lived will be tested with justice. Whatever a man sows, he will also reap. Each will bear his own guilt and receive according to his deeds.

Individual judgment

What is important is that the Lord uses different approaches in assessing the pagan nations and His people. For example, the Ammonites will not be judged according to the laws given to Israel, but for the reproach they committed against the Jews during their captivity (Ezek. 25:6-7). They will not be judged based on what they could not know. The judgment is individual! The same is true of the king of Tire (Ezek. 28:1-10). Success and wealth clouded his mind, he allowed himself to be worshiped as a god. However, God shuns those who absurdly overestimate their own merits. God speaks to those people who have been given greater knowledge. Moreover, for the same reason - because of the special attitude towards them, thus performing a fair trial. God is righteous and remains righteous. Therefore, He calls us to trust Him in this. This is most clearly seen in the example when Tyre, to whom the word is addressed, carried out dishonest trade, and supported its sanctuaries with the income from it (Ezek. 28:18). God brings judgment on him because of his self-worship. Even so, the wealth of his temple was obtained through ill-gotten means. Even according to his own standards of justice, this is wrong! Everything points to how righteous God is. His conviction is based on a charge that is convincing even to those against whom it is directed.

Proof of Goodness

God insists on His justice while remaining true to His love. He was, is and remains righteous. And this is not a dispassionate righteousness, but rather a prudent righteousness. In everything He does, He remains righteous! Because the courts are different, opinions arise about different levels of hell. God does not reject everyone in one fell swoop. God's justice is full of love! One who is convinced of this is better able to accommodate C. Schilder's statements that even in hell there will be a faint reflection of the face of God and reflections of the infinite goodness of God. And that even in hell it will be proclaimed that the Lord is righteous in all His ways and in all His deeds, God is immeasurably good!

Consciousness and remorse

Every condemned person will understand that everything must be in accordance with the will of the Judge. Awareness of God's justice and nothing more than the desire to accept it. You cannot fail to recognize God's Judgment because His judgments are obvious. There is no need to talk about their justice, because His judgments are absolutely fair. All will agree with His Divine judgments, for every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord, whether they like it or not (Phil. 2:9-11). In the light of all this, weeping and gnashing of teeth will indicate not rebellion, but much more the sadness of repentance. The pain of remorse will become this inevitable judgment. The will of God will be done in you, but it will happen at the very last possible moment. You won't be able to avoid it. There will be no more retribution in the future, because there will no longer be an opportunity for it. You can only look back and watch the replay. It will be impossible to relive the past, so the only thing left to do is to condemn yourself in open opposition to God's righteous decision. It will be possible to see only what is happening at the moment. Nothing can be changed. Dante’s words “abandon all hope who enter here” are painfully true. They imagine a worm that never dies - focusing on the past, knowing that nothing can be changed, not knowing any renewal or change - just paralyzing helplessness.

Not an accident

At the same time, the question does not arise that God was unable to defeat evil. Every time He shows His judgment and curbs evil! He puts an end to evil once and for all. Gehenna or hell is no longer the place where Satan and his minions live, where they do whatever they want, a place where God is denied access. One day, when judgment is completed, hell will no longer be Satan's territory - it will become his prison (Jude 6; 2 Pet. 2:4; Rev. 18:8; 19:2; 20:7-10). Hell is not a realm over which God has no influence and where He cannot act. Sin cannot spread unchecked. Everything secret becomes clear, receives its assessment and due curse (2 Thess. 1:8-9; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 11:18; 20:12-13). Without trial and condemnation, the victory would not be final. Creatures will still be able to mock and insult. But one day this will come to an end. When the final judgment is completed, this shameful rebellion will be completed. The Bible never says that God will fail or that sin will continue forever. All together and individually will be brought into the Kingdom of God and submitted to the judgment of Christ (1 Cor. 15:27-28). The redemption of all things earthly and heavenly in this case means a return to the harmony that He determined (Col. 1:20). Everyone recognizes His authority and power. Sooner or later everyone will recognize that Christ truly is God's answer to everything that has caused difficulties and suffering on earth. Everyone will see this - and every knee will bow! In the end, God will be honored for sending His Son. Whether we like it or not, His righteousness will prevail. This applies to all creation (Rev. 15:4), including, according to the unrepentant, God will show holiness with His (Ezek. 38:23). The purpose of all creation was and remains to give all glory to God (Prov. 16:4).

God is not absent

Hell is often seen as a place where God does not exist, as if it is a place where evil is free to do whatever it pleases. However, God puts an end to evil and judges it. But if God is not absent, what is the meaning of His presence? He is present as God, who presents Himself as the holy Creator and Judge. It is not that God, being righteous, ultimately shows mercy, as if these two qualities were opposite. He has perfect mercy and perfect righteousness in equal measure. I don't know how to put this into the system. This is the efficacious reality revealed in Christ. In one Person He unites love and justice. Even in hell it remains obvious how righteous and good He is. The presence that fills people with love in heaven is felt in hell as anger due to the rejection of His love. The love that fills people with bliss in heaven is felt in hell as depression and remorse. The unquenchable fire of God's love and His shining glory have the opposite meaning of hell: blinding and fading. This is complete darkness. God is infinitely distant because from a human point of view the abyss is insurmountable (2 Thess. 1:8-9).

Question of conscience

MaybeIs it possible to yearn for the future if your husband or wife, brother or sister, friend or acquaintance has turned away from God, or there is great disagreement dividing entire families? A miracle must happen. As long as a person is alive, there is a way back. There is an opportunity for him to repent when you yourself are no longer there. We don't know God's plans. But what if repentance doesn’t happen?! Will we approach the last day with fear and trembling? Won't we miss these people? Out of fear of longing for someone, the conclusion is often drawn that we will not recognize anyone, that everyone will be forgotten. However, this is just an attempt to escape reality. Will Christ grieve for them? Christ, Who out of great love gave Himself for them, will He turn away from them? Will He not notice them? If, while in glory, the Lord Jesus does not forget about them, it is good. We cannot understand this now simply because we cannot see the future... We cannot dwell where He dwells. But we do not have perfect faith. We do not trust Him to be completely Righteous, Holy and Good.

Illustrious Justice

The sea of ​​glass spoken of in Revelation, ch. 15, – pure as crystal, clear as the Throne of God. A red glow emanates from Him - the glow of His wrath, the rejection of His love and His holy justice. One day everyone will admit it: “Lord, You are righteous.” Today I am unable to understand God's intentions. His judgments are not completely clear, but in the distant future I hope to understand them perfectly, in the light of Christ. No one loves this world as He loves it. And if the nations reject Him, it is not His fault. And isn't T I was inspired to write this part of the article by the deep thoughts of K. Schilder(K. Schilder, Wat is de hel?, Kampen 1920 (second edition)) and Henri Bloche(Henri Blocher, Irons-nous tous au paradis? Aixen - Provence, Kerugma: 1999)

Wed.

Philosophical thoughts, fortunately, rarely visit us. But sometimes people think about what awaits them after death. This question is especially acute for those who are guilty of sin and understand it. Clergymen of all faiths promise them hellish torment. You can, of course, shrug it off and sin for your own pleasure. But not everyone succeeds. The terrible unknown is scary. What is hell? What are we supposed to be afraid of? Let's figure it out.

Common folk interpretations

Let's try to understand what hell is from the stories of ignorant people. After all, they often talk about him in vain. It is believed that this is a very scary place. In it the soul of a sinner is eternally tormented. Grandmothers enthusiastically tell their grandchildren about large frying pans and cauldrons standing on fire, in which those who do not keep the commandments of the Lord are fried. It is, of course, quite difficult to imagine this. After all, we all face death. A person loses his body. It remains in this world and rests in the earth. How will they cook it in a cauldron? This is the first question that arises for grandchildren trying to understand what hell is. In fact, we are not talking about bodies, but about souls. That part of a person that cannot be seen or touched is probably immortal. She is destined for terrible torment if her comrade sinned during his lifetime. And who and how will plunge the soul into suffering? It's hard to imagine. After all, man has not yet decided on the concept of soul. She is something ephemeral, without a physical image. How can I torture her? So it turns out that, apart from frying pans on fires and devils, nothing gets into the heads of believers. They try to explain what hell and death are based on earthly experience. And this is not true. After all, the soul passes into another world, which most likely obeys different laws.

