Editing Afterlife (section)

===Christianity===
{{main|Eternal life (Christianity)}}
{{see also|Heaven in Christianity|Christian views on Hell}}
{{Primary sources|section|find=Afterlife|find2=Christianity|date=July 2017}}
[[Mainstream Christianity]] professes belief in the [[Nicene Creed]], and [[English versions of the Nicene Creed in current use]] include the phrase: "We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come."

When questioned by the [[Sadducees]] about the [[resurrection of the dead]] (in a context relating to who one's spouse would be if one had been married several times in life), Jesus said that marriage would be irrelevant after the resurrection as the resurrected will be like the [[angels]] in Heaven.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2022:23-33;&version=47; |title=Matthew 22:23–33 |publisher=Biblegateway.com |access-date=8 March 2014}}</ref><ref name="Boulaouali 147–158">{{Cite journal |last=Boulaouali |first=Tijani |date=2022-11-03 |title=Biblical Eschatology and Qur'anic 'Ākhirāh: A Comparative Approach of the Concepts Afterlife, Death and the Day of Judgement |url=https://journal.uinsgd.ac.id/index.php/kt/article/view/19851 |journal=Khazanah Theologia |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=147–158 |doi=10.15575/kt.v4i3.19851 |s2cid=255287161 |issn=2715-9701 |access-date=8 January 2023 |archive-date=8 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230108124609/https://journal.uinsgd.ac.id/index.php/kt/article/view/19851 |url-status=live |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Jesus also maintained that the time would come when the dead would hear the voice of the [[Son of God]], and all who were in the tombs would come out; those who have heard his "[commandments] and believes in the one who sent [Him]" to the "resurrection of life", but those who do not to the "resurrection of condemnation".<ref>John 5:24{{cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__PXD.HTM |title=The New American Bible |publisher=Vatican.va |access-date=8 March 2014 |archive-date=2 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130802022938/http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__PXD.HTM |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[Book of Enoch]] describes Sheol as divided into four compartments for four types of the dead: the faithful saints who await resurrection in [[Paradise]], the merely virtuous who await their reward, the wicked who await punishment, and the wicked who have already been punished and will not be resurrected on Judgment Day.<ref>[[Harry Emerson Fosdick|Fosdick, Harry Emerson]]. A guide to understanding the Bible. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1956. p. 276.</ref> The Book of Enoch is considered apocryphal by most denominations of Christianity and all of Judaism.

The [[2 Maccabees|book of 2 Maccabees]] clearly describes the dead waiting for future resurrection and judgment, along with [[Prayer for the dead|prayers]] and offerings for the deceased to alleviate their sins.

[[File:Domenico Beccafumi 056.jpg|right|thumb|[[Domenico Beccafumi]]'s ''Inferno'': a Christian vision of hell]]
The author of the [[Gospel of Luke]] recounts the story of [[Lazarus and Dives|Lazarus and the rich man]], which shows people in Hades awaiting the resurrection either in comfort or torment. The author of the [[Book of Revelation]] writes about God and the angels versus [[Satan]] and [[demons]] in an epic battle at the end of times when all souls are judged. There is mention of ghostly bodies of the prophets and the [[transfiguration of Jesus|transfiguration]].

The non-canonical [[Acts of Paul and Thecla]] speak of the efficacy of [[prayer for the dead]] so that they might be "translated to a state of happiness".<ref>[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/thecla.html Acts of Paul and Thecla] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070606225812/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/thecla.html |date=6 June 2007 }} 8:5</ref>

[[Hippolytus of Rome]] pictures the [[underworld]] ([[Greek underworld|Hades]]) as a place where the righteous dead, waiting in the [[bosom of Abraham]] for their resurrection, rejoice at their future prospect; the unrighteous are tormented at the sight of the "[[Lake of fire|lake of unquenchable fire]]" into which they are destined to be cast.

[[Gregory of Nyssa]] discusses the long-before-believed possibility of purification of souls after death.<ref>He wrote that a person "may afterward in a quite different manner be very much interested in what is better, when, ''after his departure out of the body'', he gains knowledge of the difference between virtue and vice and finds that he is not able to partake of divinity until he has been ''purged of the filthy contagion in his soul by the purifying fire''" (emphasis added)—Sermon on the Dead, AD 382, quoted in [http://www.catholic.com/library/Roots_of_Purgatory.asp The Roots of Purgatory] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070527235028/http://www.catholic.com/library/Roots_of_Purgatory.asp |date=27 May 2007 }}</ref>

Pope Gregory I repeats the concept, articulated over a century earlier by Gregory of Nyssa, that the saved suffer purification after death. In connection with this, he wrote of "purgatorial flames."

