So I do alot of religious discussion boards. I see it stated quite often that a belief that every person would eventually be saved was not only common among the earliest christians - it was the norm. So it is said.
Some of the evidence presented consists of a list of early christians who were universalists, such as origin, clement, gregory of nycea, and others. Coupling this with what they claim is the fact that none of these were ever criticized for being universalists in their lifetimes, though they were criticized for many other things by their fellow christians, many come to the conlusion that universalism was accepted in the early church.
I have also seen it said that 4 out of the 6 major christian schools in the early years actively taught universalism - but I never see any support for this assertion. Anyone know anything about it?
Another bit of evidence they use is that both the biblical scriptures and early christian writers seem to avoid the greek phrase which unequivocally means “going to hell forever.” Unfortunately I don’t remember the greek phrase involved.
And the claim is made that we have no record of a native greek speaking early church father who definitely believed in eternal hell - that we only have such fathers when greek stopped being the language of the church and latin became the vogue. The argument is that these fathers misunderstood the greek because they did not read it natively, but the originals understood correctly that punishment after death is not forever, but temporary - based on the usage of the greek word “aion” and “aionios.”
Anyone knowledgeable enough on the issue to answer to that comment in the positive or negative? Like, does the above seem to check out, according to your knowledge. Is it a convincing chain of evidence, or is there something fishy about it? Thanks…
-Kris
-Kris