“We have learned from the prophets, and we hold it to be true, that punishments, chastisements, and good rewards, are rendered according to the merit of each man’s actions. Now, if this is not so, but all things happen by fate, then neither is anything at all in our own power. For if it is […]
“An ever-burning Gehenna will burn up the condemned – a punishment that devours with living flames. Nor will there be any means by which at any time they can have either rest or an end to their torments. Souls with their bodies will be reserved in infinite tortures for suffering. . . . This is
“He who acts righteously will escape the eternal punishments, and he will be thought worthy of the eternal life from God.”
“The Lord will say, ‘Depart from me, you cursed ones, into everlasting fire.’ These persons will be condemned forever. However, to others He will say, ‘Come, you blessed of my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you for eternity.’ These ones receive the kingdom forever, and they make constant advancement in it.”
“But now we must speak of Hades, in which the souls both of the righteous and the unrighteous are detained. Hades is a place in the created system, a locality beneath the earth, in which the light of the world does not shine; and as the sun does not shine in this locality, there must
“Let no one imagine that souls are immediately judged after death. For all are detained in one and a common place of confinement – until the arrival of the time in which the great Judge will make an investigation of their deserts. Those whose piety will have been approved will receive the reward of immortality.
“‘No disciple is above the Master’ [Matt. 10:24]. . . . Our Master, therefore, did not at once depart, taking flight [to heaven]. Rather, He awaited the time of His resurrection, as determined by the Father. . . . Likewise, we also should await the time of our resurrection determined by God.”
“When the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, came unto all, He gathered alike the learned and unlearned. He published the teachings of salvation to each sex and every age. He made a concise summary of His teachings, so that the memory of the scholars might not be burdened by the heavenly learning, but
“Although there can be no other baptism but one, [the heretics] think that they can baptize; although they forsake the fountain of life, they promise the grace of living and saving water. Men are not washed among them, but rather are made foul; nor are sins purged away, but are even accumulated. Such a nativity
“Righteousness is not placed in Jewish rites, but in the conversion of the heart given in baptism by Christ. By reason, therefore, of this laver of repentance and knowledge of God, which has been ordained on account of the transgression of God’s people, as Isaiah cries, we have believed, and testify that that very baptism