The Eternal Debate
(This is the forepart of a lengthy treatise excerpting writers throughout the age respecting hope for the unsaved. The portion below takes us through only the second century of the Christian era.)
Both Jews and Christians have debated for centuries about eternal life, the immortal soul, hell, and the scope of God’s salvation. This debate reaches from the Jewish writers, the early Church, to many others who have written down through the centuries until our day.
Many of the early writings have been lost to the unfortunate circumstances of time, but some have been preserved. Some survive only through fragments of what someone else said they believed, rather than what the person may or may not have actually said.
A word of caution or warning must be mentioned, for many of these writers were not only inconsistent with themselves and others from their day, but also were involved in controversies, political maneuverings, and personal agendas.
“[Edward] Beecher maintained that of the six theological schools of the early Church, four taught universal restoration, one taught annihilation and one only taught endless torment. Beecher and [Rev. J. W.] Hanson are both confident that real universalism was never condemned by any General council nor endless punishment ever taught by any ecumenical creed. In a local council at Constantinople in 544 AD, Origen’s doctrine was for the first time officially condemned … Dr. Hanson shows, however, that what was really condemned was “The fabulous pre-existence of souls and the monstrous restitution that follows from it.” Whatever may have been intended, it is certain that there is no condemnation of real Universalism in those words.” 1
Although the universalism taught in the writings that have survived from the early church is different than what universalists teach today, the concept that hell would have an end, and restoration for all is possible, was clearly taught.
The following quotations are provided as an expression of the universal hope of salvation for those who had not escaped the judgment of God, not to show the absolute harmony of their opinions with each other or others through the past millennia.
“In the nineteenth century the Gospel was carried from Boston to the mid-Pacific Sandwich Islands, and thousands of Hawaiians were converted. However, a troubling question arose among the new Christians: ‘What will happen to our ancestors of blessed memory? They never heard the good news.’ Could the Congregational missionaries give them an answer? In New England during the late 1800s, the subject of the unreached was much to the fore. Missionaries brought the Hawaiians’ question back with them to the theologians, the churches, the clergy and the laity. Different answers were debated in church papers, on mission boards, in seminaries. The discussion became so heated that an artist for the famous New York magazine, Puck, drew a cartoon showing one group of professors pushing another group out of a boat, each brandishing their theories of salvation. Out of the controversy grew a point of view much like the one taken up here. This ‘postmortem’ conviction, however, did not get its start just one hundred years ago. It appeared early in Christian history and has been advocated here and there ever since.” 2
“Says a European author, who has extensively written upon the subject: ‘If we examine the writings of the earlier fathers, Barnabas, Clement of Rome, Hermas, Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Theophilus of Antioch, Irenaeus, and Clement of Alexandria, we find them all faithful to the apostolic doctrine of the final destruction of the wicked. The dogma of everlasting torment did not creep into the Church until she yielded to the influence of Platonic philosophy.’ “ 3
JEWISH WRITINGS
“The wicked stay in [hell] till the resurrection, and then the Messiah, passing through it, redeems them.” 4
“After the last judgment [hell] exists no longer.” 5
“There will hereafter be no [hell].” 6
“The righteous bring out of [hell] imperfect souls.” 7
“God created Paradise and [hell], that those in the one should deliver those in the other.” 8
“The future world will have its [hell], but the last times will have it no more.” 9
“Their soul shall perish with their body in the day of death.”10
CHRISTIAN WRITINGS
Epistle of Barnabas (70-131 AD) – The epistle of Barnabas suggests that Jesus descended to speak to the spirits in prison, “that he might render to the FATHERS what had been promised to them.” 11
“He said above ‘Be fruitful and have dominion over the fish of the sea.’ Now who is there that is really able at present to have dominion over the beasts, or fishes, or the birds of heaven. We see it implies a power of order, rule, and domination; if then this has not yet come to pass, and still he has promised it, when will it take place: Why – when we ourselves shall be perfected as inheritors of the promise of the Lord.”12
According to Barnabas, sin is a road which “is crooked and full of cursing. For it is a road of aionian death with punishment, in which they that walk meet those things that destroy their own souls.” 13
“Those who choose evil, will perish together with his works. For this reason is resurrection; for this reason recompense”14
Polycarp (70-156 AD) – Polycarp wrote, “For everyone who does not confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is antichrist. And whoever does not confess the testimony of the cross is of the devil. And whoever … says there is neither resurrection nor judgment, this one is Satan’s firstborn.”15
