UNIVERSALISM
i. NCAY PREAMBLE TO THE BOOK & DISCLAIMERS
Why We are Republishing This Book
The following book has been republished by NCAY to establish the historical truth that universal salvation was preached, taught and believed by the vast majority of believers for the first five centuries of the messianic community or church. We are not, here, interested in establishing which kind of universalism is the correct one, of which there are several contenders. Messianic Evangelicals believe in Universal Graded Salvation which is explained elsewhere.
Greek and Roman Influences
During this 500-year period, significant doctrinal shifts gradually took place away from the original Besorah (Gospel) in consequence of the influence of Greek and Roman paganism and philosophy which resulted in a number of ecclesiastical controversies, principally between the two loci of Rome (Italy) and Alexandria (Egypt). These are of no interest to Messianic Evangelicals even though you will find many of these conflicts detailed in the book and the author taking positions.
The Neoplatonic and Gnostic Influence of Many Universalists
Publication of this book does not mean NCAY adheres to these positions nor to the articles of faith of the author's 'Universalist Church' which are heavily influenced by Neoplatonism and Gnosticism. The author is very clearly an admirer of Clement of Alexandria (Chapter 9) and Origen (Chapter 10). Messianic Evangelicals are not Neoplatonists or Gnostics nor do we accept Greek primacy of the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) as the author does. And we certainly do not reject the substitutionary atonement as Clement and Origen did, and as we must suppose the author of the book did. Nor do we deny that Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) was, is, and always will be, fully Elohim (God) as Origen did and his admirers. These points need to be born in mind as you, the reader, study this book, so as not to attribute to us doctrines that we do not believe in.
Triumph of the Eternal Torment Faction
Accordingly the Messianic Evangelical reader (unless he is particularly interested in this part of church history) needs to separate in his mind the 'good cop/bad cop' conflict between 'Rome' (Romanism) and 'Alexandria' (Hellenism) and the emet (truth) which is of 'Jerusalem' (Hebraism).
Our goal is solely to demonstrate that the Universalism of the Bible survived well into the first half millennium of Christian/Messianic community before it was overwhelmed by the Romanist doctrine of eternal torment and its chief rival, annihilationism, which also did not survive until its restoration by the Jehovah's Witnesses in the 19th century. The fact that the Greek faction was the main driving engine in the preservation of Universalism does not obviously mean that in all other matters of doctrine and practice that the Greeks were always right. Indeed, as will become clear in reading this book, the Greek faction was stronly influenced by antinomianism (anti-Torah) and pagan philosophy from whence eternal torment and annihilationism came.
Our Approach to the Original Text
No attempt has been made by NCAY to make cosmetic alterations to the text to reflect messianic terminology, e.g.
- Jesus → Yah'shua;
- God → Elohim;
- Church → Assembly/Messianic Community;
- Gospel → Besorah;
- Faith → Emunah, etc.
Nor has any attempt been made to footnote any doctrinal areas of disagreement which we might have with the author who clearly had, in some instances, strong Platonic leanings and did not possess a high regard for the Torah in the B'rit Chadashah (New Covenant), other than to provide some notes on the Ezra texts.
A Word to Messianic Readers
If you are a messianic, then you are invited to make mental substitutes for the Greco-Roman versions of the Divine Names and theological terminology in general. As the reason we have republished this book has been solely to demonstrate that Universalism was undeniably part and parcel of the early Messianic/Christian belief, we are not therefore concerned with the Hellenistic and Latin creeds, the doctrinal preferences of the author, or the theological evolution that took place under Romanism, with its pagan influences, in the earliest years following the passing of the post-apostolic fathers. These are tackled elsewhere on this website.
Hebraic vs. Greek Primacy
Neither are we concerned with the question of Hebrew vs. Greek primacy of the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament). Greek primacy was the consensus of the author's day, but as the issue of primacy does not effect the arguments presented for Universalism, we have not seen fit to comment on that issue here either, as this is a subject treated in great depth elsewhere on the website.
Victorian English
Some not acquainted with the Victorian English of the late 19th century may find the language a little hard to get used to at first unless you have been brought up on the King James Version of the Bible. However, it is worth prevailing as the English is extremely accurate and precise, which becomes necessary with an historical treatise such as this.
Cosmetic Changes
The only changes we have made are:
- 1. The de-Latinisation of Chapter numbers (e.g. IX → 9) as some are not familiar with this mode of counting;
- 2. Some of the longer paragraphs have been broken down into smaller ones;
- 3. Longer quotations have been made into separate indented paragraphs and sometimes bulletted;
- 4. Italics and font colouring have been added to titles and quotations, respectively, to highlight these;
- 5. Centred section or paragraph titles have been assigned letter numbers (e.g. B. Mercy and Justice Harmonious) for easier access by students in a class situation; and
- 6. Hypertext links have occasionally been added to articles and directories on the main NCCG.ORG website for the further research of the inquisitive reader.
in order to make your reading experience more enjoyable and relaxing.
Acknowledgement
Finally, we wish to acknowledge the hard work done by Glade Swope in 1999 who was the first to render the original book into electronic format. It needs to be pointed out that some of the endnotes were lost in his transcription work which is why there are, unfortunately, one or two blanks. If any reader is able to supply these from a volume of the original book, please get in contact with us.
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