Appendix's
Appendix 1: Augustine’s Argument on Duration of Punishment
Appendix 2: The Return of the Holy Spirit
Appendix 3: The Law of Devoted Things
Appendix 4: Gregory of Nyassa (335-394 AD)
Appendix 5: From the Introduction to Book XXI of
Appendix 6: The Rich Man and Lazarus
APPENDIX 1
Augustine's Argument on Duration of Punishment
The City of God, XXI, xi
“Moreover, some of those against whom we are defending the city of God think it unjust that a man should be condemned to eternal punishment for crimes, however great, committed in a short period of time. As if any just law would ever make it an aim that punishment should equal in length of time it took to become liable to punishment!
“Cicero writes that there are eight kinds of penalties provided by law: fine, imprisonment, scourging, retaliation, loss of status, exile, death, slavery. Which of these is restricted to a period short enough to match the swiftness of the crime so that punishment is as brief when inflicted as the brief span in which the crime is found to have been perpetrated -- unless it be in retaliation? For that concerns itself to make each man suffer what he inflicted. Hence the precept of the law: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’
“What now? Should we suppose that a man ought to remain in chains only as long as it took to do the deed that brings him into bonds, while a slave who by word or by swift blow has offended or struck his master, justly pays the penalty of years in shackles?
“Now since fine, loss of status, exile and slavery are generally so imposed that they are not eased by any pardon, are they not comparable to eternal punishment, as far s the measure of this life allows? Note that the reason why they cannot be eternal is that the life of one punished by them is not eternally prolonged. However, the crimes that are avenged by penalties or longest duration are perpetrated in the shortest time, and no man living would propose that the torments of the guilty should be ended as quickly as the deed was done -- murder, or adultery, or sacrilege, or any other crime that ought to be measured not by length of time, but by the enormity of its injustice and impiety.”
“And when a man is punished by death for some great crime, do the laws reckon his punishment by the time in which he is being executed, which is very short, or by his everlasting expulsion from the society of the living? But to expel men from this mortal city by the punishment of the first death is the same as to expel them from that immortal city by the punishment of the second death. For just as the laws of this city do not operate to recall one who has been put to death, so neither do the laws of that city operate to recall to eternal life one condemned to the second death.
“’Then how’, they ask, ‘is the word of your Christ true: “The measure that you give will be the measure that you get back,” if the sin in time is punished by timeless punishment?’ They do not observe that the measure is said to be the same, not because of an equal space of time, but because of the matching of evil with evil; that is, one who has done evil must suffer evil. This statement may, however, be properly applied to the matter of which the Lord was speaking at the time, that is, judgments and condemnations. Accordingly, if one who judges and condemns unjustly is justly judged and condemned, he receives the same measure, though not the same thing, which he gave. For his act was in judging and he suffers in being judged; although in condemning he did what is unjust, in being condemned he suffers what is just.
Comment
Augustine’s main argument is that sin may take only a moment to commit, and the punishment, or sentence of the law, may take a long time to fulfill. He gives as example, a man who might destroy another man’s eye or kiss another man’s wife. Both sins, he says, may take the same amount of time, but the sinners would receive differing penalties. Therefore, he argues, the length of punishment has nothing to do with the sin. And so it is “just” for God to punish men eternally for sins committed in a short period of time in this life.
The argument is ridiculous, of course. No one is silly enough to insist that punishment be of the same duration as the time it took to commit the sin. That is totally beside the point. It may take the same length of time to steal a sheep than to commit murder, but the penalties of each are vastly different. The Bible insists that the punishment fit the crime, not the time it took to commit the crime.
In God’s Law, judgment is proportionate to the value of the thing stolen or destroyed, not the time it took to steal it or destroy it. Augustine here is attempting to undermine this basic principle of Bible Law in order to establish eternal torment. In doing so, he would argue that the divine penalty for stealing a paper clip is eternal torment in fire and brimstone. What a travesty of justice! The Bible mandates double restitution, or two paper clips to be restored to the victim.
