EARLY Church Fathers Confirming Eternal Judgments & Punishment & the Heresy of Universalism
Ignatius of Antioch (Letter to the Ephesians 16:1-2, 110 AD) ''Corrupters of families will not inherit the kingdom of God. And if they who do these things according to the flesh suffer death, how much more if a man corrupt by evil reaching the faith of God for the sake of which Jesus Christ was crucified? A man become so foul will depart into unquenchable fire & so will ANYONE WHO LISTENS TO HIM.
Clement of Rome (150AD)
2Clem 4:4 And we ought not rather to fear men but God. 4:5 For this cause, if ye do these things, the Lord said, Though ye be gathered together with Me in My bosom & do not My commandments, I will cast you away & will say unto you, Depart from Me, I know you not, whence ye are, ye workers of iniquity.
2Clem 5:1 Wherefore, brethren, let us forsake our sojourn in this world & do the will of Him that called us & let us not be afraid to depart out of this world.
2Clem 5:2 For the Lord saith, Ye shall be as lambs in the midst of wolves. 5:3 But Peter answered & said unto Him, What then, if the wolves
should tear the lambs?
2Clem 5:4 Jesus said unto Peter, Let not the lambs fear the wolves after they are dead & ye also, fear ye not them that kill you & are not able to do anything to you; but fear Him that after ye are dead hath power over soul AND body, to cast them into the Gehenna of fire.
2Clem 5:6 What then can we do to obtain them, but walk in holiness and
righteousness, and consider these worldly things as alien to us &
not desire them? 5:7 For when we desire to obtain these things we fall away from the righteous path.
2Clem 6:1 But the Lord saith, No servant can serve two masters. If we desire to serve both God and mammon, it is unprofitable for us: 6:2
For what advantage is it, if a man gain the whole world & forfeit
his soul? 6:3 Now this age AND the future are two enemies.
2Clem 6:4 The one speaketh of adultery & defilement & avarice & deceit, but the other biddeth farewell to these. 6:5 We cannot therefore be friends of the two, but must bid farewell to the one & hold companionship with the other.
2Clem 6:6 Let us consider that it is better to hate the things which are here, because they are mean & for a short time & perishable & to
love the things which are there, for they are good & imperishable.
2Clem 6:7 For, if we do the will of Christ, we shall find rest; but if
otherwise, then NOTHING SHALL DELIVER US FROM ETERNAL PUNISHMENT, if we should disobey His commandments. 6:8 And the scripture also saith in Ezekiel, Though Noah & Job & Daniel should rise up, they shall NOT deliver their children in the captivity.
2Clem 6:9 But if even such righteous men as these cannot by their righteous deeds deliver their children, with what confidence shall we, if we
keep not our baptism pure & undefiled, enter into the kingdom of
God? Or who shall be our advocate, unless we be found having holy
& righteous works?
2Clem 7:5 What think ye? What shall be done to him that hath dealt corruptly with the contest of incorruption? 7:6 For as concerning them that have not kept the seal, He saith, Their worm shall not die & their fire shall not be quenched & they shall be for a spectacle unto all flesh.
2Clem 8:1
While we are on earth then, let us repent: for we are clay under the
craftsman's hand. 8:2 For in like manner as the potter, if he be making a vessel & it get twisted or crushed in his hands, reshapeth it again; but if he
have once put it into the fiery oven, he shall no longer mend it. So
also let us, while we are in this world, repent with our whole heart
of the evil things which we have done in the flesh, that we may be
saved by the Lord, while we have YET TIME for repentance.
2Clem 8:3 For after that we have departed out of the world, we can NO MORE MAKE CONFESSION THERE OR REPENT ANY MORE.
In other words, Clement is saying that you must make the decision to believe in Christ while you are ALIVE on this earth. Afterwards it is too late.
Justin Martyr (First Apology 12; 150 AD)
''No more is it possible for the evil doer, the avaricious & the treacherous to hide from God than it is for the virtuous. Every man will receive the eternal punishment or reward which his actions deserve. Indeed, if all men recognized this, no one would choose evil even for a short time, knowing he would incur the eternal sentence of Fire. On the contrary, he would take every means to control himself & to adorn himself in virtue, so that he might obtain the good gifts of God & escape the punishments.''
Justin Martyr (First Apology of Justin, Chap. VIII, 150 AD)
''And we say that the same thing will be done, but at the hand of Christ, & upon the wicked in the same bodies UNITED AGAIN to their spirits which are now to undergo EVERLASTING punishment & NOT only as Plato said, for a period of a 1000 years. And if ANYONE says that this is incredible or impossible, this error of ours is one which concerns ourselves only & no other person, so long as you cannot convict us of any harm.'' (Justin is clear in stating that the punishment is eternal & not for a temporary amount of time.)
Justin Martyr (The First Apology of Justin, Chap. LVII, 150AD)
Nor can the devils persuade men that there will be no conflagration for the punishment of the wicked; as they were unable to effect that Christ should be hidden after He came. But if they believe that there is nothing after death, but declare that those who die pass into insensibility, then they become our benefactors when they set us free from sufferings & necessities of this life & prove themselves to be wicked & inhuman & bigoted. For they kill us with no intention of delivering us, but cut us off that we may be deprived of life & pleasure.
Justin Martyr (First Apology of Justin, Chap. XXVIII, 150 AD)
''For among us the prince of the wicked spirits is called the serpent & Satan, & the devil, as you can learn by looking into our writings. And that he would be sent into the fire with his host & the men who follow him & would be punished for an endless duration, Christ foretold.''
