What will be the state of the soul after it departs from the body and until the day of the Lord’s final coming?

Living faith, working through love, gives the believer a token of heaven. So, the believer lives in the spirit of hope, longing to meet the Lord Christ face to face. This does not exempt him from the death of the body when the soul departs from it and goes on to enjoy the extension of her life in Christ.

Some ask: Will the soul be judged immediately, or will she wait until the day of judgment? Some believe that the soul that enjoys God’s grace on earth will be subject to a partial judgment and then enjoy paradise with the saints and behold the Lord and His angels until the day of the coming of the Lord, at which time her glory will be perfected. Similarly, the wicked soul that denies the Lord will fall into bitterness be deprived of the vision of the Lord in His glory; and she shall not have a share in the praise of the heavenly beings, until the day of the Lord when she will be cast out into hell with the devil and his angels.¹²⁴⁶

Some distinguish between paradise and eternal life, believing that paradise is the period between the death of the body and the day of the final judgment. It is only in the subsequent eternal life that we will experience the fullness of our eternal inheritance. Similarly, they distinguish between Hades and hell: Hades being the interim period, bitter because they are deprived of the Lord and His angels; which is followed by the fires of hell and eternal

1245 Translators’ Note: Some ancient manuscripts add “nor the Son.”

1246 H. E. Panteleimon Lampadarios, The Catechism of the Orthodox Church: Questions and Answers (Greece, 2006): p. 319.

suffering. The Lord spoke of this in the Sermon on the Mount: of the eternal life prepared for the faithful; and of hell, prepared for the devil and his angels.