Augustine’s entire argument is philosophical, rather that Biblical. He appeals to Cicero and Roman law, showing only a shallow knowledge of Biblical Law. By and large, this is the same problem in the Church today, for most have been taught that God put away His Law.
The strange thing is, if God did that, then He would have to save all anyway. Why? Because it is by the Law that God judges sin. To repeal a law is to legalize sin, because “where no law is, there is no transgression” (Rom. 4:15). If God put away Hi Law, then at the Judgment, when God accuses a man of theft or murder, the sinner could respond, “There is no law against that.” Under such circumstances, God could judge no one for sin, and, in fact, would have to save all men anyway!
APPENDIX 2
The Return of the Holy Spirit
1 Peter 3:20,21 tells us that Noah’s flood prefigured baptism. We normally think of this as water baptism, but with further study we find it prefigures spirit baptism as well. This is pictured in the dove that Noah sent out.
The first time the dove was sent, it “found no rest” (Gen. 8:8), and so it returned to the ark. Noah waited for another week and then sent the dove out again. This time it returned with an olive sprout (Gen. 8:11), and Noah knew that the waters were beginning to abate. A week later, when Noah sent the dove out a third time, it did not return to the ark (Gen. 8:12).
This dove represents the Holy Spirit. The fact that Noah sent the dove out three times speaks of the three times that the Holy Spirit was to be sent into the earth in history.
The first occasion speaks of the first Pentecost of the Old Covenant at the foot of Mount Sinai under Moses. The Holy Spirit was sent forth, but the people fled in fear (Exodus 20:18,19). They did not want to hear the voice of God directly. And so the “dove found no rest” amidst the sea of people. Another ark had to be built to house His presence, the ark of the covenant. Thus, like the dove of Noah, the Dove at Mount Sinai “returned to the ark.”
The second occasion speaks of the New Covenant at the great Pentecost in the second chapter of Acts. The “dove” in this case had found a single olive sprout in the person of Jesus. At His baptism (Matt. 3:16) it lighted upon His head; later at Pentecost it lighted upon His body to complete the fulfillment of that occasion. Yet this was only a tiny portion of the promise, even as an olive sprout was only a little piece of the olive tree.
The third occasion speaks of the unlimited fulfillment, when the Spirit shall be poured out upon all flesh. It shall be the greater outpouring, of which the previous one was only an “earnest”. Once sent, the Dove shall not return to the ark which limited its movements. His glory shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea ( Hab. 2:14).
APPENDIX 3
The Law of Devoted Things
Jericho was a city that had been “devoted” to God (Joshua 6:17). God’s Law on “devoted” fields is found in Leviticus 27:21.
21 But the field, when it goeth out in the jubilee, shall be holy unto the Lord, AS A FIELD DEVOTED; the possession thereof shall be the priest’s.
We know from Matthew 13:38 that “the field is the world”. Israel or the Church shall have her jubilee; but so shall the created world. How these two great jubilees relate is found in Jesus’ parable of Matthew 13:44.
44 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
God told Israel in Exodus 19:5 that they were a “peculiar TREASURE unto Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine”. In other words, Israel is the treasure in the field, or the world. The fact that Israel was “hidden” is found in Psalm 83:3, where they are called “Thy hidden ones”. Jesus sold all that He had, emptying Himself of His glory (Phil. 2:7), and came to earth -- not to buy the treasure, but to buy the field containing the treasure.
The treasure is the particular object of His attention, but in order to obtain it, He purchased the whole field. He died not only for the sins of Israel, but for the sins of the whole world. In Greek philosophy, the kosmos is the “world order” and refers to the universe, including the stars of heaven, which were well seen to be “ordered”.
And so, the “field” in Jesus’ parable is said to be purchased by God. In other words, it was to go into His treasury. It was, in effect, “devoted” to God. This process therefore is done by the law of devotion in Leviticus 27:21 (above).
