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| Chapter XVI
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Chapter XVI.
From what has been said, it will be manifest to
intelligent hearers how we have to answer the following:
“All the rest of the race will be completely burnt up, and they
alone will remain.” It is not to be wondered at, indeed, if
such thoughts have been entertained by those amongst us who are called
in Scripture the “foolish things” of the world, and
“base things,” and “things which are despised,”
and “things which are not,” because “by the
foolishness of preaching it pleased God to save them that believe on
Him, after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not
God,”4138
—because such
individuals are unable to see distinctly the sense of each particular
passage,4139
| 4139 τὰ κατὰ τοὺς
τόπους. | or unwilling to
devote the necessary leisure to the investigation of Scripture,
notwithstanding the injunction of Jesus, “Search the
Scriptures.”4140
The
following, moreover, are his ideas regarding the fire which is to be
brought upon the world by God, and the punishments which are to befall
sinners. And perhaps, as it is appropriate to children that some
things should be addressed to them in a manner befitting their
infantile condition, to convert them, as being of very tender age, to a
better course of life; so, to those whom the word terms “the
foolish things of the world,” and “the base,” and
“the despised,” the just and obvious meaning of the
passages relating to punishments is suitable, inasmuch as they cannot
receive any other mode of conversion than that which is by fear and the
presentation of punishment, and thus be saved from the many evils
(which would befall them).4141
| 4141 καὶ τῶν
πολλῶν κακῶν
ἀποχήν. | The Scripture
accordingly declares that only those who are unscathed by the fire and
the punishments are to remain,—those, viz., whose opinions, and
morals, and mind have been purified to the highest degree; while, on
the other hand, those of a different nature—those, viz., who,
according to their deserts, require the administration of punishment by
fire—will be involved in these sufferings with a view to an end
which it is suitable for God to bring upon those who have been created
in His image, but who have lived in opposition to the will of that
nature which is according to His image. And this is our answer to
the statement, “All the rest of the race will be completely burnt
up, but they alone are to remain.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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