Final Ordeal
In addition to the “run-of-the-mill” judgment that occurs at the end of every life, the Zoroastrian faith also instantiates the belief that once “The Work” is complete, a final struggle or “final great ordeal” will occur. In this end-times scenario, the forces of good and evil meet in one final combat, the purpose of which is to erase evil from creation. [1]
Zoroastrian Terms
Zoroastrianism > Asha, Doctrine of the Three Times, Drug, Druh, Final Ordeal, Frashokereti, Gathas, Mithra, Mixture, Separation, Vohu Manah, Zoroaster, Zoroastrian Creation
Elements of the Zoroastrian Narrative
Zoroastrian Narrative > Doctrine of the Three Times, Final Ordeal, Frashokereti, Mixture, Separation, Zoroastrian Binary, Zoroastrian Creation
Syncretic Terms
Notes
As Boyce notes, the tradition describes “the ordeal” as
...submersion in a river of molten metal, to be undergone by the whole physical world and by all humanity, both those still living in the flesh and the greater host of the departed, gathered together again in menog state from heaven and hell. ‘Then fire and Airyaman Yazad will melt the metal in the hills and mountains, and it will be upon this earth like a river. Then they will cause all men to pass through that molten metal ... And for him who is righteous, it will seem as if he is walking through warm milk; and for him who is wicked, it will seem as if he is walking in the flesh (pad getig) through molten metal’.”[2]
At this final ordeal, “the wicked will suffer a second death, and will perish off the face of the earth. The Daevas and the legions of darkness will already have been annihilated in a last great battle with the Yazatas; and the river of metal will flow down into hell, slaying Angara Mainyu and burning up the last vestige of wickedness in the universe."[3]
According to Boyce, “salvation for the individual depended on the sum of their thoughts, words and deeds, and there could be no intervention, whether compassionate or capricious, by any divine Being to alter this.” In other words, when “the end” finally comes, you get no second chance. The judgment that is passed is final and you either live as an immortal in paradise on Earth, enabled by Amesha Penta (Immortal Holy One) who prepares a “mystical ‘white haoma,’”1 a substance which confers immortality (Boyce, 2001, p. 28), or you don’t. [4]
Thereafter men [sic] will become like the Immortals themselves, of one thought, word and deed, unaging, free from sickness, without corruption, forever joyful in the kingdom of God upon earth. For it is in this familiar and beloved world, restored to its original perfection, that, according to Zoroaster, eternity will be passed in bliss, and not in a remote insubstantial Paradise.” [5]
Footnotes
- ↑ Mike Sosteric, From Zoroaster to Star Wars, Jesus to Marx: The Art, Science, and Technology of Mass Human Manipulation, Under Review, https://www.academia.edu/34504691.
- ↑ Boyce, Mary. A History of Zoroastrianism: Volume One The Early Period. New York: E. J. Brill, 1996. p. 242.
- ↑ Mary Boyce, Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. Routledge, 2001. p. 28.
- ↑ Mary Boyce, Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. Routledge, 2001. p. 28-9.
- ↑ Mary Boyce, Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. Routledge, 2001. p. 28.