The noun [[Purgatory|"purgatorium"]] (Latin: place of cleansing<ref>[http://www.answers.com/topic/purgatory "purgatory"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070317200253/http://www.answers.com/topic/purgatory |date=17 March 2007 }}. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press., 2003. Answers.com 6 June 2007.</ref>) is used for the first time to describe a state of painful purification of the saved afterlife. The same word in adjectival form (''purgatorius -a -um'', cleansing), which appears also in non-religious writing,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3D%2339625 |title=Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, ''A Latin Dictionary'' |publisher=Perseus.tufts.edu |access-date=8 March 2014 |archive-date=21 February 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080221225206/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3D%2339625 |url-status=live }}</ref> was already used by Christians such as Augustine of Hippo and [[Pope Gregory I]] to refer to an after-death cleansing.

Theologians and philosophers presented various philosophies and beliefs during the [[Age of Enlightenment]]. A notable example is [[Emanuel Swedenborg]] who wrote some 18 theological works which describe in detail the nature of the afterlife according to his claimed spiritual experiences, the most famous of which is ''[[Heaven and Hell (Swedenborg)|Heaven and Hell]]''.<ref name="swedenborgdigitallibrary.org">{{cite web |url=https://newchristianbiblestudy.org/exposition/translation/heaven-and-hell-dole/contents/10 |author=Swedenborg, E. |title=Heaven and Hell |publisher=Swedenborg Foundation |date=2000 |access-date=12 December 2017 |archive-date=8 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171208175232/https://newchristianbiblestudy.org/exposition/translation/heaven-and-hell-dole/contents/10 |url-status=live }}</ref> His report of life there covers a wide range of topics, such as marriage in heaven (where all [[angels]] are married), children in heaven (where they are raised by angel parents), time and [[space]] in heaven (there are none), the after-death awakening process in the World of Spirits (a place halfway between Heaven and Hell and where people first wake up after death), the allowance of a free will choice between Heaven or Hell (as opposed to being sent to either one by God), the [[eternity]] of [[Hell]] (one could leave but would never want to), and that all angels or devils were once people on earth.<ref name="swedenborgdigitallibrary.org"/>

====The Catholic Church====
The Catholic conception of the afterlife teaches that [[Particular judgment|after the body dies, the soul is judged]], the righteous and free of sin enter Heaven. However, those who die in unrepented [[mortal sin]] go to hell. In the 1990s, the [[Catechism of the Catholic Church]] defined hell not as punishment imposed on the sinner but rather as the sinner's self-exclusion from God. Unlike other Christian groups, the Catholic Church teaches that those who die in a state of grace but still carry [[venial sin]] go to a place called [[Purgatory]], where they undergo purification to enter Heaven.

====Limbo====
{{main|Limbo}}
Despite popular opinion, Limbo, which was elaborated upon by theologians beginning in the Middle Ages, was never recognized as a [[dogma]] of the [[Catholic Church]], yet, at times, it has been a very popular theological theory within the Church. Limbo is a theory that [[Baptism|unbaptized]] but innocent souls, such as those of infants or [[Virtue#Christianity|virtuous]] individuals who lived before [[Nativity of Jesus|Jesus Christ was born]], exist in neither Heaven nor Hell proper. Therefore, these souls neither merit the [[beatific vision]] nor are subjected to any punishment because they are not guilty of any personal [[sin]] although they have not received baptism, so they still bear [[original sin]]. So, they are generally seen as existing in a state of natural, but not supernatural, happiness until the end of time.

In other [[Christian denominations]], it has been described as an [[Intermediate state (Christianity)|intermediate place]] or state of confinement in oblivion and neglect.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/limbo |title=limbo – definition of limbo by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia |publisher=Thefreedictionary.com |access-date=8 March 2014 |archive-date=15 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200515065128/https://www.thefreedictionary.com/limbo |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Purgatory====
{{main|Purgatory}}
The notion of [[purgatory]] is associated mainly with the [[Catholic Church]]. In the Catholic Church, all those who die in God's grace and friendship but are still imperfectly purified are indeed assured of their eternal salvation. Still, after death, they undergo purification to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven or the final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The tradition of the church, by reference to specific texts of scripture, speaks of a "cleansing fire", but it is not always called purgatory.

