The Teaching of Gregory of Nyssa On the Eternality of Hell

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

In many of his texts St. Gregory speaks of man's freedom of choice, which is not abolished by God, and also about the perpetuity of Hell. Both these positions of his remove every notion of the theory of the restoration of all things as affirmed by Origen.

In his great catechetical oration, in which he refers to the Catechism and the value of Baptism, at the end he continues the subject of the change in a man's whole existence which comes about by his choice. He writes that holy Baptism is called birth from above, that is, it is man's rebirth and reconstitution, but it does not alter his characteristic features. This human nature does not of itself admit of any "change by Baptism", and neither is his reason or intelligence changed, nor his cognition nor any other characteristic of human nature. This must take place through man's struggle before and after Baptism. The grace of God which we receive through Baptism does not bring about our rebirth unless we ourselves play a part in it.

A Patristic Explanation of the Symbolic Imagery of the Coming Judgement

By His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

From the book Life After Death, Ch. 6: "The Coming Judgement".

The Second Coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead are closely connected with the coming judgement, the so-called future tribunal. All men will stand before the dread judgement seat of Christ.

In the Creed we confess that Christ will come with glory “to judge the living and the dead.”

This conviction constitutes the central teaching of the Church, as we shall verify in what follows. In all the assemblies for worship and in the Divine Liturgy there are words about our presence before the throne of God. The priest prays:

“For a Christian end of our life, painless, peaceful and unashamed, and for a good answer before the dread judgement seat of Christ, let us pray to the Lord.”

"My God, My God, 

Why Have You Forsaken Me?"

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

Christ's fourth saying on the Cross is the cry: "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46). This saying must be interpreted in an Orthodox way, within the interpretive analysis of the holy Fathers of the Church, because otherwise it can be considered heretical. This is said because there are some scholastics and rationalists who try to interpret these words of Christ by maintaining that, if only for a few seconds, the divine nature abandoned the human nature on the Cross in order for Christ to feel the pain, the suffering of His abandonment.