A more generalized law of devotion is found in verse 28. This is applicable to the fields as well as other things.
28 Notwithstanding, no devoted thing that a man shall devote to the Lord of all that he hath, both of man and beast and of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy unto the Lord.
All devoted things must go into His treasury (i.e., to the priest). The former owner has no rights of redemption. This world has come into the hand of the kingdom of darkness, purchased by Adam’s sin. But Jesus purchased it back with His own blood. Thus, Satan cannot ever again reclaim the creation as his, once it has passed into God’s treasury by “devotion”.
Property is either redeemed or devoted. Devoted things cannot be redeemed. A deeper meaning here is that it refers two classes of people. Believers are redeemed; the world is devoted, given to God by means of judgment. Jesus came as a man to redeem Israel and to devote the kosmos (the created universe) tot he Father. His work on the Cross devoted the unredeemed creation (“Jericho”, or “Babylon”) to the treasury of God.
The Achans of this world, however, attempt to take most of the creation away from God. By teaching that men devoted to God shall be buried under his tent”, they are attempting to keep God from the devoted thing. This is done in spirit by the doctrines of eternal torment and annihilationism. Yet there is another side to this as well. In another sense, Achan can be seen as attempting to “take back” (redeem) a portion of the city. This, I believe, also stands as a lesson to those who would have God redeem the world without judgment. Thus, The Achan doctrine may include the lawless as well as those who would judge the world by eternal torment or annihilationism. Neither doctrine will stand. The day of reckoning shall come.
APPENDIX 4
Gregory of Nyassa
Sermon on 1 Cor. 15:28, 32-44
32. My plan is as follows. First of all I shall expound the sense of the passage in my own words. Then I shall add the actual words of the apostle which are in accord with the sense which I shall by then have expounded.
33. So I begin by asking what is the truth that the divine apostle intends to convey in this passage? It is this. 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. The evil that is now present in everything will be consumed like a base metal melted by the purifying flame. Then everything which derives from God will be as it was in the beginning before it had ever received an admixture of evil.
34. The way in which this will happen is as follows. In our mortal and perishable nature, says Paul, there has appeared the pure and uncompounded divinity of the only-begotten. Human nature as a whole has thus received an admixture of the divine. The manhood of Christ is a kind of first-fruits of this common man, and by it humanity as a whole has been grafted on to divinity..
35. Evil was totally abolished in him who “knew no sin”, as the prophet says, “neither was any guile found in his mouth” [Is. 53:9]. Along with sin was abolished in him also the death which follows from it (for death has no other origin that sin). So the abolition of evil and the dissolution of death began with him. From this there followed a kind of sequentially ordered pattern.
36. In a pattern of this kind some members are further away from the prime member, in accordance with their declension from the good; others are found to be closer to it -- each in accordance with its own deserts and powers. So in this case: we begin with the human element in Christ. As the recipient of divinity within himself, this man became the first-fruits of our nature. He also became the first-fruits of those who slept and first-begotten from the dead, loosing the pangs of death.
37. This Man, who was wholly separated from sin, who has destroyed the power of death in himself and overthrown its rule, authority and might, comes first. After him comes a man like Paul who imitated Christ to the full in his separation from evil; a person of that kind will follow behind the first-fruits at the advent.
[NOTE: Gregory here differs from our point of view in that he interprets 1 Cor. 15:23 to mean that Christ is the Firstfruits, followed by “Paul” as an example of those who are Christ’s “at the advent”. Gregory, being a Greek, was apparently somewhat familiar with Israel’s feast days and how they apply to these resurrections.]
38. Then (just to take an example) might come perhaps Timothy, who imitated his teacher to the best of his ability, or anyone else like him. So the sequence continues, the gradual declension from the good putting each man respectively behind those in from of him, until it reaches those in whom there is so much evil that it constitutes a greater proportion in them than the good.
39. In accordance with this same pattern the sequence, which leads from those least involved in evil to those who are most involved in it, produces an ordered structure of persons who are returning to the good. Then when the advance of the good has reached the furthest extremity of evil, evil will be thereby abolished.
