Origen was a most prolific author; and, if all his works were still extant, they would be far more voluminous than those of any other of the Fathers. But most of his writings have been lost; and, in not a few instances, those which remain have reached us either in a very mutilated form, or in a garbled Latin version. (Killen, Ancient Church, period 2, sec. 2, chap. 1, paragraph 22)
It would have been a blessing to the world if they had all been lost, or, better still, if they had never been written, for there is not a heresy that has ever existed in the church, nor a false form of religion, that was not taught by this metaphysical dreamer:
By proclaiming the reconciliation of science with the Christian faith, of the highest culture with the gospel, Origen did more than any other man to win the Old World to the Christian religion. (Professor Harnack, Encyclopedia Britannica)
The “science” which he attempted to reconcile with the Christian religion, was heathen philosophy. Of course he could show a harmony only by misrepresenting and perverting the Christian religion, bringing it nearly down to a level with that heathen philosophy. ...And this in turn contributed immensely to the corruption of the church.
And so instead of winning the Old World to the Christian religion, he lowered the Christian religion to the standard of the Old World. This conclusion is warranted by the following:
Gradually the friends of philosophy and literature acquired the ascendency. To this issue Origen contributed very much; for having early imbibed the principles of the new Platonism, he inauspiciously applied them to theology, and earnestly recommended them to the numerous youth who attended on his instructions. And the greater the influence of this man, which quickly spread over the whole Christian world, the more readily was his method of explaining the sacred doctrines propagated. (Mosheim, Ecclesiastical History, book 1, cent. 3, part 2, chap. 1, sec. 5)
Following is the estimate placed upon Origen’s teaching:
He enthroned a metaphysical theology above the supernatural revelation, and then took the role of a qualified interpreter of that revelation; thus, by his wild style of allegorizing, muddling the clearest teachings, and leaving the reader in utter bewilderment. (Rev. Wm. Hogue, D. D., The Watchman (Boston), December 16, 1886)
..... to obtain a better idea of the baleful effect of the teaching of Origen, it is necessary to know something of “the New Platonism” to which he was so ardently devoted.
The following is probably as concise an account of this mixture of heathen philosophy and Christian theology as we can find:
Near the close of this century [the second], a new philosophical sect suddenly started up, which in a short time prevailed over a large part of the Roman Empire, and not only nearly swallowed up the other sects, but likewise did immense injury to Christianity. Egypt was its birthplace, and particularly Alexandria, which for a long time had been the seat of literature and every
science. Its followers chose to be called Platonics. Yet they did not follow Plato implicitly, but collected from all systems whatever seemed to coincide with their own views. And the ground of their preference for the name of Platonics, was, that they conceived Plato had explained more correctly than all others, that most important branch of philosophy which treats of God and supersensible things.Hence among the lovers of truth, and the men of moderation, a new class of philosophers had grown up in Egypt, who avoided altercation and a sectarian spirit, and who professed simply to follow truth, gathering up whatever was accordant with it in all the philosophic schools. They assumed therefore the name of Eclectics. .... they much preferred Plato, and embraced most of his dogmas concerning God, the human soul, and the universe.
In particular, all those who in this century presided in the schools of the Christians at Alexandria (Athenagoras, Pantaenus, and Clemens Alexandrinus), are said to have approved of it. These men were persuaded that true philosophy, the great and most salutary gift of God, lay in scattered fragments among all the sects of philosophers; and therefore that it was the duty of every wise man, and especially of a Christian teacher, to collect those fragments from all quarters, and to use them for the defense of religion and the confutation of impiety.
This eclectic mode of philosophizing was changed near the close of the century, when Ammonius Saccas with great applause, opened a school at Alexandria, and laid the foundation of that sect which is called the New Platonic. This man was born and educated a Christian, and perhaps made pretensions to Christianity all his life.
For the eclectics held that there was a mixture of good and bad, true and false, in all the systems; and therefore they selected out of all, what appeared to them consonant with reason, and rejected the rest. But Ammonius held that all sects professed one and the same system of truth, with only some difference in the mode of stating it, and some minute difference in their conceptions; so that by means of suitable explanations, they might with little difficulty be brought into one body.
