If you are new to Orthodox theology, buckle your seat belt and ready yourself for something quite different. This is a controversial topic in the Christian world, and I’m not wanting to start any fights, but rather offer my understanding of the truth regarding Heaven and Hell.
Every sect of Christianity has their scripture verses they quote to support their opinions. It is truly not a lack of scripture that keeps us from knowing truth, but rather a lack of understanding and right interpretation of the scripture. For that reason, I am going to dive more deeply into Orthodox interpretations rather than listing a bunch of scriptures to justify what I write.
THERE’S NO PLACE CALLED HELL…OR HEAVEN
Heaven and hell are not understood as physical places in which we are sentenced for all eternity. Instead, they are actual states of being when we encounter the Almighty God of Consuming Fire. God’s loving and fiery presence either causes us to withdraw within ourselves or to reach out and be consumed and healed.
The states of being called “heaven” and “hell” begin here in this life, and are fully consummated in the age to come.
If we have allowed our hearts to be purified, then God’s presence will be healing, joyful, and life-giving. If we refuse God’s healing embrace, then His love will burn like fire, “for our God is a consuming fire” (Deut 4:24, 9:3, Isa 33:14, Heb 12:23)
More concisely:
“[St Gregory of Nyssa] teaches that Paradise and Hell do not exist from God’s point of view, but from man’s point of view. It is a subject of man’s choice and condition.” ~Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos
HOW CAN LOVE POSSIBLY HURT?
The Older Son
It is hard to imagine anyone rejecting a Being of pure love, or being hurt by the love of God. Who could do this?
There is a familiar parable in Luke called The Prodigal Son. That infamous son, had an older brother who became jealous of his younger brother being accepted with grace by their Father. He essentially disowns his brother, and refuses to share in and rejoice in the love, joy, and celebrations of his amazing Father.
For the older brother, the Father’s perfect love was painful because it was incompatible with the impurity within his heart.
Murdered Love
Miracles performed by Jesus in the four Gospels caused two reactions. Either people were overjoyed by God’s love and mercy or they were driven into dark bitterness and hate for Christ. That darkness drove an entire mob of people to crucify Love Himself.
Christ is the dividing line because He is God incarnate, and He is love. He comes to unite and heal human nature to His own nature, but does not do it by force. In that sense He acts as a dividing line; one that is so strong, so pure, that it causes all to either move toward Him in love or to disdain His pure love that does not conform to their own desires.
SO WHY DOES THE BIBLE REFER TO ACTUAL PLACES?
Those who have refused the love of God will experience a feeling of separation from God, from love, and from all that is good and beautiful. They will dwell in an inner darkness and it will certainly feel to them as though they are in a completely different place than those enjoying the presence of God.
CS Lewis illustrates this relational concept of heaven and hell beautifully in the final book of the Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle. In it, several Dwarfs who are impure of heart are sitting together in Paradise. However, they are blind to the beauty. The heavenly flowers smell like dung, and the food tastes rotten.
Of them, Aslan states, “They will not let us help them…Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out.
Jesus taught that the pure of heart will see God. Purity is not something one stumbles across or achieves by reciting the “sinner’s prayer.” Rather it is a relational synergy between God and mankind, and a complete release of the world within a person’s heart.
WILL EVERYONE BE SAVED?
Several years ago, a popular Christian evangelical author named Rob Bell stirred up controversy with his book Love Wins. In it, he essentially proposed the question: will everyone eventually be saved? He was certainly not the first to ask such questions. There were a couple of saints in the Orthodox Church who seemed to be leaning toward that direction in their writings.
There are two schools of thought within Orthodoxy on this topic:
THOUGHT #1
Certainly the most prominent belief is the idea that God is eternal delight or torment for every soul that encounters Him. The idea is not that God suddenly lacks mercy once somebody dies, it is that we do not suddenly change and become different people. You are who you are. And who you are now effects who you will be.
If someone is closed off to God’s love and grace — in whatever big or small ways 
God beckons to them throughout their entire lives in this age — they are unlikely to decide that they want God when they encounter Him fully. They may wish for the darkness and pain to cease. But if they do not want God then they are simply asking for “heaven” on their own terms. Such a place doesn’t exist.
Regarding this mindset, Metropolitan Kallistos Ware states, “If the doors of hell are locked, then they are locked from within.”
