Revelation 16:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Hearing of eternal torments, I cannot disbelieve Him who says this. Yet knowing the constant mercy and goodness of God, I think and am convinced that He would never have threatened eternal torments.

Nor would He have handed over to them those who deserve them, if He saw that the condemned would repent and hate the evil they freely chose.

For they receive torment for it willingly, not by necessity.

If, at the prayer of Moses, He spared Pharaoh and freed him from punishment, though He knew Pharaoh would soften only during the plagues and afterward harden again, then much more would He free these.

He would do so if He saw that by fire they would be purified like gold, which is always cited as an example in this matter.

But impurity clings to gold as to a soulless substance. Among rational beings it comes by desire, or rather it arises within them.

Therefore those who see in God’s goodness, foreknowledge, and power an obstacle to the eternity of torments should also remember the justice of God, which assigns to each according to his deserts.

Let them not think of any change in God’s decree. If they refuse this, then, in order not to contradict themselves, let them also accuse earthly kings.

For kings know that not all who take part, for example, in battle, wrestling, or horse races will be victors. Only one in each kind of contest will be crowned, and nevertheless all are admitted to the arena.

What the arena is for contestants, entrance into the world is for men. Whether to be born or not is not in our power.

But struggles, and victory over demons in order to attain eternal blessedness, are in our power.

For this reason conquered sinners will repent and weep to no purpose. According to the psalm: “In Hades, who will confess to You?” (Ps 6:6). For the condemned are not helped, as now, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

“And they shall be cut asunder,” says the Lord, separated from the Life-giving Spirit whom they rejected.

We think that the same is indicated by the following saying of the psalm: “The Lord will not leave the rod of the ungodly over the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous stretch out their hands to iniquity” (Ps 124:3).

Their life cannot be mingled, not only because of the difference in manner and character, but also because of firmness and constancy.

Thus no admixture of what is worse may provoke their will toward sin, or diminish their joy through bodily weakness and fear of punishment. Rather, they are to be unshakably faithful to God.

And in order to speak of what was promised, we proceed further in order.

“And they blasphemed the God of heaven,” and so forth. This does not refer to their hard-heartedness, but to the righteous indignation of God, who brought such a plague upon the people that in it they remember nothing.

For who, suffering bodily, would not feel the hand of God, like Antiochus (cf. 2 Macc 9:5-12)?

“And they blasphemed,” John says. But they did not blaspheme openly. Rather, they did so by giving themselves more and more to sin.