Immortality or Resurrection by William West (philippa perry book txt) 📕

Holy Water, forbidding eating of meat on Friday, candle-burning, and many other teachings.
CHURCH FATHERS
The early so-called church fathers, Clement of Rome [said to be a companion of Paul], Ignatius [killed 107], Theophilus [died 181], Justin Martyr [killed 166], Tatian, Irenaeus, and others of the second century writers believed in conditional immortality. It was not unto the end the second and the third century that the doctrine of an immortal soul gained a foothold in the church.
J. A. BEETH summed it up very well. "The phrase, the soul immortal, so frequent and conspicuous in the writings of Plato, we have not found in pre-Christian literature outside the influence of Greek philosophy; nor have we found it in Christian literature until the latter part of the second century. We have noticed that all the earliest Christian writers who use this phrase were familiar with the teaching of Plato; that one of these, Tertullian, expressly refers both the phrase and doctrine to him; and that the early Christian writers never support this doctrine by appeals to the Bible, but only by arguments similar to those of Plato...We have failed to find any trace of this doctrine in the Bible...It is altogether alien, both in phrase and thought, to the teaching of Christ and His apostles" Immortality Of The Soul, Pages 53, 54. Tertullian is truthful about where his belief came from and said he based it on Plato, not the Bible. He said, "For some things are known even by nature: the immortality of the soul, for instance, is held by many...I may use, therefore, the opinion of a Plato, when he declares, 'Every soul is immortal'" Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, Page 1916.
JUSTIN MARTYR: Killed about A. D. 166. The Greek doctrine of an immortal soul was believed by some in his time and opposed by him and others of the Church Fathers. He said, "For if you have fallen in with some who are called Christians, but who do not admit this...who say there is no resurrection of the dead, and that their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven; do not imagine that they are Christians." The First Apology Of Justin, Edinburgh Edition, Page 480.
IRENAEUS MARTYR: Died about A. D. 202, a pupil of Polycarp, Martyr A. D. 147 said, “Some who are reckoned among the orthodox to beyond the prearranged plan for the exaltation of the just, and are ignorant of the methods by which they are disciplined beforehand for incorruption; they entertain heretical opinions. For the heretics…affirm that immediately upon their death they shall pass above to heavens. Those persons, therefore, who reject a resurrection affecting the whole man, and do their best to remove it from the Christian scheme, know nothing as to the plan of resurrection” Ante-Nicene Fathers, Eerdmans Publishing, Volume one, page 560. "It is the Father of all who IMPART CONTINUANCE FOREVER AND EVER TO THOSE WHO ARE SAVED. FOR LIFE DOES NOT ARISE FROM US, NOR FROM OUR OWN NATURE; but it is bestowed according to the grace of God. And therefore he who shall preserve the life bestowed on him, and give thanks to Him who imparted it, SHALL RECEIVE ALSO LENGTH OF DAYS FOREVER AND EVER, But he who shall reject it, and prove himself ungrateful to his Maker, inasmuch as he has been created and has not recognized Him who bestowed the gift upon him, DEPRIVES HIMSELF OF CONTINUANCE FOREVER AND EVER. And for this reason the Lord declared to those who showed themselves ungrateful towards Him: 'If you have not been faithful in that which is little, who will give you that which is great?'--indicating that those who in this brief temporal life have shown themselves ungrateful to Him who bestowed it, SHALL JUSTLY NOT RECEIVE FROM HIM LENGTH OF DAYS FOREVER AND EVER." Edinburgh Edition, Volume 1, Page 252.
ORIGEN Died A. D. 235: Mosheim said, "The foundation of all his faults was, that he fully believed nothing to be more true and certain than what the philosophy he received from Ammonius taught him respecting God, the world, souls, demons, etc. and therefore he in a measure recast and remolded the doctrines of Christ after the pattern of that philosophy" Historical Commentaries, Volume 2, Page 159.
The early non-inspired writers used Bible statements, which are used by both sides. Two examples:
1. An example: When an early writer quoted Matthew 10:28, "God is able to destroy...soul [psukee]," it is used today by the unconditional immoralists to prove the church fathers believed God will not destroy the soul [psukee], and by the conditional immoralists to prove the church fathers did believe God can and will destroy the soul [psukee]. Both sides assume that the early non-inspired writers understood the word "soul" [psukee] and other words just as they do. Therefore, both sides have many quotations from the early writers. The first and second century writers used Greek, and the word they used was "psukee" not the English word "soul" but the unconditional immoralists translate it "soul" and then apply today's English meaning, an undying part of a person to "psukee." Conditional immoralists read the same writers and say the early writers used "psukee" as the Hebrew word "nehphesh" is used in Genesis, a "living creature."
2. Another example: When Matthew 5:22 is quoted by the church father, they wrote in Greek and used "Gehenna" just as Christ did. Some English translations of the church fathers change Gehenna into Hell. They change one proper noun, the name if a particular place [Gehenna] into another proper noun, the name of another particular place [Hell] just as the King James Version did. When the early writers used "Gehenna," the way they are translated or the way they are mistranslated makes them say what the translator wanted them to say.
THE VIEW OF THE CHURCH FATHERS ON DEATH according to Henry Constable in "The Duration And Nature Of Future Punishment," 1871.
• Barnabas, Died A. D. 90. Believed the penalty of sin is ETERNAL DEATH.