THOUGHT #2
The second line of thinking begins much the same as the initial one laid out above. Except, proponents state that God’s fiery love is so overwhelming that eventually no one will be able to resist it. Those suffering in hell will eventually open their eyes to Christ. Suddenly, the gates of hell within their hearts will fling open. And God, being the merciful lover of mankind, will accept their penitent hearts and receive them into His Kingdom.
However, I believe it is unwise to put any stock in this idea considering a plain reading of scripture and a majority of the saints oppose it outright in their writings. Particularly in our culture of relativism, we may unconsciously be giving into wishful thinking rather than approaching the biblical texts reasonably.
PROBLEMS WITH “WESTERNIZED” HELL
Many Protestants teach the concept of hell as an eternal torture chamber, devoid of God’s presence, where “bad” souls are sent who did not “accept Jesus into their hearts.” This concept creates numerous misunderstandings of God, but I’ll only touch on two of them.
Firstly, everything that exists is held in existence by Christ Himself. That includes every place and every person (Col. 1:17). There is nowhere that exists in which God is not present to some extent. The psalmist writes that even if he were to make his bed in Hades, God would be there as well.
It is possible that one can be in the presence of God and be blind to it; but the fault is in the eyes of the person’s heart, and not in God. And that truly is hell.
Secondly, while we Orthodox firmly believe that God is judge, it is we ourselves that determine our eternal state of being by the life that we live now. We are either working toward our salvation with God through the grace of the Holy Spirit, or we are living for ourselves, looking out for number one, and relegating God to the backseat of our lives.
SUMMARY
Neither heaven nor hell are created places. In the end, we will all experience the presence of God. Whether or not we enjoy that presence depends on the condition of our hearts.
God is loving and wants all to be saved, and is working in every person’s life to bring them to at least turn toward Him in whatever way we are capable. But if we ignore Him, if we bury our treasure (heart) in the ground (that is in worldly pursuits and passions) then when we encounter Him we will not know Him, and in some sense, He will not know us because His image of love will not be reflecting within us.
I truly believe that God loves all of us and is reaching out in some way to everyone right now. He is more than willing to accept even the smallest acts of love and repentance. So, let’s run into the embrace of our loving Father!
“… then when we encounter Him we will not know Him, and in some sense, He will not know us because His image of love will not be reflecting within us…” this particularly stuck out to me… a very thought-provoking post, thank you. 🙂
i am in accord
Me too.
But my church see me as a heretic.
As an orthodox christian we are considered heretics that believe in a limited hell. But to us they are describing God as a psychopath with thir endless hell.
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Here is a good book about All will be saved.
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This was very helpful. Thank you.
Glory to God. I’m glad you found it beneficial.
I’m fascinated by the Orthodox faith and teachings. This is yet another ‘pearl’ I have discovered on my journey. Wish I had discovered the Church’s wisdom years ago. Wish even more that I had a way of sharing my experience with as many people as you have. Thank you.
Fine article!
Great article! How would that interpretation fit in line with God judging and punishing people though?
It depends on what you mean by God judging and punishing people. If we want to force God into anthropomorphic terms, and state He must always do things in ways that humans do them, then I think we are going to be surprised when we meet God. His judgment and punishment come by bringing all mankind before Him and allowing us to encounter His consuming fire. That fire will either be healing or caustic, depending on the state of our heart. It’s a deeper and truer form of judgment than a human judge sitting at a bench with a gavel in his hand.
By judging people I mean, “depart from me ye accurse”. “into eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels”.
That definitely sounds like a God who prepared Hell, made it beforehand knowing it would be needed, judges the goats from the sheep, separates the wheat from the cockle and sends the bad to Hell and the good to Heaven.
Gerard, in some sense I agree. Christ God is the judge of all mankind, no doubt about it. However, He will not judge like a human judge, weighing one bit of evidence against another to come to a conclusion. The saved are those who know Him, who have a likeness to Him, who followed His revelation to the best of their knowledge and ability. His very presence is what separates sheep and goats, wheat and chaff. His literally speaking the verdict, if it happens at all, will simply be affirming what is already known because His presence will be either heaven or hell for all who experience Him, depending on our receptivity to God.
Hi, I loved the article.
But what about the atonement? Isn’t Christ being punished in our place? Isn’t He enduring Hell (punishment) in our place?
