The Gift of Death and the Resurrected Life in Christ
- What is the Christian understanding of death?
- What is the believer’s view of death?
- What kinds of death are there?
- How did Christianity respond to the attitudes of pagan philosophy towards death?
- What was the pagan view of the doctrine of resurrection?
- What did Athenagoras the philosopher and dean of the School of Alexandria say about the resurrection of the dead?
- Why did pagans desecrate the bodies of the martyrs?
- Why do the faithful have no fear of death?
- What should occupy our thoughts when we come to leave this world?
- How can we not be afraid of death?
- Why does the Lord not abolish physical death for His faithful in this world?
- Is there any possibility of repentance after death?
- Who carries the soul once it has departed from the body?
The Sacred Pain of Loss
Millennialism (Chiliasm)
- What is meant by Satan being bound for a thousand years (Rev. 20:1–3)?
- What is meant by the first resurrection (Rev. 20:4–6)?
- Why do some of the writings of the early Church speak of a literal millennium?
- What was the position of the School of Alexandria on this view in the second century?
- What is the teaching of the Holy Bible and sacred tradition regarding Millennialism?
- What Millennialist doctrines do some contemporary denominations teach?
- What does the release of Satan at the end of times mean?
- What is the millennial kingdom? And what is its true meaning?
The Two Comings and the Rapture
- What do the Holy Bible and Church Tradition say about the two comings?
- What is Satan’s attitude towards the second coming of Christ?
- What is the faithful’s attitude towards the devil who opposes the Lord Christ and tries to pervert His second coming?
- How does the antichrist pave the way for humanity to accept him? And what are the signs of his coming?
- What signs will precede the second coming of Jesus Christ?
- Will the rapture of the faithful occur before the coming of the antichrist?
- What is the origin of the term “caught up” in 1 Thess. 4:17 and how did it evolve?
- What does the idea of the rapture mean according to John Derby, who adopted it in the early nineteenth century?
- What does it mean to be “caught up”?
- Do we know when His second coming will happen?
- What will be the state of the soul after it departs from the body and until the day of the Lord’s final coming?
- What does the Holy Bible say about the Day of Judgment?
- What does the Holy Bible say about the eternal kingdom of God?
- Is the Lord coming soon?
- How is it possible for the body that has decomposed to return and be reunited with the soul?
- Will every human being rise?
- What is the state of the soul in the period between her departure from the body and the day of the resurrection?
- Why does the soul not enjoy its final destiny immediately after her departure from the body?
- Why do we say that the souls of the righteous taste blessings before the Last Day?
- Do the righteous meet the Lord Christ face to face immediately after death?
- What is the eternal life that the righteous enjoy?
- What is the source of this supreme joy?
- Does the body partake of eternal joy together with the soul?
- Will all the righteous be equal in glory?
- What is the portion of the defiant who refuse to believe?
- Why does God allow eternal suffering for the wicked?
- What do we gain from contemplating death, resurrection, the Great Day of the Lord, and eternal life or eternal suffering?
- What are we taught about the end of time?
- What are we taught about the end of time according to holy Tradition?
The Final Judgment
- What does the New Testament say about the Final Judgment?
- What does the Old Testament say about the Final Judgment?
- What blessings shall the faithful who are righteous enjoy?
- How can we behold God?[ 1264]
- On the Day of Judgment, what tribulations shall befall the wicked who refuse to return to God?
- What do the Church Fathers say about the troubles on the Day of Judgment that will befall the wicked who refuse to return to God?
- How can we prepare for the Day of Judgment?
The Resurrected Body
- What is the dialogue that takes place between the soul and the body at the moment of their separation?
- How are the body and soul of a righteous person reunited on the Great Day of the Lord?
- How shall the body and soul of an evil person be reunited, given that he has not given himself a chance to return to God?
- How are the dead raised? And what body will they have? (1 Cor. 15:35).
- Has God given us any real-life examples to assure us of the glorious resurrection of the body?
- What is God’s will for our bodies when they are raised from the dead?
- What does the apostle Paul mean when he says, “There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another” (1 Cor. 15:40)?
- Will all the faithful be equal in eternal glory?
- What is the nature of the resurrected body and what are its characteristics?
- Is the body that will rise other than the body that we have now in this world?
- Which comes first, the natural body or the spiritual body?
- To whom do we cling: the earthly person or the heavenly Lord?
- What does the apostle Paul mean when he says, “As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly” (1 Corinthians 15:48)?
- What does the apostle Paul mean when he says, “And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man” (1 Cor. 15:49)?
- What does the apostle Paul mean when he says, “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption” (1 Cor. 15:50)?
- What does the apostle Paul mean by “the last trumpet”?
- How does death lose its authority?
- What is the sting of death?
- How do we obtain victory over sin and death?
Heaven and the Jerusalem Above
- What do we mean by the word “heaven”?
- How can we know that heaven is real?
- What does this mean: “But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth for it is His footstool” (Matt. 5:34–35)?
- Is nature a witness to the reality of heaven?
- Are there any contemporary witnesses to the faithful challenging death and to their joy and that of their families in the face of martyrdom?
- What is the heavenly perspective on the recent spate of bombings of churches?
- How does St. John conclude the Book of Revelation, regarding the Day of the Lord?
- What is meant by “a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (Rev. 21:1)?
- What are the characteristics of the heavenly Church?
- Why is it called “the city” (Rev. 21:2)?
- How did the apostle John transmit the heavenly voice?
- What is this one Church like?
- What does “the holy Church” mean?
- What does “the catholic and apostolic Church” mean?
- What are the dimensions of the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem?
- What structures are in the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem?
- What are the pure river of water that proceeds from the throne of God and the tree of life (Rev. 22:1–7)?
- Why do we read this prophecy when the time is still so far off?