Page 123 - Gods Plan of the Ages

Universalism on Origen's theory. Another contemporary, Diodorus, a teacher of great
repute in the school at Antioch, and afterwards bishop of Jerusalem, was also a
Universalist, who, in opposition to the then general prevalence of allegorical
interpretation, strictly adhered to the natural import of the text in his many commentaries
on the Scriptures. He defended Universalism on the ground that the divine mercy far
exceeds all the effects and all the desserts of sin. His pupil and successor in the school,
Theodore of Mopsuestia, A.D. 420, called "the crown and climax of the school of Antioch,"
and by the Nestorians, whose sect he founded, "the interpreter of the Word of God," and
whose writings were text-books in the schools of Eastern Syria, was a prominent and
influential Universalist. His theory was that sin is an incidental part of the development
and education of the human race; that, while sore are more involved in it than others, God
will overrule it to the final establishment of all in good. He is the reputed author of the
liturgy used by the Nestorians, a Church which at one time equaled, in its membership the
combined adherents of both the Greek and Latin communions, and which has had no rival
in military zeal. In the addresses and prayers of this liturgy Universalism is distinctly
avowed. Theodoret, A.D. 430, bishop of Cyprus in Syria, a pupil of Theodore of
Mopsuestia, was also a Universalist, holding the doctrine on the theory advocated by the
Antiochian school. For some time prior to this, certain opinions of Origen on
pre-existence and on the salvation of the devil had been in dispute and pronounced
heretical by a synod; but his doctrine of the universal salvation of the human race had not
been involved in this condemnation. At a local council called by the emperor Justinian at
Constantinople, A.D. 544, Origen's doctrine of universal salvation was declared heretical.
Nine years later another council was held by the same authority at the same place, when
condemnation was pronounced on the Nestorians, although their belief in Universalism
was not mentioned. It has been common to call this an ecumenical council, but without
warrant (see the action of the Latin Church in refusing to recognize it or to send a legate
to it). Doderlein, in his Institutes of Christian Theology, after quoting the decree of
Justinian against Origen, says, "That was not the belief of all, and in proportion as any one
was eminent in learning in Christian antiquity, the more did he cherish and defend the
hope of the termination of future "torments." Drexelius, in his defense of eternal
punishment, gives this testimony, "That God should doom the apostate angels and men
at the day of retribution to eternal torments seemed so hard and incredible a doctrine to
some persons that even Origen himself who was mighty in the Scriptures, and no less
famous for his admirable wit and excellent learning, presumed to maintain in his book of
principles that both the devils and the damned, after a certain period of years, the fire
having purged or cleansed them from their pollutions, should be restored to grace.
Augustine and others set forth his error and condemned him for it. But, notwithstanding
their condemnation, this error has found a great many in the world who have given it a
kind of civil reception. The Anti heretics so called, dispersed this error throughout all
Spain under various interpretations." Gieseler, the ecclesiastical historian, says, "The
belief in the inalienable capacity of improvement in all rational beings and the limited
duration of future punishment,was so general, even in the West, and among the
opponents of Origen, that, even if it may not be said to have arisen without the influence
of Origen's school, it had become entirely independent of his system." And Augustine
bears this testimony: "Some - nay, very many - from human sympathy commiserate the
eternal punishment of the damned and their perpetual torture without intermission, and
thus do not believe in it; not, indeed, by opposing the Holy Scriptures, but by softening
all the severe things according to their own feelings, and giving a milder meaning to those
things which they think are said in them more terribly than truly. "Universalism almost
wholly disappeared during the period known as the Dark Ages, although there are