The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

IV. Logical Demands of Athenagoras’ Reasoning

His was pre-eminently a rationalistic deduction. Thus: The wicked must be miserable forever, because they must live forever. And they must live forever because God made them for the purpose of living. Athenagoras does not advance one text in support—only Plato’s sonorous phrasings. With his master he takes his position immovably on the platform that the soul is intrinsically immortal. It must continue to live. It was made immortal at creation, and cannot be subjected to death, for it was, and is, and always will be incorruptible. That was his tangent argument. And this was written about A.D. 178. CFF1 944.3

But Athenagoras added to his master’s theory. Plato, as a pagan, dropped the body altogether at death—as a clog, prison, and curse to the soul. But Athenagoras as a Christian was compelled to advance a new or added line of reasoning. To him the body is, indeed, an essential part of man. The body, originally created to be immortal, became mortal through Adam’s sin. But Athenagoras held that at the resurrection the bodies of all—wicked as well as righteous—will reassume their original immortality. Paul’s description of the resurrection of the just, the glorious, immortalized change of their natural bodies to fit them for eternal life, is by Athenagoras now applied to describe as well the resurrection of the unjust. “The mortal body must put on immortality and incorruption if it is to endure an eternity of pain.” CFF1 945.1

If Athenagoras’ reasoning on the inevitability of God’s purpose had been followed to its ultimate, it would have led him to Origen’s theory of Restorationism, not to Augustine’s dogma of Eternal Torment. But, as noted, in Athenagoras’ day the notion of a restoration from Hell had not yet been developed. The time had not yet come—not until the human mind was compelled to seek refuge in it from the horrors of Eternal Torment. Only thus could God’s object in creating man fail to be defeated. Moreover, God made man for Himself. So Athenagoras said: CFF1 945.2

“The final cause of an intelligent life and rational judgment, is to be occupied uninterruptedly with those objects to which the natural reason is chiefly and primarily adapted, and to delight unceasingly in the contemplation of Him who is, and of His decrees.” ⁴⁴ CFF1 945.3

Following this thought through, all men, however fallen, must in time be restored, in order logically to answer the end for which they were created. Such a consequence was demanded by Athenagoras’ principles as verily as the restoration of their bodies to immortality, or the eternal existence of the entire man. But the clear concept of universal Restorationism did not mature for another half century—under the celebrated Origen, likewise of Alexandria. But Athenagoras made the first epochal break. CFF1 946.1