Origen:
- 1) Every rational being has free will.
- 2) Everyone, even Satan, will be saved.
- 3) He was declared an infidel.
Augustine:
- 1) A person can only sin in his own state.
- 2) Everyone, even unbaptized babies, is destined for hell.
- 3) He was declared a saint.
- “Origen.. believed that even the devil himself and his angels, after suffering the long sufferings deserved by their sins, should be freed from their torments and be with the holy angels. But the Church rightly condemned him for this.” [Augustinus, City of God XXI.17]
- “The great difference between Origen and Augustine is the temperament of their respective gods. Origen’s god loves all of his creations and strives to save every being. Augustine’s God is rightfully angry at sin and saves only a small number of people to show his mercy.”
“[According to Origen] Each soul will ultimately attain salvation because God loves all of his creations and wants them all to be saved. Each soul, because God’s love cannot be hindered. Thus, even Satan will repent and be saved. Origen’s God does not cast anyone aside.”
Augustine complains to Jerome that he has no good answer to the problem of baby suffering. If babies die without getting baptized, they suffer. If babies live, they suffer. Source: Letter 166
The subsequent view that dominated from the fourth century and on, best epitomized in the writings of John Chrysostom (349–407) and Augustine of Hippo (354–430), proclaimed that only through faith in Jesus Christ could a person achieve salvation (See ibid., 1:235–433; Trumbower, Rescue for the Dead). In other words, there is no salvation outside the church (extra ecclesiam nulla salus); only righteous Christians could be saved.
