Fr. Barnabas is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, Georgia. He is also host of Faith Encouraged Live on Ancient Faith Radio and author of the Faith Encouraged podcast.
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Comment (1)
Fr. Barnabas,
Christ is risen!
I enjoyed listening this morning to your program of last evening concerning the Grace of God and the non-Orthodox. I think you and Fr. Tom did a very good job of addressing many of the issues involved. The one area that was not discussed during your program is our Orthodox understanding of the Harrowing of Hades. The fact that our Lord spent most of His time in the spiritual realm ministering to the departed during the forty days between His Resurrection and Ascension, does give us insight into what the non-Orthodox may experience when they enter the intermediate state after the death of their bodies. All human beings must be joined to the Church in Heaven to experience eternal life. To have God as our Father, we must have the Church as our Mother. The Harrowing of Hades confirms that everyone will hear the true Gospel and be judged (diagnosed) according to what they did with what they were given in this life. The therapies (often punishing) applied by our Lord, will bring most people to a repentance that makes their physical death their baptism into the Church in Heaven. Thus most of the non-Orthodox through the therapies of our great Physician Jesus Christ, will become Orthodox Christians and joined to the Church in Heaven, the true Ark of Salvation. Those who reject the judgment (diagnosis) of our Creator, will share the fate of Satan and the demons.
In Christ,
Marc