The grand object of Ammonius, to bring all sects and religions into harmony, required him to do much violence to the sentiments and opinions of all parties, philosophers, priests, and Christians; and particularly, by means of allegorical interpretations, to remove very many impediments out of his way.
To these assumptions he added the common doctrines of the Egyptians (among whom he was born and educated), concerning the universe and the deity, as constituting one great whole (Pantheism); concerning the eternity of the world, the nature of the soul, providence, the government of this world by demons, and other received doctrines, all of which he considered as true and not to be called in question…In the next place, with these Egyptian notions he united the philosophy of Plato, ...
To this Egyptiaco-Platonic philosophy, the ingenious and fanatical man joined a system of moral discipline apparently of high sanctity and austerity. He permitted the common people, indeed, to live according to the laws of their country and the dictates of nature; but he directed the wise to elevate, by contemplation, their souls, which were the offspring of God, above all earthly things;…so that they might in the present life, attain to communion with the supreme Being, and might ascend after death, active and unencumbered, to the universal parent, and be forever united with him.
Ammonius .... by using forms of expression borrowed from the sacred Scriptures;
and hence these forms of expression occur abundantly in the writings of his followers. To this austere discipline, he superadded the art of so purging and improving the imaginative faculty, as to make it capable of seeing the demons, and of performing many wonderful things by their assistance. His followers called this art Theurgy.Ammonius first turned the whole history of the pagan gods into allegory, and maintained that those whom the vulgar and the priest honored with the title of gods, were only the ministers of God, to whom some homage might and should be paid, yet such as would not derogate from the superior homage due to the supreme God; and in the next place he admitted that Christ was an extraordinary man, the friend of God, and an admirable Theurge. He denied that Christ aimed wholly to suppress the worship of the demons, those ministers of divine providence; that, on the contrary, he only sought to wipe away the stains, contracted by the ancient religions; and that his disciples had corrupted and vitiated the system of their master. (Mosheim, Ecclesiastical History, book 1, cent. 2, part 2, chap. 1, sec. 4-11)
This medley formed the basis of Origen’s theology. It will be seen at once that Neo-Platonism was nothing else but Spiritualism in its broadest sense.
It is a fact that the principles of ancient heathenism and modern
Spiritualism are identical.
To Origen belongs the unsavory honor of bringing this Spiritualism
into the church. When the “true inwardness” of Neo-Platonism is fully
realized, and it is understood that it constituted Origen’s religion,
the reader will wonder how Origen could ever be regarded as a Christian.
Following his account of Neo-Platonism, Mosheim says:
This new species of philosophy, imprudently adopted by Origen and other Christians, did immense harm to Christianity. For it led the teachers of it to involve in philosophic obscurity many parts of our religion, which were in
themselves plain and easy to be understood; and to add to the precepts of the Savior not a few things, of which not a word can be found in the holy Scriptures.It also produced that gloomy set of men called mystics; whose system, if divested of its Platonic notions respecting the origin and nature of the soul, will be a lifeless and senseless corpse.
It laid a foundation, too, for that indolent mode of life, which was afterwards adopted by many, and particularly by numerous tribes of monks; and it recommended to Christians various foolish and useless rites, suited only to nourish superstition, no small part of which we see religiously observed by many even to the present day. (Mosheim, Ecclesiastical History, book 1, cent. 2, part 2, chap. 1, sec. 12)
How those who know these things can ever quote the writings of Origen with approval, or can regard his advocacy even of a good cause as any help to it, is one of the mysteries of human nature which we shall not attempt to explain.
The following testimony is not needed to show Origen’s heathen proclivities, but the reader will find that it will throw much light on the condition of the church in the second and third centuries, and will help to show how the great apostasy was brought about:
The spirit of philosophizing, however, so far from experiencing any decline or abatement, continued to increase and diffuse itself more and more, particularly towards the close of this century, when a new sect sprung up at Alexandria under the title of “The Modern Platonists.” The founder of the sect was Ammonius Saccas, a man of a subtle, penetrating genius, but prone to deviate, in many things, from right reason, and too much inclined to indulge in ridiculous flights of imagination.
