The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-02-06

of little more than three centuries,
in the year 544, this doctrine was for
the first time condemned and anathe-
matized as heretical. During
this long interval the opinions of Ori-
gen and his various writings we're an
element of power in the whole Chris
tian world. For long time he stood
high as the greatest luminary of the
Christian world. * 4 * Atlast after
all his pupils were dead, in the re-
mote age of Justinian he was anathe-
matized as a hereto Of the worst
kind"
The age of Origen was the turning
point in the Christian church. Dur
ing his time and before it faith and
morals were uncontaminated. Lecky,
as quoted by Beecher on page 1872,
says:
"There can be little doubt that for
nearly two hundred years after its es-
tablishment in Europe the Christian
community exhibited moral purity,
which, if it has ever been equalled,
has never for any long period been
surpassed. Completely separated
from the Roman world that was
around them, abstaining alike from
political life, from appeals to the tri
bunal, and from military occupations;
* animated by all the fervor of
young religion, the Christians
found within themselves a whole
order of ideas and feelings, suffici-
emily powerful to guard them from
the contamination of their age"
"At this time, too, there was no in
tervention of imperial despotism in
religious questions, no ecumenical
councils called by imperial authori-
ty, and the only valid appeal was to
Scripture and reason. 1t was during
the close of this age and before the
imperial age was developed that Ori-
gen lived and wrote"
Now turn to the later age, the one
in which Origen and his system was
condemned, and note the contrast.
On page 184 Beecher says: at was
an age in which all free inquiry was
utterly prescribed, in which all ques-
tions were settled by authority. and
in which unreasoning credulity, false
ly called faith, was regarded as the
crowning Christian grace. * It
was an age in which the fires of hell
were held to be material, and thus
not dependent for their primitive
power on moral character, but meet
instruments of despotic force. In the
hands of the clergy the doctrine of
eternal punishment had thus become
an instrument of degrading terror
ism, to extort money or to enforce the
belief of doctrines at war with the
most sacred convictions implan ted
by God in the human mind. 1t was
an age, too, in which the moral de-
generacy of the church had reached
an extreme point of degradation"
Origen was only one among host
of noted men in the early age who
taught the same system, with slight
notifications in details, but the same
in fundamentals. Indeed, there was
not one Christian of note who taught
differently up to the time of Angus
tine in the early part of the 5th cen :
tury. To be sure group of teach
ers in Asia Minor taught the doctrine
of annihilation for the wicked, but
they were not of much note.
* On page 1S9 DR.. Beecher sums the
situation up thus:
There were at least six theological
schools in the church at large (in the
| fifth century,. Of these six schools,
one, and only one, was decided and
earnestly in favor of the doctrine of
future and eternal punishment. One
was in favor of annihilation of the
wicked. Two were in favor of the
doctrine of universal restoration on
the principles of Origen, and two in
favor of universal restoration on the
principles of Theodore of Mopsu-
estia."
The four schools that taught the
doctrine of universal restoration, in
cluding the whole system of early
Christianity, were located at Alexan-
dria, C@sarea, Antioch, and Odessa.
By glance at the map we will see
that these places are all near Jerusa-
lem, the seat of the early church,
where the apostles waited for the de-
scent of the Holy Spirit.
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