Sin death and beyond
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SIN, DEATH AND BEYOND: M.M.NINAN<br />
Does God give a temporary body while we await for the resurrected glorified body?<br />
Some early Church Fathers, apparently including Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian <strong>and</strong> Clement of<br />
Alex<strong>and</strong>ria, believed that, in general, the saved did not enter heaven until Judgment Day, <strong>and</strong><br />
during the interval between <strong>death</strong> <strong>and</strong> the resurrection they dwell happily in a delightful abode,<br />
awaiting their final glorification. What kind of bodies do the believers who have died in Christ<br />
have now? <strong>Sin</strong>ce the resurrection of the body is in the future, are the present dead believers<br />
in heaven "disembodied" spirits or do they have some kind of temporary "intermediate" bodies<br />
? Of course exceptions were admitted by God for the martyrs <strong>and</strong> some other classes of<br />
saints, who were admitted at once to the supreme joys of heaven.<br />
After this "particular judgment", according to Orthodox dogmatic theology, the soul experiences<br />
a foretaste of the blessedness or the eternal torment that awaits it after the resurrection.<br />
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