The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

IV. Sets Forth the Conditionalist School of Immortality

1. EPITOME OF BARUCH’S HOPE OF JUDAISM

As noted, 2 Baruch presents a picture of the hopes of Judaism in the second half of the first century A.D.—at the very time the Christian apostles were also writing. It sets forth original sin and free will (15:5-9; 19:12), with sin as a conscious breach of moral law, and human depravity beginning with Adam’s sin. Physical declension and death follow (17:3; 19:8; 23:4). “Otherwise,” Charles comments, “man would have been immortal,” that is, immortal sinners. CFF1 689.5

The tendency to evil became established in man (48:42ff.), with affliction, disease, and death following. ⁴⁷ But the issues of right and wrong remain before man, and the power of choice likewise remains his (19:1, 3). ⁴⁸ Then, at the appointed time, the Messiah will return and the righteous dead will rise to a blessed life (30:1). The righteous will thus receive their promised reward (59:2) in the glories to come (54:15), while the unrighteous are cast into the torment of fire (54:14; 55:7; 59:2, 10). ⁴⁹ CFF1 690.1

2. PRAYS FOR END OF MORTALITY AND CORRUPTION

Baruch prays that the time of human mortality and corruptibility may be ended: CFF1 690.2

“Bring to an end therefore henceforth mortality. And reprove accordingly the angel of death, and let Thy glory appear, and let the might of Thy beauty be known, and let Sheol be sealed so that from this time forward it may not receive the dead, and let the treasuries [chambers] of souls restore those which are enclosed in them” (21:23, 24). ⁵⁰ CFF1 690.3

3. COMING JUDGMENT AND MESSIAH’S ADVENT

Chapters twenty-four and twenty-five tell of the coming judgment at the “end of days,” and certain precursors, such as “much tribulation,” that would precede. Then chapter thirty opens with,” ‘And it shall come to pass after these things, when the time of the advent of the Messiah is fulfilled, that He shall return in glory.’” ⁵¹ It is remarkable how often this note is sounded throughout this apocryphal literature. There was high expectancy, and the eschatological emphasis was pronounced. CFF1 690.4

4. RESURRECTION AND ASSEMBLAGE OF RIGHTEOUS DEAD

Next, the tremendous scenes of the resurrection are immediately portrayed: CFF1 690.5

“‘Then all who have fallen asleep in hope of Him shall rise again. And it shall come to pass at that time that the treasuries [chambers] will be opened in which is preserved the number of the souls of the righteous, and they shall come forth, and a multitude of souls shall be seen together in one assemblage of one thought, and the first shall rejoice and the last shall not be grieved. For they know that the time has come of which it is said, that it is the consummation of the times. But the souls of the wicked, when they behold all these things, shall then waste away the more. For they shall know that their torment has come and their perdition has arrived’” (30:2-5). ⁵² CFF1 690.6

5. THE DUST GIVES UP THE DEAD

Turning to the destiny of the wicked and the great “consummation,” and the measurement of the “times” and the “seasons,” Baruch says: CFF1 691.1

“‘For corruption shall take those that belong to it, and life those that belong to it. And the dust shall be called, and there shall be said to it: “Give back that which is not thine, and raise up all that thou hast kept until this time”’” (43:7, 8). ⁵³ CFF1 691.2

But Baruch, with assurance of “many eternal consolations” awaiting him, is instructed: CFF1 691.3

“‘For thou shalt depart from this place, and thou shalt pass from the regions which are now seen by thee, and thou shalt forget whatever is corruptible, and shalt not again recall those things which happen among mortals”’ (43:2). ⁵⁴ CFF1 691.4

6. THE PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED

Chapter fourteen alludes to the incorrigibly wicked, with “no mercy on those who depart to torment” (44:12). That will be their tragic “inheritance of the promised time.” To the righteous “shall be given the world to come, but the dwelling of the rest who are many shall be in the fire” (44:13-15). ⁵⁵ CFF1 691.5

In his prayer Baruch refers to “the destruction that is to be” (48:7), ⁵⁶ the multitude who from the time of Eve have turned to evil, the coming of the judge, the weeping over the living rather than the dead, the multitude going to corruption, and the unnumbered host of “those whom the fire devours” (48:37-47). ⁵⁷ CFF1 691.6

7. BODY RAISED IMMORTAL AND INCORRUPTIBLE

Then the resurrection body is portrayed as undying (51:3), incorruptible (74:2), and invisible to mortal vision (51:8). This is applied to the redeemed who are to live in the renewed world. The resurrection reunites soul and body (21:23; 42:8). Thus: CFF1 691.7

“‘The earth shall then assuredly restore the dead, (which it now receives, in order to preserve them). It shall make no change in their form, but as it has received, so shall it restore them. And as I [God] delivered them unto it, so shall it raise them”’ (50:2). ⁵⁸ CFF1 692.1

Then Baruch asks, “‘Why therefore do we again mourn for those who die? Or why do we weep for those who depart to Sheol?’” (52:2). Lamentation is reserved for those upon whom “torment” and “destruction” are coming (51:3). Make ready the soul, he admonishes, for “the reward which is laid up for you” (52:7). ⁵⁹ CFF1 692.2

8. A “TERMINABLE RETRIBUTION” INDICATED

In a sort of history of mankind, after the giving of the law, Baruch speaks of how CFF1 692.3

“‘at that time the lamp of the eternal law shone on all those who sat in darkness, which announced to them that believe the promise of their reward, and to them that deny, the torment of fire which is reserved for them”’ (59:2, 3). ⁶⁰ CFF1 692.4

It should be added that, regarding the book of Baruch with its terms “perdition,” “torment,” and “fire,” Dean Farrar of Canterbury observes: “It therefore points to a terminable, not to an interminable, retribution.” ⁶¹ CFF1 692.5

Such is Baruch’s Conditionalist testimony. CFF1 692.6