“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.”
“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. However, those whose sins and crimes will have been brought to light – these will not rise again. Rather, they will be hidden in the same darkness with the wicked, being destined to certain punishment.”
“‘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 could quickly learn what was necessary to a simple faith.”
“I wonder how some dare to call themselves ‘perfect’ and ‘Gnostics.’ They are inflated and boastful, viewing themselves above the apostle. For Paul himself acknowledged about himself: ‘Not that I have already attained or am already perfect.'”
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“How much more will this be the case with anyone who by wicked doctrine corrupts the faith of God, for which Jesus Christ was crucified! Such a one becomes defiled. He will go away into everlasting fire, and so will everyone that listens to him.”
“The teachings of both the Old and the New Testaments are unnecessary if a person is saved by nature (as Valentinus [a Gnostic heretic] would have it) and is a believer and an elect man by nature (as Basilides thinks).”
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“The Holy Spirit always abides with those who are possessed of Him, so long as they are worthy. . . . The Holy Spirit remains with a person so long as he is doing good, and He fills him with wisdom and understanding.”
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“A son . . . who deserts his father in order not to pay him obedience is considered deserving of being disinherited and of having his name removed forever from his family. How much more so does a person [deserve to be disinherited] who forsakes God? . . . Of what punishments, therefore, is he deserving who forsakes Him who is both the true Master and Father?”
“He who hopes for everlasting rest knows also that the entrance to it is toilsome and narrow. So let him who has once received the Gospel not turn back, like Lot’s wife, as is said – even in the very hour in which he has come to the knowledge of salvation. And let him not go back either to his former life . . . or to heresies.”
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