Where did all these pans come from?

It should be noted that people have always tried to imagine and understand what hell is. Moreover, the clergy constantly told them about him. Yes, and in literature there is a mention of fiery Gehenna. The phrase itself excited the imagination of ordinary people. They just didn’t know its origin, so they came up with all sorts of tall tales. Gehenna was the name given in ancient times to a garbage dump near Jerusalem. By the way, the place is also unpleasant. It was constantly swarming with worms and rats, stank, and burned. Since the local population was well familiar with this unpleasant image, they decided to use it as an example of the eternal habitation of sinners. Believe me, no one wanted to end up in a landfill emitting infection for a long time. It was impossible to live there and very scary. This is a kind of “anti-advertising” for the ancient resident of Jerusalem. Since the phrase was included in the sacred texts, it was preserved, having lost connection with the prototype. Now fiery Gehenna is a terrible place in which the soul of a dead sinner suffers.

What is hell according to the Bible?

It should be noted that in the holy book of believers, not much attention is paid to death. From some texts it can be understood that the soul will await the Last Judgment. The Lord will call and pronounce judgment on everyone who has ever lived on earth. This statement suggests that the soul has immortality. Which, by the way, is what the texts say. After all, after the Last Judgment, people are destined for eternal life. And its purpose is also described. Everyone will study the infinite diversity of the Lord embodied in the world. But not much is said about where the soul will wait to be called to judgment. Hell is a place where sinners will suffer. It is filled with “crying and gnashing of teeth...”. That's what the scripture says. And this is not a hint of physical suffering, which causes screams and moans, but of torment of conscience. After all, it is precisely this reaction that is caused in a person by thoughts about a wrong, unfair act, an offense inflicted on someone, or another sin.

Differences in interpretation between Catholics and Orthodox

It should be noted that people of different faiths had their own idea of ​​what hell and heaven were. In general, they read the same sacred texts, but interpreted them in accordance with their experience and worldview. Catholics call hell purgatory. They are sure that souls are not just tormented. In this way they work off their sins and cleanse themselves. There is something “capitalist” about this approach. Do you agree? Pay with negative emotions for the right to someday go to heaven! There is a pragmatic approach to this. The Orthodox are a different matter. They talk about ordeals. The soul is in darkness, far from the Lord, and that is why it suffers. This resembles the fate of an outcast, a person cut off from his homeland and family. He feels bad not from physical or mental pain, but because the most valuable thing has been taken away - intimacy with the Lord. Agree, a slightly different approach. However, it is unlikely that the real fate of the soul after death depends on the interpretations of individual faiths.

Opinion of esotericists

Not only religious ministers try to explain what hell is and where it is located. There are many schools dedicated to the spiritual growth of individuals. Their luminaries and creators also touch on the issue described. They represent the soul in the form of a clot of energy. It is clear that frying it in a frying pan will not work. Therefore, we chose a different coordinate system. The universe, they say, consists of many worlds. In earthly life we ​​know only a small part of it. But after death we are destined to exist in another part of the larger universe. It can be imagined as a string of built-in worlds from dark to light. Some even describe their levels. Depending on the sinfulness of a person’s life, his soul moves to the place he deserves. If he was a terrible villain, he will be at the lowest level. There he will be in darkness, without communication and creativity. The lack of opportunity to study and receive information is what hell means in their interpretation. Probably, such a theory has a right to exist. Imagine what will happen if you are put in a remote cell, deprived of communication with the outside world? How long will you hold out?

Where is hell?

This question also interests many. People in past centuries even tried to find it. It is clear that all experiments were unsuccessful. After all, according to beliefs, you can get to this terrible place only after death. And there will be no one to tell about this experience. After all, no one has yet been able to return from the other world except Jesus. And he, of course, did not end up in purgatory. So inquisitive people have to use their imagination to try to understand what hell is. They gave him a definition. This is where the soul suffers. But, of course, no one knows anything specifically. But the level of development of science does not yet allow conducting experiments. One thing is clear: fiery Gehenna, unlike its prototype, is not located on our planet. By the way, a couple of centuries ago they tried to place it on Mars. But with the development of astronomy, such an idea was abandoned. Now science has confirmed the multivariate nature of the universe. Nobody argues anymore that our world is not the only one. Therefore, it is customary to place hell in a parallel universe or other space, closed from people by an impenetrable barrier.

More about different worlds

Eternal attempts to understand the human psyche have led to the appearance of various gurus in society, trying to expand our understanding of the universe. They do this, unlike scientists, from an energy point of view. They came to the idea that there are a lot of habitable planets. Souls alternately incarnate on them. But they didn't stop there. Talking about the conditions of existence in various worlds, some interpreters came to an original idea. They claim that real hell is not located somewhere in a parallel universe, but here on Earth. That is, we are all invited to believe that our planet contains sinful souls experiencing certain difficulties due to past crimes. Everyone has their own, of course. Therefore, on earth people live in different conditions. Just wondering why the world's population is growing so quickly? Will they really not learn to fight sin in the higher worlds?

Why are we given death?

When talking about hell or heaven, it is impossible not to touch on this issue. After all, it is death that brings us closer to the knowledge of another world (or dimension). It itself is a very important phenomenon for humanity. Despite its unconditional naturalness, which we constantly encounter, people are afraid of this transition. Fear is inherent in us from the very beginning. No one is afraid of death from childhood. People themselves are afraid of her, instinctively. Although the Holy Scripture states that man is destined for eternal life. Therefore, death is given to us as a lesson. Since ancient times, people have been fighting it. Some are trying to find ways to prolong their physical existence, others are trying to leave their mark on this world. There are many examples: from cave paintings to the most beautiful works of art. All paths lead to creativity. Man wishes to continue ad infinitum in this world. That is, death is a stimulus for creativity, including the birth of a new life.

Conclusion

In fact, it is not difficult to understand what hell is. This idea is inherent in each of us, so to speak, genetically. It is embodied every time a person’s conscience speaks. After all, it is at this moment that the soul begins to experience torment. Strengthen them many times in your imagination and you will understand that there is fiery Gehenna.

Does a person have anything more valuable than life? Does death mean the cessation of our existence in general or is it the beginning of another, new life? Are there people who have returned from the other world, and do they know what happens there, beyond the threshold of death? What can you compare that state with?

Society's interest in these kinds of questions is beginning to rapidly increase, because thanks to the revival technique available in our time, otherwise called the resuscitation technique, which helps restore the respiratory function and cardiac activity of the body, an increasing number of people are able to talk about the states of death they have experienced. Some of them shared with us these impressions, striking in their spontaneity, taken from the “other life” . And when such impressions were pleasant and joyful, people often ceased to feel the fear of death.

Many people are surprised by the reports that have appeared lately about the extremely positive experiences that people who have returned to life describe. The question arises, why does no one talk about the existence of unpleasant, that is, negative post-mortem experiences?

As a cardiologist with extensive clinical practice in the resuscitation of patients with coronary insufficiency, I have found that if the patient is questioned immediately after resuscitation, it turns out that there are not a few unpleasant impressions received in the afterlife.

To hell and back

An increasing number of my patients who have undergone it tell me that there is heaven and hell there. I myself have always believed that death is nothing more than physical extinction, and my own life was confirmation of this. But now I was forced to radically change my views, and thus reconsider my whole life, and found little comfort in it. I saw that it really was It's not safe to die!

The change in my beliefs was the result of an incident, and that’s where it all began for me. I once asked one of my patients to undergo a procedure we call a “stress test,” which allows us to determine the condition of the patient’s chest. During this procedure, we give the patient a certain load and simultaneously record heartbeats. Using the simulator, it is possible to stimulate the patient’s movements so that he gradually moves from walking to running. If the symmetry in the electrocardiogram is broken during such exercises, this means that the patient’s chest pain is likely due to a cardiac disorder, which is the initial stage of angina pectoris.

This patient, a pale 48-year-old man, worked as a village postman. Medium build, dark hair and good looking. Unfortunately, when the procedure began, the ECG not only went wrong, but also showed complete cardiac arrest. He fell on the floor in my office and began to slowly die.

