Hell and Heaven

HEAVEN AND HELL: IN CHRIST SHALL ALL BE MADE ALIVE: PROF.M.M.NINAN
(Mal. 3:1-3) "For he is like a refiner's fire, . . . he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he
shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord
an offering in righteousness".
The Birth of Purgatory By Jacques Le Goff
Clement, argued that God could not be vindictive:
“God does not wreak vengeance,
for vengeance is to return evil with evil,
and God punishes only with an eye to the good"
(Stromam 7.26}.
God uses Fire as a means of Purification
Fire as a means of purification is used throughout the Bible.
Origen and Clement give interpretation of the Old Testament passages in which
God explicitly uses fire as an instrument of his wrath.
These include Leviticus 10:1-2: where Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, were killed by the fire
from the Lord because they offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not.
For You have tried us, O God;
You have refined us as silver is refined.
You brought us into the net;
You laid an oppressive burden upon our loins.
You made men ride over our heads;
We went through fire and through water,
Yet You brought us out into a place of abundance (Ps 66:10-12).
The idea of a baptism by fire is based on what john the Baptist says in Luke 3:16:
“l indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier cometh, the latchet of whose shoes l am not
worthy to unloose; he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.”
Origen, in the Twenty-fourth Homily of his Commentary on Luke, gives the following gloss:
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