Chapter 28. Men Who Look Only to Christ’s Mercy and Forget about His Justice Are Foolish.
Chapter 28
1. In the past as well as in the present, therefore, there is the same justice of God that vindicates God—in the past in type and for a time and with moderation; in the present in reality and perpetually and more severely. For the fire is eternal and the wrath of God that will be revealed from heaven coming from the Lord’s face inflicts greater punishment on those who fall into it. David said as much, But the face of the Lord is against evildoers, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
Hence, the Presbyter showed that those are very foolish who, from the things that happened to the men of old who did not obey God, attempt to introduce another Father; and who, contrariwise, oppose all the things the Lord in his mercy had done for saving those who received him at his coming, but who are silent about his judgment and all things that will come upon those who heard his words yet did not act accordingly, and that it would have been better for them if they had never been born, and that it shall be more tolerable on that day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah than for that City (Jerusalem), which did not receive the word of his disciples.
2. As a matter of fact, just as in the new covenant the faith that men have toward God was increased by receiving God’s Son in addition, so that man might become partakers of God, in like manner was the diligence too of our mode of living increased, since we are commanded to abstain not only from evil deeds, but also from evil thoughts themselves and idle words and silly talk and levity. Similarly, the punishment of those who do not believe in the Word of God, and hold his coming in contempt, and turn their backs upon him, has been increased; for it is no longer temporal but has been made eternal. Truly, to whomever the Lord says, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, will be damned forever; and to whomever he says, Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you forever, these will always receive the kingdom and will make progress in it, since there is one and the same God the Father and his Word, who always assists the human race with many economies and performs many things. He has from the beginning been saving those who are being saved, namely, those who love God and follow the Word of God, in keeping with their generation. And he has been condemning those who are being condemned, namely, who forget God and are blasphemers and transgressors of his doctrine.
3. The very heretics whom we have mentioned before have gone mad, because they hold the Lord blameworthy—him whom they claim to believe. In fact, the very things that they note about God, namely, that in times past he condemned the unbelievers and smote the Egyptians but saved the obedient, these same things will recur in the case of the Lord, who will condemn eternally those whom he condemns, and will forgive eternally those whom he forgives. He will be found, according to their own words, to have been made the occasion of the greatest sin for those who laid hands on him and who pierced him. For if he had not come in that manner, certainly they would not have become the murderers of their Lord; and if he had not sent the Prophets to them, certainly they would not have killed them. The same [is true of] the apostles. So, to those who accuse us and say, “If the Egyptians had not been afflicted with the plagues and had not been drowned in the sea when persecuting Israel, God could not have saved his people,” we shall retort, “Then, if the Jews had not become murderers of their Lord (which deprived them of eternal life), and had not killed the apostles and persecuted the Church, and if thus they would not have fallen into the depths of [God’s] wrath, we could not have been saved. As a fact, just as those of old received salvation through the blindness of the Egyptians, so now we, through blindness of the Jews. As the death of their Lord is damnation for those who crucified him and did not believe in his coming, so it is salvation for those who believe in him.”
In explanation, the Apostle writes in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, For we are the aroma of Christ to God, among those who are being saved and those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, but to the other a fragrance from life to life. Therefore, for whom is it a fragrance from death to death if not to the ones who do not believe and who are not submissive to the Word of God? Who, on the other hand, are the ones who even in the past handed themselves over to death? They were the ones who do not believe and who are not submissive to God. Again, who are the ones who have been saved and have received the inheritance? They are the ones who believed in God and guarded the love toward him, as for example, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun, and the innocent boys who <did not speak against God and who> had no consciousness of evil. Who are, however, the ones who are saved at present and who receive eternal life? Are they not the ones who love God and who believe in his promises, and who have become infants with respect to evil?