Existential-Eschatological Questions about Eternity, Hell and the Final Judgment

Abstract

This text analyzes three fundamental existential-eschatological questions of everyday man about eternity, hell and the last judgment. First of all, eternity is defined in the context of thought time and timeliness. It is impossible for the logical mind to fully understand the existence and essence of eternal life. Difficulties arise when we understand eternity after death as an unlimited duration of time or as a sequence of ever-new segments of passing time. That which is eternal does not obey any measure. Although when we think about time, we are in the reality of time, but time is given meaning by what happens in it – an event. Eternity in time is most clearly expressed when a spiritual entity makes a free decision and takes responsibility for it. What is important is that our eternal life, filled with God himself, will become the finality of freely chosen life activities. The history of human freedom can also turn into the final, temporary destruction of man – what we call hell. However, Christianity proclaims not two equally likely possibilities when it comes to eternity after death, but the victory of God’s love. It is the basis and guarantee that our short and fleeting time gives birth to an eternity that is not made up of time.

The text reveals the theological concept of hell as a person’s freely chosen opportunity to finally lose God. As a spiritual being, man freely decides and becomes what he wants to be. The essence of hell is the “No” spoken to God as the final decision of man against God. Man has the absolute possibility of losing God, even though God is the goal of manʼs life and the fulfillment of his essence. The hope is that the power of God’s love and mercy will make it so that a person will not realize this most terrible negative possibility in the depth of his free personality.

The text discusses the statement of the confession of faith: “he will come to judge the living and the dead” is revealed as the process of coming to the Truth. The goal is to highlight the liberating dimension of the Christian knowledge of judgment and to explain judgment as a process through which a person comes to the truth about himself and others in the presence of God. After all, we will all have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us will take back what he has done while living in the body – good or bad (2 Cor 5:10). Inseparable from the Christian faith is the hope that the judgment will not be an act of condemnation, but an act of victory for truth and justice. After all, the judge is none other than Jesus Christ himself, the resurrected Crucified One, who sacrificed his life and death for everyone.