Whenever I engage in a discussion – if you want to call some of the pejorative names I am called a “discussion” – of Apokatastasis, the hope that God in His abundant and great mercy will save all mankind, there will come a point at which the opposition will become frustrated by my constant answers to their objections ( I guess they don’t expect us to really have answers!) and play their magnificent and sure-fire trump card – the condemnatory canons of the Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople.

“The Church has officially condemned Origen. The Church has officially condemned Universal Salvation!” I can almost hear the gloating on the other end of my monitor. THIS is the final word. Constantinople II said that Origen was a heretic for teaching what he taught and that settles that.

Well………………not quite.

There are numerous problems with Constantinople II, which those who believe in eternal, screaming torment of sinners do not appear to understand, however, the particular one I wish to address today is the Emperor of Constantinople – Justinian.

I find it odd that members of the Orthodox faith will refer to him as “St. Justinian the Great” when, in my opinion, a mere observance of his behavior as emperor totally disqualifies him from that appropriation. The brilliant – and controversial – Orthodox philosopher essayist, and theologian, David Bentley Hart, says this of Justinian:

“As for where they came from, (My note: he is speaking of the 9 condemnatory canons of Constantinople II condemning Apokatastasis) the evidence suggests they were prepared beforehand by the vicious and insidiously stupid Emperor Justinian, who liked to play theologian, who saw the Church as a pillar of imperial unity, and who took implacable umbrage at dissident theologies. A decade earlier, he had sent ten similar anathemas of Origen (or what he imagined Origen to have taught) to Patriarch Menas; and on the council’s eve he apparently submitted the fifteen anathemas of 553 to a lesser synod of bishops, in hope of securing some kind of ecclesial approbation for them. Or they may instead have been proposed at a synod as much as nine years before. Whatever the case, it was only well after the Fifth Ecumenical Council’s close that they were attached to its canons, and Origen’s name inserted into its list of condemned heretics. In this way the anathemas “went on the books,” where they remain: peremptory, garbed in immemorial authority, and false as hell.“

Vicious and insidiously stupid. Wow! Don’t be so coy, David! How do you really feel about him?

Considering any reading of the achievements of Justinian, I am hard-pressed to describe him as stupid. His list of political and military achievements is monumental, he was clever and cunning in an age when if you were not, your enemies would see that you wound up dead, and his handling of the Nika Riots was nothing short of genius. He was also a stout defender of Orthodox Christianity against the various heresies in the Roman Empire that would not die. For that we should be thankful. But his pride, coupled with his defense of Orthodoxy, gave rise to actions which have considerably complicated the Western theological landscape, especially in the area of eschatology. In short, despite the orthodoxy of his faith, he was indeed stupid in the application of it. Or perhaps, vain, and therefore unable to think straight in regards to theological matters. Vain people tend to be very hard to deal with, being convinced that they are 100% correct in everything they think and do.

My problem with Justinian and Constantinople II is that he insisted upon inserting himself into the council and demanding that the canons which he created be inserted. While modern scholarship, such as that reported by David Bentley Hart, has established the utter falsity of these canons, those who hold to a hope of eternally burning sinners apparently do not know about this scholarship. Furthermore, they steadfastly refuse to acknowledge it as fact when presented with the same. Some thoughts about his interference with the council:

A.)  There existed in the Orthodox East an unholy alliance, not found in the origins of the Christian faith, between the emperors and the clergy. This should have been discouraged from the first time it reared its head. Jesus established twelve men as the leaders of the New Covenant Church. Not even a side-long mention is made in reference to political figures holding any sort of authority in the Church.  You may mention St. Paul’s admonition of obedience to government authorities in Romans 13. But this in no way infers that emperors or other political leaders have rights to ecclesiastical  of authority.  Their place is worldly governance. The Church is to be governed by bishops. Justinian, as well as the long line of Byzantine emperors through the centuries, way overstepped his bounds, not only meddling with Constantinople II, but appointing popes over the Roman Church. The shame is that the bishops allowed this. The term for it is “Caesaropapism.” 

B.)  Promises of theological leadership were not given to the laity of the Church. I cannot begin to recite the number of people I have seen defending the most outrageous and crazy doctrines by appealing to John 16:13, as if the promise made to the Apostles of the Holy Spirit’s leadership applies to all people. It does not. There is a reason that the councils of the Church were attended only by bishops. Bishops are the successors of the Apostles. With the succession of the office comes the promise of guidance by the Holy Spirit. The arrogant emperor of Constantinople had no business intruding into the canons of the council. Every heresy the Church has defeated in council came from a single man who thought that he knew better than the Church.

C.)  Like all wise rulers, Justinian wanted a united empire. No ruler wants to govern a land filled with fighting factions, civil war, riot, and unrest. Unfortunately, the manner in which he chose to unite the empire was conversion to Christianity at the point of the sword.

D.)  Justinian abhorred the teaching of Apokatastasis because he felt it would lead to less unity in the empire. People afraid of hell are easier to control.  Justinian forcibly closed the three theological schools which were teaching Apokatastasis and then proceeded to intrude the 15 canons into Constantinople II. I suppose out of fear no one called him out on these things. It is utterly human, after all, to treat with a certain deference someone who has the power and authority to lop off your head. Especially if that person is known to have a bad temper when opposed.

In other words, Justinian was an arrogant, pride-filled warrior who used violence to get what he wanted. Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t tend to take my theology from unrepentant murderers anymore than I would from Hugh Hefner at the height of his Playboy empire. And while Justinian may have, for his own personal reasons which may have not be totally motivated by holiness, protected the Orthodox faith from popular heresies, I find it duplicitous to attach the title “Saint” to him for that one part of his life alone – killing people who had the misfortune of disagreeing with him. Sainthood has to be a complete package – moral and theological. It should never be granted just because a single realm of a man’s life is to your theological liking.

Here’s a little challenge to my Orthodox friends: where are the miracles achieved through prayers to “Saint” Justinian?  I did a Google search for “Miracles of St. Justinian” Uh…..no! None. As critical as I have been of the Roman Catholic Church, at least they have the wisdom to demand serious evidence of sainthood for their saints. An outwardly holy life, testified to by witnesses, and two medically verified healings in answer to prayer.

No, if Justinian was a saint, Adolf Hitler is sitting at the right hand of God. He was a thug…..and I don’t take my theology from the opinions of a thug.