In addition to a multitude of others who flocked to this man for instruction, his lectures were constantly attended by a great number of Christians, who were inflamed with an eager desire after knowledge, and of whom two, namely, Origen and Heraclas, became afterwards very distinguished characters, the former succeeding to the presidency of the school, the latter to that of the church of Alexandria.
By the Christian disciples of Ammonius, and more particularly by Origen, who in the succeeding century attained to a degree of eminence scarcely credible, the doctrines which they had derived from their master were sedulously instilled into the minds of the youth ....the love of philosophy became pretty generally diffused throughout a considerable portion of the church. (Mosheim, Ecclesiastical Commentaries, cent. 2, sec. 27)
In the next section, Mosheim says of this new philosophy, of which Origen was so enthusiastic a disciple:
This great design of bringing about a union of all sects and religions, the offspring of a mind certainly not destitute of genius, but distracted by fanaticism, and scarcely at all under the dominion of reason, required, in order to its execution, not only that the most strained and unprincipled interpretations should be given to ancient sentiments, maxims, documents, and narratives, but also that the assistance of frauds and fallacies should be called in; hence we find the works which the disciples of Ammonius left behind them abounding in things of this kind; so much so indeed, that it is impossible for them ever to be viewed in any other light than as deplorable monuments of wisdom run mad.
Archdeacon Farrar, who says of Origen that “it would be impossible to speak in any terms but those of the highest admiration and respect” of him, gives the following testimony concerning him:
In many passages he speaks disparagingly of the literal truth of the Scripture narratives. This constitutes his retrogressive and disastrous originality. He constantly uses allegory where his own principles give him no excuse for doing so. He .. allegorizes not only such narratives as that of the creation, but even the law, the histories, and the prophets. The acceptance of the simple narrative becomes too commonplace for him; he compares it to the transgression of eating raw the Paschal lamb. (History of Interpretation, pp. 197, 198)
Speaking of the rise of monkery, Schaff shows to some extent how Catholicism is indebted to Origen for that abomination. He says:
The Alexandrian Fathers first furnished a theoretical basis for this asceticism in the distinction, suggested even by the Pastor Hermae, of a lower and a higher morality; a distinction, which, like that introduced at the same period by Tertullian, of mortal and venial sins, gave rise to many practical errors, and favored both moral laxity and ascetic extravagance….Origen goes still further, and propounds quite distinctly the Catholic doctrine of works of supererogation, works not enjoined indeed in the gospel, yet recommended, which were supposed to establish a peculiar merit and secure a higher degree of blessedness. (History of Church, period 2, sec. 94)
In support of the statement that Origen was the father of false and pernicious doctrines in the church, we quote again from Mosheim:
The same Origen, unquestionably, stands at the head of the interpreters of the Bible in this century. But with pain it must be added, he was first among those who have found in the Scriptures a secure retreat for all errors and idle
fancies.He therefore taught, that the words, in many parts of the Bible, convey no meaning at all; and in some places, where he acknowledged there was some meaning in the words, he maintained that under the things there expressed, there was contained a hidden and concealed sense, which was much to be preferred to the literal meaning of the words. And this hidden sense it is that he searches after in his commentaries, ingeniously indeed, but perversely, and generally to the entire neglect and contempt of the literal meaning. (Mosheim, Ecclesiastical History, book 1, cent. 3, part 2, chap. 3, sec. 5)
In note 7 to the above paragraph Mosheim says:
Origen perversely turned a large part of Biblical history into moral fables, and many of the laws into allegories…
Let the reader stop a while to consider whether or not Origen is entitled in the slightest degree to the appellation, “Christian Father.”
Origen’s writings were largely instrumental in bringing about the great apostasy which resulted in the establishment of the papacy...
