What Did The Early Church Really Believe About Hell?

 

What the Early Church believed and taught is important because the early Christians were closest to Jesus and the Apostles.  They read the New Testament in their native tongue.  They had the greatest impact on the surrounding culture of any time in history.  And they established the Faith that we now profess. 

They were the ones who wrote the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed to explain clearly what true Christians believed.  They were the ones who formulated the doctrines of the Divinity of Christ and the Trinity.  And they were the ones who assembled the 27 books we now call the New Testament.

During the first 500 years after Christ, a prominent view, and according to some scholars, the dominant view within the leadership and laity of the Church was that God will ultimately restore all of His creation to the perfection He initially intended. 

Clement of Alexandria

For example, that was the view of Clement of Alexandria.  Clement was born around AD 150, within a couple of generations of Jesus and the apostles.  For him, to believe that God is powerless to save all was unthinkable, because that would mean God is weak.  To believe that God does not want to save all was also unthinkable, because that would mean that God is not good.  For Clement, God’s ultimate plan is the salvation of the universe.

“For either the Lord does not care for all men; and this is the case either because He is unable, which is not to be thought for it would be a proof of weakness, or because He is unwilling, which is not the attribute of a good being . . . Or He does care for all, which is befitting for Him who has become Lord of all.  He is Savior; not of some, and of others not ... For all things are arranged with a view to the salvation of the universe by the Lord of the universe . . .” 

In response to those who thought that God takes vengeance on the wicked, Clement said, “No.”  That could not be the case because that would be returning evil for evil.  Clement saw God as One who always acts for the good of those He created. 

“But as children are chastised by their teacher, or their father, so are we by Providence. But God does not punish, for punishment is retaliation for evil. He chastises, however, for good to those who are chastised, collectively and individually.”

Gregory of Nyssa

Another leader in the Early Church who believed in the ultimate restoration of all was Gregory of Nyssa.  Gregory added the phrase, “I believe in the life of the world to come,” to the Nicene Creed.  He died around AD 395 and is still revered as one of the greatest of the Eastern Church fathers.   In AD 787, the Seventh General Council of the Church honored Gregory by naming him, Father of the Fathers.

Does God punish forever with terrifying pain?  Gregory explained that those who are immature think this and fear it.  They are thus motivated to flee from wickedness.  However, those with more maturity understand the true purpose of after-death punishment.  It’s a remedial process instituted by God to ultimately restore to health those who are sick.  Like a skilled surgeon who doesn’t stop until his work is finished, God does not give up on those He created.

“If, however, the soul remains unhealed, the remedy is dispensed in the life that follows this  . . .  and this to the thoughtless sort is held out as the threat of a terrible correction, in order that through fear of this painful retribution they may gain the wisdom of fleeing from wickedness: while by those of more intelligence it is believed to be a remedial process ordered by God to bring back man, His peculiar creature, to the grace of his primal condition.”

Gregory explained,

“In due course evil will pass over into non-existence; it will disappear utterly from the realm of existence.  Divine and uncompounded goodness will encompass within itself every rational nature; no single being created by God will fail to achieve the kingdom of God.” 

Other well-known leaders within the Early Church who believed in the ultimate restoration of all, include Origen, Didymus, St. Anthony, St. Pamphilus Martyr, Methodius, St. Macrina, St. Evagrius Ponticus, Diodore of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, St. John of Jerusalem, Rufinus, Cassian, St. Isaac of Nineveh, St. John of Dalyatha, Ps. Dionysius the Areopagite, St. Maximus the Confessor, and John the Scot Eriugena. 

Even St. Augustine, the most influential supporter of endless punishment in the Early Church, acknowledged that in his day

“. . . some – indeed very many – deplore the notion of the eternal punishment of the damned and their interminable and perpetual misery.”

From How Wide Are Heavens's Doors?

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Does the "Greatest Story" Have a Happy Ending?

I like happy endings. Most people do.

That’s why great stories usually end with the guy getting the girl . . . the hero defeating his foe . . . the adventurer succeeding in his quest.

Sure, there are tragic elements along the way. The guy loses the girl . . . for a while. The usurping foe overpowers the hero . . . for a time. The adventurer gets thwarted in his quest . . . until he overcomes all odds and achieves his goal. In the end, good triumphs over evil and all is well.

Will that happen in the greatest story ever told -- the story of the Creation, Fall and Redemption of mankind?

When the last page is read and the book is closed, will the Hero in this story ultimately succeed or fail in His quest to “seek and save what was lost?”

Does this story have a happy ending . . . or is the greatest story actually a tragedy?