The Penal Substitutionary Atonement Theory is what you are describing. It’s not found in ancient Christianity but was largely made famous by John Calvin and his followers. It has permeated much of Protestant Christianity, so people such as yourselves have it confused with actual Christianity.
For further reading, I would recommend George MacDonald’s sermon called Justice.
I also am in the process of moving to Orthodoxy (raised RC, but for 40 years attended Protestant and Evangelical churches).
In my research on Parousia (End times when Christ returns) ….and regarding what Heaven will be like…I came across 2 articles.
First one endorses New Earth and explains when Christ returns (Parousia)….bodies reunited with our spirits for the Final Judgement. It does not explain the immediate (Particular) judgement at death.
Second article is more in line what you were saying …..afterlife not so physical… but a state of the soul.
I agree with the New Earth theology…
We will receive our new Christlike immortal body … humans are physical and spirit….. so we need a physical place to preside… which was the original plan with Adam…. so the restored New Earth makes sense.
Again, seems that a lack of official teaching (Orthodox Catechism) causes confusion.
The last 1/3 of the article gets into then Parousia and New Earth.
Interested in your comments.
Rudy K
https://www.denver.goarch.org/understanding-the-parousia
Hi Rudy,
Thank you for your comment. I apologize if my article seems to imply that there will be a non-physical existence after the Parousia. That is certainly not my belief nor is it the Orthodox teaching. We believe that there will be a resurrection of the body that will be reunited to the immortal human soul. Our existence after this life will be both physical and spiritual, as it was originally meant to be.
I think what seems like a difference of opinion between myself and other Orthodox articles you’ve read is a difference of emphasis. My emphasis here was to break the Western habit of viewing the next life as eternity in a really nice or a really bad place. It is our relation to God that makes eternity blissful or unhappy…not where we happen to find ourselves.
I think that is what the Orthodox Fathers were getting at and why there is not great emphasis on a New/Renewed Earth in their writings. They seek to elevate our minds to God so that we are less concerned with WHERE and more concerned with WHO.
I hope that helps.
My reading of the Bible indicates that all creation will praise God in the end. This would indicate to me that all souls will eventually come to God. This would include Satan as he is also eternal as we are.
That would be great, but it’s certainly not the way that the Apostles or most Christians interpreted or understood eschatology. It’s a post-Origen reading of the Bible.
Sorry buddy, all your views are false interpretation of Biblical theology. You have completely ignored the Biblical usage of the word Heaven and Hell. This is not a Western Christianity view, rather a Biblical view. Heaven and Hell exists and man from birth is destined to that place, unless he comes to recognize Jesus as His personal Savior.
Hi Stanley. I think you and I ultimately agree more than we disagree. You view heaven and hell as having physical locations, which requires they be composed of matter and exist within the space-time continuum much like London or Paris. We Orthodox view them as states of being: what it means to encounter God. Ultimately, both result in the same thing: an eternity of bliss or torment. And yes, salvation can only be found through the Lord Jesus Christ.
When speaking of eternal things, we Orthodox (and many ancient Christians) understood the Bible symbolically. To understand something as a symbol is not to understand it as being less real, but as being more real. To take everything about heaven and hell in the Bible literally is to diminish the significance and importance of these things. Symbols point to realities greater than themselves. Heaven and hell are even more real than what most people realize.
As an Anglican, I can truly embrace the EO version of heaven and hell. It does not Deny the reality of both, but avoids the grossly materialistic understandings that I have Heard in the past. Hell is not the absense of God but the relational response to his presence. There is presense but no communion, A full awareness of his love which they can not enjoy.
I am curious about the Orthodox view of someone who was a Christian but later converted to Hinduism because he felt a closer relationship with God through that religion.
This person still loves God and longs to have a relationship with him even if he couldn’t find that relationship in Christianity.
So isn’t this person going to heaven because his relation to God is one of love and devotion even if the object of that devotion have different names and rituals?
I’m using Hinduism in this example but this can be applied to anyone who was a Christian but converted to another faith later in life.
God is judge but apostasy is never good. St. Paul paints a bleak picture, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.” Heb. 6:4-6
And to the Corinthians, St. Paul writes, “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?” 1 Cor. 10:20-22.
What of the prodigal son if this person returns to the faith. If this man is saved and can lose his salvation through works we are still bound to the law and Jesus sacrifice is insufficient. Would this person not be saved? His reward in heaven would simply be small.
