Against the universalists: Matthew

One entry in an ongoing debate

Bishop Robert Barron often comes under attack from two sides. From the left, there are criticisms lobbied that he is more an advocate for the Republican party than for Catholicism. From the other side, there are accusations that he is a Modernist, and the most common evidence I hear alleged for this is his supposed universalism. “Dare we hope that all men be saved?” Hans Urs von Balthasar is the one most known for this quote and Bishop Barron seems to take it up as his own. This never seemed to me a sufficient reason to condemn him. Who can help what a man hopes for? Inasmuch as it depends on so many causes what a man fears or desires or abhors or delights in, so it is not for any of us to judge a man’s hope, even if it seems lightly grounded. So I have never found any reason to censure the Lord Bishop of Winona-Rochester.

Nonetheless, some are not content to hope, but dare more. According to a CNS article (which—I know not why—was shared by the USCCB), some professor is arguing “that the principles of doctrinal development could allow for a radical revision of hell, making it temporary and its punishments remedial.” Such a view is supposedly held by such figures as St. Gregory of Nyssa, Isaac the Syrian, and St. Maximus the Confessor.

I oppose this view. It stands against the basic doctrine of the Catechism (which is no infallible text) and against the plain sense of the Gospel (which is as infallible a text as there ever was).

Being most familiar, among all the texts of Scripture, with the Gospel of Matthew, the texts in favor of eternal punishment jump to my mind without any effort. I believe these are all the most significant ones:¹

“Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Mt 3:10).

“But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, `You fool!' shall be liable to the hell of fire” (Mt 5:22).

“If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. / And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell” (Mt 5:29-30).

“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. / For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Mt 7:13-14).

“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Mt 7:19).

“Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. / On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ / And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers’” (Mt 7:21-23).

“I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, / while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth” (Mt 8:11-12).

“Truly, I say to you, it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomor'rah than for that town” (Mt 10:15).

“But I tell you, it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. […] But I tell you that it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you” (Mt 10:22,24).

“Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. / And whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come” (Mt 12:31-32).

“I tell you, on the day of judgment men will render account for every careless word they utter; / for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Mt 12:36-37).

“When any one hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in his heart; […] yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. / As for what was sown among thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the delight in riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful” (Mt 13:19-22).

“Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn” (Mt 13:30).

“Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. / The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, / and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth” (Mt 13:40-42).

“So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous, / and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth” (Mt 13:49-50).

“For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done” (Mt 16:27).

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Mt 18:6).

“And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. / And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire” (Mt 18:8-9).

“And in anger his lord delivered him to the jailers, till he should pay all his debt. / So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart” (Mt 18:34-35).

“And seeing a fig tree by the wayside he went to it, and found nothing on it but leaves only. And he said to it, "May no fruit ever come from you again!" And the fig tree withered at once” (Mt 21:19).

“He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons” (Mt 21:41).

“The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city” (Mt 22:7).

“Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.’ / For many are called, but few are chosen” (Mt 22:13-14).

“You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” (Mt 23:33).

“Afterward the other maidens came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ / But he replied, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you’” (Mt 25:11-12).

“And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth” (Mt 25:30).

“Then he will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’ / And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Mt 25:45-46).

This is the Gospel of the Lord. I compiled this list, not after a lengthy period of study and reading, but rather I simply opened a .txt document of the Gospel of Matthew and skimmed through it for half an hour. All the passages were familiar to me and I knew where to expect them. Given that our Lord is himself the judge on the final day, he is the ultimate authority here (cf. Mt 7:29), and his words must be placed first in considering these sorts of topics. To allege that there is no hell of eternal punishment seems to evacuate the Gospel of Matthew of much authority, as there are over 20 passages where our Lord does not hesitate to warn of a punishment of exceeding hurt.

When I put forward a few of these to a well-known universalist, he said that I “neglect clearly universalist passages,” and so I intend to consider soon the passages he shared with me as “clearly universalist”: “Jn 12.32 [and] Rom 5.18, 11.32; 1 Tim 2.4; 2 Pet 3.9; Phil 2.10-11 w/ 1 Cor 12.3; 1 Cor 15.28; Col 1.17, 3.11, and many more—including Revelation 21.”

The same author graciously shared a few passages from St. Maximus the Confessor, one of the supposed advocates of universalism, and so I will consider these as well: Amb 20.4, Amb 31.6, and QThal 64 (which is supposedly like unto Origen’s first homily on Jeremiah).

Let me be clear that I am not denouncing Dr. Wood or his colleagues as heretics. This is not my job, nor do I want it to be. I simply think that he and they are incorrect, and incorrect in a way that does violence to the coherence of the Gospels. I have no reason to doubt their sincerity or, in many cases, the erudition of their research. But I am not settled on their conclusions and so I will continue to consider the matter.

1. I cite here the RSV. The Greek may reveal more, but this is sufficient for a survey.