Death and Afterlife -16: The Struggle

 

We will face an ordeal, a struggle, when we crossover after death.

As we transition there is some sort of struggle that most will experience. It is like a struggle between lightness and darkness, evil and good. This ordeal is based on the choices we have made. This is more than our choice to believe in Jesus Christ. It includes all the choices we have made. Did they follow the commandments He taught or were they based on your own desires? It is about whether you have lived a pure life in accordance with you belief in Jesus.

Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure[1 Jn 3: 3], for “whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God” [1 Jn 3: 10].

Reference to this struggle is also found in the church’s prayers for the parting of the soul.

As I depart from earth, vouchsafe me to pass unhindered by the prince of the air, the persecutor, the tormenter, he who stands on the frightful paths and is their unjust interrogator.

Another reads:

Translate me, O Sovereign Lady, into the sacred and precious hands of the holy angels, that being covered by their wings, I may not see the shameless and foul and dark form of the demons.

Saint Athanasios the Great of Alexandria writes in recording the life of another great saint, Anthony the Great:

Once, when he was about to eat and stood up to pray, he felt himself carried off in spirit, as he stood he saw himself, outside himself and as though guided aloft by certain beings [i.e., angels]. Then he also saw loathsome and terrible beings standing in the air and bent on preventing him from passing through.

As his [angel] guides offered resistance, the others [i.e., evil spirits] demanded to know on what plea he was not accountable to them as they [i.e., the evil spirits] brought accusations but could not prove them, the way opened up to him free and unhindered; he was astonished to see against how many we battle and what labors a person has to pass through the air;

Abba Serapis, an early desert father who, lived in Egypt writes:

Looking up, I beheld the soul of the saint already being delivered from the bonds of the body. It was covered by angelic hands with a bright white garment and raised up by them to heaven. I beheld the aerial path to heaven and the opened heavens. Then I saw the hordes of demons standing on this path and heard an angelic voice addressed to the demons: “Sons of darkness! Flee and hide yourselves from the face of the light of righteousness!”

In the Bible we are also warned of this struggle. 

Paul teaches us ti stand firmly against the evil forces we may encounter

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.... Quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one” (Eph 6: 13, 16). 

Peter too says:

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world” (1 Pet 5: 8–9).

The apostle James also warns us:

Submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (Jas 4: 7).

So even after death we are confronted with this struggle between angels and the demons. After death they take on a terrifying visible spectacle. This quite disturbing to us because we realize our sinfulness while alive and realize all, our choices will impact the outcome of this disturbance.

Here is how Saint John Chrysostom views it:

[The soul] often rises and sinks down again toward the abyss, and trembles with fear.... For the awareness of our sins always pricks us, especially at that time when we are about to be led away to the examination of accounts in that terrible court. Then, if anyone has been guilty of ... any ... wrong, the whole swarm of sins is revived and stands before our eyes to sting our conscience.

Saint Boniface an eight-century Anglo-Saxon apostle to the Germans tells us 

HE describes the story of a monk from a monastery at Wenlock who died and came back to life after a few hours. He described a crowd of evil spirits along with a glorious chorus of angels. He saw them involved in a violent dispute concerning the souls that had just separated from their bodies. The demons were bringing charges against them and the angels were trying to discount their charges and making excuses. The monk heard all his sins. Nothing was hidden. Everything from his youth up to his death that he had failed to confess, had forgotten or not recognized as a sin. They were accusing him vigorously. The demons were yelling out naming the vices giving specific times and places. They were offering proof of all his misdeeds. His virtues seemed small in defense . The ages continually in their love defended and supported him. They were even exaggerating his virtues it seemed,

We also have Mr U’s experience:

Suddenly there was heard at first an indistinct noise. And following this, having emerged from somewhere, with shrieks and rowdy laughter, a throng of some hideous beings began rapidly to approach us. 

“Evil spirits!”—I suddenly comprehended and appraised with unusual rapidity that resulted from the horror I experienced at that time, a horror of a special kind and until then never before experienced by me. Evil spirits!

Having surrounded  us…the evil spirits demanded that I be given over to them; they tried somehow to seize and tear me away from the angels, but evidently did not dare to do this.

I had to justify myself, to defend myself from the accusation that was directed against me, and in such a manner the New Testament statement was verified in practice: we really shall have to give an account for all our idle words, if not by the will of God, who sees the secrets of man’s heart, then by the anger of the enemy of salvation.

I recalled a prayer and began praying, appealing for help to those holy ones [i.e., the saints] whose names I knew and whose names came to mind. But this did not frighten my enemies. A sad ignorant Christian only in name [It was that only then] ... it seems, almost for the first time in my life, [I] remembered her who is called the intercessor for Christians.

Hardly had I remembered and pronounced her name, when about us there suddenly appeared a kind of white mist, which soon began to enfold within itself the ugly throng of evil spirits. It concealed them from my eyes before they could withdraw from us. Their bellowing and cackling was still heard for a long while, but according to how it gradually weakened in intensity and became more dull, I was able to judge that the terrible pursuit was gradually being left behind.

Based on these testimonies we cannot assume that we immediately enter into a place of serenity and beauty. 

We must be prepared to defend an account for all the time we missed the mark according to what we learned from Jesus.

Reflect on this struggle you will face. Will you be able to offer a good defense?