Author: preacherpollard

Gary Pollard

[Editor’s Note: Gary is translating the Ante-Nicene Fathers works, beginning with Origin’s work. It is meant to update the British English of Roberts and Donaldson. What follows is part of that translation]

In the last chapter, we spoke in broad terms about the nature of rational beings, reasoning through inference rather than laying down rigid definitions. The only exception was where we did our best to discuss the nature of God. Now, however, we turn to matters that should be addressed according to the church’s established teaching. All souls and all rational natures, whether holy or wicked, were created. By their very nature, they are incorporeal, yet still creatures, since God made everything through Christ. As John’s Gospel teaches: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made.”

Paul also describes the created order in terms of classes and ranks. He writes that all things were created in Christ: “In Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is the head.” The text is clear that everything, whether visible and bodily, or invisible and spiritual, was made in and through Christ. The “invisible things” are none other than incorporeal and spiritual powers. Paul, having spoken broadly of the visible and invisible, then lists the particular categories: thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities, and other such powers.

We have already touched on these things before. But now, moving forward in an orderly way, we must consider the sun, moon, and stars. By inference we ask: should these also be counted among the “principalities,” since they are said to have been created in ἀρχάς—that is, for the governance of day and night? Or should we instead see them only as governing day and night in the sense of providing light, without being true members of that order of ruling powers?

When we say that all things were made by Him, and that in Him all things were created—both in heaven and on earth—it is clear that the things in space, which we call heaven, including the sun, moon, and stars, are counted among these heavenly things. Next, since our discussion has already shown that everything was created, and that among created things nothing exists that cannot be capable of either good or evil, we must ask about a certain view held by some: that the sun, moon, and stars are unchangeable and incapable of becoming anything other than what they are. Many people have held a similar view even about the holy angels, and certain heretics have said the same about souls, which they call spiritual natures.

Let us first see what reason itself can discover regarding the sun, moon, and stars. Is the belief in their unchangeableness correct? To answer, we should first turn to what holy Scripture teaches. Job, for instance, appears to say not only that the stars can be subject to sin, but that they actually are not free from it. He says: “The stars also are not clean in Your sight.” This should not be taken as referring to the brightness or physical splendor of the stars, as if one were to say that a garment is unclean. If that were the meaning, it would unfairly reflect on the Creator: after all, the stars cannot, by their own effort, make themselves brighter or less bright, so how could they be blamed for being “unclean” in terms of their physical substance if they are also not praised for their brilliance?

To understand these matters more clearly, we should first ask: is it reasonable to suppose that the stars are living, rational beings? Next, we should ask whether their souls came into existence at the same time as their bodies, or whether they existed beforehand. We should also consider whether, at the end of the world, they will be released from their bodies, and whether, as we cease to live, they too will cease to illuminate the world.

Though these questions may seem bold, our desire to understand the truth as fully as possible makes it reasonable to investigate them, guided by the grace of the Holy Spirit. We think, then, that the stars may rightly be called living beings, because they are said to receive commandments from God—a characteristic normally reserved for rational beings. As the Lord says, “I have given a commandment to all the stars.” What are these commandments? They are the instructions that each star, in its proper order and course, should provide to the world the amount of brilliance entrusted to it. The planets, for example, move in one type of orbit, while the stars called ἀπλανεῖς (wandering stars) move differently.

It follows that the movement of these bodies cannot occur without a soul, nor can living beings exist without motion. Since the stars move with such order and regularity, never seeming to go astray, it would be absurd to claim that such precise and orderly behavior could occur among purely irrational beings. Jeremiah even calls the moon the “queen of heaven.” Yet if the stars are living, rational beings, we should expect both advances and retreats in their movements. Job’s words—“the stars are not clean in His sight”—seem to point to this very possibility.

Gary Pollard

[Editor’s Note: Gary is translating the Ante-Nicene Fathers works, beginning with Origin’s work. It is meant to update the British English of Roberts and Donaldson. What follows is part of that translation]

We must remember that some beings, who fell away from the original state we spoke of earlier, have sunk so deeply into corruption and wickedness that they are considered unworthy of the kind of training and instruction given to humanity in this life, with the help of heavenly powers. Instead, they remain in open hostility and opposition to those who are receiving that instruction. This is why our mortal life is full of struggles and trials: they are stirred up by the resistance of those who fell from a better condition without even looking back. Scripture calls them “the devil and his angels,” along with the other ranks of evil that the apostle listed among the hostile powers.

Will any of these beings, who now live under the devil’s rule and obey his evil commands, one day be restored to righteousness because they still possess free will? Or has their stubborn and deep-rooted wickedness become so hardened by habit that it has essentially become their very nature? The answer is not yet clear. Perhaps you, reader, may consider it possible that in the end, nothing—whether in the visible, temporal worlds or in the unseen, eternal worlds—will remain entirely outside the ultimate unity and order of all things.

For now, however, both in the visible and temporal realms and in the unseen, eternal ones, every being is placed according to a deliberate plan, in the order and degree that matches its worth. Some may, in the earliest times, and others much later—even after long and severe punishments lasting through countless ages—be improved by this stern discipline. Maybe they will slowly be restored, first by the teaching of angels, and later by higher powers, until step by step they advance to better states. Through this process, they may finally reach the eternal and invisible realm, having passed through every stage of heavenly instruction.

From this, I think we might infer that every rational being, by moving from one order to another, may eventually experience the whole range of states—rising and falling, progressing or failing—according to its own choices and the exercise of its free will. 