40. And this is the ultimate goal of our hope, that nothing should be left in opposition to the good but that the divine life should permeate everything and abolish death from every being, the sin, from which as we have already said death secured its hold over men, having already been destroyed.
41. Now when every evil authority and rule has been abolished from among us and no passion dominates our nature any longer, it follows inevitably that with no other master over us everything will be subjected to the power which is over all. Subjection to God is total separation from evil.
42. When we all are free of evil in imitation of the first-fruits, then the whole mass of our nature will be commingled with the first-fruits and we shall become completely one body with accepts the lordship of the good and of that alone. So that the whole body of our human nature will be commingled with the divine and uncompounded nature; and therein will be achieved in us what is called the subjection of the Son -- for the subjection which is established in his body is being rightly ascribed to him who makes this grace of subjection effective in us.
43. That, we believe, is the sense of Paul’s teaching. Now we must quote the actual words of the apostle: [Here he quotes 1 Cor. 15:22-28, which we will skip.]
44. That last phrase, which speaks of God coming to be in all by becoming all to each, clearly portrays the non-existence of evil. Obviously God will be “in all” only when no trace of evil is to be found in anything. For God cannot be in what is evil. So either he will not be “in all” and some evil will be left in things, or, if we are to believe that he is “in all”, then that belief declares that there will be no evil. For God cannot be in what is evil.
Note: Germanus, Archbishop of Constantinople from 713-730 A.D. published a book against the idea of Universal Reconciliation. He undertook the improbable task of “proving” that Gregory of Nyassa was NOT a Universalist. He chose to blind himself to Gregory’s true position. This allowed the Church to retain Gregory as one of the four great Doctors of the Greek Church, and in 787 to give him the title of “Father of Fathers”, while covering up his true beliefs as clearly seen in his sermon above.
APPENDIX 5
Quotation from
Augustine’s The City of God,
in the Introduction to Book XXI
“ The only one named by Augustine as a representative of the tender-hearted is Origen. Origen had gone so far as to include the devil and his angels among those who would eventually complete the punishment due, and be delivered from the tortures of hell (gehenna).
"Origen’s ‘hell’ is thus really a purgatory in which all sinners, whether men or angels, will finally be cleansed from their guilt and restored to peace with God . . .
“This view, along with other views of Origen, had already been condemned by the church as heretical [see footnote below], as Augustine points out. But in the meantime Origen’s doctrine had enjoyed much popularity, especially in the eastern churches. Their renowned teacher Basil himself believed in eternal punishment, but states that most ordinary Christians believed there would be a time limit. Among these, apparently, must be included his brother Gregory of Nyassa and his close friend Gregory of Nazianzus.
“Ambrose of Milan was a diligent student of the works of Origen, and though he did not adopt the notion of universal salvation, he does in one passage interpret hell metaphorically. There is no gnashing of bodily teeth, nor any perpetual fire of material flames, nor a material worm, he writes -- these are mere vivid figures of the torments of a conscience which has awakened to late.” (quoted from Exposition of the Gospel of Luke, 7.205f, by Ambrose)
Footnote: “Pope Anastasius had condemned the books of Origen in the year 400. His letter to Simplicianus of Milan is preserved as No. 95 among the letters of Jerome.”
APPENDIX 6
The Rich Man and Lazarus
The Rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) is one of the prime texts used to teach the doctrine of eternal torment. We have, in effect answered this assertion quite thoroughly in the general course of our study, but we offer this brief look at this parable as a supplement.
We must first recognize this to be a parable, rather than a literal story. It follows the same general pattern of Jesus’ other parables of the Kingdom. The rich man is the villain, representing (as usual) the Scribes and Pharisees. In verse 19 they are said to dress in purple (civil authority) and fine linen (religious authority). Dressed as they were, how conspicuous they must have looked as Jesus told the story!
