[Last updated: 14 December 2021]
The earliest existent writings of Christians (that are not now in the New Testament) belong to a group referred to as the Apostolic Fathers, because they were personal disciples of the Apostles themselves. This corpus includes:
- One epistle of Clement of Rome (d. AD 99), who was said to be consecrated by Simon Peter, who prepared him to be the Bishop of Rome.
- Seven epistles by Ignatius of Antioch (d. either AD 108 or around 140), who was said to be a disciple of the Apostle John, and possibly appointed Bishop of Antioch by Simon Peter.
- One epistle by Polycarp of Smyrna (d. AD 155), who was also said to have been a disciple of the Apostle John, who ordained Polycarp as the Bishop of Smyrna.
Oft also included are:
- One epistle (possibly) by the Apostle Barnabas (written sometime between AD 70 and 132), who was a companion of Paul (cf. Acts 14:14).
- A few surviving fragments (as quotations that appear in later works by other people) of Papias of Hierapolis (d. AD 130) and Quadratus of Athens (d. AD 129), which are variously dated to the late 1st or early 2nd centuries.
- Several anonymous works, including: a homily called 2 Clement (attributed to Clement of Rome but is probably apocryphal; written around AD 95 to 140), the Epistle to Diognetus (anywhere between AD 130 to 200), the Martyrdom of Polycarp (around AD 150), the Shepherd of Hermas (AD 90 to 155), and the Didache (around AD 100).
(Sometimes the works of Justin Martyr, Aristides of Athens, Claudius Apollinaris, Irenaeus of Lyon, Clement of Alexandria, and others are included among the Apostolic Fathers, but for now I will just be examining the above, since these works were all written by people who feasibly could have met the Apostles personally.)
Since this corpus reflects the earliest theology of Christendom, inherited directly from the Apostles, its contents are of great interest. It is oft claimed that “they were all infernalists” or some other overconfident generalization, but I invite you to read the works yourselves and judge what they believed. Below I offer some quotations that I found of interest during my own read-through.
Preliminary note: all excerpts come from the Roberts-Donaldson translations. Many of these mention “eternal” punishment or fire for the wicked, but in every occasion I checked the descriptor is αιωνιον (or some variant thereof), which, as you should know, actually denotes a finite duration of time (the website I linked to also includes the original Greek for most of these works, so again, do not simply take my word for it; verify for yourself). Bear in mind that if Christian universalists are right, all the talk about some being “unsaved” only means they will have to go to Gehenna for a time; it does not mean they will not be saved later, at the second resurrection, of which Paul says that all creatures on, under, and above the earth will confess that Jesus is Lord (cf. Phil 2:9-11).
The Didache
Chp. 1: “If someone takes your cloak, give him also your coat. If someone takes from you what is yours, ask it not back, for indeed you are not able. Give to every one who asks you, and ask it not back; for the Father wills that to all should be given of our own blessings (free gifts). Happy is he who gives according to the commandment, for he is guiltless. Woe to him who receives; for if one receives who has need, he is guiltless; but he who receives not having need shall pay the penalty, why he received and for what. And coming into confinement, he shall be examined concerning the things which he has done, and he shall not escape from there until he pays back the last penny.“
Salvation is one of the blessings and free gifts from the Father, and so this will be given “to all” people at some point. Later in the same paragraph, the Didache says that those who have sinned will be “confined […] until he pays back the last penny” (cf. Mt 5:26/Lk 12:59), also clearly indicating it’s a finite punishment.
Chp. 3: “Accept whatever happens to you as good, knowing that apart from God nothing comes to pass.”
Ergo, evil that happens to people—part of God’s providence—is good, with respect to the fact that God lets it happen for some greater purpose. This contradicts those who claim that evil is nothing more than a privation of good and God only permits it to exist for the sake of free will.
Chp. 6: “For if you are able to bear the entire yoke of the Lord, you will be perfect; but if you are not able to do this, do what you are able.”
Note that the author of the Didache recognizes that refraining from sin is not a completely free choice.