Paul teaches that some things are visible and temporary, while others are invisible and eternal. So we must ask: in what sense are visible things “temporary”? Does it mean that they will completely cease to exist in the ages to come, when all things scattered from one beginning are being restored to unity? Or does it mean that, while the outward form of visible things will pass away, their underlying essence will remain, free from corruption?

Paul seems to support the latter view when he says, “The form of this world is passing away.” David says the same: “The skies will leave, but You endure. They will grow old like a garment, You will change them like clothing, and they will be changed.” If the skies are “changed,” then they do not vanish altogether. Likewise, if the form of the world “passes away,” this is not destruction of its substance but a transformation of its quality and appearance. Isaiah also, when he speaks of “a new sky and a new earth,” points to the same reality.

This renewal of sky and earth—the transformation of the world and of the skies themselves—is prepared for those who follow the path we have described, moving toward that final happiness in which even enemies are subdued, and in which God is said to be “all in all.” If anyone imagines that at the end material, bodily nature will be completely destroyed, that view is hard to sustain. For how could so many powerful beings exist without bodies? Only God has the nature to exist entirely without material substance. Others suggest instead that, in the end, bodily existence will be purified and refined until it is like the clearness of the skies, pure and radiant as the aether. Ultimately, however, the truth of how this will be is known with certainty only to God, and to His friends through Christ and his spirit. 

Gary Pollard

[Editor’s Note: Gary is translating the Ante-Nicene Fathers works, beginning with Origin’s work. It is meant to update the British English of Roberts and Donaldson. What follows is part of that translation]

When we talk about the end, we mean the time when everything is finally made perfect. Because this is such an important and difficult subject, anyone who wants to study it should come with a clear and careful mind. If someone doesn’t have experience thinking about subjects like this, they might consider it to be a waste of time. Or if someone already has strong opinions or presuppositions, they might even say that these ideas are evil or heretical—not because they really understand them, but because they’re already prejudiced by dogma. That’s why we must talk about these things with caution. We are not giving definitive answers, we’re just investigating these things for the purpose of discussion. Earlier, when we looked at the nature of God, I tried to present only clear and unquestioned truths. But we will do our best to handle this more like a discussion than a set of dogmatic definitions.

The end of the world, then, will come when God judges everyone for their sins. Only God knows the time when this will happen, and only He knows how He will give each person what they deserve. But we also believe that God’s kindness, through Jesus Christ, will guide all of His creation to one final goal—even His enemies, who will one day be defeated and brought under His power. 

The scripture says, “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.’” If that sounds hard to understand, Paul explains it more clearly, “Christ must rule until he has put all enemies under his feet.” And if we still wonder what that means, Paul adds, “For all things must be put under him.”

But what does it mean for everything to be “put under” Christ? I believe it means that all things will one day submit to Him in the same way we try to submit now. The apostles submitted this way. All of the faithful dead have, too. For us, being put into subjection under Christ is not an act of tyranny, but it is about being saved. To belong to Christ means to share in the rescue He’s made possible. David understood this when he said, “I must calm down and turn to God; only He can rescue me.”

Since this will be the end—when all enemies will be placed under Christ, when death (the last enemy) will be destroyed, and when Christ will hand the kingdom over to God the Father—let’s think about the beginning of all things. The end is always like the beginning. Just as there is one end for all things, there was also one beginning of all things. From that single beginning came many different paths with lots of variety. But through God’s goodness and through submitting to Christ, everything will be brought back to one final end, which looks like the beginning. This is what it means when every being in the sky, on earth, and under the earth bows at the name of Jesus, showing their submission to Him. These three groups represent the entire universe, which was arranged from the one beginning, each according to how they lived. 

Goodness does not belong to created beings by their very nature; only God is good by His very nature. Others share in “goodness” only when God gives it, and they remain that way only as long as they pursue holiness, wisdom, and fellowship with God. But if they reject these things, each one causes their own fall—some quickly, others slowly, some falling far, others not as far. This demonstrates God’s fair judgment: each one has consequences in proportion to their choices and how far they’ve fallen.

Some who were closer in time to the beginning (which mirrors the future end) were placed in high ranks when the world was arranged: some became angels, some influences, some principalities, some powers to rule over those who need guidance. Others became thrones, with the work of judging or ruling, and others were given control over those who were like slaves. All of this was given through God’s wise judgment, fairly and without favoritism, according to each one’s merit and their progress in imitating God. But those who were removed from their primal state of happiness were not removed with no hope of recovery. They were placed under the rule of the different powers we just mentioned, so that by learning from them and through discipline, they might be reshaped and restored to blessedness again.

All of this makes me think that God arranged the human race for a purpose: that in the future world—when God makes a new sky and a new earth, as Isaiah promised—it will be brought back into perfect unity. This is the unity Jesus prayed for when He said to the Father, “I’m not praying for just these followers, but also for those who will believe in me because of their teaching. Father, I pray that all who believe in me can be one. You are in me and I am in you. I pray that they can also be one in us. Then the world will believe that you sent me.” 

Paul confirms this when he says, “This work must continue until we are all joined together in what we believe and in what we know about the Son of God.” And Paul urges us even now, while we are alive and in the church (which is like a preview of the kingdom that will come), to live out this unity when he says, “I beg all of you to agree with each other. You should not be divided into different groups. Be completely joined together again with the same kind of thinking and the same purpose.”