I have begun a project to read through as much of the Early Church Fathers as I can, and who knows how long this may take, along with everything else I try to keep up on. The reason for this is to see what teachings are prominent in the Fathers up through Augustine, who, from what I understand from many other sources, was the great innovator of doctrine.
So far I am currently on Justin Martyr, who is mid to late 2nd century, during some of the Roman persecutions of Christians, and apparently the Jews still persecuted Christians where they were able at that time.
Currently, if you are not aware, there is a great upswelling of debate within evangelical Christianity in the West on several topics, some of which are absolute foreknowledge, eternal security, and the age old Universalism, which is where people teach that Hell, if, they say, there actually is one, is not eternal. As far as I am concerned, all you need to do is revive the arguments that Charles Finney gave in answer to the Universalists of his day to adequately dispatch their claims.
Most of the arguments out there also will revolve on the meaning of the words for eternal in the Greek New Testament and so forth. But the most proposed reason that Hell is said not to be eternal is because an eternity for so short a time (the average of 80 years) of sinning seems so unjust and unloving for such a God of infinite love to give any sinner.
(By the way, there is just as much discussion over the annihilation of the unrepentant rather than any kind of suffering at all. I may give my thoughts on that in another blog post down the road.)
I don’t have time to go over the whole ground and I am not the Greek expert to handle the language issues (although, if eternal life is eternal, then why isn’t eternal punishment eternal?).
But I will just spell out the following thoughts.
- If Jesus died to take away our sins and open the way for eternal life through faith in him, why go through all that suffering when all you have to do is let every sinner go through Hell until their debt to heavenly society is paid? What is it worth, and what is the real value God puts on the happiness of those who will live holy?
- If the unrepentant are sent to Hell for their, say, billion or so years of suffering, then they get to come out for the rest of eternity, what is the means by which they will become repentant? How many murderers and rapists come out of prison reformed by the endurance of their time?
- If we as Christians repent of our sins, submit to God in faith to love and serve him by Jesus Christ, and we are saved by grace, what is the basis on which the unrepentant who, supposedly, get let out of Hell, get to come into Heaven? Wouldn’t that be salvation by justice? Is there any mention of that in the Bible?
- What will be the attitude of a sinner coming out of Hell after his time, and being let into Heaven on account of him having served his time? I would hate to think he would be like many getting out of prison, saying, “I’ve done my time, I deserve to get into Heaven now.”
Anyway, I just wanted to point out here, that as far as my meager reading of the early Fathers so far, I find all agreeing and mentioning it very frequently that the unrepentant will be in eternal fire just as the righteous will be in eternal life.
Here’s one quote from Justin Martyr:
And we have learned that those only are deified (in Justin’s mind, I think that means brought to live with God) who have lived near to God in holiness and virtue; and we believe that those who live wickedly and do not repent are punished in everlasting fire. First Apology, Chapter 21.
Now, of course, Justin also insists it is through faith in Christ Jesus that one lives holy. So I wonder how that speaks to unconditional eternal security (you know, once saved, always saved, which idea is only just over a hundred fifty years old, and a perversion of the Calvinist doctrine of Perseverance of the Saints—another issue down the road, perhaps).
But the consistent teaching of the early church (and the Bible, I posit) is the eternal nature of the future of the unrepentant who die in their sins. Just make sure that is one thing you don’t do.
