Hi folks,
I thought I would resurrect this thread and continue the discussion of Bishop Kallistos and
toll houses. I listened to a taped VHS series on the Resurrection (1996-7?) in which Bishop Kallistos (Ware) mentioned these ideas. When I discussed it with my priest, he disagreed with His Grace and said that this kind of teaching bordered on gnosticism and was not considered Orthodox doctrine.
Did anyone else watch this 3 part series on the Resurrection of Christ?
Anyway, since Photini and JefftheFinn mention the book,
Life after death by Metropolitan Hierotheos, to confirm the existence of tollhouses, I have been reading it during my college break. Here is what Metropolitan Hierotheos states on page 23.
Metro.Hierotheos said:
Therefore, at the terrible hour of death, when the soul is forcibly separated from its harmony with the body, dreadful things happen. The angels receive the souls of the saints, and the demons receive the souls of sinners. The teaching of the Fathers of the church speaks of the 'custom houses', which are the demons, the aerial spirits which desire and attempt to rule the souls of all people forever. Of course the souls of the saints, which have been united with Christ and bear the seal of the Holy Spirit, cannot be controlled by the demons.
It seems to me that Metropolitan Hierotheos is saying that only the condemned sinners suffer the fate of the
toll houses, because the saints are protected by angels.
Metro.Hierotheos said:
[p.23]When the Fathers of the church speak of the customs houses, they mean both the hatred and aggressive fury of the demons and the existence of the passions, which seek satisfaction but cannot be satisfied because of the non-existence of the body. It is just this condition that suffocates the soul, which feels a terrible anguish. [p.24]This torment of the souls is like the complete solitary confinement of a person in prison without any possibility of sleeping, eating, meeting anyone, and so forth. Then his passions and his whole being are really infuriated.
The fact that men's souls are received by angels or by demons is relative to their condition. As the Fathers say, angels and souls are noetic spirits in comparison with the material body, but in comparison with God they have something material. So the angels are called ethereal beings, they are not entirely immaterial. Furthermore, the soul is a creature, which means that it is created by God. It is immortal by grace, for immortality is God's gift to it. Every creature has a beginning and anend. Since the soul is created, it has a definite beginning, but it has no end, for God willed it so.
So it appears that the good Metropolitan is telling us that the soon-to-be-condemned sinners who are awaiting the Final Judgment of Christ are the ones who inhabit the
custom houses. In this sense, the
toll house is the demonic abode -- it is a temporary condition, a foretaste of hell, until the place of hell is finally established at the final judgment.
Metro.Hierotheos said:
[p. 26]For Hell will begin after the Second Coming of Christ and the future judgement, while the souls of sinners experience hades after their departure from the body. According to the teaching of the holy Fathers, hades is an intelligible place, it is the foretaste of Hell, when a person receives the caustic energy of God.
However the blessed ones, even with slight imperfections, are not sent to the
toll houses because they are protected and guided by their angels. They experience a foretaste of heaven.
An interesting point was raised on page 27, a point with which both Bishops Kallistos and Hierotheos agree:
Metro.Hierotheos said:
This is a very significant point, for it shows that in that other life everyone will see God, but the righteous will have communion, participation, while the sinners will not. A characteristic example is what Chirst said about the coming judgement. All will see the Judge, all will converse with Him, but some will enjoy His glory and others will experience the caustic energy of Divine Grace.
This is probably one area where Catholics might disagree with Orthodoxy.
I was raised as a Catholic to believe that in Hell, the condemned do not see God whereas in Heaven the saints behold His Presence (the Beatific Vision). Here our Orthodox Bishops are teaching us that in the afterlife everyone will behold God, but to the sinners it will be a hellish experience and to the Saints eternal joy.
Any comments?