Conclusion: What did the Apostolic Fathers believe about Hell?

It’s been very interesting going over each Apostolic Father’s description of hell and final judgment. This blog will just be a brief summary and conclusion on what the early Church after the New Testament believed and preached about the fate of unrepentant sinners.

The Apostolic Fathers do not give deep descriptions of hell or punishment, but they also do not deny the reality of hell and the judgment the wicked will face when Christ returns. Based on the consistent warnings each writer gives of the wicked perishing and facing divine suffering for their sins, it would be very difficult to make a case of Universal Reconciliation from the Apostolic Fathers. Whether one believes in Eternal Conscious Torment or Conditional Immortality, the Apostolic Fathers affirm that destruction and eternal separation from God are destined to those who don’t turn to Christ. Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation.

When examining the AF canon on the doctrine of hell, it stood out to me that there wasn’t complete consistency. For example, not all Fathers are in agreement with the condition of souls, which is key to understanding whether the divine suffering of the wicked has an ending or not. The Epistle of Diognetus definitely leans toward the Platonic understanding of souls being eternal, which Tertullian would later write about, leaning the epistle’s belief toward Eternal Conscious Torment. There are also hints of Purgatory or some kind of intermediate state of the dead found in The Shepherd of Hermas.

Because of this diversity, as well as other examples found in the blogs of each writing, I think we need to be careful in stating what the Apostolic Fathers collectively believed about hell. To say the AF are in total agreement on ECT or CI would frankly be inaccurate. For Conditionalists, I would encourage further studying and discussion on Ignatius’ “bodiless demon” quote, 1st Clement’s reference to Judith, and the hints of Purgatory in The Didache and Hermas.

For Traditionalists, I would encourage there to be more acknowledgement that the Apostolic Fathers do not describe hell the way our traditions so often do. The dominating focus of the AF regarding judgment was to flee from death and find life in Christ. The idea of facing eternal fire isn’t absent, but it can be (and has been) way overstated to support ECT, especially when most of the references the AF make of eternal fire can simply be applied to CI just the same.

In conclusion, I personally think Eternal Conscious Torment and Conditional Immortality can both be found in the Apostolic Fathers. Neither one is definitively outed, with the exception of Diognetus favoring ECT. After digging deep into this subject, I would say I still lean slightly toward Conditional Immortality, but recognize there are good cases to be made for the Traditional view. Hopefully we can continue to discuss this with humility, and recognize whether ECT or CI is true, that we should take salvation in Christ seriously and pray for the lost to be reconciled to God through Jesus.