I would encourage you to study Orthodox soteriology. We Orthodox reject both salvation by works and the Penal Substitutionary Atonement Theory that you are alluding to here.
To have faith is to be transformed by God, inwardly and outwardly. The book of James states, “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?…
Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (Jam. 2:14-17).
Dear Andrew
I sympathise with you! Coming to a faith in God after years of searching I too found myself in the Protestant camp one might say. For ten years I was there, while reading and living in my Bible. Asking for the H.S.’s guidance I found myself at odds with some of their interpretations of “born again” hell and heaven etc. The result was a bumpy ride with my brethren who I loved dearly. All confined themselves to believing intellectually the prescribed dogma of Protestantism, there was no Berian spirit in studying and exploring the scriptures together. Belonging to a combined census of Biblical understanding trumped love, and thus not recognising the state of my heart. My love of God in all things and the revealing of His Spirit through Jesus! My wife and I have been in the wilderness for almost thirty years, punctuated by small periods of time fellowshipping with friends and small groups.
We tried church going recently but the same has occurred. If you don’t believe what we believe one is a heretic!!! Again alone and having much time due to Covid, we have been blessed by U Tube and speakers such as Richard Rohr a Catholic Franciscan monk and Brad Jerzak Eastern Orthodox (ex Baptist and Mennonite). Grace grace grace… so much different to the pseudo grace demonstrated by Protestantism. Hindusism will never give you a personal relationship which real Christianity will give through discovering Jesus who in fact is of the same spirit to be revealed in all mankind (see Galatians 1/16) Somehow Christianity needs a new reformation for as it is today very few are listening. The walk does not match the talk thus no real transformation. Don’t give up on the indwelling Christ who will who will bring all of creation home, through His work on the cross two thousand years ago. In God’s love
Hi – Protestant here genuinely curious about different views the EO church has on things. Currently looking into different atonement theories but want to stay biblical. I find the EO view of hell as the unwanted fire/love of God intersting, but the first verse that comes to mind is 2 Thes 1:9, that the judgment on the evil ones with be “away from the Lord’s presence.” Genuine question, how does that verse reconcile with the EO view?
Hello Kan,
Thanks for your question; that’s an important passage. I think the answer is easy and maybe a bit unexpected: being “away from the Lord’s presence” in a literal sense is impossible. Let me explain.
Everything that exists has to be held in existence by God. Nothing can exist on its own merit or strength or else it would be equal to God. So if the people in hell existed on their own merit and strength, they would all be equal to God in power and might. That’s obviously a ridiculous presumption. Equally crazy is the idea that hell is equal to God in power and might, and can therefore hold those people in existence.
There’s only one God who exists in three Persons; there will never be more nor less.
So, every person who is “in hell” is at the very least being held in existence by God. They may be completely blind to His subtle presence and His love for them, but that’s what makes it hell. So those who are “separated/away” from the Lord are ultimately blind to Him. That 100% blindness to all that is good and beautiful is hell.
It’s akin to the despair that drives people to suicide – it’s not that there aren’t people who love them, it’s not that the world isn’t a beautiful place, and it’s not that God doesn’t love them and isn’t trying to save them. It’s that they’re blind to all that is good and are glimpsing a hint of hell.
I have a question:Couldn’t Heaven and hell be neither physical places nor spiritual states,but spiritual places instead?Because if hell was just me choosing to not Look at God and not wanting to see His good,couldn’t it mean that the ones in hell could just decide to see the love we are talking about?It would make more sense for a hell to be a spiritual place that is locked from outside,because if we don’t have a choice while in hell it would make more sense for hell to be eternal.
Hello Aleksa. I think that’s an interesting idea but there are a couple problems with that theory (that hell is neither a physical place nor a spiritual state, but instead a spiritual place). First, what does that even mean? What does it mean for something spiritual to occupy a “place” which would necessarily also mean that it is locked into place and time? That sounds a lot like physicality to me. While spiritual beings are not omnipresent and they do somehow occupy “space,” what exactly that means is not readily apparent to us creatures who dwell in a physical world.
Also, such a teaching denies the resurrection. Both the Scriptures and the Church Fathers teach that we will be resurrected in the End; we’ll spend eternity in our glorified bodies. What happens to the bodies if they are denied a physical place and only given a “spiritual place”? Is that even possible without the body being killed?