It Wasn’t Always a Tragedy

For the first 500 years of the Christian Church, most Christians believed that God would ultimately redeem all of His creation. The story had a happy ending.

St. Gregory of Nyssa – the man who was honored as Father of the Fathers and who added the phrase “I believe in the life of the world to come” to the Nicene Creed, explained the belief of many at that time.

God’s love will

 . . . always increase and develop, until the One who ‘wants all to be saved and to reach the knowledge of the truth’ has realized his will . . . until the good will of the Bridegroom is accomplished. And this good will is that all humans be saved and reach the knowledge of the truth.

Then in the sixth century, as the Church became more politicized and Scripture began to be read in its Latin translation instead of the original Greek and Hebrew, most of Christendom was told that the story ultimately ends tragically. Some are saved. But most are forever lost.

St. Augustine – the foremost spokesman for this idea in the early Church – is a case in point. He didn’t read Greek.

Unlike Gregory of Nyssa who read the New Testament in his native tongue, Augustine taught that

“. . . many more are left under punishment than are delivered from it.”    

In explaining his view, he also contradicted the apostle Paul by saying that the last enemy – death – would never be abolished:

For death will not be abolished, but will be eternal, since the soul will neither be able to enjoy God and live, nor to die and escape the pains of the body.

So who was right . . . Gregory or Augustine?  Does the story have a happy ending . . . or is it a tragedy?

A Happy Ending?

The God who created all things is all-powerful. The God who created all things is all-wise. It is the very nature of the God who created all things to love. And this Creator has specifically said He wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

Jesus said He came to seek and save what was lost. The Apostle Paul explained that just as God created everything and everyone in heaven and on earth through Christ, so He will ultimately reconcile to Himself everything and everyone in heaven and on earth through Christ.

At the very end of His story, God tells us that every tear will be wiped away. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. The gates of the glorious city that has come down from heaven will always be open.  The fruit of the tree of life in the center of the city is always available.  Its leaves are for the healing of the nations. And at that time, there will no longer be any curse.

I really like happy endings. I think God does, too. How about you?

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The Question Every Christian Asks

By George W. Sarris

In Seven Days in Utopia – an excellent film based on David L. Cook’s best-selling book, Golf’s Sacred Journey – Robert Duvall’s character makes a very profound statement about his beliefs:

I respect tradition. But, I have a passion for the truth!

I wish I had thought up that line, because it expresses so well the reason why I initially looked into the issue of ultimate destinies.

Seek Truth Wherever It Leads

As a third year seminary student in the late 1970s, I was wrestling with the question every Christian asks at one time or another – How could a good God allow anyone to suffer consciously forever? 

A number of years earlier when I was in college, God's love had captured my heart and transformed my life. Prior to attending seminary, I served on the staff of a large campus missionary organization for four years. I wanted to tell others about this wonderful Being who had done such marvelous things in my life, but there was something deep inside of me that kept saying something was wrong with the prevailing teaching about Hell within the Christian community. It just didn’t seem consistent with what Scripture seemed to reveal about God's character.

For one of my theology courses, I decided to address the issue in a straightforward manner as the subject of a research paper. God graciously provided a professor who was an honest scholar. I felt he would look at the paper objectively to grade it based on its merits and not just give me a failing grade because I didn't agree with his theology. I had previously written a research paper on the reliability of the Bible and concluded that a deep confidence in the trustworthiness of God’s Word was the foundational doctrine upon which all the other doctrines of the Christian faith must be built. I wanted to find out for sure what the Bible actually taught about Hell.

One of the most surprising discoveries for me as I began my research was to learn that a significant number of sincere and dedicated Christians throughout history actually believed that God will one day restore all of His creation to the perfection He initially intended. This was especially true in the early centuries following the coming of Christ when the Church was closest to the Apostles, its influence and impact on the surrounding culture was the greatest and its growth was unmatched.

Many of those believers were respected leaders in the early church who were instrumental in laying the foundation for God’s new work in this world. Many were known for their exemplary lives in the face of intense trials and persecution. Many were martyred for their faith.

I wondered,

Is it possible that they got it right, and we have forgotten an important truth that they understood correctly?

Hell: Has It Always Been Forever?

I just posted a video on YouTube that I hope people who have a respect for tradition and a passion for the truth will find interesting, thought-provoking, and perhaps even challenging.

In the beginning, God created a marvelous universe that He said was “very good.” In His wisdom, He allowed evil to enter that very good creation and mar what He had made. But God is not only wise, He is also great! He did not allow evil to remain victorious. Through the cross of Jesus Christ, God defeated sin and death completely.

Will He one day restore all of His creation so that the final word will once again be,

God saw all that He had made, and it was very good?

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