It was not even atrial fibrillation, but cardiac arrest. The ventricles contracted and the heart sank lifelessly.

Putting my ear to his chest, I could not hear anything. The pulse was not palpable to the left of the Adam's apple. He sighed once or twice and froze completely, his muscles clenched in limp convulsions. The body began to acquire a bluish color.

This happened around noon, but although there were 6 other doctors working at the clinic besides me, they all went to another hospital for an evening round. Only the nurses remained, but they were not at a loss and their behavior deserves praise.

While I was performing closed cardiac massage, pressing on the patient’s chest, one of the nurses began mouth-to-mouth artificial respiration. Another nurse brought a breathing mask that made this procedure easier. The third wheeled up a spare wheelchair with pacemaker equipment. But, to everyone’s chagrin, the heart showed no signs of life. The heart muscle was completely blocked. The pacemaker was supposed to eliminate this blockade and increase the number of heart beats from 35 to 80-100 per minute.

I inserted the stimulator wires into a large vein below the collarbone - the one that goes directly to the heart. One end of the wire was inserted into the venous system and left free inside the heart muscle. Its other end was connected to a small energy battery - a device that regulates the activity of the heart and prevents it from stopping.

The patient began to come to his senses. But as soon as I interrupted the manual chest massage for some reason, the patient again lost consciousness and his respiratory activity stopped - death occurred again.

Every time his vital functions were restored, this man screamed shrilly: “I’m in hell!” He was terribly scared and begged me for help. I was very afraid that he would die, but I was even more frightened by the mention of hell, about which he screamed, and where I myself was not. At that moment I heard a very strange request from him: “Don’t stop!” The fact is that the patients whom I had previously had to resuscitate, the first thing they usually told me as soon as they regained consciousness: “Stop tormenting my chest, you are hurting me!” And this is quite understandable - I have enough strength, so that with closed cardiac massage I sometimes break ribs. And yet this patient told me: “Don’t stop!”

It was only at that moment when I looked at his face that real anxiety overcame me. The expression on his face was much worse than at the moment of death. His face was distorted by a terrible grimace, personifying horror, his pupils were dilated, and he himself was trembling and sweating - in a word, all this defies description.

Accustomed to patients who are in such emotional stress, I did not pay any attention to his words and remember telling him: “I’m busy, don’t bother me with your hell until I put the stimulator back in place.”

But the man said this seriously, and it finally dawned on me that his concern was genuine. He was in a state of panic the likes of which I had never seen before. As a result, I began to act with feverish speed. Meanwhile, during this time the patient lost consciousness 3 or 4 more times and again.

Finally, after several such episodes, he asked me: “What can I do to get out of hell?” And I, remembering that I once had to teach in Sunday school, told him that the only one who can intercede for him is Jesus Christ. Then he said: “I don’t know how to do this correctly. Pray for me."

Pray for him! How many nerves! I replied that I was a doctor, not a preacher.

But he repeated: “Pray for me!” I realized that I had no choice - it was a dying request. And so, while we were working, right on the floor, he repeated my words after me. It was a very simple prayer, since I had no experience in this regard until now. Something like this came out:

My Lord Jesus Christ!

I ask You to save me from hell.

Forgive my sins.

I will follow You all my life.

If I die I want to be in Heaven

If I remain alive, I will forever be faithful to You.

Eventually, the patient's condition stabilized and he was taken to the ward. When I got home, I blew the dust off the Bible and started reading, wanting to find an accurate description of hell there.

In my medical practice, death has always been a commonplace matter, and I have considered it a simple cessation of vital activity, which does not entail any subsequent danger or remorse. But now I was convinced that there was something more behind it all. The Bible spoke of death as everyone's final destiny. All my views required revision, and I needed to expand my knowledge. In other words, I was looking for an answer to a question that would confirm the truth of Scripture. I discovered that the Bible is not just a history book. Every word went straight to the heart and turned out to be true. I decided that I needed to start studying it better and more carefully.

A couple of days later, I approached my patient, wanting to question him. Sitting down at the head of the room, I asked him to remember what he actually saw in that hell. Was there a fire there? What kind of devil is he, and did he have a pitchfork? What does all this resemble, and what can hell be compared to?

The patient was amazed: “What are you talking about, what kind of hell is this? I don't remember anything like that." I had to explain to him in detail, recalling every detail he had described two days ago: the way he was lying on the floor, the stimulator, and the resuscitation. But despite all my efforts, the patient could not remember anything bad about his feelings. Apparently, the experiences he had to endure were so terrible, so disgusting and painful that his brain was unable to cope with them, so they were subsequently repressed into the subconscious.

Meanwhile, this man suddenly became a believer. Now he is a zealous Christian, although before that he went to church only by chance. Being extremely secretive and shy, he nevertheless became a direct witness of Jesus Christ. He also did not forget our prayer and how he “passed out” once or twice. He still doesn’t remember his experience in hell, but he says that he saw, as if from above, from the ceiling, those who were below, watching how they worked on his body.

Additionally, he remembered meeting his late mother and late stepmother during one of these dying episodes. The meeting place was a narrow gorge full of beautiful flowers. He saw other deceased relatives as well. He felt very good in that valley with its bright greenery and flowers, and he adds that the whole of it was illuminated by a very strong ray of light. He “saw” his late mother for the first time, since she died at twenty-one years old, when he was only 15 months old, and his father soon remarried, and he was never even shown photographs of his mother. However, despite this, he managed to choose her portrait from many others when his aunt, having learned about what had happened, brought several family photographs for verification. There was no mistake - the same brown hair, the same eyes and lips - the face in the portrait was a copy of what he saw. And there she was still 21 years old. There was no doubt that the woman he saw was his mother. He was amazed - this event was no less amazing for his father.

Thus, all this can serve as an explanation for the paradox that only “good impressions” are described in the literature. The fact is that if the patient is not interviewed immediately after resuscitation, then the bad impressions are erased from memory, and only good ones remain.

Further observations will have to confirm this discovery made by doctors in intensive care wards, and doctors themselves should find the courage to pay attention to the study of spiritual phenomena, which they can do by interviewing patients immediately after their resuscitation. Since only 1/5 of patients who return to life talk about their experiences, many such interviews may turn out to be fruitless. If the search is ultimately successful, then its results can be compared with the pearl, which was considered a trinket found in a pile of garbage. It was precisely such “pearls” that saved me from the darkness of ignorance and skepticism and led me to the conviction that there, beyond the threshold of death, there is life, and this life is not always complete joy.

This patient's story could be expanded. The poor condition of the heart caused it to stop during the procedure. Some time later, after he had recovered, the chest pains still remained; but they were the result of chest massage and had nothing to do with his illness.

Using coronary catheterization (a procedure to examine the heart vessels), it was possible to detect pathological changes in the coronary arteries that were the cause of his illness. Because the coronary arteries are too small to remove obstructions, blood vessels must be taken from the leg and transplanted to surround the affected area of ​​the artery, which is then excised. Our surgical team was called in to perform one of these operations.

My duties as a cardiologist include catheterization, diagnosis, and treatment, but not surgery. But for that special occasion, I was included in the group of surgeons, consisting of several doctors and operating technicians. The general content of the conversation at the operating table and earlier, during catheterization, was approximately as follows.

“Isn’t it interesting,” one of the doctors addressed those standing, “this patient said that while he was being resuscitated, he visited hell! But that doesn't bother me much. If hell really exists, then I still have nothing to fear. I am an honest person and constantly take care of my family. Other doctors walked away from their wives, but I never did this. In addition, I look after my children and take care of their education. So, I don't find any reason to be upset. If there is Heaven, then there is a place prepared for me.”

I was convinced that he was wrong, but at that time I could not yet substantiate my thoughts by reference to Scripture. Later I found many such places. I was convinced that good behavior alone could not lead to Heaven.

Another doctor continued the conversation at the table: “I personally do not believe that after death there can be any more life. Most likely, the patient simply imagined this hell, while in reality nothing like that happened.” When I asked what basis he had for such statements, he said that “before entering medical school, I studied at the Seminary for 3 years and left it because I could not believe in the afterlife.”

What do you think happens to a person after death? - I asked.

