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Question 324

When we finally pass and meet our creator will we be sectioned off in our religious groups i.e. Orthodox, Catholic, Church of England etc if this is not the case basically we could join any church and still all meet up eventually        

 

Answer to Question 324

 

I don’t think we will be separated into our religious groups, but we will be separated according to how spiritually cleansed we are. Christ said: “In my Father’s house there are many mansions.” (John 14:2) This we can interpret as meaning many levels of salvation. We can therefore imagine heaven as a pyramid with God at the very top followed by the saints and all those who found deification and as we come down the pyramid there are different levels with people. Each person is assigned to a level according to his spiritual ability to see God. As long as we find ourselves within this pyramid we are saved even if it is in the bottom corner, but the more spiritually cleansed we are the better spiritual eyesight we will have and so be closer to God. We believe that an Orthodox has the means to reach the very top of this pyramid by cleansing himself through spiritual struggles and can reach deification. Someone from another religion can also be saved but cannot reach deification.

 

Same member

This is quite upsetting reading this, everyone I've lost friends and family have all been on different levels of spirituality, which means they have already been placed on the pyramid, we are all so different and love our faith in such different ways I hope and pray we all get to see each other one day without all these levels

 

Reply

 We do not know enough about life after death to give definite answers. Death is a mystery and what we know of the afterlife is only what Christ has told us in Holy Scripture and certain accounts given us by the saints who had visions or after death experiences. Certainly we want to believe that we will continue our afterlife with the people we love and in some ways this is possible, but depends again on our spiritual eyesight. We will certainly be able to see our loved ones but for us to be with them it means that our spiritual eyes see the divine light at the same level as them.

 

Another member

Do we get to see God if we are on the lower levels?

 

Reply

God is everywhere and there is no place where God is not, but the pyramid theory is only a allegorical image and not meant to represent a reality. We can talk about different levels because Christ said that "In my Father's house are many mansions" and it is logical to think that the holier a person is then the closer he is to God. If we are saved then we are with God and it doesn't matter what level we are. The pyramid represents everyone who is saved and finds a place in God's house or paradise and we will be more than happy and content to find ourselves in the very lowest level.