Pagan Origin of Partialist Doctrines

by John Claudius Pitrat

For a more extensive information concerning the Apocryphal Gospels, we refer the reader to the Codex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti Collectus, Castigatus, published at Hamburg, in 3 vols. octavo, in 1719. The author was John Albert Fabricius, one of the most learned antiquarians of the 17th century.

We had the opportunity of reading, in the rich library of the theological school of Brou, France, several of these Apocryphal Gospels, that of the birth of the virgin Mary, the Protogospel of James; that of the death of the virgin Mary, and that of the Twelve Apostles; but we do not recollect to have seen in these gospels anything, in regard to endless hell, more positive than what is found in the Gospel concerning the ruin of Jerusalem.

Of course this proof, drawn from the Apocryphal Gospels, has not the same weight as if it was drawn from authentical authors, (it is for this reason that we have not inserted it in the body of proofs,) however as it is certain that they have been written from the second to the fourth centuries, they at least show that their authors, and the many Christians who used them, did not believe in endless hell.

ARTICLE IV.

How the Church of Rome borrowed the doctrine of Endless Hell from the Pagans; and how, afterwards, the self-called Orthodox Protestant Churches borrowed it from the Church of Rome.

It has been proved in the foregoing article, and, we think, to demonstration, that the Christians of the first and of the second centuries, neither knew nor believed the dogma of endless hell; wherefore we may logically make this argument:

The Christians of the first and of the second centuries neither knew nor believed the dogma of endless hell: But if the dogma of endless hell had been taught in the New Testament, the Christians of the first and of the second centuries would have known and believed it. This we prove:

Those of the apostles who wrote the New Testament certainly knew whether, in the New Testament they wrote, they had taught the dogma of endless hell. If they had known that, in the New Testament they wrote, they had taught the dogma of endless hell, they would have certainly informed the Christians of the first century, in their oral predications, that, in the New Testament they wrote, they had taught the dogma of endless hell, for it was one of the most important points of doctrine. If they had informed the Christians of the first century, in their oral predications, that they had taught, in the New Testament they wrote, the dogma of endless hell, the Christians of the first century would have certainly believed that they had taught, in the New Testament they wrote, the dogma of endless hell. If the Christians of the first century had believed that they had taught, in the New Testament they wrote, the dogma of endless hell, they would have certainly believed in endless hell. If the Christians of the first century had believed in endless hell, those of the beginning of the second century would have also believed it; for the apostle and evangelist John was still living at the end of the year 100; (even many authors say that he died only in 104,) and therefore if any discussion had arisen in regard to the dogma of endless hell, he would have declared whether it was taught in the New Testament or not. If the Christians of the beginning of the second century had also believed the dogma of endless hell, those who would have lived in the middle and at the end of the second century would have believed it also; because learning, from the lips, or from the writings, of those who were co-eval to some of the apostles, the dogma of endless hell, no traditional alteration might have taken place towards this dogma; so much so that it would have been generally spread and believed among Christians, owing to its importance.

Therefore the minor proposition of our argument is true: But if the dogma of endless hell had been taught in the New Testament, the Christians of the first and of the second centuries would have known and believed it. Wherefore we draw this logical conclusion: Then the dogma of endless hell is not taught in the New Testament.

Moreover, if the Christians of the third, of the fourth, and of the fifth centuries, had thought that the dogma of endless hell was taught in the New Testament they would have at least generally believed it. But they did not generally believe it, as it has been proved, to demonstration, in the foregoing Article: consequently the dogma of endless hell is not taught in the New Testament.