The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

VII. Bible College Forbes-No “Infinite Torture for Finite Sin”

Sometimes the pressures were intense. In 1936 Prof. AVARY HOLMES FORBES, ⁵⁸ long-time professor at All Nations Bible College, of London, published a brochure titled The Last Enemy, which “caused such a storm” that he was compelled to resign at the end of the academic year. ⁵⁹ It had repudiated the doctrine of the Eternal Torment of the wicked as “derogatory to God’s character,” for it involved the basic fallacy of “infinite torture for finite sin.” ⁶¹ Forbes had taken the precaution of submitting his manuscript to a number of theologians, such as Samuel H. Wilkinson, recognized Hebrew scholar and head of the Mildmay Mission to the Jews, who called it “a clear interpretation” in harmony with the “Supreme Authority.” CFF2 795.1

1. DID CHRIST SUFFER “INFINITE” PUNISHMENT

Forbes’s investigation was begun by a request to discuss eternal punishment at a YMCA meeting. This drove him to a fresh review of the whole question. In seeking to formulate his own conclusions he asked a number of scholarly friends the following question: CFF2 795.2

“If our Lord paid the full penalty for the worst of sinners, yet the ‘orthodox hell’ was not in that penalty (which is the teaching all through the Bible); how can a hell of endless torment remain for mankind? Does not this contradict the whole teaching of Scripture?” ⁶² CFF2 795.3

His own answer to this specific question was this:
“It is true we can never measure the greatness of the sufferings of Christ: what we can measure is its duration. Does anyone maintain that our Lord’s sufferings lasted after He was ‘received up into glory’? If the suffering was finite, how could the punishment be infinite?” ⁶³ CFF2 796.1

In his Foreword he added another provocative thought: “As Heaven had not yet begun for the dead in Christ, so ‘Hell’ had not begun for the dead in Satan.” ⁶⁴ CFF2 796.2

From a book The Tent and the Altar Forbes quotes approvingly the phrase “When we die may we sleep in Jesus.” ⁶⁵ That indicated his view on the intermediate state. CFF2 796.3

2. TESTIMONY OF TWELVE CONDITIONALISTS CITED

Discussing the contention that “all” evangelical leaders have held to the notion of Innate Immortality and Eternal Torment, Forbes states clearly:
“TYNDALE and LUTHER seem to have held a conditional immortality only; i.e., that, as ‘the gift of God is eternal life,’ immortality does not belong to the soul at all, until it is conferred upon it by God; and that it is conferred only upon the righteous, and then only after the resurrection.” ⁶⁶ CFF2 796.4

In substantiation he quotes from both. He also cites excerpts from the ten additional well-known ConditionalistsDean Farrar, Bishop Perowne, Professor 0lshausen, Archbishop Whately, Dean Alford, Dr. R. W. G. Dale, Dr. Joseph Parker, Dr. R. F. Weymouth, Prime Minister Gladstone, and Canon Dearmer of Westminster. ⁶⁷ The latter is quoted as saying at Westminster Abbey: CFF2 796.5

“The wicked and monstrous doctrine of hell, which had been fastened upon Christendom more than a thousand years before by St. Augustine, had only been shaken off by intelligent people in quite modern times. (The Times, 7th December, 1931.)” ⁶⁸ CFF2 796.6

The collective testimony of this noted group includes denial of any Biblical basis for Innate Immortality, man declared a candidate for immortality, the wicked not kept alive but forfeiting life, and “destruction” not meaning everlasting wretched existence. Such was the concensus. CFF2 796.7

Even Charles Spurgeon is quoted as saying, in later life, “I have no quarrel with the Conditional Immortality doctrine.” ⁶⁹ CFF2 797.1

3. CHRIST’S “FULL PENALTY” PRECLUDES ETERNAL TORMENT

After dilating on the great apostasy —of the Middle Ages, with its “doctrine of hell-fire (buttressed by the invention of ‘Purgatory’),” as exploited by Rome, ⁷⁰ Forbes reverts to the determining relationship of atonement and Eternal Torment, and says: CFF2 797.2

“The whole faith of the Evangelical Church is built on this doctrine of the vicarious suffering of Christ, Who paid the full penalty for our sin. Now, dear Reader, where, in Christ’s payment of the full penalty, does [an eternal] ‘hell’ come in? And if hell was not in the penalty He paid, how can it be in ours?” ⁷¹ CFF2 797.3

Forbes closes his brochure with the telling words “The last enemy that shall be abolished is death” (Revelation 20:14). ⁷² So fidelity to conviction on the nature and destiny of man cost Forbes his teaching position. CFF2 797.4