In response to auggybendoggy: I think people want to know if the early church supported this or that doctrine because of the concept that things were most pure when closest to Jesus’ teaching. It’s assumed that it must be easier to alter, add to, or misinterpret things the farther you get away from the source. This makes sense when we remember that there are some people who go even farther by claiming that Paul made things up and that they only believe what Jesus said (the assumption being that there is a difference-I don’t agree).
Anyway, while I tend to agree that support in the early church has weight, the Bible does present a sort of “progressive revelation” concept which would make the early church argument less important. For example, God didn’t fill Adam and Eve in on the whole deal of what He was doing on the Earth, nor did He do so with Abraham or Moses etc. God gradually revealed his will. The disciples are beautiful examples too. They clearly didn’t get “it” until later. Even in Acts they’re still squabbling about whether to include the Gentiles. So…I’m going both ways here: The early church does, to me, hold some weight, but then again, God also may be still progressively revealing His will to us. Could universalism be a part of that???
Denver