After death, a person becomes fertilizer for flowers,” he answered. This was not a joke on his part, and he still adheres to this belief. I’m ashamed to admit, but until recently I also held this view. One of the doctors, who was tempted to inject me, tried to amuse others with his question: “Rawlings, someone told me that you were baptized in the Jordan. Is it true?"

I tried to avoid answering by changing the subject. Instead of saying something like, “Yes, that was one of the happiest days of my life,” I avoided the question so that one could say; that I was embarrassed. To this day I regret this, and often I am reminded of that passage from the Gospel where Jesus says that if we are ashamed of Him before the people of this age, then He will also be ashamed of us before His Father in Heaven (see Matt. 10 :33). I hope that my commitment to Christ is now more clear to those around me.

Typical out-of-body experience

The following description is general, but it may have some variations.

Usually the dying person weakens or loses consciousness at the moment of death, and yet he is able to hear the doctor pronounce his death for a while. Then he discovers that he is outside his body, but still in the same room, watching as a witness to what is happening. He sees himself being resuscitated and is often forced to avoid other people who might interfere with his observations. Or he is able to look down at the scene in a floating position, being under the ceiling. Often he stops, as if floating, behind the doctor or attendants, looking down at the back of their heads as they engage in resuscitation efforts. He notices those in the room and knows what they are saying.

He has a hard time believing in his own death, in the fact that his body, which previously served him, now lies lifeless. He feels great! The body was abandoned like some kind of unnecessary thing. Gradually getting used to the new, unusual state, he begins to notice that he now has a new body, which seems real and endowed with better perceptual abilities. He is able to see, feel, think and speak as before. But now new advantages have been acquired. He understands that his body has many capabilities: moving, reading other people's thoughts; His abilities are almost limitless. He then hears an unusual noise, after which he sees himself rushing down a long black corridor. His speed can be either fast or slow, but he does not hit walls and is not afraid of falling.

As he exits the corridor, he sees a brightly lit, exquisitely beautiful area where he meets and talks with previously deceased friends and relatives. After this, he can be interrogated by a being of light or a being of darkness. The area may be inexpressibly wonderful, often a rolling meadow or a beautiful city; or an unspeakably repulsive, often underground prison or giant cave. A person's entire life can be replayed as a snapshot of all major events, as if awaiting trial. When he walks with his friends or relatives (often his parents are in good health), there is usually a barrier that he is unable to cross. At this point, he usually returns and suddenly finds himself back in his body, and may feel the shock of the electric current being applied or pain in the chest due to pressure on it.

Such experiences tend to have a strong impact on the life and behavior of the individual after revival. If the feeling is pleasant, then the person is not afraid to die again. He can expect a resumption of this feeling, especially from the moment he has learned that death itself is painless and does not inspire fear. But if he tries to tell his friends about these feelings, then this may be perceived either with ridicule or jokes. Finding words to describe these supernatural events is quite difficult; but if he is ridiculed, he will subsequently keep what happened a secret and will no longer mention it. If what happened was unpleasant, if he experienced condemnation or a curse, then most likely he will prefer to keep these memories secret.

Scary experiences can be as common as pleasant ones. Those who have experienced unpleasant sensations, as well as those who have experienced pleasant ones, may not be disturbed by the knowledge that they are dead when they watch those who are fussing over their dead body. They also enter a dark hallway after leaving the room, but instead of entering an area of ​​light, they find themselves in a dark, foggy environment where they encounter strange people who may be lurking in the shadows or along a blazing lake of fire. The horrors defy description, so it is extremely difficult to remember them. Unlike pleasant sensations, it is difficult to know the exact details.

It is important to interview the patient immediately after resuscitation, while he is still under the impression of the events he experienced, that is, before he can forget or hide his experiences. These extraordinary, painful encounters have the most profound impact on their attitude towards life and death. I have never met a single person who, having experienced this, remained an agnostic or an atheist.

Personal observations

I would like to talk about what made me want to study the “post-mortem experience.” I began to follow the publications of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (finally published in her book On Death and Dying) and Dr. Raymond Moody in Life After Life. If we do not talk about descriptions of suicide attempts, the materials they published indicate only extremely joyful feelings. I can't believe this! The sensations they describe are too joyful, too exalted, to be true, in my opinion. In my youth, I was taught that beyond the grave there is a “place of seal” and a “place of bliss,” hell and heaven. In addition, that conversation with a man during his resuscitation, who insisted that he was in hell, and the belief in the immutability of Scripture convinced me that some must go to hell.

However, almost everyone spoke about paradise in their descriptions. Then I finally realized that some of the “good” feelings could be false, perhaps orchestrated by Satan disguised as an “Angel of Light” (2 Cor. 11:14). Or perhaps a meeting place in a pleasant environment, which is the "land of division" or the area of ​​adjudication before the trial, since in most cases a barrier is reported that prevents progress to the other side. The patient returns to his body before he can overcome the barrier. However, there are also cases reported when deceased patients were allowed to cross that “barrier” beyond which Heaven or Hell opened. These cases will be described below.

As a result of such observations, I have become convinced that all the facts published by Dr. Raymond Moody and Dr. Kubler-Ross and subsequently by Dr. Karlis Ozis and Erlenju Haraldson in their excellent collection "At the Hour of Death" are accurately stated by the authors, but not always in sufficient detail. reported by patients. I have found that most of the unpleasant sensations soon go deep into the patient's subconscious, or subconscious mind. These bad feelings seem so painful and disturbing that they are expelled from conscious memory, and either only pleasant sensations remain or nothing remains at all. There have been cases where patients "died" several times from cardiac arrest as soon as resuscitation was stopped, and when breathing and heart activity resumed, consciousness returned to them. In such cases, the patient has repeatedly had out-of-body experiences. However, he usually only remembered the pleasant details.

Then I finally realized that both Dr. Kubler-Ross and Dr. Moody and other psychiatrists and psychologists were asking patients who had been resuscitated by other doctors, and that the resuscitation had occurred several days or even weeks before the interview. As far as I know, neither Kubler-Ross nor Moody ever resuscitated a patient or even had the opportunity to interview him immediately at the scene. After repeated questioning of the patients I had resuscitated, I was amazed by the discovery that many had unpleasant sensations. If patients could be interviewed immediately after resuscitation, I'm sure researchers would hear about bad feelings as often as good ones. However, most doctors, who do not want to appear to be believers, are afraid to ask patients about their “after-death experience.”

This idea of ​​immediate questioning was put forward many years ago by the famous psychologist, Dr. W.G. Myers, who stated:

“It is possible that we could learn a lot by questioning dying people at the moment of their recovery from certain comatose states, since their memory stores certain dreams or visions that appeared in this state. If any sensations are actually experienced at this moment, they must be recorded immediately, since they are likely to be quickly erased from the supraliminal (conscious) memory of the patient, even if he does not die immediately afterwards" (F.W.H Myers, "Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodili Death" (New York: Avon Books, 1977).

In starting to study this phenomenon, I came into contact with other doctors who were also given similar information about pleasant and unpleasant sensations, so that fairly similar cases could be compared. At the same time, I began to be interested in the problem of similar messages previously made by various authors.

Unusual incidents in our time

The memories of many of my patients are striking in their careful reproduction of the realities that accompanied their resuscitation: an accurate listing of the procedures used, an account of the conversation between those present in the room, a description of the style and color of the clothes everyone was wearing. Such events suggest a spiritual existence outside the body during a prolonged state of unconsciousness. Such comatose states sometimes continue for several days.

One such patient was a nurse. One day at the hospital I was asked to examine her for a heart consultation due to complaints of recurrent chest pain. The only person in the room was her neighbor, who told me that the patient was either in the X-ray department or was still in the bathroom. I knocked on the bathroom door and, hearing no answer, turned the knob, opening the door very slowly so as not to confuse whoever might be there.

When the door opened, I saw a nurse hanging from a coat hook on the other side of the bathroom door. She was not too tall, so she easily turned along with the open door. The woman was hanging on a hook, hooked by a soft collar, which is used to stretch the cervical vertebrae. Apparently she tied this collar around her neck and then attached the end to a hook and gradually began to bend her knees until she became unconscious. Not suffocation or shock - just a gradual loss of consciousness. The deeper the faint became, the further she sank. At the moment of death, her face, tongue and eyes protruded. The face acquired a dark, bluish tint. The rest of her body was deathly pale. Due to the cessation of breathing, she stretched out completely.