1 Clement
Chp. 27: “By the word of His might He established all things, and by His word He can overthrow them. ‘Who shall say to Him, What have you done? or, Who shall resist the power of His strength?’ When and as He pleases He will do all things, and none of the things determined by Him shall pass away? All things are open before Him, and nothing can be hidden from His counsel.”
Chp. 32: “And we, too, being called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which, from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
The grammar of this passage seems to strongly suggest that it is not one’s personal faith which brings justification, but Christ’s faith is what has already justified all people. Also note that in context, Clement is not saying “all” to only refer to Christians, but the entire human race.
Chp. 50: “Blessed are we, beloved, if we keep the commandments of God in the harmony of love; that so through love our sins may be forgiven us. For it is written, ‘Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not impute to him, and in whose mouth there is no guile.’ This blessedness comes upon those who have been chosen by God through Jesus Christ our Lord; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
Throughout the epistle it is repeatedly said or implied that Christians were chosen by God, not the other way around.
Ignatius to the Romans
Prologue: “I also salute in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father: to those who are united, both according to the flesh and spirit, to every one of His commandments; who are filled inseparably with the grace of God, and are purified from every strange taint, [I wish] abundance of happiness unblameably, in Jesus Christ our God.”
Chp. 1: “I hope as a prisoner in Christ Jesus to salute you, if indeed it be the will of God that I be thought worthy of attaining unto the end. For the beginning has been well ordered, if I may obtain [απολαβειν] grace to cling to my lot without hindrance unto the end.”
ἀπολαμβάνω means to passively receive something (except when used in the middle voice, but απολαβειν is the present active infinitive).
Ignatius to the Trallians
Chp. 5: “Am I not able to write to you of heavenly things? But I fear to do so, lest I should inflict injury on you who are but babes [in Christ]. Pardon me in this respect, lest, as not being able to receive [such doctrines], ye should be strangled by them. For even I, though I am bound [for Christ], yet am not on that account able to understand heavenly things, and the places of the angels, and their gatherings under their respective princes, things visible and invisible. Without reference to such abstruse subjects, I am still but a learner [in other respects]; for many things are wanting to us, that we come not short of God.”
I wonder what he is referring to here. (I would like to think it’s universal reconciliation, of course, but who knows.)
Chp. 9: Christ “descended, indeed, into Hades alone, but He arose accompanied by a multitude; and rent asunder that means of separation which had existed from the beginning of the world, and cast down its partition-wall.” [N.B. this passage is only found in the longer rescension of Ignatius’ epistle.]
Ignatius to the Magnesians
Chp. 1: “I pray for a union both of the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ, ‘who is the Saviour of all men, but specially of them that believe;’ by whose blood ye were redeemed…” [N.B. this passage is only found in the longer rescension of Ignatius’ epistle.]
Ignatius (or his redactor) is quoting 1 Timothy 4:10 here. Infernalists believe that the context of Paul’s epistle reveals that he is not actually saying what he literally wrote, but here we have Ignatius quoting it without any explanatory notes, or even the context of the adjacent verses.
Ignatius to the Ephesians
Prologue: “Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the Church which is at Ephesus, in Asia, deservedly most happy, being blessed in the greatness and fulness of God the Father, and predestinated before the beginning of time, that it should be always for an enduring and unchangeable glory, being united and elected through the true passion by the will of the Father, and Jesus Christ, our God: Abundant happiness through Jesus Christ, and His undefiled grace.”
There are some who argue that predestination, as it appears in Romans 8:29-30, does not mean God chose particular people to be elect, but rather, is referring to the general fact that all those in Christ are predestined to be called and justified. Yet Ignatius here is not using it in that sense. He is directly referring to a particular community as being blessed with predestination.
