Unfortunately for the humanity, the sin of Adam and Eve has cast us into a position wherein God is no longer someone with whom we can “walk in the Garden in the cool of day” (Genesis 3:8) as our Friend and someone of whom we have a clear, but imperfect understanding. This darkness of spiritual sight has been a great advantage for those who throughout the centuries have wished to control others, and who had no qualms about using God against those whom they wished to control.

What better inducement could there be to submissive behavior than the idea that if you resist the authority over you (king, emperor, bishop, priest) you shall have punishment not only here and now, but in an eternity filled with the most gruesome imaginable torments? Of course, in order to support such an idea, you must paint the One who is King over all things as a Being who in His extreme anger against such insults would gladly throw rebellious wretches into the deepest pits of darkness, fire, and suffering. A person might be willing to suffer a bit here on earth, knowing that the suffering would come to an end eventually, and by holding to such knowledge, be recalcitrant to bring his/her behavior in line with that desired by the ruler. But hair-raising recitals of unthinkable suffering at the hands of a vengeful God who cannot be bribed, bought off, or induced to any form of mercy in the next life – well, now that’s another story. With enough preaching of such a God, the hoi polloi – Augustine’s “massa damnata” –  can be brought in to line and made to behave.

This is not just my idea either. It goes back a long way in the annals of Christian history:

Here is part of the letter in which the Emperor commanded the patriarch to convene a synod to condemn the teachings of Origen. To it he appended the nine anathemas that were eventually confirmed by the 543 Synod of Constantinople. Here’s the passage:

It will render men slothful, and discourage them from keeping the commandments of God. It will encourage them to depart from the narrow way, leading them by deception into ways that are wide and easy. Moreover, such a doctrine completely contradicts the words of our Great God and Savior. For in the Holy Gospel he himself teaches that the impious will be sent away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will receive life eternal. Thus to those at his right, he says: “Come, O blessed of my Father, and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” [Mt 25:34]. But to those on his left, he says: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” [Mt 25:41]. The Lord clearly teaches that both heaven and hell are eternal, but the followers of Origen prefer the myths of their master over and against the judgments of Christ, which plainly refute them. If the torments of the damned will come to an end, so too will the life promised to the righteous, for both are said to be “eternal.” And if both the torments of hell and the pleasures of paradise should cease, what was the point of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ? What was the purpose of his crucifixion, his death, burial, and resurrection? And what of all those who fought the good fight and suffered martyrdom for the sake of Christ? What benefit will their sufferings have been to them, if in the “final restoration” they will receive the same reward as sinners and demons? (Against Origen PG 86.975 BD)

Justinian apparently believed that only fear would motivate righteous behavior.

From the site ETERNAL PUNISHMENT – Is It Really of God? By Lee Salisbury

Bad theology is no small thing. The doctrine of “eternal punishment” fosters a self-righteous, vindictive spirit in believers. The psalmist, speaking of idols said, “they that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them” (Psalms 115:8). If a Christian has an image or mental picture of God that projects Him as One who writes off those who disregard Him, then that believer similarly tends to reject those who disagree with him. Church history is replete with inquisitions and martyrdom manifesting this image of God. An extreme example is Queen Mary (1516-1558) of England, who won her title “Bloody Mary” by torturing and murdering non-Catholics. She justified her actions, proclaiming “as the souls of heretics are to be hereafter eternally burning in hell, there can be nothing more proper than for me to imitate the divine vengeance by burning them on earth.” In other words, if God treats His enemies in such a horrendous manner, we also have license to do so here on earth.

Christianity Degraded

The doctrine of “eternal punishment” aligns Christianity with the pagan religions of the world. Pagan religion recruits and rules its members by fear. The common theme of pagan religion is that non-members displease an angry god and will therefore spend eternity being tortured and tormented in the flames of hell. The pagan god rules by threat and intimidation. Preachers who have to use fear of “eternal punishment” to move people to come to the altar, and Christians who need the doctrine of “eternal punishment” to keep them from falling into sin or to motivate them to evangelism and prayer, sadly reveal their lack of true relationship with the God whose love casts out fear because fear has torment (1 John 4:18). Is it any wonder that Christianity, whose gospel is the “power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16), has made so little impact upon the world’s population?

I have seen what I call Traddydox (Very Conservative Russian Orthodox) swear that all Roman Catholics are on the A-Train to Hell. And I have see RadTradCaths such as the Dimond Brothers state the same thing about all who are not Roman Catholic. Then there are the Calvinists who think that everyone who is not Calvinist is surely a damned child of the devil. All of the aforementioned groups appear to make these condemnations with a certain amount of delight, which appears to be in line with the pronouncements of St. Thomas Aquinas when he stated, “In order that the happiness of the saints may be more delightful to them and that they may render more copious thanks to God for it, they are allowed to see perfectly the sufferings of the damned.”

When St. Paul went to Mars Hill in Athens and preached Christ to the pagan philosophers there, it appears that he spoke not of eternal torments or about “Accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior,” but rather of the Resurrection of Christ and His victory over death.

Act 17:18  “Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.”