Like all the so-called Christian Fathers, Origen was so intensely “liberal” that he could without scruple advocate exactly opposite views of the same subject;
With one more testimony concerning Origen’s heresies, we will proceed to a closer examination of them:
Origen may, in fact, be regarded as the father of Christian mysticism; and, in after ages, to a certain class of visionaries, especially amongst the monks, his writings long continued to present peculiar attractions.
But that nothing has been exaggerated concerning Origen, will now appear, as he is permitted to testify for himself.
The first thing to claim our attention shall be Origen’s views of the Sabbath, which are, in brief, as follows:
There are countless multitudes of believers who, although unable to unfold methodically and clearly the results of their spiritual understanding, are nevertheless most firmly persuaded that neither ought circumcision to be understood literally, nor the rest of the Sabbath,... (De Principiis, book 2, chap. 7)
This shows that Origen was so far from teaching the observance of Sunday, that he did not believe in any literal Sabbath. This was in keeping with his method of allegorizing everything.
Writing to the heathen philosopher Celsus, concerning the pagan festivals, Origen says:
If it be objected to us on this subject that we ourselves are accustomed to observe certain days, as for example the Lord’s day, the Preparation, the Passover, or
Pentecost, I have to answer, that to the perfect Christian, who is ever in his thoughts, words, and deeds serving his natural Lord, God the Word, all his days are the Lord’s, and he is always keeping the Lord’s day.He also who is unceasingly preparing himself for the true life, and abstaining from the pleasures of this life which lead astray so many,—who is not indulging the lust of the flesh, but “keeping under his body, and bringing it into subjection,”—such a one is always keeping Preparation day. (Against Celsus, book 8, chap. 22)
This passage is generally quoted as evidence in favor of Sunday-keeping. It is scarcely necessary at this point to remind the reader that it is of very little consequence to us what the church did in the third century, since it was then pretty well paganized.
But there is nothing in favor of Sunday in the above extract. He speaks of the Lord’s day without telling whether he means the first or seventh day; but from the connection it is quite evident that he means the seventh day of the week, the true Lord’s day.
The sixth day of the week was universally known as “the preparation,” and moreover the term occurs in connection with Passover and Pentecost. But whether he has reference to the seventh day or the first, he makes it plain that he did not believe in a literal observance of it. So his testimony concerning Sunday is a negative quantity.
In his discourse about the fundamental principles he says:
Nor even do the law and the commandments wholly convey what is agreeable to reason. For who that has understanding will suppose that the first, and second, and third day, and the evening and the morning, existed without a sun, and
moon, and stars? and the first day was, as it were, also without a sky? And who is so foolish as to suppose that God, after the manner of a husbandman, planted a paradise in Eden, towards the east, and placed in it a tree of life, visible and palpable, so that one tasting of the fruit by the bodily teeth obtained life? and again, that one was a partaker of good and evil by masticating what was taken from the tree?And if God is said to walk in the paradise in the evening, and Adam to hide himself under a tree, I do not suppose that anyone doubts that these things figuratively indicate certain mysteries, the history having taken place in appearance, and not literally….And what need is there to say more, since those who are not altogether blind can collect countless instances of a similar kind recorded as having occurred, but which did not literally take place?
Nay, the gospels themselves are filled with the same kind of narratives; e. g., the devil leading Jesus up into a high mountain, in order to show him from thence the kingdoms of the whole world, and the glory of them. For who is there among those who do not read such accounts carelessly, that would not condemn those who think that with the eye of the body—which requires a lofty height in order that the parts lying (immediately) under and adjacent may be seen—the kingdoms of the Persians, and Scythians, and Indians, and Parthians, were beheld, and the manner in which their princes are glorified among men?
And the attentive reader may notice in the gospels innumerable other passages like these, so that he will be convinced that in the histories that are literally recorded, circumstances that did not occur are inserted. (De Principiis, book 4, chap. 1, sec. 16)
David and the apostles spoke because they believed (Psalm 116:10; 2 Corinthians 4:13). Origen’s claim to note as a Biblical expositor seems to be on the ground that he did not believe. Surely he could not be expected to make Bible Christians of his followers, when he starts out with the statement that much of the historical record in the Bible is a fabrication, and that the law of God itself is repugnant to reason. What more could an Ingersoll or a Paine say? Every infidel will admit that there are some true things in the Bible.