[[Anglican]]s of the [[Anglo-Catholic]] tradition generally also hold to the belief. [[John Wesley]], the founder of [[Methodism]], believed in an [[Intermediate state (Christianity)|intermediate state]] between death and the [[resurrection of the dead]] and in the possibility of "continuing to grow in holiness there", but Methodism does not officially affirm this belief and denies the possibility of [[Prayer for the dead|helping by prayer]] any who may be in that state.<ref>Ted Campbell, Methodist Doctrine: The Essentials (Abingdon 1999), quoted in [http://www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=5101 Feature article by ''United Methodist Reporter'' Managing Editor Robin Russell] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722154244/http://www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=5101 |date=22 July 2011 }} and in [http://www.umc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=lwL4KnN1LtH&b=4746355&content_id=%7B94F6F768-0EA6-4C1B-B6B6-0C88EC04E8A2%7D&notoc=1 FAQ Belief: What happens immediately after a person dies?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160613074435/http://www.umc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=lwL4KnN1LtH&b=4746355&content_id=%7B94F6F768-0EA6-4C1B-B6B6-0C88EC04E8A2%7D&notoc=1 |date=13 June 2016 }}</ref>

====Orthodox Christianity====
The Orthodox Church is intentionally reticent about the afterlife, as it acknowledges the mystery, especially of things that have not yet occurred. Beyond the second coming of Jesus, bodily resurrection, and final judgment, all of which are affirmed in the [[Nicene Creed]] (325 AD), Orthodoxy does not teach much else in any definitive manner. Unlike Western forms of Christianity, however, Orthodoxy is traditionally non-dualist and does not teach that there are two separate literal locations of heaven and hell, but instead acknowledges that "the 'location' of one's final destiny—heaven or hell—as being figurative."<ref name="Andrew P. Klager 2011">{{cite web| url = http://www.clarion-journal.com/files/new-klager-compassionate-eschatology-with-biblioklager-1.pdf#page=19| title = Andrew P. Klager, "Orthodox Eschatology and St. Gregory of Nyssa's ''De vita Moysis'': Transfiguration, Cosmic Unity, and Compassion," In ''Compassionate Eschatology: The Future as Friend'', eds. Ted Grimsrud & Michael Hardin, 230–52 (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2011), 245.| access-date = 3 May 2016| archive-date = 25 March 2016| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160325232147/http://www.clarion-journal.com/files/new-klager-compassionate-eschatology-with-biblioklager-1.pdf#page=19| url-status = live}}</ref>

Instead, Orthodoxy teaches that the final judgment is one's uniform encounter with divine love and mercy, but this encounter is experienced multifariously depending on the extent to which one has been transformed, partaken of divinity, and is therefore compatible or incompatible with God. "The monadic, immutable, and ceaseless object of eschatological encounter is therefore the love and mercy of God, his glory which infuses the heavenly temple, and it is the subjective human reaction which engenders multiplicity or any division of experience."<ref name="Andrew P. Klager 2011"/> For instance, [[St. Isaac the Syrian]] observes in his ''[[The Ascetical Homilies of Isaac the Syrian|Ascetical Homilies]]'' that "those who are punished in Gehenna, are scourged by the scourge of love. ... The power of love works in two ways: it torments sinners ... [as] bitter regret. But love inebriates the souls of the sons of Heaven by its delectability."<ref>St. Isaac the Syrian, "Homily 28," In ''The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian,'' trans. Dana Miller (Brookline, MA: Holy Transfiguration Monastery Press, 1984), 141.</ref> In this sense, the divine action is always, immutably, and uniformly love, and if one experiences this love negatively, the experience is then one of self-condemnation because of free will rather than condemnation by God.

