ACC ~ Mark 9 v48b

ORDINARY FIRE AND ETERNAL FIRE

GREGORY OF NYSSA: Nor, too, does anything which afflicts the senses here equal in torment the future life of sinners. Even if we denote some of those torments by terms familiar to us here, the difference is not slight. When you hear the word “fire,” you have been taught to think of it differently from ordinary fire, since a new factor is added. For that fire is not quenched, while experience has devised many ways to quench the fire we know. And there is a great difference between fire which is quenched and that which cannot be put out. They are, therefore, different, and not the same. Then again, when a person hears the word “worm,” the analogy must not be misapplied directly from the creature we know to the eternal. For the addition of the phrase “that does not die” suggests the thought that this worm is not simply the creature we know. ADDRESS ON RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 40. [1]

[1] LCC 3:325; TLG 2017.046, 40.77-89.

WHY NOT SKIP OVER SUCH PASSAGES?

CHRYSOSTOM: This is no trivial subject of inquiry that we propose, but rather it concerns things most urgent, and about which many inquire: namely, whether hell fire has any end. For that it has no end Christ indeed declared when he said, “Their fire shall not be quenched, and their worm shall not die.” [1] Yes, I know a chill comes over you on hearing these things. But what am I to do? For this is God’s own command. … Ordained as we have been to the ministry of the word, we must cause our hearers discomfort when it is necessary for them to hear. We do this not arbitrarily but under command. HOMILIES ON FIRST CORINTHIANS 9.1. [2]

[1] Is 66:24.

[2] NPNF 1 12:49*; TLG 2062.156, 61.75.24-31, 32-34.

DISCIPLINARY REJECTION—TEMPORARY AND ETERNAL

CAESARIUS OF ARLES: If today one is cast out of the assembly of this church because of some enormity, in how much grief and tribulation will his soul be? [1] If it causes unbearable pain to be thrown out of this church, where the one who is rejected can eat and drink and speak with others and has the hope of being called back, how much more pain will there be if, because of his sins, one is separated from that church which is in heaven, and eternally separated from the assembly of the angels and the company of all the saints? For such a person it will not be enough punishment for him to be cast away, but in addition he will be shut out into the night, to be consumed by an eternal fire. One whose impenitent behavior has warranted his being finally shut out of that heavenly Jerusalem will not only be deprived of divine fellowship, but will also suffer the flames of hell, “where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth,” [2] where there will be the wailing of lamentation without any remedy, where the worm does not die, and the fire is not extinguished; [3] where death would be sought as an end to torment, and not found. SERMONS 227.4. [4]

[1] Caesarius is asking how temporary disciplinary rejection within the church is to be compared with God’s final rejection of sin.

[2] Mt 22:13.

[3] Mk 9:48.

[4] Cetedoc 1008, 104.227.4.1; FC 66:166*.