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In terms of the afterlife and the world to come, descriptions of heaven describe an existence without violence and strife either among non-human animals or in their relationship to people. For example, Isaiah 65:25 (NIV) states: "The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food.
The afterlife played an important role in Ancient Egyptian religion, and its belief system is one of the earliest known in recorded history. When the body died, parts of its soul known as ka (body double) and the ba (personality) would go to the Kingdom of the Dead.
The Western Church goes differently by defining the intermediate state, with evidence from as far back as the Passion of Saint Perpetua, Saint Felicitas, and their Companions (203) of the belief that sins can be purged by suffering in an afterlife, and that purgation can be expedited by the intercession of the living.
The idea of the great chain, as well as the derived "missing link", was abandoned in early 20th-century science, [23] as the notion of modern animals representing ancestors of other modern animals was abandoned in biology. [24] The idea of a certain sequence from "lower" to "higher" however lingers on, as does the idea of progress in biology. [25]
The Catholic Church had technically banned the practice of selling indulgences as long ago as 1567. As the Times points out, a monetary donation wouldn't go amiss toward earning an indulgence.
The Roman Catechism adds that human concepts of heaven (living like a king, heaven being the most perfect paradise, one enjoying the ultimate union with God, the realization of one's potential and ideals, the achievement of godhood, materialistic fulfillment (wealth, power, feast, pleasure, leisure, etc.), eternal rest, reunion with loved ones ...
Purgatory pre-dates the specific Catholic tradition of purgatory as a transitional state or condition; it has a history that dates back before Christ, to related beliefs also in Judaism, that prayer for the dead contributes to their afterlife purification.
Hieronymus Bosch's 1500 painting The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things.The four outer discs depict (clockwise from top left) Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell. In Christian eschatology, the Four Last Things (Latin: quattuor novissima) [1] are Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell, the four last stages of the soul in life and the afterlife.