I quickly took her off the hook and laid her at full length on the floor. Her pupils were dilated, no pulse was palpable at her neck, and no heartbeats were felt. I began a closed cardiac massage while her neighbor ran downstairs to call the attendants for help. Oxygen and breathing mask were replaced by mouth-to-mouth artificial respiration. The ECG showed a straight line, a “dead spot”. Electroshock won't help anymore. The IV dose of sodium bicarbonate and epinephrine was immediately doubled while other medications were added to the IV bottle. An IV was placed to maintain blood pressure and relieve shock.

She was then sent on a stretcher to the intensive care unit, where she remained in a comatose state for 4 days. Dilated pupils indicated brain damage due to insufficient blood circulation during cardiac arrest. But suddenly, after a few hours, her blood pressure began to normalize. Along with the restoration of blood circulation, urination began. However, she was able to speak only after a few days. Eventually, all body functions were restored, and a few months later the patient returned to work.

To this day, she believes that the pathological elongation of her neck was caused by something like a car accident. Despite the fact that she was admitted to the hospital in a depressed state, she has now recovered without residual symptoms of depression or suicidal tendencies, probably mitigated by long-term disruption of the blood supply to the brain.

About the second day after coming out of the coma, I asked her if she remembered at least something from everything. She replied, “Oh yes, I remember how you worked with me. You threw off your brown checkered jacket, then loosened your tie, I remember it was white and had brown stripes on it, The sister who came to help you seemed so worried! I tried to tell her that I was fine. You asked her to bring the outpatient bag as well as the IV catheter. Then two men came in with a stretcher. I remember all this."

She remembered me - but she was in a deep coma at that very time, and remained in this state for the next four days! While I was taking off my brown jacket, it was just me and her in the room. And she was clinically dead.

Some of those who survived reversible death perfectly remembered the conversation that took place during resuscitation. Maybe because hearing is one of those senses that the body is the last to lose after death? I don't know. But next time I will be more attentive.

One 73-year-old gentleman walked into the hospital ward complaining of a pressing pain in the middle of his chest. While walking towards my office, he held his chest. But halfway down, he fell and hit his head against the wall. He began to foam, sighed once or twice, and then his breathing stopped. The heart stopped beating.

We lifted his shirt and listened to his chest, wanting to make sure of this. Artificial respiration and cardiac massage were started. An ECG was done, which showed atrial fibrillation of the heart ventricles. Every time we applied an electric shock through the plates, the body jumped in response. Subsequently, he regained consciousness from time to time, fighting us off and trying to get to his feet. Then, suddenly bending over, he fell again, hitting his head on the floor again and again. This was repeated about 6 times.

Oddly enough, on the 6th time, after a series of intravenous infusions supporting the work of the heart, the shock procedures took effect and the pulse began to be felt, blood pressure was restored, consciousness returned, and the patient is alive to this day. He is already 81 years old. He married again after this incident and subsequently managed to get a divorce, thereby losing his profitable fruit trade, which was the main means of his existence.

Of the 6 returns from clinical death that he experienced that day in my office, he remembers only one. He remembers me telling another doctor who was working with me, “Let's try one more time. If electric shock doesn’t help, let’s stop!” I would gladly retract my words, since he heard me, although he was then completely unconscious. He later said to me, “What did you mean when you said, 'We'll stop'? Did this apply to me when you continued working?”

Hallucinations

Very often people have asked me whether those good and bad sensations could be hallucinations that could be caused by the severity of the patient's illness or the drugs prescribed during this illness? Is it not more likely that hidden desires are fulfilled in their visions? Perhaps they are determined by cultural or religious upbringing? Are their feelings truly universal, or is it just their vision? Do people with different religious beliefs, for example, have the same or different experiences?

To resolve this problem, Dr. Karlis Ozis and his colleagues conducted two studies in America and India. More than 1,000 people, especially those who often dealt with dying people - doctors and other medical personnel - filled out questionnaires. The following results were recorded:

1. Did patients who took painkillers or narcotic medications known to cause hallucinations have less believable post-mortem experiences than those who did not use drugs at all? In addition, drug-induced hallucinations are clearly related to the present, but not .

2. Hallucinations caused by diseases such as uremia, chemical poisoning, or brain damage are less related to unexpected encounters from the future life or its components than hallucinations associated with other diseases.

3. Patients who received sensations in the future life did not see Heaven or Hell in the form in which they had previously imagined them. What they saw was, as a rule, unexpected for them.

4. These visions are not wishful thinking and do not appear to establish which patients have a “post-mortem experience.” Such visions or sensations also occur frequently both in patients who have a chance of recovering soon and in those who are dying.

5. The sequence of sensations does not depend on differences in culture or religion. In both America and India, dying patients claimed to have seen a dark corridor, a blinding light, and relatives who had died before them.

6. It was noted, however, that; religious background had a certain influence on the identification of some Being who might be encountered. No Christian has seen a Hindu deity, and no Hindu has seen Christ. This Being does not seem to reveal itself, but is instead determined by the observer.

Dr. Charles Garfield, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of California Medical Center, concluded from his observations that the symptoms were completely different from drug-induced hallucinations or the dual senses that a patient might experience during periods of exacerbation of the disease. My own observations confirm this.

The narcotic effect, delirium tremens, carbon dioxide narcosis and mental reactions are more likely to be associated with the life of this world, but not with the events of the future world.

Descent into Hell

Finally, we will turn to those messages that are generally little known to the public. There are people who, after returning from a state of clinical death, said that they were in hell. Some of the cases are described by people who apparently penetrated the barrier or rocky mountains that separated the places of distribution from those places where judgment could be administered. Those who did not meet the barrier may have left the place of death only to go through various sorts of distribution places - one such place was gloomy and dark, like a haunted house at a carnival. In most cases, this place appears to be a dungeon or an underground road.

Thomas Welch, in his pamphlet The Amazing Miracle of Oregon, described the most extraordinary sensation that came over him when he saw a stunning “lake of fire, a spectacle more terrible than man could ever imagine, this last side of the judgment.”

While working as an assistant engineer for the Bridle Whale Lumber Company, 30 miles east of Portland, Oregon, Welch was tasked with observing, from a scaffold across a dam 55 feet above the water, a survey being carried out to determine the boundaries of the future sawmills. Then he presents this story:

“I went out onto the scaffold to level the logs that lay across and did not rise along the conveyor. Suddenly I lost my footing on the scaffolding and fell between the beams into a pond about 50 feet deep. An engineer sitting in the cabin of a locomotive that was unloading logs into a pond saw me fall. I hit my head on the first bar at 30 feet of water, and then on another until I fell into the water and was out of sight.

At this time, 70 people worked at the factory itself and around it. The factory was stopped, and all available people, according to their testimony, were sent to search for my body. The search took from 45 minutes to an hour until I was finally found by M. J. H. Gunderson, who confirmed this testimony in writing.

I was dead as far as this world is concerned. But I was alive in another world. Time did not exist there. I learned more in that hour of life outside my body than in the same period of time in my body. All I could remember was falling off the catwalk. An engineer in the locomotive saw me fall into the water.

Then I realized that I was standing at the shore of a huge fiery ocean. This turned out to be the very thing that the Bible talks about in the book of Revelation, 21:8: “...a lake that burns with fire and brimstone.” This is a spectacle more terrible than man can imagine, this is the side of the final judgment.

I remember this more clearly than any other event that has ever happened to me in my entire life, every detail of every event that I observed and that happened during this hour when I was not in this world. I stood at some distance from the burning, seething and roaring mass of blue flame. Everywhere, as far as I could see, there was this lake. There was no one in it. I wasn't in it either. I saw people I knew had died when I was still 13 years old. One of them was a boy I went to school with who died of mouth cancer that started with a tooth infection when he was just a child. He was two years older than me. We recognized each other, although we did not speak. The other people also looked confused and deep in thought, as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing. Their facial expressions were somewhere between bewilderment and embarrassment.

