The question in the Polish National Catholic Church, numbered 169, is as follows:
Q-What of Eternal Punishment?
A- Eternal punishment would be contrary to the wisdom, love and justice of God. Punishment may be long lasting, but not eternal because:
1. Happiness with God is the goal of life
2. God wills that all men should be saved
3. The Church prays that all mankind may find mercy and forgiveness
4. Ultimately, through the mercy and love of God, all mankind will be redeemed, purified and saved
This entry, with no footnotes or supporting documents, is somewhat of an anomaly in both western and eastern theological thought. Because of this, the answer to this question needs investigation to either affirm it with scriptural and historical evidence or to deny it by the same evidence.
To most fully understand eternal punishment, a proper understanding of eternity—from God’s standpoint—must be comprehended.
II
According to Boethius in the Consolation of Philosophy, Book 5, prose 6,
whatever includes and possesses the whole fullness of illimitable life at once and is such that nothing future is absent from it and nothing past has flowed away, this is rightly judged to be eternal, and of this it is necessary both that being in full possession of itself it be always present to itself and that it have the infinity of mobile time present to it. (CP 422.5- 424.31)
This is coupled with his de Trinitate Chapter 4 where he states,
What is said of God, [namely, that] he is always, indeed signifies a unity, as if he had been in all the past, is in all the present—however that might be—[and] will be in all the future. That can be said, according to the philosophers, of the heaven and of the imperishable bodies; but it cannot be said of God in the same way. For he is always in that for him always has to do with present time. And there is this great difference between the present of our affairs, which is now, and that of the divine: our now makes time and sempiternity, as if it were, running along; but the divine now, remaining, and not moving, and standing still, makes eternity. (DT 20.64-22.77)
Here we have the beginnings of an understanding of eternity. What is being stated here is that while we as created beings live in a linear past, present and future sort of experience, God’s existence is outside of that. For God time is always in what we would consider the present.
In 1981, Eleanor Stump and Norman Kretzmann postulated the idea of ‘atemporal duration,’ or a duration that exists outside of time that helps to explain God’s experience of time in an interaction with the created world. God’s experience outside of time, then, is simultaneous with our experience inside of time. This is much like if one could imagine a completely 2-dimensional being on a sheet of paper. This being would only be able to experience life with regard to what was around it. It would experience the curves in the letter ‘s’ at the end of the previous word curves, but would have to experience each letter individually. We, looking at the paper and reading it, can make out words, paragraphs, etc. just by seeing it all in a mere moment. The same is true with God in relation to time and eternity. God’s experience of the whole of time—past, present and future—beginning to end—is in the same type of instant that we can read complete words on a page.
Stump and Kretzmann’s contribution to this includes the link of Eternal-Temporal (or ET) simultaneity. As they state,
The whole of eternity is ET-simultaneous with each temporal event as it is actually happening; the only way in which an eternal entity can be aware of any temporal event is to be aware of it as it is actually happening. And from the eternal viewpoint every temporal event is actually happening. There is no single temporal viewpoint; even when the temporal present is taken to be absolute, the temporal viewpoint that is to be taken as now is incessantly changing… For every temporal now, God knows which temporal events are happening now… For the unique eternal now, God knows what temporal events are happening now. (Eternity, p. 30-31)
What is stated here is that, for God, every single, solitary thing that is going on in creation is actually experienced by God as it is happening, even though with His being outside of time, these things are also simultaneous with everything that has happened in the past and everything that will happen in the future from our perspective.
III
Eternal punishment, or even eternal salvation, is based on this temporal-eternal simultaneity. At death, our souls, being eternal, will enter into God’s experience of eternity. Christ speaks of eternal life in various places; among them are Matthew 25:46, Luke 18:30 and John 12:25. So, from the mouth of Christ Himself we have the verification of the cross-over from being time-bound to being time-less, or eternal. In addition, we have a connection of the eternal to the temporal, which means that not only is God Himself involved in our temporal world, but the decisions that we make here have a bearing on our lives outside of the immediate temporal reality.
