Those who will not be saved, who will not be taken on clouds for being carried to the Kingdom of Heaven, will remain down, burdened by sins. They will understand then that they`ll be doomed to the eternal hell because they did not remove the burden of their sins by repentance, by confessions and tears. And thus being burdened by the weight of their sins and of their lack of repentance, they will remain down, on earth. Imagine what a terrible wail those souls will feel being in such an awful agony! Imagine the fear, the terror, the wrath of God! And we the alive ones we should ask ourselves: Will I be taken on a cloud or be left down?`
And the Holy Fathers says that as long as it takes to read the 6 psalms of the Matins, the so-called psalms of Judgment, which we read in the Church, it will take to God to judge the souls because He will not judge each soul in a row but will separate in an instant the sheep from the goats.
Imagine the hell of conscience, because every soul will know what will follow in a short time. Imagine now how it is to be all of us resurrected and the one who is near me to be taken on clouds for welcoming the Righteous Judge in the skies and I to remain burdened like with lead and iron because of my numerous sins and of the weight of my punishment and it will not be possible to be taken on a cloud. Seeing such frightening sins we will tremble like the rabbit which is taken to be killed. Ifthe saints tremble, we, the sinners and the wretched, will tremble even more! Those who will remain down will wait for the damnation of hell. On one side it is the conscience and on the other side all those which take place and relate to God and afterlife and from all of them they will receive a warning about what expects them.
In another place the Holy Scriptures say that this frightening day will be announced by the trumpets of the Second Coming from Heaven and this will be heard even deep down, in hell, where are the doomed souls. All the dead will be resurrected and the bodies will become imperishable, spiritual. And the earth, the sea and the beasts will give back the dead. The earth will open and it will come out lava which will burn the sinners.
And in the same way during the Flood the water went over the tops of the mountains and became a tomb for all the people, it will happen then. But not gradually as the water rose then, the fire will cover the earth in an instant and everything will become a river of fire.
Everything will be shaken, the skies will roll up like a roll of paper, the celestial powers will fall down and then it will appear the sign of the Son of Man. And what is that?
The Holy Cross ! The Holy Cross will go ahead and then it will be followed by the angelic powers that will have a place of honor. They will stand on the sides of the Holy Cross and they will prepare the coming of the Great Judge, the Cherubims and the Seraphims will bring the Throne where the Lord will sit and they will place it as they say in the highest place on earth to be seen by all those who will be resurrected on earth.
In his prophecy about the Second Coming the prophet Isaiah says that the Ancient One will sit in glory to judge the world and under His Throne will flow a river of fire.
And another saint had a vision in which he saw how will take place the Second Coming. There he describes that when the Lord finished His Judgment a frightening rumble was heard which caused a great fear and commotion. Besides this rumble he saw that from under the Throne of the Judge flowed a river of fire which fell in hell taking with it all the sinners. The dark angels were pushing the men from the left in the river of fire. There was an unsoothed wail and cry!
The Great Fathers of our Church who were enlightened from the Holy Spirit thinking about these meditated without cease at the frightening Coming of Christ. And this meditation made them cry without cease. Especially saint Ephrem the Syrian was frightened and cried bitterly from the bottom of his soul meditating how it was going to be at the Second Coming. His eyes became two flowing springs and on his cheeks two ditches appeared. This great saint and ascetic wrote many words about the Second Coming of our Lord. If the souls of the saints tremble only thinking about the fright from the Day of Judgment, we, the sinners, will tremble even more when all these becomes a reality!
Excerpt from the book The Art of Salvation published by Evanghelismos.