Justin (100-165 AD) – Justin wrote, “We are taught that Christ is the first-born of God, and we have explained above that he is the Word of whom all mankind have a share, and those who lived according to reason are Christians even though they were classed as atheists. For example, among Greeks, Socrates and Heraclitus.” 16
“For those things which exist after God … have the nature of decay, and are such as may be blotted out and cease to exist; for God alone is unbegotten and incorruptible, and therefore He is God, but all other things after Him are created and corruptible. For this reason souls both die and are punished.”17
“Now, that the soul lives, no one would deny. But if it lives, it lives not as being life, but as the partaker of life. …
Now the soul partakes of life, since God wills it to live. Thus, then, it will not even partake [of life] when God does not will it to live. For to live is not its attribute, as it is God’s; but as the soul leaves the body, and the man exists no longer; even so, whenever the soul must cease to exist, the spirit of life is removed from it, and there is no more soul, but it goes back to the place from whence it was taken.” 18
“And that expression, ‘The sword shall devour you,’ does not mean that the disobedient shall be slain by the sword, but that the sword of God is fire, of which they who choose to do wickedly become the fuel. Wherefore He says, ‘The sword shall devour you: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.’ And if He had spoken concerning a sword that cuts and at once dispatches, He would not have said, shall devour.” 19
“Wherefore God delays causing the confusion and destruction of the whole world, by which the wicked angels and demons and men shall cease to exist, because of the seed of the Christians. … If it were not so the fire of judgment would descend and utter destroy all things, even as formerly the flood left no one but … Noah. For so we say that there will be the conflagration, but not as the Stoics, according to their doctrine of all things being changed into one another, which seems most degrading. But since God in the beginning made the race of angels and men with free-will, they will justly suffer in eternal fire the punishment of whatever sins they have committed.” 20
Tatian (110-180 AD) – Tatian, “The soul in itself is not immortal, but mortal: nevertheless it has the power of escaping mortality.” 21
“There will be a resurrection of bodies after the consummation of all things … a resurrection once for all for the purpose of passing judgment.” 22
Iraneaus (125-202 AD) – “Wherefore also he drove him (Adam) out of Paradise, and removed him far from the tree of life, not because He envied him the tree of life, as some dare to assert, but because He pitied him, and desired that he should not continue always a sinner, and that the sin which surrounded him should not be immortal, and the evil interminable and irremediable.” 23
– Bro. Jeff Mezera
(1) Fisher, Lewis Beals, Which Way?: A Study of Universalists and Universalism, 1921, pages 27-28.
(2) Fackre, Gabriel, What About Those Who Have Never Heard, Three Views on the Destiny of the Unevangelized, 1995, page 71.
(3) Extinction of Evil, pages 63-64, quoted by Preston, Charles, Earl, The First Doctrine of the Christian Church, page xvi, 1891.
(4) Emek Hammelech, f. 138, 4, quoted by Farrar, Frederick, Mercy and Judgment, 1881, page 203.
(5) Midrash Rabba, I, 30. Aboda Zara, 3, quoted by Farrar, Frederick, Mercy and Judgment, 1881, page 203.
(6) Asarah Maamaroth, f. 85, 1, quoted by Farrar, Frederick, Mercy and Judgment, 1881, page 203.
(7) Falkuth Chadash, f. 57, 1, quoted by Farrar, Frederick, Mercy and Judgment, 1881, page 203.
(8) Falkuth Koheleth, quoted by Farrar, Frederick, Mercy and Judgment, 1881, page 203.
(9) Rabbi Bar Nachman, quoted by Farrar, Frederick, Mercy and Judgment, 1881, page 203.
(10) Rabbi Jose, Rabbi Jehudah, Rabbi Eliezer, Buxtorf, xv, R. Kimchi on Psalm 1, quoted by Farrar, Frederick, Mercy and Judgment, 1881, page 203.
(11) Huidekoper, Frederic, The Belief of the First Three Centuries Concerning Christ’s Mission to the Underworld, 1876, page 10.
(12) Barnabas, C. 6, quoted by Cunningham William, A Dissertation on the Epistle of St. Barnabas, 1877, page 97.
(13) Barnabas 20:1, quoted by Beecher, Edward, History of Opinions on the Scriptural Doctrine of Retribution , 1878, page 281.
(14) Barnabas 21:1, quoted in Fudge, Edward William, The Fire that Consumes, 2000, page 317.
(15) Polycarp to the Philippians 7:1, quoted in Fudge, Edward William, The Fire that Consumes, 2000, page 320.
(16) Apology, 46, Pinnock, Clark, A Wideness in God’s Mercy, 1994, page 36.
(17) Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter 5, quoted by Fudge, Edward William, The Fire that Consumes, 2000, page 325.
(18) Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter. 6, quoted by Fudge, Edward William, The Fire that Consumes, 2000, page 325.
(19) Quoted by Fudge, Edward William, The Fire that Consumes, 2000, page 326.
(20) Quoted by Fudge, Edward William, The Fire that Consumes, 2000, page 326.
(21) Quoted in Words of Reconciliation, Baker, Lewis Carter, Opinions of the Early Fathers, 1888, page 56.
(22) Tatian, Chapter 6, quoted by Fudge, Edward William, The Fire that Consumes, 2000, page 327.
(23) Iranaeus, Against Heretics, Book III, Chapter 23, 6, quoted by Pridgeon, Charles Hamilton, Is Hell Eternal or Will God’s Plan Fail, 1920, page 280.