The place where all this happened was so amazing that words are simply powerless. There is no way to describe it except to say that we were then the “eyes” of the witnesses of the final judgment. There is no escape or escape from there. There's no point in even counting on it. It is a prison from which no one can escape except through Divine intervention. I clearly said to myself: “If I had known about this earlier, I would have done whatever was required of me to avoid being in such a place,” But I did not even think about it. As these thoughts flashed through my mind, I saw another Person passing in front of us. I recognized Him immediately. He had a powerful, kind, sympathetic face; calm and fearless, Lord of all that He saw.

It was Jesus Himself. Great hope kindled in me, and I realized that this is a great and amazing Man who is following me into this prison of death, for a soul confused by the verdict of the court, to solve my problem. I did nothing to attract His attention, but just said again to myself: “If He would only look in my direction and see me, He could lead me away from this place, because He must know what to do.” He passed by, and it seemed to me as if He did not pay attention to me, but before He disappeared from sight, He turned His head and looked straight at me. Just this, that's all. His look was enough.

In a matter of seconds I was back in my body. It was like walking through the door of a house. I heard the voices of the Brocks (the people I lived with) as they prayed - a few minutes before I opened my eyes and could say anything. I could hear and understand what was happening. Then suddenly life entered my body and I opened my eyes and spoke to them. It's easy to talk and describe what you saw. I know there is a lake of fire because I saw it. I know that Jesus Christ is forever alive. I saw him. The Bible states in Revelation (1:9-11): “I John... was in the spirit on the day of resurrection; I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, saying: I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last; write what you see in a book..."

Among many other events, John saw the judgment, and he describes it in Revelation, chapter 20, as he saw it himself. In verse 10 he says, “and the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire...” And again in 21:8 John speaks of “...a lake burning with fire and brimstone.” This is the lake that I saw, and I am sure that when this period is fulfilled, at the judgment, every corrupted creature in this world will be thrown into this lake and will be destroyed forever.

I am grateful to God that there are people who can pray. It was Mrs. Brock who I heard praying for me. She said: “Oh Lord, don’t take Tom; he did not save his soul.”

Soon I opened my eyes and asked them: “What happened?” I haven't lost time; I was taken somewhere, and now I was back in place. Shortly thereafter, an ambulance arrived and I was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland. I was taken there just at about 6 o'clock in the evening, to the surgical department, where my scalp was sewn together, a lot of stitches were put in. I was left in the intensive care unit. In fact, there were few doctors there who could help in any way. I just had to wait and watch. During these 4 days and nights, I had the feeling of constant communication with the Holy Spirit. I relived the events of my old life and what I saw: the lake of fire, Jesus coming to me there, my uncle and the boy I went to school with, and my return to life. The presence of the Spirit of God was constantly felt by me, and I cried out loudly to the Lord many times. Then I began to ask God to have complete control over my life and for His will to be mine... Some time after this, around 9 o'clock, God showed me His voice. The voice of the Spirit was quite clear. He said to me, “I want you to tell the world what you saw and how you came back to life” (Thomas Welch, Oregon’s Amazing Miracle (Dallas; Christ for the Nations, Inc., 1976, p. 80).

Another example concerns a patient who was dying of a heart attack. She attended church every Sunday and considered herself an ordinary Christian. Here's what she said:

I remember how shortness of breath began, and then an unexpected loss of memory. Then I realized that I was outside my body. Then I remember that I found myself in a gloomy room, where in one of the windows I saw a huge giant with a terrible face, he was watching me. Small imps or dwarfs scurried around the window sill, who were obviously at one with the giant. That giant beckoned me to follow him. I didn't want to go, but I approached. It was dark and gloomy all around, I could hear people moaning all around me. I felt moving creatures at my feet. As soon as we passed through a tunnel or cave, the creatures became even more disgusting. I remember crying. Then, for some reason, the giant turned to me and sent me back. I realized that I had been spared. I do not know why. Afterwards, I remember seeing myself again in a hospital bed. The doctor asked me if I had used drugs. My story probably sounded like feverish delirium. I told him that I was not in the habit of doing this and that the story was true. This changed my whole life.

The descriptions of being taken away or sent back from the spiritual world apparently differ considerably in cases of unpleasant sensations, while in the case of good ones these images give the impression of the same type of narrative. Another message:

I began to experience severe abdominal pain due to inflammation of the pancreas. I was given medications that increased my blood pressure, which constantly decreased, as a result of which I gradually lost consciousness. I remember being resuscitated. I walked away through a long tunnel and wondered why my feet weren't touching it. I had the impression that I was floating and moving away very quickly. I think it was a dungeon. It could have been a cave, but it was a very terrible one. Creepy sounds were heard in it. There was a rotting smell, about the same as that of cancer patients. Everything happened as if in slow motion. I can't remember everything I saw there, but some of the villains were only half human. They mimicked each other and spoke in a language that I could not understand. You ask me if I met anyone I knew, or if I saw a light shining, but none of this happened. There was a magnanimous Man in shining white robes who appeared when I called: “Jesus, save me!” He looked at me, and I felt the instruction: “Live differently!” I don’t remember how I left that place and how I came back. Maybe there was something else, I don’t remember. Maybe I'm afraid to remember!

In the latest edition of Charles-Deakins, a world travelogue, George Ritchay, M.D., described his death from lobar pneumonia in 1943 at Camp Barclay, Texas, at the age of 20. In his amazing book, “Return from Tomorrow,” he describes how he inexplicably returned to life after 9 minutes, but during this time he experienced a whole life, full of events, both sad and joyful. He describes a journey with a luminous Being, full of radiance and power, and identified by him with Christ, who led him through a series of “worlds.” In this story, the damned world was located on a vast plain that stretched on the surface of the earth, where vicious spirits were in constant struggle among themselves. Having grappled in personal combat, they beat each other with their fists. Everywhere - sexual perversions and hopeless cries, and disgusting thoughts emanating from someone, became common property. They could not see Dr. Ritchai and the figure of Christ with him. The appearance of these creatures evoked nothing but compassion for the misfortune to which these people had doomed themselves.

St. Kenneth E. Hagin, in his booklet My Testimony, described in detail the experiences that absolutely changed his life. They forced him to take the priesthood so that he could tell others about it. He reports the following:

On Saturday, April 21, 1933, at half past seven in the evening, in McKinney, Texas, which is 32 miles from Dallas, my heart stopped beating, and the spiritual man who lives in my body separated from it... I went lower, lower and lower, until the light of the earth faded... The deeper I went, the darker it became, until there was absolute blackness. I couldn't see my own hand, even if it was only an inch away from my eyes. The deeper I went down, the more stuffy and hot it became. Finally, the path to the underworld appeared beneath me, and I was able to discern the lights flickering on the walls of the cave of the doomed. These were reflections of the fires of hell.

A gigantic fiery sphere with white ridges was approaching me, drawing me away like a magnet attracting metal to itself. I didn't want to go! I didn’t even go, but just like metal jumps to a magnet, my spirit was drawn to that place. I couldn't take my eyes off him. I felt hot. Many years have passed since then, but this vision still stands before my eyes, exactly as I saw it then. Everything is as fresh in my memory as if it happened last night.

After I reached the bottom of the pit, I felt a certain spiritual Being next to me. I did not look at him, because I could not take my eyes off the flames of hell, but when I stopped, the Creature put his hand on mine between my elbow and shoulder to guide me there. And at the same moment a Voice was heard from a distant height, above this darkness, above the earth, above the heavens. It was the voice of God, although I did not see Him, and I do not know what He said, because He did not speak in English. He spoke in some other language, and when He spoke, His voice rang throughout this damned place, shaking it like that; how the wind shakes the leaves. This caused the person holding me to loosen his grip. I did not move, but some Force pulled me away, and I returned away from the fire and heat, into the shadow of darkness. I began to climb until I reached the top edge of the pit and saw the light of the earth. I returned to the same room, as real as always. I entered it through a door, although my spirit did not need doors; I slid straight into my body, just like a person dives into his trousers in the morning, the same way I came out - through my mouth. I started talking to my grandmother. She said, “Son, I thought you died, I thought you passed away.”