• Clemens Romanus, Died A. D. 100. Believed the penalty of sin is ETERNAL DEATH.
• Hermas, Died A. D. 104. Believed the penalty of sin is ETERNAL DEATH.
• Ignatius, Martyr, Died A. D. 107. Believed the penalty of sin is ETERNAL DEATH.
• Polycarp, Martyr, Died A. D. 147. Believed the penalty of sin is ETERNAL DEATH.
• Justin Martyr, Died A. D. 164. Believed the penalty of sin is ETERNAL DEATH.
• Theophilus of Antioch, Died A. D. 183. Believed the penalty of sin is ETERNAL DEATH.
• Athenagoras, Died A. D. 190. Believed "YOU SHALL NOT SURELY DIE."
• Tatian, Died A.D. 200. Believed "YOU SHALL NOT SURELY DIE."
• Irenaeus Martyr, Died A. D. 202. Believed the penalty of sin is ETERNAL DEATH.
• Clemens Alexandrinus, Died A. D. 212. Believed the penalty of sin is ETERNAL DEATH.
• Tertullian, Died A. D. 235. Believed "YOU SHALL NOT SURELY DIE."
• Hippolytus, Died A. D. 235. Believed "YOU SHALL NOT SURELY DIE."
• Origen, Died A. D. 235. Believed UNIVERSAL RESTORATION.
• Amobios, Died A. D. 303. Believed the penalty of sin is ETERNAL DEATH.
• Augustine, Died A. D. 430. Believed "YOU SHALL NOT SURELY DIE." The Encyclopedia Britannica says of Augustine, "He fused the religion of the New Testament with the Platonic tradition of Greek philosophy."
From the above, it is clear that it was not unto near the end of the second century that "the wages of sin is eternal life with torment" was first believed. By teaching the resurrection, both the Bible and most of the early Church Fathers denied emphatically the unconditional immortally of the soul.
JOHN H. OGWYN, "The story of the Christian church between Pentecost of 31 a. d. and the council of Nicea in 325 a. d., almost 300 years later, is an amazing story. IT IS THE STORY OF HOW YESTERDAY'S ORTHODOXY BECAME TODAY'S HERESY AND HOW OLD HERESIES CAME TO BE CONSIDERED ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. IT IS THE STORY OF HOW CHURCH TRADITION AND THE TEACHING OF THE BISHOPS CAME TO SUPERSEDE THE WORD OF GOD AS A SOURCE OF DOCTRINE. IT IS A STORY THAT IS STRANGER THEN FICTION, YET IS HISTORICALLY VERIFIABLE." "God's Church Through The Ages."
HENRY CONSTABLE, “Educated in Platonism, they (church fathers) did not like to renounce it, and flattered themselves that they might, with great advantage to the cause of Christianity, bring at least a portion of their old learning into its service. Some brought less, some more, according as they were more or less thoroughly acquainted with Christianity. But on one point they were substantially agreed. All of them, with Tertullian, adopted in the sense of Plato Plato’s sentiment—‘Every soul is immortal.’ On this point Plato took rank, not among prophets and apostles, but above all prophets and apostles. A doctrine which neither Old Testament nor New taught directly or indirectly, nay, which was contrary to a great part of the teaching of both, these Fathers brought in with them into the Church, and thus gave to the old Sage of the Academy a greater authority and a wider influence by far than he had ever attained or ever dreamed of attaining. It was in effect Plato teaching in the Church, under the supposed authority of Christ and his Apostles, doctrine subversive of, and contrary to, the doctrine, which they had one and all maintained. This dogma of Plato was made the rigid rule for the interpretation of Scripture. No Scripture, no matter what its language, could be interpreted in a sense inconsistent with Plato’s theory. Christ, and Paul, and John, all were forced to Platonise. The deduction of reason, half doubted by Plato himself, was by these Platonising Fathers palmed off on men’s minds as the teaching of revelation” Duration And Nature Of future Punishment, 1871.
W. ENFIELD, "Very soon after the rise of Christianity, many persons, who had been educated in the schools of the philosophers, becoming converts to the Christian faith, the doctrines of the Grecian sects, and especially Platonism, were interwoven with the simple truths of pure religion. As the Eclectic philosophy spread, Heathen and Christian doctrines were still more intimately blended, till, at last, both were almost entirely lost in the thick clouds of ignorance and barbarism which covered the earth." "The History Of Philosophy."
"The doctrine of hell evolved long after the core doctrines of the historic Christian faith were established. The views of the early Church fathers about hell were far from unanimous. It took the Christian community hundreds of years to come up with a consensus on the issue. The majority view - that hell is a place of eternal fiery torment - emerged only after a long debate within the Church. By the Middle Ages, the concept of a fiery underworld had become a dominant element in people's minds" www.inplainsite.org
The doctrine of Hell has been strongly opposed from the time is was first brought into the church by the church fathers, but in the last fifty years the opposition is rapidly growing in the Protestants churches and particularly in the church of Christ. As a result of the rapid growth in opposed to the God slandering doctrine of Hell two books by those why believe in Hell have been written. "Hell of Trial: The Case for Eternal Punishment" by Robert A. Peterson and "Hell Under Fire" by nine Protestant authors. The names they give to their books shows the doctrine of Hell is being strongly opposed and rejected by many.
The Egyptians might have been the first to believe in the dual nature of a