When you hear professed ministers of the gospel making light of the record in the first chapters of Genesis, and making a parade of the “new light” that has dawned upon this century, remember that they are simply adopting the views of the semi-pagan Origen. Not only does he deny the truth of the Old Testament records, but of the gospel narrative as well. In the section preceding the one just quoted, he says:
....but where, in the narrative of the development of supersensual things, there did not follow the performance of those certain events, which was already indicated by the mystical meaning, the Scripture interwove in the history (the account of) some event that did not take place, sometimes what could not have happened; sometimes what could, but did not. (De Principiis, book 4, chap. 1, sec. 15)
The whole tenor of Origen’s teaching is in the direction of infidelity. And his infidelity is of the worst type, because it is put forth under cover of the name of Christianity.
The apostle Jude says “the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation,” have been “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the great day” (Jude 6); but Origen teaches that they will ultimately be restored to the favor of God.
The Bible teaches that souls are purified by faith in Christ, and obedience to the truth through the Spirit; but Origen teaches that souls will be purged from sin by punishment. In the above extract we have the Roman Catholic purgatory as clearly set forth as it could possibly be; the only difference between Origen and other Catholics is that they provide an eternal hell for certain incorrigible ones, while Origen teaches the final restoration not only of all men but of demons also.
In the following the reader will find a combination of Universalism, Roman Catholicism, and Spiritualism:
I think, therefore, that all the saints who depart from this life will remain in some
place situated on the earth, which holy Scripture calls paradise, as in some place of instruction, and, so to speak, class-room or school of souls, in which they are to be instructed regarding all the things which they had seen on earth, and are to receive also some information respecting things that are to follow in the future, as even when in this life they had obtained in some degree indications of future events, although “through a glass darkly,” all of which are revealed more clearly and distinctly to the saints in their proper time and place.If anyone indeed be pure in heart, and holy in mind, and more practiced in perception, he will, by making more rapid progress, quickly ascend to a place in the air, and reach the kingdom of Heaven, through those mansions, so to speak, in the various places which the Greeks have termed spheres, i.e., globes, but which holy Scripture has called heavens; in each of which he will first see clearly what is done there, and in the second place, will discover the reason why things are so done: and thus he will in order pass through all gradations, following Him who hath passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, who said, “I will that where I am, these may be also.” (De Principiis, book 2, chap. 11, sec. 6)
And the following is doctrine eminently adapted to satisfy every hardened sinner:
We find in the prophet Isaiah, that the fire with which each one is punished is described as his own; for he says, “Walk in the light of your own fire, and the flame which ye have kindled.” By these words it seems to be indicated that every sinner kindles for himself the flame of his own fire, and is not plunged into some fire which has been already kindled by another, or was in existence before himself. Of this fire the fuel and food are our sins, which are called by the apostle Paul “wood, and hay, and stubble”…When the soul has gathered together a multitude of evil works, and an abundance of sins against itself, at a suitable time all that assembly of evil boils up to punishment, and is set on fire to chastisements; when the mind itself, or conscience, receiving by divine power into the memory all those things of which it had stamped on itself certain signs and forms at the moment of sinning, will see a kind of history, as it were, of all the foul, and shameful, and unholy deeds which it has done, exposed before its eyes: then is the conscience itself harassed, and, pierced by its own goads, becomes an accuser and a witness against itself. (Ibid., chap. 10, sec. 4)
Here we have purgatory indeed, but it is a spiritual purgatory. The sinner is to be purified by fire, but the fire is to be simply his own sins. Stripped of the mass of verbiage, Origen’s teaching is simply to the effect that all the punishment men will ever receive for their sins will be the knowledge of those sins,—the remorse of conscience constitutes the fire, and this remorse will eventually purge them from sin.
In short, his teaching is that men will be freed from their sins simply by thinking about them.
Origen’s dreamy, fanciful, mystical,
skeptical, and spiritualistic rantings could never have any other than a
blighting influence upon the church." E.J. Waggoner
