Thought you guys might enjoy this summary of miscellaneous points I did several years ago from J.W. Hanson’s classic book “Universalism: The Prevailing Doctrine of the Christian Church During its First Five Hundred Years.”
1)Early Christian catacombs have numerous inscriptions on its monuments, none of which support endless torment but rather all harmonize with the Universalism of the early fathers.
2)Prayers for the dead were universal in the early Church, which would be absurd, if their condition is unalterably fixed at the grave.
3)The first comparatively complete systematic statement of Christian doctrine ever given to the world was by Clement of Alexandria, A.D. 180, and universal salvation was one of its tenets. The first complete presentation of Christianity as a system was by Origen in A.D. 220 and universal salvation was explicitly contained in it. Clement and Origen both taught the torments of the damned are curative and limited.
4)Universal salvation was the prevailing doctrine in Christendom as long as Greek, the language of the New Testament, was the language of Christendom.
5)The first three hundred years of the Church are generally accepted as the best in its history and were the most remarkable for simplicity, goodness and missionary zeal. This is good evidence that Universalism does not quench evangelism.
6)The more Latin became the language of the Church, the less Universalism was remembered. Minucius Felix, Tertullian and Augustine all spoke Latin and were ignorant of Greek. These three were the first outspoken advocates of endless punishment, yet they did not know the nuances of Greek, particularly with regard to the proper meaning of the Greek term used in Matt. 25:41 “kolasis aionios.” The Greek-speaking fathers, like Origen, knew that this term meant “curative punishment for an age to be determined by God.” Kolasis was a term used to describe the pruning of trees so that fuller growth would occur. Aionios was a term used to describe an age or season to be determined by God alone. The common language of Jews and Pagans in Jesus’ day would use the terms “aidios” or “adialeipton timoria” to describe “endless torment,” not “kolasis aionios.”
7)The early Christians taught that Christ preached the gospel to the dead, and for that purpose descended into Hades. Many held that He released all who were there – – past, present and future. This act was seen as outside of human time and space in showing God’s full and final salvation for all. This shows that repentance beyond the grave was accepted and precludes the modern error that the soul’s destiny is decided at death.
8)Of all the numerous heresy lists compiled over the first four hundred years, from Irenaeus, Hippolytus and Epiphanius, “the hammer of heretics,” not once is Universalism mentioned as a heresy.
9)The first defense of Christianity against infidelity (Origen’s Against Celsus) puts the defense on Universalistic grounds. Celsus charged the Christians’ God with cruelty, because he punished with fire. Origen replied that God’s fire is curative; that He is a “Consuming Fire,” because He consumes sin and not the sinner.
10)Not a single Christian creed for five hundred years expresses any idea contrary to universal restoration, or in favor of endless punishment.
11)Two early and important Christian documents advocate Universalism, while many others allow for it through their non-advocacy of eternal punishment. The Sibylline Oracles has a portion expressing universal salvation around 80 A.D. Here, it is the prayer of the redeemed saints which saves the lost out of Hell. This document was one of the most quoted Christian documents other than the Bible. It was often quoted by Athenagaras, Thelphilus, Justin Martyr, Lactantius, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Eusebius, and Augustine. The second century Letter to Diognetus is also strongly Universalistic in Chapter X when it declares Hell as a limited chastisement which will end.
12)The principal Christian Universalists were born and raised in Christian households. The main Latin leaders, in contrast, who advocated eternal torment were all heathen-born converts to Christianity who did not speak or read fluent Greek, were not raised and educated in Christian homes and schools, and were not known for kind and gentle temperaments. These include Minucius Felix, Tertullian, Cyprian and Augustine. Their view of Hell often adopted and integrated pagan and heathen poetry into their Christian beliefs.
13)Justinian, a half-pagan emperor, who attempted to have Universalism officially condemned, lived in the most corrupt epoch of the Christian centuries. He closed the theological schools, and demanded the condemnation of Universalism by law; but the doctrine was so prevalent in the Church that the council refused to obey his edict to suppress it. Lecky says the age of Justinian was “the worst form civilization has assumed.” Even though some scholars claim that Universalism was denounced as heresy in 544-546 by a local council in Constantinople as ordered by Emperor Justinian, the council in fact refused to anathematize Universalism even though the Emperor demanded it. The Emperor continued the pressure. The Fifth General Council of 553 met and did condemn Origen, whose teachings the Emperor hated with a passion. Yet, again no specific condemnation of Universalism was made by the Church councils until the Council of Constantinople in 696. The previous councils had honored the memory of Gregory of Nyssa, who was well known for teaching Universalism in the strongest terms.
14)The Augustinian Shift into the Dark Ages: Augustine said many wonderful things. Augustine said many horrible things. He was the first Christian theologian to condone torture for heretics and forced conversions to Christianity. (Letter to Publicola; Against Faustus; Letter to Marcellinas; Letter to Vincentius; The City of God, 19:6; The Correction of the Donatists, 22-24). He also consigned unbaptized and deceased infants to eternal Hell. Enchir. 93; III; 113; de civ. dei 21, 16.
His progenitor in things Hellish, Tertullian, believed that after baptism, a believer could only be forgiven for one serious sin. For this reason, Tertullian believed a believer should be baptized only after he had matured to near-perfection. (Tertullian, On Baptism ANF3). The point here is that these men had a primitive blood-lust which occasionally tainted their views with wrath and vengeance. This tainted view infected Western theology and led the way into the Dark Ages.
Church history eventually was re-written as Origen and others were branded heretics and Alexandrian Christianity denounced and forgotten. “In no other respect did Augustine differ more widely from Origen and the Alexandrians than in his intolerant spirit. Even Tertullian conceded to all the right of opinion. Gregory of Nazianzus, Ambrose, Athanasius and Augustine himself in his earlier days, recorded the tolerance that Christianity demands. But he afterwards came to advocate and defend the persecution of religious opponents. Milman observes: ‘With shame and honor we hear from Augustine himself that fatal axiom which impiously arrayed cruelty in the garb of Christian charity.’ He was the first in the long line of Christian persecutors, and illustrates the character of the theology that swayed him in the wicked spirit that impelled him to advocate the right to persecute Christians who differ from those in power. The dark pages that bear the record of subsequent centuries are a damning witness to the cruel spirit that actuated Christians, and the cruel theology that impelled it. Augustine ‘was the first and ablest asserter of the principle which led to Albigensian crusades, Spanish armadas, Netherland’s butcheries, St. Bartholomew massacres, the accursed infamies of the Inquisition, the vile espionage, the hideous bale fires of Seville and Smithfield, the racks, the gibbets, the thumbscrews, the subterranean torture-chambers used by churchly torturers.’ And George Sand well says that ‘the Roman Church committed suicide the day she invented an implacable God and eternal damnation.’”
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