Polycarp to the Philippians
Chp. 1: “I have greatly rejoiced with you in our Lord Jesus Christ, because ye have followed the example of true love [as displayed by God], and have accompanied, as became you, those who were bound in chains, the fitting ornaments of saints, and which are indeed the diadems of the true elect of God and our Lord; and because the strong root of your faith, spoken of in days long gone by, endureth even until now, and bringeth forth fruit to our Lord Jesus Christ, who for our sins suffered even unto death, [but] ‘whom God raised from the dead, having loosed the bands of the grave.’ ‘In whom, though now ye see Him not, ye believe, and believing, rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory;’ into which joy many desire to enter, knowing that ‘by grace ye are saved, not of works,’ but by the will of God through Jesus Christ.”
Polycarp’s letter here sounds remarkably Pauline, which is interesting, given the fact that he was allegedly a disciple of the Apostle John (he even later says “neither I, nor any other such one, can come up to the wisdom of the blessed and glorified Paul”, chp. 3). In the very first chapter we have references to election (cf. Rom 8-11), describing slavery to righteousness (cf. Rom 6:15-23) as a property of the saints, and salvation by grace alone (a direct quotation of Eph 2:8); all points which are emphasized in the Reformed tradition.
I also wish to draw attention to the fact that Polycarp is not qualifying “works” to mean the ceremonial duties prescribed by the Mosaic Law. It is possible that he thought this would be implicitly understood by the Jewish Christians at Philippi, but I will leave the likelihood of that scenario for you to decide.
The Shepherd of Hermas
I am not a fan of this work for numerous reasons. It rather explicitly says that Christians have only one chance to repent if they sin after their baptism, and if they sin beyond that, they are effectively unable to repent: “I say to you, that if any one is tempted by the devil, and sins after that great and holy calling in which the Lord has called His people to everlasting life, he has opportunity to repent but once. But if he should sin frequently after this, and then repent, to such a man his repentance will be of no avail” (Fifth Vision, Fourth Commandment, chp. 3; cf. also the Eighth Similitude, chps. 6-7, and the Ninth Similitude, chp. 18). (N.B. as I mentioned above, this could possibly refer to salvation at the first resurrection rather than the final resurrection, it is left ambiguous.) Later on, in the Ninth and Tenth Commandments, an angel speaks of faith and grief as if they were things that one can simply decide to have or get rid of. In the Twelfth Commandment, chp. 3, the angel says one’s children and entire household “will not be saved” if the father neglects to keep the precepts the angel just taught to Hermas. The Eighth Similitude, chp. 6 teaches the notion of ‘foreseen merit’ to explain how God dispenses grace, which, as I have argued before, implies God’s grace is limited and ineffectual.
Having said that, there are some interesting tidbits in it. Context for the following quote: the woman (who is a personification of the Church) speaking to Hermas explains a metaphor, that a tower (the Church) is built with worthy stones (the saints), while the unworthy stones (sinners) are cast away.
Third Vision, chp. 7: “But I, shameless as I yet was, asked her, ‘Is repentance possible for all those stones which have been cast away and did not fit into the building of the tower, and will they yet have a place in this tower?’ ‘Repentance,’ said she, ‘is yet possible, but in this tower they cannot find a suitable place. But in another and much inferior place they will be laid, and that, too, only when they have been tortured and completed the days of their sins. And on this account will they be transferred, because they have partaken of the righteous Word. And then only will they be removed from their punishments when the thought of repenting of the evil deeds which they have done has come into their hearts. But if it does not come into their hearts, they will not be saved, on account of the hardness of their heart.'”
Note the purgatorial nature of this teaching. The woman is saying that some of those who die in sin will be transferred to a place of punishment (presumably Gehenna), where it will then be possible for them to be saved through repentance. The last line here could be taken to mean there are some who will never be saved because they will never repent, but it does not explicitly say that there actually are some who will not do so; the statement could also easily be understood to be the woman emphasizing the fact that repentance is the only way out, there is no other escape from the punishment.