Orthodoxy therefore uses the description of Jesus' judgment in John 3:19–21 as their model: "19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." As a characteristically Orthodox understanding, then, Fr. [[Thomas Hopko]] writes, "[I]t is precisely the presence of God's mercy and love which cause the torment of the wicked. God does not punish; he forgives... In a word, God has mercy on all, whether all like it or not. If we like it, it is paradise; if we do not, it is hell. Every knee will bend before the Lord. Everything will be subject to Him. God in Christ will indeed be 'all and in all,' with boundless mercy and unconditional pardon. But not all will rejoice in God's gift of forgiveness, and that choice will be judgment, the self-inflicted source of their sorrow and pain."<ref>Fr. Thomas Hopko, "Foreword," in ''The Orthodox Church'', Sergius Bulgakov (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1988), xiii.</ref>

Moreover, Orthodoxy includes a prevalent tradition of ''[[apokatastasis]]'', or the restoration of all things in the end. This has been taught most notably by [[Origen]], but also many other Church fathers and Saints, including [[Gregory of Nyssa]]. The [[Second Council of Constantinople]] (553 AD) affirmed the orthodoxy of Gregory of Nyssa while simultaneously condemning Origen's brand of universalism because it taught the restoration back to our pre-existent state, which Orthodoxy does not teach. It is also a teaching of such eminent Orthodox theologians as [[Olivier Clément]], Metropolitan [[Kallistos Ware]], and Bishop [[Hilarion Alfeyev]].<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.clarion-journal.com/files/new-klager-compassionate-eschatology-with-biblioklager-1.pdf#page=25| title = Andrew P. Klager, "Orthodox Eschatology and St. Gregory of Nyssa's ''De vita Moysis'': Transfiguration, Cosmic Unity, and Compassion," In ''Compassionate Eschatology: The Future as Friend'', eds. Ted Grimsrud & Michael Hardin, 230–52 (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2011), 251.| access-date = 3 May 2016| archive-date = 25 March 2016| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160325232147/http://www.clarion-journal.com/files/new-klager-compassionate-eschatology-with-biblioklager-1.pdf#page=25| url-status = live}}</ref> Although apokatastasis is not a dogma of the church but instead a [[wikt:theologoumenon#English|theologoumenon]], it is no less a teaching of the Orthodox Church than its rejection. As Met. Kallistos Ware explains, "It is heretical to say that all must be saved, for this is to deny free will; but, it is legitimate to hope that all may be saved,"<ref>Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Church (New York: Penguin, 1997), 262.</ref> as insisting on torment without end also denies free will.

====The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints====
{{main|Plan of salvation (Latter Day Saints)|Exaltation (Mormonism)|Degrees of glory}}
[[File:000 preach-my-gospel 1207575 tmb.jpg|framed|Plan of Salvation in LDS Religion]]
[[Joseph F. Smith]] of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] presents an elaborate vision of the afterlife. It is revealed as the scene of an extensive missionary effort by righteous spirits in paradise to redeem those still in darkness—a spirit prison or "hell" where the souls of the dead remain until judgment. It is divided into two parts: Spirit Prison and Paradise. These are also known as the [[Spirit world (Latter Day Saints)|Spirit World]] (also Abraham's Bosom; see Luke 16:19–25). They believe that Christ visited the spirit prison [https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/1-pet/3.18-20?lang=eng (1 Peter 3:18–20)] and opened the gate for those who repent to cross over to Paradise. This is similar to the [[Harrowing of Hell]] doctrine of some mainstream Christian faiths.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Paulsen|first1=David L.|last2=Cook|first2=Roger D.|last3=Christensen|first3=Kendel J.|date=2010|title=The Harrowing of Hell: Salvation for the Dead in Early Christianity|journal=Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture|volume=19|issue=1|pages=56–77|doi=10.5406/jbookmormotheres.19.1.0056|jstor=10.5406/jbookmormotheres.19.1.0056|s2cid=171733241|issn=1948-7487|url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms/vol19/iss1/7|access-date=28 December 2022|archive-date=28 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221128015024/https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms/vol19/iss1/7/|url-status=live}}</ref> Both Spirit Prison and Paradise are temporary according to Latter-day Saint beliefs. After the resurrection, spirits are assigned "permanently" to three degrees of heavenly glory, determined by how they lived – Celestial, Terrestrial, and Telestial. (1 Cor 15:44–42; Doctrine and Covenants, Section 76) [[Son of perdition (Mormonism)|Sons of Perdition]], or those who have known and seen God and deny it, will be sent to the realm of [[Satan]], which is called Outer Darkness, where they shall live in misery and agony forever.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/76?lang=eng| title = Doctrine and Covenants, Section 76.| access-date = 15 July 2019| archive-date = 13 July 2019| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190713010958/https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/76?lang=eng| url-status = live}}</ref> However, according to the beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, most persons lack the amount of knowledge to commit the [[Eternal sin]] and are therefore incapable of becoming sons of perdition.<ref>[[Spencer W. Kimball]]: The Miracle of Forgiveness, p. 123.</ref>

