A Memory on Hell

Gregory Of Nyssa sat on several ancient councils of the earliest church (before 500 AD) and is often given the title “father of the fathers” by historians thereafter.

To Quote:

In 787 AD, the Seventh Ecumenical Council of the Church, (also known as the Second Council of Nicea) honored Gregory of Nyssa:

“Let us then, consider who were the venerable doctors and indomitable champions of the Church…[including] Gregory Primate of Nyssa, who all have called the father of fathers.”

Ancient teacher of the Church
Gregory of Nyssa on hell

Gregory of Nyssa

“when death approaches to life, and darkness to light, and the corruptible to the incorruptible, the inferior is done away with and reduced to non-existence, and the thing purged is benefited, just as the dross is purged from gold by fire. In the same way in the long circuits of time, when the evil of nature which is now mingled and implanted in them has been taken away, whensoever the restoration to their old condition of the things that now lie in wickedness takes place, there will be a unanimous thanksgiving from the whole creation, both of those who have been punished in the purification and of those who have not at all needed purification.”

“I believe that punishment will be administered in proportion to each one’s corruptness. Therefore to whom there is much corruption attached, with him it is necessary that the purgatorial time which is to consume it should be great, and of long duration; but to him in whom the wicked disposition has been already in part subjected, a proportionate degree of that sharper and more vehement punishment shall be forgiven. All evil, however, must at length be entirely removed from everything, so that it shall no more exist. For such being the nature of sin that it cannot exist without a corrupt motive, it must of course be perfectly dissolved, and wholly destroyed, so that nothing can remain a receptacle of it, when all motive and influence shall spring from God alone,”