150 AD Justin Martyr: "The unjust & intemperate shall be punished in eternal fire." (The 2nd Apology of Justin For The Christians Addressed to the Roman Senate, Chap. I)
150 AD Justin Martyr: "Assuring him that there shall be punishment in eternal fire inflicted upon those who do not live temperately & comfortably to right reason." (The 2nd Apology of Justin for the Christians Addressed to the Roman Senate. Chap. II)
150 AD Justin Martyr: "And they, having been shut up in eternal fire, shall suffer their just punishment & penalty. For if they are even now overthrown by men through the name of Jesus Christ, this is an intimation of the punishment in eternal fire which is to be inflicted on themselves & those who serve them. For thus did both all the prophets foretell & our own teacher Jesus teach." (The 2nd Apology of Justin for the Christians Addressed to the Roman Senate, Chap. VIII)
150 AD Justin Martyr: "And that no one may say what is said by those who are deemed philosophers, that our assertions that the wicked are punished in eternal fire are big words & bugbears & that we wish men to live virtuously through fear & not because such a life is good & pleasant. I will briefly reply to this, that if this be NOT so, God does not exist; or, if He exists, He cares not for men & neither virtue nor vice is anything & as we said before, lawgivers unjustly punish those who transgress good commandments." (The 2nd Apology of Justin for the Christians Addressed to the Roman Senate, Chap. IX)
150 AD Justin Martyr: "Trypho," says he, "I am called & I am a Hebrew of the circumcision. They affirm that the same things shall always happen & further, that I & you shall again live in like manner, having become neither better men nor worse. But there are some others, who, having supposed the soul to be immortal & immaterial, believe that though they have committed evil they will not suffer punishment (for that which is immaterial is insensible) & that the soul, in consequence of its immortality, needs nothing from God." (Dialogue of Justin, Philosopher & Martyr, with Trypho, A Jew, Chap. I)
150 AD Justin Martyr: "When some are sent to be punished unceasingly into judgment & condemnation of fire; but others shall exist in freedom from suffering, from corruption & from grief & in immortality." (Dialogue of Justin, Philosopher & Martyr with Trypho, A Jew, Chap. XLV)
150 AD Justin Martyr: "Here Plato seems to me to have learnt from the prophets not only the doctrine of the judgment, but also of the resurrection, which the Greeks refuse to believe. For his saying that the soul is judged along with the body, proves nothing more clearly than that he believed the doctrine of the resurrection. Since how could Ardiaeus & the rest have undergone such punishment in Hades, had they left on earth the body, with its head, hands, feet & skin? For certainly they will never say that the soul has a head & hands & feet & skin."
"But Plato, having fallen in with the testimonies of the prophets in Egypt, & having accepted what they teach concerning the resurrection of the body, teaches that the soul is judged in company with the body." (Justin's Hortatory Address To The Greeks, Chap. XXVII)
155 AD The Martyrdom of Polycarp "Fixing their minds on the grace of Christ, [the martyrs] despised worldly tortures & purchased eternal life with but a single hour. To them, the fire of their cruel torturers was cold. They kept before their eyes their escape from the eternal & unquenchable fire" (Martyrdom of Polycarp 2:3).
160 AD Mathetes "When you know what is the true life, that of heaven; when you despise the merely apparent death, which is temporal; when you fear the death which is real & which is reserved for those who will be condemned to the everlasting fire, the fire which will punish even to the end those who are delivered to it, then you will condemn the deceit & error of the world" (Letter to Diognetus 10:7).
177 AD Athenagoras "[W]e [Christians] are persuaded that when we are removed from this present life we shall live another life, better than the present one...Then we shall abide near God & with God, changeless & free from suffering in the soul...or if we fall with the rest [of mankind], a worse one & in fire; for God has NOT made us as sheep or beasts of burden, a mere incidental work, that we should perish & be annihilated" (Plea for the Christians 31).
181 AD Theophilus of Antioch "Give studious attention to the prophetic writings [the Bible] & they will lead you on a clearer path to escape the eternal punishments & to obtain the eternal good things of God...[God] will examine everything & will judge justly, granting recompense to each according to merit. To those who seek immortality by the patient exercise of good works, he will give everlasting life, joy, peace, rest & all good things...For the unbelievers & for the contemptuous & for those who do not submit to the truth but assent to iniquity, when they have been involved in adulteries & fornications & homosexualities & avarice & in lawless idolatries, there will be wrath & indignation, tribulation & anguish & in the end, such men as these will be detained in everlasting fire" (To Autolycus 1:14).
Irenaeus of Lyons (Against Heresies, 4:28:2, 189 AD)
''The penalty increases for those who do not believe the word of God & despise His coming. It is not merely temporal, but eternal. To whomever the Lord shall say,'Depart from me, accursed ones, into the everlasting fire,'' they will be damned forever.''
The claims of universalists that the Catholic church originated the teaching of eternal condemnation are shown to be false. From the beginning of the church, eternal condemnation was taught in accordance with the Word of God, as shown by the very quotations of the church fathers themselves.
Understand this. Universal reconciliation is NOT universal salvation. Christ died for all, but many will reject the offer of salvation. Reconciliation simply means that Christ died for every single sin that will ever be commited in the human race. He paid the penalty for every last sin that will ever be committed. That means that sin is not an issue in aqquiring salvation & sin is not an issue in maintaining salvation. But where the barrier of sin once stood between God & man, there is now an open door to salvation through which whosoever may walk through faith in Christ. God requires a volitional decision to believe in Christ as the condition for salvation. And as mentioned by Clement of Rome, (refer to the above quotation), that decision must be made this side of death.