My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
THE KINGDOM OF GLORY: ETERNAL PARADISE
"But SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD and His
Righteousness, and all these things shall be
added to you" (Matthew 6:33).
"Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to
Galilee, preaching the gospel OF THE KINGDOM
OF GOD, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and
THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND. Repent,
and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:14-15).
"For this you know, that NO fornicators, unclean person,
nor covetous man, who is an idolater, HAS ANY
INHERITANCE IN THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST AND GOD"
(Ephesians 5:5).
"Our Father in heaven
Hallowed be Thy Name.
THY KINGDOM COME…"
(Matthew 6:10).
With the end of this age and the transformation of the world into a new and better world, there is revealed the Eternal Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Glory. Then will come to an end the Kingdom of Grace, the existence of the Church on earth, the MILITANT Church; it will enter into the Kingdom of Glory and will merge with the Church TRIUMPHANT, the Heavenly Church. "Then comes the end, when He delivers the Kingdom to God the Father, when He put an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. THE LAST ENEMY THAT WILL BE DESTROYED IS DEATH…Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him Who put all things under Hi, that God may be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:22-24, 28). These words concerning the end of the Kingdom of Christ must be understood as the fulfillment of the Son’s Mission, which He accepted from the Father, and which consist of the conducting of mankind to God through the Church. Then the Son will Reign in the Kingdom of Glory together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and "of His Kingdom there shall be no end," as the Archangel announced to the Virgin Mary (Luke 1:33), and as we read the Symbol of Faith (The Creed): "And His Kingdom will have no end." Saint Cyril of Jerrusalem says of this: "For will not He Who Reigned before overthrow His enemies, Reign all the more after He has conquered them>" (Catechetical Lectures).
Death will have no power in the Kingdom of Glory, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death… Then shall be brought to pass the saving that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory" (1 Corinthians 15:26, 54). "There shall be time NO LONGER" (Revelation 10:6).
The Eternal Blessed Life is presented vividly in the 21st Chapter of the Book of Revelation: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away: and there was no more sea (Revelation 21:1). In the future Kingdom everything will be SPIRITUALIZED, IMMORTAL AND HOLY.
But the chief thing is that those who attain the future blessed life and become "PARTAKERS OF THE Divine Nature" (2 Peter 1:4), will be participants in that most perfect life, whose source is in God alone. In particular, the future members of the Kingdom of God will be vouchsafed LIKE THE ANGELS, to "SEE God" (Matthew 5:8), to behold His Glory not as through a dark glass, not by means of conjectures, but FACE TO FACE. And not only will they behold this Glory, but they themselves will be PARTAKERS of it, shining like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father (Matthew 13:43), being "FELLOW HEIRS" with Christ, sitting with Christ on a Throne and sharing with Him the Royal Grandeur (Revelation 3:21, Romans 8:17; 2 Timothy 2:11-12).
As is symbolically depicted in Revelation, "they shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun shine light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes" (Revelation 7:16-17), As the Prophet Isaiah says: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him" (Isaiah 64:4; 1 Corinthians 2:9).
Blessedness in God will be all the more desirable in that IT WILL BE ETERNAL, WITHOUT END: "The righteous shall go into life eternal" (Matthew 25:46). However, this Glory in God, in the thought of the Holy Fathers of the Church, will have iITS DEGREES, CORRESPONDING TO THE MORAL DIGNITY OF EACH ONE. One may conclude this also from the words of Sacred Scripture: "In My Father’s house are many mansions" (John 14:2); "He shall reward every man according to his works" (Matthew 16:27); "every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor" (1 Corinthians 3:8); "one star differeth from another star in glory" (I Corinthians 15:41).
Saint Ephraim the Syrian says: "Just as everyone takes enjoyment of the rays of the sensual sun according to the purity of his power of seeing and of the impressions are given, and just as in a single lamp which illumines a house each ray has its place, while the light is not divided into many lamps, so als in the future age ALL THE RIGHTEOUS WILL DWELL INSEPARABLY IN A SINGLE JOY, BUT EACH IN HIS OWN DEGREE WILL BE ILLUMINATED BY THE SINGLE MENTAL SUN, AND TO THE DEGREE OF HIS WORTH HE WILL DRAW IN JOY AND REJOICING AS IF IN A SINGLE ATMOSPHERE AND PLACE, AND NO ONE WILL SEE THE DEGREES THAT ARE HIGHER AND LOWER, LEST LOOKING ON THE SURPASSING GRACE OF ANOTHER AND UPON HIS OWN DEPRIVATION, HE WILL THEREBY HAVE SOME CAUSE IN HIMSELF FOR SORROW AND DISTURBANCE. May this not be there, where there is neither sorrow nor sighing; but everyone according to the grace proper to him in his measure will rejoice inwardly, while outwardly ALL WILL HAVE A SINGLE CONTEMPLATION AND A SINGLE JOY" (Saint Ephraim the Syrian, On the Heavenly Mansions).
[Source: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology by Father Michael Pomazansky)
__________
"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 