Apokatastastis the heresy of universal salvation

These verbal contradictions explain why the defenders of orthodoxy should have thought that St. Gregory of Nyssa's writings had been tampered with by heretics. St. Germanus of Constantinople, writing in the eighth century, went so far as to say that those who held that the devils and lost souls would one day be set free had dared "to instil into the pure and most healthful spring of his [Gregory's] writings the black and dangerous poison of the error of Origen, and to cunningly attribute this foolish heresy to a man famous alike for his virtue and his learning" (quoted by Photius, Bibl. Cod., 223; P.G. CIII, col. 1105) The doctrine of the apokatastasis is not, indeed, peculiar to St. Gregory of Nyssa, but is taken from Origen, who seems at times reluctant to decide concerning the question of the eternity of punishment. Origen teaches the apokatastasis, the final restoration of all intelligent creatures to friendship with God.

he doctrine was formally condemned in the first of the famous anathemas pronounced at the Council of Constantinople in 543:
the 2nd Council of Constantinople in 553 CE declared apokatastasis as heresy St. Thomas Aquinas could hardly be happy, it is said, from thinking of the doom of the Devil and went so far in his pity for the prisoner of the pit as to spend a night in prayer for the pardon and restoration of the dethroned archangel. O God, he prayed, have mercy upon Thy servant the Devil (Rudwin 284). Here is a little history explaining its modern rival and reception If Milton did believe in apokatatasis and disagreed with Justinians condemnation of the doctrine, then he would not be the only Protestant to share this view. Apokatatasis was championed during the Reformation in the writings of Denk (d. 1527), and Harnak has not hesitated to assert that nearly all the Reformers were apokatastaists at heart The doctrine of apokatastasis viewed as a belief in a universal salvation is found among the Anabaptists, the Moravian Brethren, the Christadelphians, among rationalistic Protestants, and finally among the Professed Universalists Francis Clarke pseudo Gregorian dialogues explores the unexplored area of catholic forgeries and their role in assigning and accrediting catholic dotriine against correct doctrine. On purgatory 4.26 1-14. The author makes incinuation of this forgery since the Vatican is known for forgeries exposed in the renaissance and today, it is no surprise. This shows that these documents attributed to Gregory nyssa are deemed unlikely at best. Fathers are clear regarding this heresy in the church. Mario baghos makes clear on pg 149 on his work on apokatastasis that one can be cleansed after death through purgatory fire. He makes no reference to the consensus of the church fathers in the church nor the ecumenical council that condemned nor even scientifically analyse of this forgery in an accredited journal to cite the works of francis Clarke.

Mario makes no reference to the following quotes found on orthodox wiki that show the saints of the church were aware of these forgeries, even st mark of Ephesus in combating Catholicism at Florence, knew alleged quotes of fathers accepting of the filoque as forgeries.
Gregory of Nyssa St. Gregory of Nyssa accepted the idea of apocatastasis from Origen. However, this part of St. Gregory's writings has been unequivocally rejected by the subsequent Church Fathers:

St. Varsanofios the Great, criticizing the doctrine of apocatastasis, when asked about
St. Gregory's opinion, has answered: "do not think that people, though also saints, could completely understand all depths of God... Even if a saint speaks about such opinions, you will not find that he confirmed the words as though had the statement from above, but that they resulted from the doctrine of his former teachers, and he, trusting their knowledge of them, did not inquire of God whether it was true."citation n needed St. Herman of Constantinople has also expressed a negative opinion of the doctrine, but he supposes that the works of St. Gregory have been damaged by Origenists: "those who liked that absurd idea, as if for demons and for people who will be subjected to eternal punishment, is possible to expect the discontinuance... they have taken his clean and sensible works and have added the dark and disastrous poison of Origen's nonsense."citation n needed St. Mark of Ephesus, after citing St. Gregory, exclaims: "Are we wrong when we do not believe those words of St. Gregory of Nyssa, considering them forgeries, or, even if they are original, to not accept as contradictory to Scripture and to the general dogma?"citation n needed St. Maximus the Confessor, rejecting an Origenistic interpretation of apocatastasis, considered that St. Gregory used this term "in sense of restoration of cognitive forces of the man in that condition of the correct relation to truth."citation needed St. Photius the Great has expressed the Church's general interpretation in one phrase: "that in works of St. Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, where restoration is mentioned, it is not accepted by the Church."citation needed Evagrius Ponticus Isaac of Syria

The Church reaction to Origenism

The anathemas of the local Council of Constantinople in 453, which is understood by
most commentators to be confirmed by the Fifth Ecumenical Council in 553, posthumously excommunicated Origen and anyone following specific points of his teachings. These anathemas condemned his protology of pre-existent souls and his eschatology of universal restoration of all things "which follows from" his protology1: : If anyone asserts the fabulous pre-existence of souls, and shall assert the monstrous restoration which follows from it: let him be anathema. (First anathema against

O Origen)
If anyone shall say that all reasonable beings will one day be united in one, when the hypostases as well as the numbers and the bodies shall have disappeared, and that the knowledge of the world to come will carry with it the ruin of the worlds, and the rejection of bodies as also the abolition of [all] names, and that there shall be finally an identity of the and of the hypostasis; moreover, that in this pretended apocatastasis, spirits only will continue to exist, as it was in the feigned pre-existence: let him be anathema. (Fourteenth anathema against Origen)2

The decisions of ecumenical councils have universal authority in the Orthodox Church. Only doctrinal definitions have the force of dogma. Local councils only have
authority within specific geographic limits. Modern Advocates If we are going to quote St. Thomas Aquinas, then let's examine what he says about St. Gregory of Nyssa:"Further, Gregory of Nyssa [De iis qui in fide dormiunt] says: "If one who loves and believes in Christ," has failed to wash away his sins in this life, "he is set free after death by the fire of Purgatory." http://www.newadvent.org/summa/7001.htm this is connected to the embarrassing episode of catholic history with indulgences. This is an example of the distorted quotes which used to annoy the Orthodox so much on CAF. Saint Geregory of Nyssa who died in the 4th century could not have written that. The term "purgatorium" did not appear until the Middle Ages in the Roman Catholic Church with Pope Innocent III.

Apokatastasi has no place in orthodoxy.

Nicholas lazarou