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Apokatastastis the heresy of universal salvation

 These verbal contradictions explain why the defenders of orthodoxy should have thought

that St. Gregory of Nyssa's writings had been tampered with by heretics. St. Germanus of 

Constantinople, writing in the eighth century, went so far as to say that those who heldthat the devils and lost souls would one day be set free had dared "to instil into the pureand most healthful spring of his [Gregory's] writings the black and dangerous poison of theerror of  Origen, and to cunningly attribute this foolish heresy to a man famous alike for hisvirtue and his learning" (quoted by Photius, Bibl. Cod., 223; P.G. CIII, col. 1105)

 The doctrine of the apokatastasis is not, indeed, peculiar to St. Gregory of Nyssa, but istaken from Origen, who seems at times reluctant to decide concerning the question of theeternity of punishment.

Origen teaches the apokatastasis, the final restoration of all intelligent creatures tofriendship with God.

he doctrine was formally condemned in the first of the famous anathemas 

pronounced at the Council of Constantinople in 543:

the 2nd Council of Constantinople in 553 CE declared apokatastasis as heresy

St. Thomas Aquinas could hardly be happy, it is said, from thinking of the doom of the Deviland went so far in his pity for the prisoner of the pit as to spend a night in prayer for thepardon and restoration of the dethroned archangel. ‘O God,’ he prayed, ‘have mercy upon

 Thy servant the Devil’” (Rudwin 284).

Here is a little history explaining its modern rival and reception

If Milton did believe in apokatatasis and disagreed with Justinian’s condemnation of thedoctrine, then he would not be the only Protestant to share this view. Apokatatasis waschampioned during the Reformation “in the writings of Denk (d. 1527), and Harnak has nothesitated to assert that nearly all the Reformers were apokatastaists at heart… Thedoctrine of apokatastasis viewed as a belief in a universal salvation is found among theAnabaptists, the Moravian Brethren, the Christadelphians, among rationalistic Protestants,and finally among the Professed Universalists

Francis Clarke pseudo Gregorian dialogues explores the unexplored area of catholicforgeries and their role in assigning and accrediting catholic dotriine against correctdoctrine.

On purgatory 4.26 1-14. The author makes incinuation of this forgery since the Vatican isknown for forgeries exposed in the renaissance and today, it is no surprise.

 This shows that these documents attributed to Gregory nyssa are deemed unlikely at best.

Fathers are clear regarding this heresy in the church.

Mario baghos makes clear on pg 149 on his work on apokatastasis that one can becleansed after death through purgatory fire. He makes no reference to the consensus of the church fathers in the church nor the ecumenical council that condemned nor evenscientifically analyse of this forgery in an accredited journal to cite the works of francisClarke.

Mario makes no reference to the following quotes found on orthodox wiki thatshow the saints of the church were aware of these forgeries, even st mark of Ephesus in combating Catholicism at Florence, knew alleged quotes of fathersaccepting of the filoque as forgeries.

Gregory of Nyssa

St. Gregory of Nyssa accepted the idea of apocatastasis from Origen. However, this part of 

St. Gregory's writings has been unequivocally rejected by the subsequent Church Fathers:

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:

St. Varsanofios the Great, criticizing the doctrine of apocatastasis, when asked about

St. Gregory's opinion, has answered: "do not think that people, though also saints,

could completely understand all depths of God... Even if a saint speaks about such

opinions, you will not find that he confirmed the words as though had the

statement from above, but that they resulted from the doctrine of his former

teachers, and he, trusting their knowledge of them, did not inquire of God whether

it was true."citation neededn

St. Herman of Constantinople has also expressed a negative opinion of the doctrine, but

he supposes that the works of St. Gregory have been damaged by Origenists:

"those who liked that absurd idea, as if for demons and for people who will be

subjected to eternal punishment, is possible to expect the discontinuance... they

have taken his clean and sensible works and have added the dark and disastrous

poison of Origen's nonsense."citation neededn

St. Mark of Ephesus, after citing St. Gregory, exclaims: "Are we wrong when we do not

believe those words of St. Gregory of Nyssa, considering them forgeries, or, even if 

they are original, to not accept as contradictory to Scripture and to the general

dogma?"citation neededn

St. Maximus the Confessor, rejecting an Origenistic interpretation of apocatastasis,

considered that St. Gregory used this term "in sense of restoration of cognitive

forces of the man in that condition of the correct relation to truth."citation needed

St. Photius the Great has expressed the Church's general interpretation in one phrase:"that in works of St. Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, where restoration is mentioned, it is notaccepted by the Church."citation needed

Evagrius Ponticus

Isaac of Syria

The Church reaction to Origenism

 The anathemas of the local Council of Constantinople in 453, which is understood by

most commentators to be confirmed by the Fifth Ecumenical Council in 553, posthumously

excommunicated Origen and anyone following specific points of his teachings. These

anathemas condemned his protology of pre-existent souls and his eschatology of universal

restoration of all things "which follows from" his protology1::

If anyone asserts the fabulous pre-existence of souls, and shall assert the monstrous

restoration which follows from it: let him be anathema. (First anathema against

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Origen)O

If anyone shall say that all reasonable beings will one day be united in one, when the

hypostases as well as the numbers and the bodies shall have disappeared, and

that the knowledge of the world to come will carry with it the ruin of the worlds,and the rejection of bodies as also the abolition of [all] names, and that there shall

be finally an identity of the γν σ ι ςῶ and of the hypostasis; moreover, that in this

 pretended apocatastasis, spirits only will continue to exist, as it was in the feigned

 pre-existence: let him be anathema. (Fourteenth anathema against Origen)2

 The decisions of ecumenical councils have universal authority in the Orthodox

Church. Only doctrinal definitions have the force of dogma. Local councils only have

authority within specific geographic limits.

Modern Advocates

If we are going to quote St. Thomas Aquinas, then let's examine what he says about St.Gregory of Nyssa:"Further, Gregory of Nyssa [De iis qui in fide dormiunt] says: "If one wholoves and believes in Christ," has failed to wash away his sins in this life, "he is set freeafter death by the fire of Purgatory."

http://www.newadvent.org/summa/7001.htm

this is connected to the embarrassing episode of catholic history with indulgences.

 This is an example of the distorted quotes which used to annoy the Orthodox so much onCAF.

Saint Geregory of Nyssa who died in the 4th century could not have written that. The term"purgatorium" did not appear until the Middle Ages in the Roman Catholic Church withPope Innocent III.

Apokatastasi has no place in orthodoxy.

Nicholas lazarou