The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

II. Fateful Destiny of All Mankind Portrayed

1. MAN IS MORTAL; GOD IS IMMORTAL

In this portrayal two contrasting terms and their connotations run persistently throughout this Jewish section of the Sibylline Oracles—that man, the creature, is indeed “mortal,” but God, the selfexistent Creator is “immortal,” “eternal,” and “incorruptible.” In Fragment 1 the opening words are “O ye mortal men of flesh” (1:1). Then the terms “mortal flesh,” “mortals,” and “vain mortals” are repeated constantly, in contrast with the “eternal God” (1:1, 9, 11, 13, 25). ² CFF1 661.1

The contrast is continued in Fragment 2, and Fragment 3 states that “any thing brought into being wholly perishes, God could not have been fashioned from the loins of a man” (3:1, 2). ³ Mortal man is contrasted with the “incorruptible Creator, the Eternal.” And the thought is added that the wicked are at last to be burned with fire (3:12, 17, 44), ⁴ while the blessed “inherit life, throughout the aeonian time, dwelling in the fertile garden of Paradise” (3:47, 48). ⁵ CFF1 661.2

Book 3 iterates, reiterates, and amplifies the fact that in contrast with the “Eternal Saviour” and “immortal king,” man, fashioned by God, is “mortal” (3:17, 35). ⁶ But Belial “deceives mortals” (3:68). And the sibyl records that the “Mighty God” “threatened mortals when they made a tower” at Babylon (3:97-104), and as a result tongues were multiplied. CFF1 661.3

Thus “mortal men” were incited to “strife” (3:103), and “this is the beginning of war to all mortals” (3:154, 155). ⁷ Thus the term “mortals” and the idea of mortality of man appears again and again (3:182, 195, 217, 259). ⁸ It seems to be the continuing overtone. But the “Immortal God” (3:283) ⁹ is presented in connection with the provision of the “good at the end” that awaits the righteous. CFF1 661.4

2. FATEFUL JUDGMENT DAY TRIES “MORTAL” MEN

The fateful day of judgment comes to mortal man as a summons from the “Eternal God” (3:741-744). ¹⁰ Then God will “burn with fire the race of stubborn men” (3:761). However, to the godly the Eternal will open “the portals of the blessed, and all joys, and everlasting sense and eternal gladness” (3:770, 771). These turbulent times will all come to pass “when the end of all things is coming on the earth” (3:797). ¹¹ Thus the “mysteries of God” are proclaimed to “mortals” and “mortal men” (3:812, 823). ¹² CFF1 662.1

3. RESURRECTED AFTER FIRE REDUCES TO ASHES

Book 4 continues the strain, declaring that the mighty God cannot be measured with “mortal eyes, seeing He was not fashioned by mortal hand” (4:11). ¹³ Then, turning to the world’s prophetic outline, which forecasts destruction and conflagration for the earth (4:160, 161), the sibyl exclaims, “O ill-starred mortals” (4:162). Next the final cataclysm is portrayed—“The whole world shall hear a rumbling and a mighty roar” (4:175). Then shall God “burn the whole earth, and consume the whole race of men” (4:176). And “He shall burn everything out, and there shall be sooty dust” (4:178). CFF1 662.2

Then, when “everything shall have been reduced to dust and ashes,” God will “quench the giant fire” and re-form man that has perished, and “shall raise up mortals once more as they were before” (4:179-182). The wicked will be in the “black recesses of hell,” while the “godly shall dwell again on earth when God gives breath and life and grace to them” (4:186-189). ¹⁴ That is the sibyls last-day outline, or eschatology. CFF1 662.3

Book 5 also speaks of “God, the Chief of all, the Immortal and Eternal,” and “mortal men” (5:276, 277). ¹⁵ The “end to mortal men” and the utter destruction of the ungodly are repeated (5:301, 302), with the observation that the dead bodies on earth are “more numerous than the sand” (5:305). ¹⁶ “Fire shall rain on mortal men” (5:377). ¹⁷ But the Father is “from everlasting,” the “Great Eternal God” (5:498, 500). ¹⁸ His power and justice will prevail, and evil be punished. CFF1 662.4

4. FOUR WORLD POWERS AND ESCHATOLOGICAL END

All this was part of the great prophetic sweep of the centuries leading to the grand climax of the ages. The sibyl, obviously patterned her “prophecy” of four world powers after the broad outline of the Biblical Daniel 2 and 7, which tell of these same four successive kingdoms. And the sibyl daringly names and describes them in sequence. First, the “Assyrians,” or Babylonians, “rule over all mankind” (4:49). Then the stronger “Medes and Persians” ascend the throne of power (4:54, 62). ¹⁹ Next the “Macedonians” overthrow the Persians and grasp the world “sceptre” (4:88). CFF1 663.1

And, finally, the great “Italian,” or Roman, power from the “west,” takes over and oppresses the earth (4:103, 104). ²⁰ But, the sibyl boldly declares, God will at last destroy the nations of mortal man by a great “conflagration” (4:160, 161), then “raise up” mortal man again, from the moldering mounds of earth (4:181, 182). ²¹ Even the overthrow of a lawless usurper (a sort of antichrist) is portrayed in connection with the destruction of Rome and the fiery judgments to come at the world’s end (5:34, 177, 178). ²² CFF1 663.2

Such is the curious but nevertheless pertinent witness of this section of the pseudo-Sibylline writings in this inter-Testament period on the contrast and conflict of “mortal man” with “Immortal God,” intermingled with strange speculations and assertions. These latter extraneous elements are in marked contrast with the sound, reasonable, and consistent picture portrayed by the Old and the New Testament penmen. CFF1 663.3

Such are the persisting contrasts of mortal and immortal in the Sibyllines. It was one of the voices in the first century of the Christian Era. Varying views were thus held and proclaimed. CFF1 663.4