...I wish I could find words to describe that place. People spend this life so carelessly as if they should not face hell, but the Word of God and my personal experience tell me otherwise. I experienced an unconscious state, it also gives a feeling of darkness, but I want to say that there is no darkness like the External Darkness.

The number of encounters with hell is rapidly increasing, but they will not be cited here. The only incident I would like to mention here is that of a devoted member of the Church. He was surprised that after his death he felt himself falling into a tunnel that ended at a flame, revealing a gigantic, fire-breathing world of horror. He saw some of his "Good Old Days" friends, their faces showing nothing but emptiness and apathy. They were burdened with useless burdens. They walked constantly, but never went anywhere in particular, and never stopped for fear of the “overseers,” which he said were indescribable. Absolute darkness lay beyond this zone of aimless activity. He escaped the fate of remaining there forever when God called him to step on some invisible miraculous path. Since then, he has felt called to warn others about the dangers of complacency and the need to take a stand in their faith.

Moritz Rawlings (from the book "Beyond Death's Threshold")

Translation by M.B. Danilushkina, publishing house "Resurrection"

Culture

Both believers and atheists are constantly waiting for clear evidence that will confirm or refute existence of God.

Below is a list of theories and studies carried out by scientists from various fields who have worked to prove the existence of God, Heaven and Hell.

Do they provide real facts or are they still conjecturing many things? You decide!

1. The scientist who “dug” the road to hell in Siberia and recorded the cries of damned souls (1989)

What actually happened:

The Soviet Union drilled a deep hole in the ground - the Kola Superdeep Well (12,262 meters). The well is located on the Kola Peninsula. After its completion, quite interesting geological anomalies were discovered, but as it turned out, there was nothing unusual, much less supernatural, about them.

What the legend says:

According to legend, in 1989, a group of Russian scientists working under the direction of Dr. Azakov was drilling a hole almost 15 kilometers deep in an unnamed location in Siberia when they came across a bottomless cavity.

Intrigued by the unexpected find, they lowered a heat-resistant microphone into the hole along with other sensory equipment. According to experts, they were able to record and then hear the anguished screams of desperate people.

The second surprise was the incredibly high temperature they discovered in the center of the Earth (more than 1000 degrees Celsius). As a result, they came to the conclusion that they had opened the road to hell.

The story was soon picked up by numerous American and European media outlets, and audio files of the alleged sufferers filled the entire Internet. Immediately, Trinity Broadcasting Network (TNB) began discussing the audio track on all of their gospel channels, saying it was definitive evidence that hell exists.

Norwegian teacher Age Rendalen heard the TNB story during a visit to the United States. Feeling a terrible disgust for mass gullibility, he decided to “thicken the colors” of the fairy tale told by the channels.

Rendalen wrote online that he initially did not believe in this tale, but upon returning to Norway, he supposedly read the "factual" report on the story. According to Rendalen, not only were the voices of the damned souls clearly audible on the recording, but also the ghosts of bats were flying out of the hole, leaving an indelible mark on the Russian sky.

To perpetuate his fiction, Rendalen deliberately mistranslated a regular Norwegian article about a local structure and provided it, as well as TNB's English "translation".

Rendalen included in the article his real data, phone number and address, and also left the contact information of one pastor he knew who agreed play along him in case someone wants to check and call to ask about everything personally.

Unfortunately, TNB published the story without contact information for Rendalen and the California pastor, and the story itself was made up " Welcome to hell and hoax" began to be played on radio, television and published in all newspapers.

In fact, the reality is that Soviet scientists essentially drilled a hole, almost 15 km deep, in the ultra-deep Kola well, located not in Siberia, but on the Kola Peninsula, which borders Norway and Finland.

After completion of the well, some interesting geological anomalies were discovered, but they did not indicate any supernatural encounters. The temperature at depth reached 180 degrees Celsius, so further drilling was stopped due to high cost of the procedure.

As it later turned out, the recording used, supposedly the voices of tortured souls, was just a remix of part of the soundtrack to the 1972 film "Baron's Blood" with added effects.

The best part is that today you can buy a copy of The Sounds of Hell for $12.99.

Does God exist?

2) Neurologist who claimed that Heaven exists after spending a week in a coma (2008)

In 2008, Eben Alexander III suffered a very serious, week-long coma caused by meningitis infection. Brain scans showed that the entire cortex, which surrounds the brain in the area responsible for consciousness, thinking, memory and understanding, was not functioning.

Doctors gave him very little chance and told his family that even if Eben survived, he would likely remain brain damaged for the rest of his life. Despite all the difficulties endured, Eben woke up exactly a week later.

While in a deep coma, the brain was so severely damaged that only its most primitive areas worked. After waking up, the man claimed that he experienced something extraordinary: he traveled to heaven.

In his autobiographical book, Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife, he talks about how left his body and suffered clinical death.

Alexander claims that after death, an entire eternity of perfect splendor awaits us, complete with angels, clouds, and deceased relatives.

By July 3, 2013, the book had been on the New York Times bestseller list for 35 weeks.

In a wide-ranging investigation into the history of neurologist Alexander, based on his medical background, Esquire magazine reported in its August 2013 issue that before the book's publication, the neurologist was suspended from medical practice due to negligence, as well as due to his participation in at least two procedures to cover up medical errors.

The magazine's specialists also talked about what they found discrepancies in the book of Alexander. Among the inconsistencies, in particular, what stands out is that Alexander writes that he “fell into a coma as a result of a severe form of bacterial meningitis, while brain activity was suspended.”

At the same time, the doctor who observed him during the coma states that the coma was medically induced, and the patient was partially conscious, but was accompanied by hallucinations.

Alexander's book and the advertising campaign in support of it were criticized by scientists, including neuroscientist Sam Harris, who called Alexander's work "disturbingly unscientific" and stressed that the evidence presented by the author is not only insufficient, it also suggests that the author knows little about how the brain works.

In November 2012, Alexander responded to critics by releasing a second article in which he recounted the words of the doctors who performed all the brain tests on him. “Nothing was done that would impair any of the functions, including vision, hearing, emotions, memory, language or logic.”

Truth or lie? Everyone decides for themselves.

Evidence for the Existence of God

3) Chemistry student who demonstrated that heaven and hell exist

According to urban legend, the following story began with a response that was received from a University of Washington chemistry student.

And here is the question itself: Is hell an ectothermic place (that is, it gives off heat) or an endothermic place (that is, it absorbs heat)?

Most students answered the question using Boyle's law (a gas cools when it expands and heats up when it contracts).

However, one of the students approached the answer like this:

First, we must understand How much does the mass of Hell change over time?. That is, we must have an idea of ​​​​at what speed souls move to Hell and at what speed they leave it.

I think it's quite reasonable to assume that if the soul has already fallen into Hell, then it is unlikely to leave it. As for exactly how many souls go to Hell, it is worth looking at the various religions that exist in the world today.

Most of them claim that if you do not profess this particular religion, then you will undoubtedly go to Hell. Since there are so many religions today, we can confidently say that all souls go to Hell.

Considering the birth and death rates throughout the world, it can be assumed that the number of souls in Hell is growing exponentially(that is, the value increases in direct proportion to the value of the value itself).

Now we are looking at the rate of change in the volume of Hell, because Boyle's law states that in order to maintain the same temperature and pressure in Hell, the volume must expand in direct proportion to the addition of souls. In this case, two scenarios are possible.

1. If Hell expands more slowly than the number of souls living there grows, then the temperature and pressure there will increase disproportionately, so the day will come when Hell will “fall apart.”

2. If Hell increases in size at a rate greater than the volume of incoming souls, then the temperature and pressure will drop and Hell will freeze over.

So where is the truth?

If we take into account the postulate that I heard from my colleague Teresa in my first year ("Hell will freeze over if I sleep with you") and also take into account that I spent last night with her, then of the points I proposed, the second is true.

So I'm sure that hell has already frozen over.

The consequence of this theory is the fact that since Hell has already frozen over, it means that no more souls go there, and, therefore, only Heaven remains, which proves the existence of a divine being. This explains why Teresa screamed for a long time last night: " Oh my God!"

For obvious reasons, the student received the highest grade.

4) Professor of Medicine Who Claimed to Find a Sculpture of God (1725)

In 1725, Professor Adam Beringer, dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Würzburg, found many carved in limestone figurines of lizards, frogs, spiders, birds with the faces of fish, the sun and stars.