Within the context of the PNCC Catechism Question #169, there lies a question of predestination. The statement “Punishment may be long-lasting, but not eternal” assumes this. Predestination is extra-biblical, and did not appear among any of the Church Fathers until Augustine in the 5th Century. In fact, it contradicts many of the early fathers, including:
Ignatius of Antioch—“If anyone is truly religious, he is a man of God; but if he is irreligious, he is a man of the devil, made such, not by nature, but by his own choice.”[1]
Irenaeus-- “Men are Possessed of Free Will, and Endowed with the Faculty of Making a Choice. It is Not True, Therefore, that Some are by Nature Good and Others Bad.”[2]
Justin Martyr—“Man acts by his own free will and not by fate.”[3]
Clement of Alexandria—“Neither praise nor condemnation, neither rewards nor punishments, are right if the soul does not have the power of choice and avoidance, if evil is involuntary.”[4]
These and more early Church Fathers all agree with the necessity of free will with regard to eternal reward and eternal punishment. These are consistent with the teachings of Christ who states:
· “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6
· “But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Luke 13:3
· “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” Matthew 23:37
IV
The Roman Catholic Church, when it speaks of particular judgment, states, “Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1021) Also, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven-through a purification or immediately, --or immediate and everlasting damnation.” (CCC 1022) The Roman Catholic Catechism also speaks of purgatory, which is found in paragraphs 1030-1032. This teaching has not been found in the Polish National Catholic Church, who has taken a position more in line with the Orthodox view, as outlined in the minutes of the Pseudo-Synod of Ferrara-Florence of 1436-1438. This view is that, with regard to the ‘cleansing fires of purgatory’ which are meant for the purification of the human soul to be able to enter the presence of God, while it is also a punishment for sins committed in the temporal realm, “Only one of these two things can happen: either punishment or forgiveness, and not both at once.” (The Orthodox Response to the Latin Doctrine of Purgatory, p. 2).
So, with regard to other major Christian perspectives on the question of eternal punishment, there seems to be disagreement and ambiguity in the universal Christian Church. Due to this, there needs to be a clear and thoughtful reflection and teaching on the question for the Polish National Catholic Church, for the benefit of the faithful.
V
There is a problem then, with predestination—if looked at strictly in the sense that everyone goes to Heaven no matter what. However, there is a middle road that it appears Christ was treading in His post-Resurrection ministry, and seems to be reflected in the Orthodox view of forgiveness and punishment. In Mark 16:9 (shorter ending), it states: “And all that had been commanded them they told briefly to those around Peter. And afterwards Jesus himself sent out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.”[Italics mine] As the shorter ending has a longer history than the longer ending, being found in the two earliest surviving manuscripts, Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, it could be argued that it is closest to true apostolic tradition. In addition, linguistically, the shorter ending better correlates to v. 8. Further, in St. Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 15, it states,
Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:
‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’
‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’
‘Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?’
Where, O death, is your sting?’
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. [Italics mine]
Here we see, in St. Paul’s discourse on the Resurrection of the Body in 15:51-57, that Paul saw that the resurrection of the body is a victory not only over death, but also over sin. If the resurrection is power over sin, then sin and death have been subjected to Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity. This leaves open the possibility of a punishment that is not eternal after death.
VI
It is clear that Christ died and rose for all humankind. Since this is the case, His desire is that each and every human being be saved. To this end, He would have to give every human being the opportunity to see, in entirety, what exactly he or she is accepting or rejecting in order to make a free choice as to his or her own salvation with the Triune God. Origen states in his work De Principiis, Book II, Chapter 10 On the Resurrection, and the Judgment, the Fire of Hell and Punishments:
8. But the outer darkness, in my judgment, is to be understood not so much of some dark atmosphere without any light, as of those persons who, being plunged in the darkness of profound ignorance, have been placed beyond the reach of any light of the understanding. We must see, also, lest this perhaps should be the meaning of the expression, that as the saints will receive those bodies in which they have lived in holiness and purity in the habitations of this life, bright and glorious after the resurrection, so the wicked also, who in this life have loved the darkness of error and the night of ignorance, may be clothed with dark and black bodies after the resurrection, that the very mist of ignorance which had in this life taken possession of their minds within them, may appear in the future as the external covering of the body. Similar is the view to be entertained regarding the prison.
