The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

IV. Holds Every Immortal Soul to Be Restored

1. SOUL INCAPABLE OF DEATH OR DESTRUCTION

Origen went farther than any earlier Father concerning the origin of the soul. Jerome charged Origen and his followers with claiming the souls of men, and the angelic natures, to be part of the divine nature and substance of God Himself. ³² Origen held exalted notions of the dignity and nature of the soul, believing it had existed from eternity, was wholly exempt from perishing, and incapable of death or destruction—because possessed of an immortality of which nothing could deprive it. Indeed, this was his primary postulate. And with this he placed a second—the ultimate abolition of all evil. He looked forward fondly to the time when all things should be restored to their pristine purity. ³³ CFF1 1020.2

But this was not to be brought about by the disappearance of the wicked out of the realms of the living, leaving only the godly and true, nor by the removal of a single unit from God’s creation. With him life was from eternity to eternity, and once living, “always to live.” He definitely declared that “those things which were made for existence cannot cease to be.” So, to the divine soul of man, death and destruction could not come, for the soul was stronger than death and mightier than destruction. It was “for the purpose of permanent existence.” ³⁴ Hell must consequently be changed into a universal, purifying Purgatory, by which evil would be destroyed and the evildoer purged. Sin would be blotted out, but the sinner would be preserved. ³⁵ CFF1 1020.3

2. EVERY RATIONAL BEING TO BE RESTORED

Origen maintained that the final consummation will come when all creatures are restored: CFF1 1021.1

“The end of the world, then, and the final consummation, will take place when every one shall be subjected to punishment for his sins; a time which God alone knows, when He will bestow on each one what he deserves. We think, indeed, that the goodness of God, through His Christ, may recall all His creatures to one end, even His enemies being conquered and subdued.” ³⁶ CFF1 1021.2

That all of God’s enemies will be subdued is repeated again and again. Here is but one citation: CFF1 1021.3

“Seeing, then, that such is the end, when all enemies will be subdued to Christ, when death—the last enemy—shall be destroyed, and when the kingdom shall be delivered up by Christ.” ³⁷

Origen soberly assures us that those who have left the “primal state of blessedness have not been removed irrecoverably.” They “may recover themselves, and be restored to their condition of happiness.” And he adds that it is apparent that “the human race,” in the “future world, or in ages to come, ... may be restored to that unity promised by the Lord Jesus.” And this includes those who have even sunk to a depth of wickedness. But such will be restored, advancing to a “better condition.” And this includes “every rational nature.” Thus everything is “tending to that goal happiness” when all have subjected themselves to God and He is “all in all.” ³⁸ CFF1 1021.4

3. IMMORTAL SINNERS “CONDUCTED” TO SALVATION SLOWLY

Origen, taking the twofold position of (1) the indefeasible immortality of all souls and (2) the ultimate salvation of all souls, thought that immortal sinners will be saved but slowly. The process is spread over a vast period, for there is no hurry. The soul of the sinner “is immortal.” And, “being immortal and everlasting,” it is not “excluded from salvation” ultimately, “which is postponed to a more convenient time.” ³⁹ He likened the situation to a case of poisoning that, according to his understanding, necessitates a slow cure: CFF1 1021.5

“It is not without reason, then, that he who is abandoned, is abandoned to the divine judgment, and that God is long-suffering with certain sinners; but because it will be for their advantage, with respect to the immortality of the soul and the unending world, that they be not quickly brought into a state of salvation, but be conducted to it more slowly, after having experienced many evils. For as physicians, who are able to cure a man quickly, when they suspect that a hidden poison exists in the body, do the reverse of healing, making this more certain through their very desire to heal, deeming it better for a considerable time to retain the patient under inflammation and sickness, in order that he may recover his health more surely, than to appear to produce a rapid recovery, and afterwards to cause a relapse and (thus) that hasty cure last only for a time.” ⁴⁰ CFF1 1022.1

4. WEIRD CONCLUSIONS TO WHICH ORIGENISM LEADS

Follow this concept through to its logical conclusions. According to the principles and postulates of Origen, when the chaff is burned up with unquenchable fire, the fire will not actually consume the chaff, the chaff being somehow transformed by means of the mysterious secret fire into wheat again. And as to the tares, which are separated from the wheat and bound into bundles to be burned, Origen would have us believe that instead of being burned, they too are somehow plucked from the fire and transformed into wheat forevermore. CFF1 1022.2

And similarly with the fruitless severed branches that were cast into the fire, and the worthless fish that were cast away. But Origen would have this casting away not an actual rejection but a preparation for a blessed ingathering and preservation forever. Then there was the house on the sand, whose fall would certainly seem to be its end. But, according to Origen, after all the overwhelming it is to be raised again from its ruins and stand for eternity. CFF1 1022.3

And the enemy of Christ, who is to be ground to powder by the falling upon him of the great Foundation Stone and irretrievably ruined, is to be recovered and brought to build for eternity upon that which had crushed him to dust. In that way Judas, of whom it is written, “It had been good for that man if he had not been born,” will be restored to an eternity of happiness. CFF1 1022.4

As to the “perish” aspect (“Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish,” Luke 13:3), this is to be understood just of losing one’s well-being. And of the declaration, “Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28), Origen asserts that after the destroying comes a restoring to boundless and blessed duration. And as to the warning about losing the soul, according to Origen the soul is never really lost, but at worst only processed for endless purity and happiness. CFF1 1023.1

What then, on this basis, is the difference between the one who gains and the one who loses his soul? For, according to Origenism, the gainer never becomes the loser, and the loser in time becomes the everlasting gainer. It is only the differentiations that become lost. CFF1 1023.2

But perhaps the strangest argument concerns the second death, which Origen implies is really a second and eternal life. That is on his assumption that death means ceasing to live in one’s present state and coming to live in the opposite state. Thus, if the first death is dying to God in order to live in sin, then the second death would be dying to sin in order to live unto God. Thus, death is simply exchanging one life for another life. Death would therefore simply be separation from the life in which one has lived up until death, so that it may become life again—if that be clear! Such were the devious reasonings of Origenism. CFF1 1023.3