They also “fared sumptuously every day” (vs. 19), having access to the Scriptures daily. Yet in the hardness of their hearts, they would not believe in Jesus, though he rose from the dead (vs. 31).
In contrast, there was Lazarus, the outcast, the “gentile”, who had no spiritual advantage whatsoever. To receive any spiritual food (God’s Word) he had to beg, hoping for a few crumbs from the table. His only comfort was from the “dogs”, a euphemism for the “gentiles”. This is confirmed by Jesus’ words in Matthew 15:22-28.
22 And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts and cried unto Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David . . .
24 But he answered and said, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
25 Then came she and worshipped Him, saying, “Lord, help me.”
26 But He answered and said, “It is not meet [fair] to take the children’s bread and to cast it to dogs.”
27 And she said, “Truth, Lord; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”
One of the main purposes of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus was to show that a profound change was about to take place. The “rich man” was about to be judged, while “Lazarus” was about to be blessed by the Word. And so, the “rich man”, the nation of Judah, “died” in 70 A.D. and was cast out. The “gentiles” then received the Gospel, and in accepting Christ, identified in His death (Rom. 6:7). And so they were blessed in “death”, while the Pharisees and their “five brethren” (vs. 28) remaining in Judaism were “tormented” thereafter.
For the past 2,000 years, the Jews have been saying, “We are tormented in this flame”. But Jesus had told them by another parable in Matthew 21:43,
43 Therefore the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
If we take this parable as teaching about a future punishment, there is still no reason to conclude either that the “flame” is literal, or that it is unending. Neither issue is addressed in the story, and so we would have to fill in those details by other Bible passages. This we have already done, particularly in chapters 2, 3, and 4.
As Christians, we know that Jesus paid the full penalty for our sin. If the law demanded that the penalty be eternal torment in hellfire, then Jesus would have had to burn in hell forever. He did not do this. The question is: Are we yet in our sins? Or did Jesus’ DEATH or a mere 3 days pay the penalty in full?
The answer is simple. Jesus was not tormented for eternity, and He did indeed pay the full penalty for sin. Therefore, as Paul said, “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), NOT eternal death, NOT hellfire, NOT some other death dreamed up in the imagination of men with which to threaten their enemies. All we need to do is see the example of Jesus to know the full penalty of sin.
In the pain He felt from Gethsemane to His death on the Cross, he paid for our personal sins, going through the “lake of fire” on this earth, even as we do on a smaller scale in the process of purification. In Jesus’ actual death for 3 days, He paid for the original sin of Adam, whose penalty was death (Gen. 2:17). It is not our intention to minimize the awful price He paid for sin. It was indeed a terrible price to pay. Yet an ETERNAL penalty is one in which there is NO HOPE of ever paying it in full. But we know that Jesus did pay it in full.
Partial Bibliography of Sources
Augustine of Hippo, by Peter Brown
The Birth of Purgatory, By Jacques de Goff
The City of God, by St. Augustine
Confessions, by St. Augustine
Ecclesiastical History, by Eusebius
The Desert Fathers, by Helen Waddell
The Early Church, by Henry Chadwick
The Fathers of the Eastern Church, by Robert Payne
The Fathers of the Latin Church, by Hans von Campenhausen
Five Centuries of Religion, Vol. 1, by G.G. Coulton
The Jerome Biblical Commentary
John Cassian, A Study of Primitive Monasticism, by Owen Chadwick
Life of John Chrysostom, by F.M. Perthes
The Medieval Manichee, by S. Runciman
Origen of Alexandria, ed. by C. Kannengiesser & W.L. Petersen
Origen of Alexandria, by K. Petersen
Roman Stoicism, by E.V. Arnold
Saints of the East, by Donald Attwater
St. Paul and Epicurus, by N.W. Dewitt
Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics, by E. Zeller
The Temple, by A. Edersheim
Bibles Used
The Concordant Literal New Testament
The King James Version
The New American Standard Version
Writings and Sermons of Stephen E Jones 