Here, Origen is stating that even though the resurrected bodies of the saintly and the wicked may be different, they will still live in the light of Christ in eternity. Here we have God’s justice coming forth through the difference in appearance, but His mercy in allowing the punishment not to be eternal. To be sure, hell is eternal, and remains as an option for those who, after knowing the fullness of eternity with Christ—for whatever reason may reject it, it would seem that part of this fullness of knowledge would be the fulfillment of the free will that God gave each and every human being.
VII
Bishop Hodur agrees with these assessments in his booklet entitled Nasza Wiara (Our Faith), translated by Theodore L. Zawistowski. Bishop Hodur writes:
The time of death is either a reward or a punishment. It is the result of all of the labors done in life, and if these works were in compliance with God’s plans, in accordance with the strength and grace received, death is the moment of birth of man into a more perfect life… But if man wasted the opportunity given him, trampled God’s gifts, served only the lower instincts of his nature, was deaf to the voice of God and of his own soul, lived in contradiction to his destiny… for such a man death is a dreadful torture… In our present life, the human imagination is hindered by the limits of time and space. Beyond the grave, these limitations disappear. Man will reach with spiritual eyes unto the universe. He will encompass past, present and future times, for the imagination of mankind will be a partner to the vision of God, without bounds, without end, going into infinity… But in the lowlands of human fortune, who knows happiness? Who from among the degraded, disinherited, stripped, exploited, can voice without complaint, without irony or curses and oaths, this description of happiness?
In our future life this concept will not be merely an empty term, it will not be the lot of only a chose few, but it will be the content of the life of all the inheritors of God’s Kingdom, of all the people who pass over the threshold of death united to a greater or lesser degree with their creator.
Here we have the core of the teaching on eternal punishment. It is not that God in His justice does not punish the wicked, but like a parent whose children err, He never stops chasing them in love—wanting them to come back, and knowing that they will.
In order for a sin to be mortal—or deadly—it must be committed within the confines of the fullness of knowledge that it is a sin, what the effects of the sin are, and a conscious decision to commit the sin within the context of this knowledge. This is the requirement of eternal damnation—to choose to go against the good. The problem here is that all created human beings are at a disadvantage when it comes to the fullness of knowledge of the effects of sin. This is due to the fact that created human beings are time-space bound. Human beings do not share in the experience of the ‘eternal moment’ of simultaneity as described in section II above until after death. If, after death, any individual human being is found to change their way of thinking, it does not erase all punishment, but it is also not ‘mortal’ or deadly in the sense that the understanding of the person in question was not in full possession of the knowledge necessary for a true ‘mortal’ or deadly sin.
An historic answer to this dilemma has been the concept of purgatory, which (while finding its basis in the second book of Maccabees 12:46 with reference to praying for the dead) was an intellectual construct by St. Thomas Aquinas. Since this is merely an intellectual construct, it cannot be found to be true teaching with regard to the ancient and undivided Church of the first 1000 years. What can be found is the teaching of Hell—and damnation. What also can be found the fact that Christ, with His suffering, death and resurrection conquered Hell and is ultimately the master over it. Also supporting this is the canon of St. Hippolytus in the PNCC Missal which states, “When He was betrayed to His freely chosen suffering thereby to destroy death, to break the chains of darkness, to crush hell beneath His feet…” With this we see in the Worship of the Church her theology with regard to hell. Christ “broke the chains” and “crushed” the power of eternal damnation. Consequently, while hell itself may be as eternal as heaven, it is within the power of Christ to save from hell those whom He desires who desire to return to Him.
VIII
Therefore, a proposed change to the text of Question #169 would be:
169 Q- What of Eternal Punishment?
A- Eternal punishment would be contrary to the wisdom, love and justice of God. Punishment may be long lasting, but not eternal because:
· God desires all humans to find eternal happiness
· God gave all humans free will
· The ultimate use of that free will is to choose eternal happiness with God
· It is not until all knowledge is given that humans can choose God freely
· And, ultimately, through the mercy and love of God, all humankind will be redeemed, purified and saved
[1] Ignatius of Antioch, The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.v.iii.v.html, accessed June 21, 2010.
[2] Irenaeus Against Heresies (Adv. Hear.) III.3.4
[3] Justin Martyr Second Apology, 7
[4] Clement Miscellanies bk. 1, chap. 17