The Celestial Kingdom is believed to be where the righteous can live eternally with their families. Progression does not end once one has entered the Celestial Kingdom but extends eternally. According to "True to the Faith" (a handbook on doctrines in the LDS faith), "The celestial kingdom is the place prepared for those who have "received the testimony of Jesus" and been "made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, who wrought out this perfect atonement through the shedding of his own blood" (Doctrine and Covenants, 76:51, 69). To inherit this gift, we must receive the ordinances of salvation, keep the commandments, and repent of our sins."<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/true-to-the-faith/kingdoms-of-glory.p1?lang=eng | title=Kingdoms of Glory | access-date=15 July 2019 | archive-date=12 January 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112061937/https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/true-to-the-faith/kingdoms-of-glory.p1?lang=eng | url-status=live }}</ref>

====Jehovah's Witnesses====
[[Jehovah's Witnesses]] occasionally use terms such as "afterlife"<ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Watchtower|title=Is Gehenna a Place of Fiery Torment?|date=1 April 2011|page=31|url=http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2011252|access-date=31 December 2014|archive-date=31 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141231095604/http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2011252|url-status=live}}</ref> to refer to any hope for the dead, but they understand [[Ecclesiastes]] 9:5 to preclude belief in an immortal soul.<ref>{{cite book|title=Reasoning From the Scriptures|pages=168–75}}</ref> Individuals judged by God to be wicked, such as in the [[Great Flood]] or at [[Armageddon]], are given no hope of an afterlife. However, they believe that after Armageddon, there will be a bodily resurrection of "both righteous and unrighteous" dead (but not the "wicked"). Survivors of Armageddon and those who are resurrected are then to restore the Earth to a paradise gradually.<ref>{{cite book|title=Insight on the Scriptures|volume=2|pages=574–76}}</ref> After Armageddon, unrepentant sinners are punished with eternal death (non-existence).

====Seventh-day Adventists====
[[File:Life And Death Equation.jpg|thumb|Creation and Death Equation]]
The Seventh-day Adventist Church's beliefs regarding the afterlife differ from those of other Christian churches. Rather than ascend to Heaven or descend to Hell, Adventists believe the dead "remain unconscious until the return of Christ in judgement". The concept that the dead remain dead until resurrection is one of the fundamental beliefs of Seventh-day Adventism.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The State of the Dead: From Death to Life|url=https://www.adventist.org/beliefs/fundamental-beliefs/restoration/death-and-resurrection/|website=Seventh-day Adventist World Church Official Website|date=30 March 2015 |access-date=4 August 2020|archive-date=12 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200812065438/https://www.adventist.org/beliefs/fundamental-beliefs/restoration/death-and-resurrection/|url-status=live}}</ref> Adventists believe that death is an unconscious state (a "sleep"). This is based on Matt. 9:24; Mark 5:39; John 11:11–14; 1 Cor. 15:51, 52; 1 Thess. 4:13–17; 2 Peter 3:4; Eccl. 9:5, 6, 10. At death, all consciousness ends. The dead person does not know anything and does not do anything.<ref>{{Cite web|title=From Life to Death: What Really Happens When You Die?|url=https://www.adventist.org/articles/waking-up-to-eternity/|website=Seventh-day Adventist World Church Official Website|date=30 March 2015|access-date=4 August 2020|archive-date=18 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200918160711/https://www.adventist.org/articles/waking-up-to-eternity/|url-status=live}}</ref> They believe that death is a decreation, or an undoing of what was created. This is described in Ecclesiastes 12:7: "When a person dies, the body turns to dust again, and the spirit goes back to God, who gave it." The spirit of every person who dies—whether saved or unsaved—returns to God at death. The spirit that returns to God at death is the breath of life.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Are the Dead Really Dead?|url=https://www.amazingfacts.org/media-library/study-guide/e/4987/t/are-the-dead-really-dead-|website=Amazing Facts|access-date=4 August 2020|archive-date=28 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200928060753/https://www.amazingfacts.org/media-library/study-guide/e/4987/t/are-the-dead-really-dead-|url-status=live}}</ref>