Jerome’s Views Shown Again to Be Origen’s, Continued

In this passage all room for doubt is removed. In the earlier passage you said that those who hoped in Christ before are those who, before they were born in bodies in this visible world, lived in heaven and had hope in Christ. But to keep this from being taken as your own doctrine, you brought in another interpretation: namely, that at the time when every knee will bow to Jesus as Lord, the whole creation, of things in heaven, on earth and under the earth, will consist of persons made subject to him in two different ways, some willingly and some by necessity. You add that all the saints who now believe in him through the word of preaching are subject to him willingly, and that these are called Fore-hopers, that is, those who have hoped in Christ beforehand. But those who are subject to him by necessity are those who have not believed now through the preaching of the word, but who then will no longer be able to deny him, such as the devil and his angels, and those who along with them have been forced by necessity to believe. And all these, among them the devil and his angels, who will believe afterward, will not be called Fore-hopers, because that name belongs to those who believed in Christ before and hoped in him willingly, whereas these others did so only afterward and by necessity. And you add that, as a result, they will receive different rewards. [a]

But you assign rewards, though they may be lesser ones, to all, even to those who do not believe now, that is, the devil and his angels. And though you now count worthy of condemnation the mere opinion, not the settled judgment, of another man who thinks it possible that the devil may one day have relief from punishment, you yourself bring the devil into the kingdom of God to receive the second reward. This too you want us to understand: that just as it does not matter whether Christ is preached in truth or by necessity, so it makes no difference whether we believe by necessity or willingly.