Later on, she refers to fire as a means of purification for those to be saved. Here, the vision is of a colossal whale with black, a “fiery and bloody” color, gold, and white on its head:
Fourth Vision, chp. 3: “the black [on the whale’s head] is the world in which we dwell: but the fiery and bloody points out that the world must perish through blood and fire: but the golden part are you who have escaped from this world. For as gold is tested by fire, and thus becomes useful, so are you tested who dwell in it. Those, therefore, who continue stedfast, and are put through the fire, will be purified by means of it. For as gold casts away its dross, so also will ye cast away all sadness and straitness, and will be made pure so as to fit into the building of the tower. But the white part is the age that is to come, in which the elect of God will dwell, since those elected by God to eternal life will be spotless and pure.”
Sixth Similitude, chp. 4: “I [Hermas] said to him [the angel], ‘Sir, explain this also to me.’ ‘What is it you ask?’ he said. ‘Whether, sir,’ I continued, ‘they who indulge in luxury, and who are deceived, are tortured for the same period of time that they have indulged in luxury and deceit?’ He said to me, ‘They are tortured in the same manner.’ […] ‘Hear,’ he said, ‘the power of both. The time of luxury and deceit is one hour; but the hour of torment is equivalent to thirty days. If, accordingly, a man indulge in luxury for one day, and be deceived and be tortured for one day, the day of his torture is equivalent to a whole year. For all the days of luxury, therefore, there are as many years of torture to be undergone. You see, then,’ he continued, ‘that the time of luxury and deceit is very short, but that of punishment and torture long.'”
Christian universalism depends on the notion that infinite retribution for finite crimes is outrageously cruel and unfair, because there is no justice if the sentence for a crime is disproportionate to its severity. Here, we have the author of the Shepherd of Hermas quantifying the exact amount of punishment that is enforced for a particular sin. I hope the author understood that this belief is mutually incompatible with any never-ending punishment.
Seventh Similitude: “Your [Hermas’] sins are many, but not so great as to require that you be delivered over to this angel [of punishment]; but your household has committed great iniquities and sins, and the glorious angel has been incensed at them on account of their deeds; and for this reason he commanded you to be afflicted for a certain time, that they also might repent, and purify themselves from every desire of this world. When, therefore, they repent and are purified, then the angel of punishment will depart.”
Ill fortune is not God’s expression of vengeance or cruelty, but rather, “the Lord scourges those who are close to him in order to admonish them” (Jdt 8:27). This also logically requires the punishment to be finite in nature.
The Martyrdom of Polycarp
Chp. 17: “But when the adversary of the race of the righteous, the envious, malicious, and wicked one, perceived the impressive nature of his [Polycarp’s] martyrdom, and [considered] the blameless life he had led from the beginning, and how he was now crowned with the wreath of immortality, having beyond dispute received his reward, he did his utmost that not the least memorial of him should be taken away by us, although many desired to do this, and to become possessors of his holy flesh. For this end he suggested it to Nicetes, the father of Herod and brother of Alce, to go and entreat the governor not to give up his body to be buried, ‘lest,’ said he, ‘forsaking Him that was crucified, they begin to worship this one.’ This he said at the suggestion and urgent persuasion of the Jews, who also watched us, as we sought to take him out of the fire, being ignorant of this, that it is neither possible for us ever to forsake Christ, who suffered for the salvation of such as shall be saved throughout the whole world (the blameless one for sinners), nor to worship any other. For Him indeed, as being the Son of God, we adore; …”
In context, it does not seem the author of this martyrdom account is trying to make a grand declaration about free will, but I am including this excerpt simply because it is interesting to see that obedience to Christ is described as being inevitable.
Fragments of Papias
Fragment 9: “Taking occasion from Papias of Hierapolis, the illustrious, a disciple of the apostle who leaned on the bosom of Christ, and Clemens, and Pantaenus the priest of [the Church] of the Alexandrians, and the wise Ammonius, the ancient and first expositors, who agreed with each other, who understood the work of the six days as referring to Christ and the whole Church.”
Another testimony to the Hebrew Bible being understood allegorically. (Note also that Paul explicitly refers to the story of Hagar and Sarah as an allegory in Gal 4:24.)
Yet Another Christian Universalist 