Jesus seemed to think that the Father was superior. John 14:28 - Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
So by the early third century, the "church" had abandoned the urgency of baptism. That's interesting. The first century church was very urgent about a new believer being baptized. They believed something that had fallen out of favor after the apostles were dead. Urgency was replaced by casualty (if you will). In the teaching of the first century, baptism is what a new believe wanted to do because the apostles called it "being baptized into Christ". Who would want to delay that state of being, right? But the brilliant minds of those later years trivialized the ritual that actually adds people to the church. Oh well, the church was a good idea while it lasted.
Is universalism really biblical? I ended up here after first hearing about this doctrine and my research led me here. And I hear Origen was rebuked by most church leaders in his day
Hi Eugene...Origen was not rebuked in his day while he was alive...In fact he was highly regarded for centuries. it wasn't until 300 years after his death that an 'emperor' named Justinian declared him a 'heretic'. And it wasn't because of his 'universalism'; it had to do with the pre-existence of souls and such.
