Synodical Letter of St. Sophronius of Jerusalem (6th Council) - Universalism, Evolution, & more

Many today say that universalism (i.e. that all souls will be saved and enjoy heavenly bliss) has never been condemned by a Council, that some Saints taught this doctrine, and that therefore it is an acceptable view for Orthodox Christians to hold, even if it is a minority view. While some Saints appear to have held this view in some way, the vast majority of Saints rejected such ideas, and some even specifically distinguished their sanctity from their error on this matter. St. Photios the Great said, “What St. Gregory, the bishop of Nyssa, said about the apocatastasis, the Church does not accept.” Both the 5th and 6th Ecumenical Councils explicitly reject any notion that all unrepentant souls, both men and demons, will ultimately be redeemed and will enjoy the love and truth of Christ.

St. Sophronius of Jerusalem (+638) wrote this letter upon becoming Patriarch of Jerusalem in 634 while the monothelite heresy (i.e. that Christ has one will, not two) was raging. His Synodical Letter was read and accepted at the 6th Ecumeincal Council that condemned monothelitism, as well as the teachings of Origen and those of like mind. In it we find a clear condemnation of universalism as well as a condemnation of principles essential to the theory of evolution.
May we pray genuinely and simply those prayers of the evening prayer rule: "O Lord, deliver me from the eternal torments" (prayer of St. John Chrysostom), and "O Lord, I fear Thy Judgment and the endless torments" (prayer of St. John Damascene).

+Universalism, eternal hell+

“[Origen and other heretics] want an end to punishment”
“alleging the restoration of all rational creatures, angels, human beings, demons”
“we both speak of the consummation of the present world and believe that that life which is to come after the present life will last forever, and we hold to unending punishment”

+Adam, Eve, Paradise, Creation, Evolution+
“They throw out the planting of paradise, they do not want Adam fashioned in the flesh, they object to the moulding of Eve from him, they reject the utterance of the snake”
“But it is not only on this point that the deranged err and go astray from the straight road (such impiety would be tolerable in comparison with [their other] evils), but they also make myriads of other statements contrary to the tradition of the apostles and our Fathers. They throw out the planting of paradise, they do not want Adam fashioned in the flesh, they object to the moulding of Eve from him, they reject the utterance of the snake, they forbid the ranks of heavenly armies as they were created to be in the beginning by God, imagining that they resulted from a primordial condemnation and deviation. They dream up, both godlessly and mythically, that all rational things were produced in a henad of minds, and they abuse the creation of the waters above heaven, and want an end to punishment, and they introduce besides total corruptibility of all perceptible things, while alleging the restoration of all rational creatures, angels, human beings, demons, and again confounding their differences into one mythical unity, when Christ will be different from us in no respect, whom they preach in a foolish manner, not the one whom we proclaim in pious belief in glory or honour or kingship or lordship. They seethe like demons and bring forth myriads of things from the diabolical and impious store of their heart…”

Sophronius of Jerusalem and Seventh-Century Heresy from Oxford Univeristy Press. See pgs 119-125: https://www.scribd.com/document/20535...

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