The Truth Project
Collects early Christian voices on judgment, restoration, salvation, hell, fire, punishment, and the hope of reconciliation.
The Early Church Fathers... The Apostle John Apostle Mark - died AD 68 founded the School in Alexandria Polycarp - AD 80-167 Bishop of Smyrna Irenaeus - died AD 202 Bishop of Lugdunum, Gaul Athanasius of Alexandria - AD 296-373 Athanasius...
Of the six catechetical schools that taught theology in the earliest centuries of the church, there were four that taught universalism, one which taught annihilationism and one that taught eternal conscious torment. 1- Antioch...
Before you open the scrolls you must have a preconceived conviction that God is good and only good. If you come upon a Scripture that is not worthy of representing the nature of God you MUST read it as an allegory and search to discover...
Father is absolutely Christlike. If you read a text about God that does not portray Him in a Christlike fashion and you take it literally you create an idol and commit a monstrous blasphemy.
Origen believed in Apokatastasis: the ultimate healing of all souls through divine love. > “God will be all in all… every being will, by purification, be restored.” — Origen, De Principiis I.6.2
Edessa/Nisibis (Eastern Syriac) — Mystical Restoration Isaac of Nineveh, Ephrem the Syrian Hopeful theology that saw judgment as a fire of divine love. > “Hell is the scourge of the love of God.” — Isaac of Nineveh, Homily 27
Basil of Caesarea, Cyril of Jerusalem ✨ Fire destroys sin, not souls. Any “destruction” language referred to corruption, not people. > “The fire is not for torture, but for purification.” — Basil, Homily on Psalm 28
“The peace [coming] from the Lord is coextensive with all time [eternity]. For all things shall be subject to him, and all things shall acknowledge his empire; and when God shall be all in all, those who now excite discords by revolts...
“All men are Christ’s, some by knowing Him, the rest not yet.”
“He is the Savior, not of some and of the rest not. … For how is He Lord and Savior if He is not Lord and Savior of all? He is certainly the Savior of those who believe … while of those who do not believe, He is Lord, until having become...
The universe has become ceaseless light. … The Sun of righteousness who traverses the universe, pervades all humanity alike. … Giving us the inalienable inheritance of the Father. ... Writing His laws on our hearts. What laws are those He...
Phil 2:10
“All men are Christ’s, some by knowing Him, the rest not yet.” “He is the Savior, not of some and of the rest not … He by the Father’s will directs the salvation of all … for all things have been ordered, both universally and in part, by...
Christ will therefore subject to himself everything [the universe], and this saving subjection it is right to regard as similar to that, according to which the Son himself shall be subjected unto him, who subjected to himself all things...
“When the Son is said to be subject to the Father, the perfect restoration of the whole creation is signified.” “When death shall no longer exist, or the sting of death, nor any evil at all, then, verily, God will be all in all.” “All...
“At some time the nature of evil shall pass to extinction, being fully and completely removed from existence; and divine unmixed goodness shall embrace in itself every rational nature, nothing that has been made by God falling away from...
“The Lord is an atonement, ʻnot for our sins only,ʼ that is, of the faithful, ʻbut also for the whole world.ʼ Therefore He indeed saves all universally; but some as converted by punishments, others by voluntary submission, thus obtaining...
“For there are partial corrections (padeiai) which are called chastisements (kolasis), which many of us who have been in transgression incur by falling away from the Lord’s people. But as children are chastised by their teacher, or their...
Divine judgment was medicinal, not retributive.> “The punishments are for healing, not for vengeance.” — Theodoret, In Ezekiel 18.32
To the same effect much might he quoted from St. Gregory of Nyssa. The evil man after death will not become “a sharer in the divine nature, till the cleansing fire shall have removed the stains mingled with the soul” (De mort. 2). And...
“For the wicked there are punishments not perpetual, . . . but they are to be tormented for a certain brief period, according to the amount of malice in their works. They shall therefore suffer punishment for a short space, but immortal...
The very pit itself is a place of torments and of chastisement, but is not eternal. It was made that it might be a medicine and help to those who sin. Sacred are the stripes which are medicine to those who have sinned. “Therefore we do not...
Tertullian, AugustineThis view became dominant only after the 5th century under imperial pressure.Tertullian:> “How I shall laugh, how I shall rejoice, to see kings... liquefying in fiercer fire...” — De Spectaculis, Ch. 30This is not the...
Long before Constantine’s imperial endorsement of Christianity in the 4th century, the transformation of Christ’s movement into an institution was already underway. The Roman emperor did not act in a vacuum. The church he...
Dr. Ken Vincent, retired psychology professor from Houston Community College, and author of over one hundred books in the fields of psychology and religion, notes: The first person to write about “eternal hell” was the Latin (West) North...
By far, the main person responsible for making hell eternal in the Western Church was St. Augustine (354–430 CE). Augustine…was made Bishop of Hippo in North Africa. He did not know Greek, had tried to study it, but stated that he hated...
The advocacy of hell came primarily on the scene with Augustine: In no other respect did Augustine differ more widely from Origen and the Alexandrians [Eastern Church] than in his intolerant spirit. Even Tertullian conceded to all the...
Following on the heels of Augustine, the greatest influence on today’s hell theology via most modern Bible translations came from Jerome’s Latin Vulgate. Jerome translated this tainted version of the Scriptures from a very inferior Latin...
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1 Corinthians 3:11-15; Romans 5:17; 1 Cor. 3:11-15; 1 Tim. 2:1-6; Eph. 1:10; Phil. 2:9-11; Col. 1:20; Heb. 2:9
The following is from Richard Murray, a great theologian of our time. Here is a quick historical survey of the EARLY CHURCH regarding their surprising beliefs about HELL: THE FIRST 500 YEARS: In the first five centuries there were six...
Acts 7:22; Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12; Revelation 1:16; Revelation 19:5; Titus 1:16; Matthew 7:15; Revelation 2:2
If you have, perchance, managed to suffer through all the blogs in this series on hell, then I would like to applaud you; for you must have an incredibly high tolerance for pain! 😉 But in all seriousness, if you have read each blog and...
Mark 7:13; Acts 3:21
SECTION 5: THE PAGAN ORIGINS OF ETERNAL TORMENT — HOW HELL ENTERED THE CHURCH“The doctrines of men have made the Word of God of none effect.” — Mark 7:13If eternal conscious torment is not what the original languages teach...And if Jesus...
1 Tim. 4:10; Rom. 5:18; Col. 1:20; 1 Cor. 15:22-28; John 12:32; Rev. 21:5
Setting the Record Straight on Hell, Judgment, and the Early Church (For the pastor who told me to “do more research”)The other day, a pastor told me I needed to “do my research”—because, according to him, only one early church school...
2 Cor. 3:18; 2 Pet. 1:4
THE FULLNESS OF HUMANITY: DIVINIZATION As I reviewed Wesley’s case with my mentor Ron Dart, he reminded me of a fourth aspect of our Christian inheritance: “deification” (also known as “divinization” or “theosis”). What is included in the...
Audio Interview