Evlogite Father. I would also like to address the point about “the ones in hell […] just decide to see the love we are talking about”. Is the point of hell locking people up and punishing them for our own satisfaction? I do not believe that neither God nor us in paradise would be in need of such a thing, that our love and forgiveness would triumph over their evil, just like it ultimately triumphed over our evil. If such a thing would be possible, I do not think God would deny them. But the point is that exactly that inability is hell. You can notice, even now on earth, how the heart hardening is a process that can go on more and more, making the person more and more closed off to love. It is exactly a self-obsession that ironically consumes the self in the very end of that process, but is unable to fulfill its act of negating the self, for being and eternal being are absolutely granted by God (while well-being is also dependent on our will, according to Saint Maximus the Confessor). So those poor souls will be stuck in an eternally unsatisfactory self-obsession and self-negation, similar to the symbol of the Ouroboros, tha serpent eating its own tail. That’s at least my thoughts on this. God bless!
Hello and may the Lord bless you, Nikolaos. I agree that an eternal torture chamber for bad people would be satisfying to neither God nor ourselves. I would imagine that the triumph of love would be far more satisfactory. And yes, the process of the heart hardening and closing itself to love is a real and sad process.
Free will and the choice of either an obsession of self or an opening to selfless love is also real.
How all these things will come together and be worked out for eternity is beyond my pay grade.
Evlogite Father. Thank you for your prior responses!
I would be interested in hearing (or rather reading) how the mystery of confession fits into this view. Not really for the reason of solving any intellectual problem, but because I have found that hearing/reading about the significance of such sacraments motivates me to seek them more often. Maybe that’s also the case for others…
I’d really appreciate it if you could go briefly into it, provided you have the time for it.
God bless!
Nikolaos, we are all designed to be in communion with He who is love. Sin is the severing of our union to the divine. To say we’re sorry is not enough – we are called to be transformed into the image of God. Part of that transformation is confessing our sins – owning up to our failures – deeply desiring inner change. The sacrament of confession provides us with the accountability and grace that we need to be reconciled to God and the Church.
Jeremy,
I grew up in a fundamental Baptist preacher’s home. I’ve recently had questions about what I was taught about Heaven/Hell after the passing of a family member who had no interest in Christianity. Some questions about your article:
–One section is labeled why the Bible Discusses Actual Places. But I don’t see many answers to passages about the rich man in hell who wanted a drop of water, vivid passages from Revelation describing distinctive visions of God’s Throne. Also, Paul ascending to and seeing Heaven in a vision. Can you expound on how you reconcile these passages?
–I too have wondered if there’s not some sort of second chance for those in Hell. But I also don’t see any wiggle room regarding passages about eternity.
–Could you expound on your point that we are working toward our salvation and as I understand your writing, this will determine how we spend eternity? How do you reconcile what seems like works for salvation and our eternal state vs faith being our salvation?
Thank you for the thoughtful article. I greatly enjoyed it.
Hello Matt,
I apologize for the delay in replying and perhaps the lack of depth that you might be looking for in an answer. To your questions:
How do I reconcile passages that seem to portray a rather literal glimpse into heaven or hell? I think the simplest answer is what Christians have understood for centuries: spiritual realities are presented in metaphorical or symbolic ways. To say it another way, spiritual realities can’t be literally explained in words – especially when we’re speaking of passages that are about one sentence long. Language itself is extremely limited in what it can express, which is why we have sayings like “A picture’s worth a thousand words.” We Orthodox simply don’t dumb down the way in which eternity works to a literal interpretation of a handful of biblical passages.
Your second point about the eternality of hell isn’t really a question, so I’ll let that be.
Your third point is, I believe, a question about the faith vs. works debate. St. Paul wrote, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12) and St. James also emphasized the importance of works (Jam. 2:14-26). We Orthodox believe that a life in Christ transforms us, and if there’s no transformation, then it probably isn’t legitimate faith. If there is no faith, then eternity doesn’t look so good. More on that topic can be read in an article I wrote here: https://www.orthodoxroad.com/faith-works-salvation/
Thanks for the piece! If we die and are separate from God, and therefore to Hell, can we continue to exercise free will and choose to be closer to God even if we are no longer united with our earthly body? Can we avoid the second death after the first death?
Through the prayers of the Church, we do believe it’s possible to “cross the abyss,” so to speak. But that doesn’t involve our willpower, but rather the mercy of God and any repentance we had while in the body.