What is the Good News of the Gospel? It is that death is defeated, hades is empty, paradise is opened to man, and the Resurrection proves these things are so.  This was the message that spread like wildfire through the world in the first centuries of  Christianity, making converts who were so unafraid of dying that they longed for martyrdom. It was that God loved them and they loved God precisely because He had come to earth to rescue them from death.  Love – not fear of punishment – was the motivation for those early Christians who braved the tortures of pagan emperors. It was the joy of the Resurrection, not the fear of a burning eternal hell, which idea was not known among the Jews of Christ’s time, that motivated the early Christians.

Simple question: as you think about God, do you find attractive the image of an angry God who is fearsome in His judgments and demeanor? Do you turn to Him in love, or are you always and ever in the back of your mind just a bit uncomfortable with Him because you can’t help but believe that He is angry with you? The latter is the struggle I still have, and it comes from decades of sitting under teaching and preaching that constantly took a Jonathan Edwards position on God – angry, vengeful, hating the sinner, ready to cast the slightest infraction into eternal torment. This is the God preached by Medieval Roman Catholic priests, such as St. Leonard of Port Maurice (1676 – 1751), who said in a  sermon he delivered:

“Note well that there is no question here of the human race taken as a whole, nor of all Catholics taken without distinction, but only of Catholic adults, who have free choice and are thus capable of cooperating in the great matter of their salvation. First let us consult the theologians recognized as examining things most carefully and as not exaggerating in their teaching: let us listen to two learned cardinals, Cajetan and Bellarmine. They teach that the greater number of Christian adults are damned, and if I had the time to point out the reasons upon which they base themselves, you would be convinced of it yourselves. But I will limit myself here to quoting Suarez. After consulting all the theologians and making a diligent study of the matter, he wrote, “The most common sentiment which is held is that, among Christians, there are more damned souls than predestined souls.”

Add the authority of the Greek and Latin Fathers to that of the theologians, and you will find that almost all of them say the same thing. This is the sentiment of Saint Theodore, Saint Basil, Saint Ephrem, and Saint John Chrysostom. What is more, according to Baronius it was a common opinion among the Greek Fathers that this truth was expressly revealed to Saint Simeon Stylites and that after this revelation, it was to secure his salvation that he decided to live standing on top of a pillar for forty years, exposed to the weather, a model of penance and holiness for everyone. Now let us consult the Latin Fathers. You will hear Saint Gregory saying clearly, “Many attain to faith, but few to the heavenly kingdom.” Saint Anselm declares, “There are few who are saved.” Saint Augustine states even more clearly, “Therefore, few are saved in comparison to those who are damned.” The most terrifying, however, is Saint Jerome. At the end of his life, in the presence of his disciples, he spoke these dreadful words: “Out of one hundred thousand people whose lives have always been bad, you will find barely one who is worthy of indulgence.”

I have asked it before, and I ask it again, what kind of God is this whom you believe in who:

A. wills all men to be saved, but is so weak that He cannot bring His will to pass?

B. desires that none perish, but allows men to perish anyway?

C. creates the most exquisitely diabolical tortures imaginable to punish the wicked?

D. would rather torture the wicked as criminals rather than treat them as children who    are desperately sick and need to be healed?

E. creates sentient beings capable of suffering, foreknowing their failure will result in an  eternity of the most horrible misery, yet does so anyway with no plan for rescuing and redeeming even the worst of them?

Is this truly the one, true, living God whom the Scriptures define as love, whose very being is love, and who can do nothing other than love, so much so that rather than forget all about His human creation, He wills to enflesh Himself and suffer the most painful, wretched, and excruciating death known by man so as to save — only the “elect”????

If I am wrong, then I am among the billions who will suffer eternally, but I think not. I think better of our Lord. Oh, I know – painfully well – that I am a sinner. My past life is a source of deep pain to me, and I deserve chastisement for the evil choices I made.

Chastisement – not an eternity of never-ending gruesome afflictions.

The Patristic Universalism of the Early Fathers indeed taught that there is a pain of chastisement to be avoided in the next life. It is certainly proper to warn people that their sin will result in a painful chastening from our heavenly Father. But it is chastening, a scourging done in the fires of God’s love, which will not last forever. Once it has done its work, the soul is cleansed and is ready to progress towards God. The soul  is stripped of its love of temporal things which should never have taken the place of God. Why do Roman Catholic Traditionalists and Protestants deny this? I think that it is because they do not see love as more powerful than fear. They feel they must make people obey out of fear of punishment rather than presenting Christ as so beautiful, so compelling, so wonderful, that a person wants to not sin because their love is so deep for Him that they would do anything not to hurt Him and everything to please Him. Certainly this is how I want my life to be conducted.

Why write yet another piece about my hopes in Patristic Universalism? It’s because I am tired of seeing God weaponized on social media, of being described in the same light as the false pagan ideas of deity, of being threatened by members of various denominations that if I don’t believe and practice Christianity exactly as they do, my Father in heaven, who in love sent His eternal and only-begotten Son to redeem me from my wretched state, will torment me forever. I am tired of the fear, the guilt, the whole gamut of bad emotions that go along with such fear-mongering. I am tired of people trying to make me Roman Catholic or Protestant to avoid hell. Such reasoning is no proper way to love God.

And quite frankly, I wish these religious nuts would go away!