There may be some question about who these church fathers were, and their credibility.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Apostolic Fathers were
Christian theologians who lived in the
1st and
2nd centuries AD, who are believed to have personally known some of the
Twelve Apostles, or to have been significantly influenced by them.
[5] Their writings, though popular in
Early Christianity, were ultimately not included in the
canon of the
New Testament once it reached its final form. Many of the writings derive from the same time period and geographical location as other works of early Christian literature that did come to be part of the New Testament, and some of the writings found among the Apostolic Fathers' seem to have been just as highly regarded as some of the writings that became the New Testament.
Clement of Alexandria
Main article:
Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (c. 150–215) was the first member of the church of
Alexandria whose writings have survived, and was one of its most distinguished teachers. He saw wisdom in Greek philosophy and sought to harmonize it with Christian doctrine. Clement opposed
Gnosticism, and yet used some of its terminology; for instance, he valued
gnosis that with communion for all people could be held by common Christians. He developed a Christian
Platonism[6] and has been described by scholars as "the founder of what was to become the great tradition of Christian philosophical theology."
[19] Due to his teaching on salvation and divine judgement in passages such as
Paedagogus 1.8 and
Stromata 7.2, Clement is often regarded as one of the first
Christian universalists.
[20] Like Origen, he arose from the
Catechetical School of Alexandria and was well-versed in pagan and biblical literature.
[6]
Origen of Alexandria
Main article:
Origen
Origen, or Origen Adamantius (c. 185 – c. 254) was a scholar and theologian. According to tradition, he was an
Egyptian[21] who taught in Alexandria, reviving the Catechetical School where Clement had taught. The patriarch of Alexandria at first supported Origen but later expelled him for being ordained without the patriarch's permission. He relocated to
Caesarea Maritima and died there
[22] after being tortured during a persecution. He later became a controversial figure and some of his writings were condemned as heretical. Using his knowledge of Hebrew, he produced a corrected
Septuagint.
[6] He wrote commentaries on all the books of the Bible.
[6] In
Peri Archon (
First Principles), he articulated a systematic philosophical exposition of Christian doctrine.
[6] He at times employed an allegorical hermeneutic in his interpretation of the Old Testament, and was partly influenced by
Stoic,
Neo-Pythagorean, and
Platonist thought.
[6] Like
Plotinus, he has been thought to believe that the soul passes through successive stages before incarnation as a human and after death, eventually reaching God.
[6] However, more recent scholarship has concluded that Origen actually denied the preexistence of disembodied souls, and simply taught the preexistence of individuals'
logoi in the mind of God.
[23] Yet Origen did suggest, based on 1 Corinthians 15:22-28, that all creatures, possibly including even the fallen angels, will eventually be restored and reunited to God when evil is finally eradicated. For Origen, God was the
First Principle, and
Christ, the
Logos[6] through whom salvation is accomplished. Origen's various writings were interpreted by some to imply a hierarchical structure in the
Trinity, the temporality of matter, "the fabulous preexistence of souls", and "the monstrous restoration which follows from it." These alleged "Origenist errors" were declared
anathema by a council in 553, three centuries after Origen had died in the peace of the church.
[24][25]
ric acid? It digests. We can imagine that when Jonah was spit out of the fish's mouth, after being in there for three days, he looked like a half bleached burned corpse from Hell. They saw this horror of a man strolling into town and threatening God's judgment and were scared to death ... enough to believe his story and repent. 