Some of them were signed, for example, the Hebrew name of God in Latin, Arabic and Hebrew. These figures carved in stone, in his opinion, were created by God himself when he experimented with types of life, planning the universe.

Behringer also, along with his main explanation, suggested several possible other interpretations, among which was the version about the imprints of dead animals (fossils). However, most of them, according to the professor, were " capricious thoughts of God."

He also considered the version that these drawings belonged to prehistoric pagans, but it would be more correct to exclude this option, because the pagans did not know the name of God.

In fact he became a victim of deception, committed by his fellow ex-Jesuits Ignatz Roderick, professor of geography and mathematics, and Johann Georg von Eckhart, privy councilor and librarian.

Having got to the bottom of the truth, Beringer sued the deceivers, then a scandal followed, after which all three have lost their authority.

Some of the fossil animals discovered by Behringer then are kept today in the Oxford University Museum.

5) Pascal's Wager: Does God exist or not? You must decide (17th century)

Pascal's Wager is a dogma in apologetic philosophy that was developed by the 17th century French mathematician, physicist and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1622).

Dogma states that Throughout our lives, humanity has debated the existence of God.

If God exists, then given the infinite gain or loss associated with believing in God or not believing in God, a reasonable person should live as if God exists, seek him, and believe.

If God does not actually exist, then such a person will only have a finite loss (of some pleasure, luxury, etc.).

The following logic is used in philosophy:

1. God either exists or He does not;

2. In the game we all play, it will always come up heads or tails;

3. For obvious reasons, you are unable to prove any of the above statements;

4. You must choose something for yourself (this is not optional);

5. Let's weigh all the benefits and losses if we assume that there is a God. Let's evaluate these two choices. If you win, you get everything, if you lose, you lose nothing.

Historically, Pascal's Wager was groundbreaking because it outlined new areas of study in probability theory, marking the first formal use of decision theory, as well as the emergence of expected topics in future philosophy such as existentialism, pragmatism, and voluntarism.

6) Euler's formula to explain the existence of God (18th century)

Leonhard Euler (1707 – 1783) was one of the first Swiss mathematicians and physicists to make important discoveries in areas such as infinitesimal calculus and graph theory.

Euler also created much of modern mathematical terminology and notation in calculus, such as the concept of a mathematical function. He is known for his work in mechanics, fluid dynamics, optics and astronomy. He lived most of his life in St. Petersburg and Berlin.

Much of what is known about Euler's religious beliefs can be inferred from his letters to a German princess, as well as from his early works, which show that he was a devout Christian who believed that the Bible was written under divine inspiration.

Moreover, he argued for the divine inspiration of Scripture.

There is a famous legend inspired by Euler's arguments. The French philosopher Denis Diderot, at the invitation of Catherine the Great, paid a visit to Russia. However, the empress was extremely alarmed that the arguments of the atheist philosopher could affect her closest subjects.

So, Euler was asked to confront a clever Frenchman. Diderot was informed that the mathematician had developed a formula proving the existence of God, and he agreed to study its proof.

When the time came for Euler to talk about his formula, he said: " Sir, (a+b) to the nth power divided by n = x, therefore God exists. Now you!"

Diderot, for whom, as history claims, mathematics was akin to Chinese literacy, was left dumbfounded and immediately left the meeting place. Being in an extremely embarrassed position, he asked the empress let him leave the country, to which the latter kindly agreed.

Euler was depicted on the sixth series of Swiss 10-franc banknotes, as well as on numerous Swiss, German and Russian postage stamps. An asteroid that fell to Earth in 2002 was also named after him.

In his honor, the Lutheran Church even created a holiday, which is celebrated on May 24. He was a very devout Christian who believed in the inerrancy of the Bible, wrote apologetics, and actively opposed the prominent atheists of his time.

7) Mathematician who developed the God Theorem (1931)

Kurt Friedrich Gödel was an Austrian and later American logician, mathematician and philosopher. It is believed that he, along with Aristotle and Frege, was one of the most powerful logicians in the history of mankind.

This man made a huge contribution to the formation of scientific and philosophical thinking in the 20th century. Gödel published his two incompleteness theorems in 1931, when he was 25 years old and had just received his doctorate from the University of Vienna.

The first theorem states that any self-consistent system force is sufficient to describe the arithmetic of natural numbers (for example, arithmetic Peano), however, there are true propositions about natural numbers that cannot be proven using axioms.

To prove this theorem, Gödel developed a technique known today as Gödel numbering, which encodes formal expressions as natural numbers.

He also showed that neither the axiom of choice nor the continuum hypothesis can be falsified by the accepted axioms of set theory by relying on the axioms being consistent. Previous results allowed mathematicians to talk about the axiom of choice in their proofs.

He also made important contributions to proof theory by clarifying the connection between classical, intuitionistic and modal logic.

When Gödel died in 1978, he left behind an interesting theory based on the principles of modal logic (a type of formal logic that, in a narrow sense, involves the use of the words "necessarily" and "possibly").

The theorem itself states that God, or the supreme being, is that greater than which it is impossible to understand anything. That is, if a person has proven and understood that God exists, he can do anything.

God exists in understanding. If God exists in understanding, we can imagine that He exists in reality. Therefore, God must exist.

Heaven, earth, hell

8) A scientist who says there is no conflict between science and religion (2007)

During an interview with CNN in April 2007, Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome Project, reaffirmed the information that embedded DNA evidence proves the existence of God.

According to the researcher, he gathered a consortium of scientists to read 3100000000 letters of the human genome. As a believer, Dr. Collins sees the DNA information in the molecules of all living things as a divine language, and the elegance and complexity of this language is a reflection of God's plan.

However, he did not always hold this opinion. When Collins was a graduate student in physical chemistry in 1970, his atheistic thinking found no reason to postulate the existence of any truths that deviated from the laws of mathematics, physics and chemistry.

He then entered medical school and came face to face with the problem of life and death among his patients. One of the patients asked him: " What do you believe, doctor?" From then on, he began searching for answers.

Dr. Collins admitted that the science he loved so much was powerless to answer questions such as: “What is the meaning of life?”, “Why am I here?”, “Why does mathematics work this way and not otherwise?”, “If the Universe had a beginning, then who created it?”, “Why are the physical constants in the Universe so subtle are determined to allow the possibility of the emergence of complex forms of life?”, “Why do people have a sense of morality?”, “What happens to us after death?”.

Question: “Does heaven really exist? What is it and where is it located? Will I see my dead relatives and friends there?

Our answer: Yes, according to the Bible, heaven or paradise actually exists. Currently, heaven is in another dimension, invisible to man unless God reveals it. On several occasions He showed heaven to His prophets (Isaiah 6; Ezekiel 1; Daniel 7:9-10; 2 Corinthians 12:1-4; Revelation 1:4-5). God is now enthroned in heaven, and the Bible states that Jesus, the Lamb of God, is at the right hand of the Father and will be there until He returns to earth to execute judgment and establish His Kingdom on earth.

What most people call paradise or heaven is the eternal city, which the Bible calls “the new Jerusalem” (Revelation 21:2). This will be a new heaven, because the present heaven and earth will no longer exist. (Revelation 21:1). This is how the eternal city is described:

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 with them 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 crying, no crying, no pain, for the former things have passed away. And He who sat on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. And he says to me: write; for these words are true and true. (Revelation 21:3-5)

And the city has no need of the sun or the moon to illuminate it, for the glory of God has illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb. (Revelation 21:23)

And nothing unclean will enter into it, and no one devoted to abomination and lies, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Revelation 21:27)

The Bible says that all people will experience a bodily resurrection from the dead and all will appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ (Revelation 20:14-15)

People's idea that everyone will go to heaven and meet their loved ones is completely inconsistent with the teaching of the Bible. On the contrary, Jesus said that those who believe in Him will find life because “no one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). In Revelation 7:9 we are told that there will be a multitude in heaven from every tribe, tongue, people and nation, but they will have eternal life because of their faith in Jesus. People who have never heard of Jesus will most likely be there if only they have humbled themselves before God and responded to the revelation that has been sent to them personally. Those who rejected Him will not be with Him.