The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

V. Disposition of Righteous and Wicked

1. “SOME” PUNISHED WITH FIRE; “OTHERS” RECEIVE IMMORTALITY

In chapter thirty-nine Justin synchronizes the time of the destruction of the demons and wicked men with the second advent of Christ—when He will “come again, and destroy them all.” ⁵⁰ That leads him back, in chapter forty-five, to the incarnation of Christ, in order to compass the destruction of Satan and his angels and to destroy death through the Second Advent, when some shall be immortalized and some punished in the “condemnation of fire,” and “be no more.” Thus: CFF1 830.1

“In order that, by this dispensation, the serpent that sinned from the beginning, and the angels like him, may be destroyed [kataluthosi], and that death may be contemned, ⁵¹ and for ever quit, at the second coming of the Christ Himself, those who believe in Him and live acceptably,—and be no more: when some are sent to be punished unceasingly into judgment and condemnation of fire; but others shall exist in freedom from suffering, from corruption, and from grief, and in immortality.” ⁵² CFF1 830.2

2. SAINTS RAISED INCORRUPTIBLE AND IMMORTAL

Immortality is set forth as reserved for the resurrected righteous. And Justin stresses his belief that true Christians, then undergoing persecution even unto death, will be immortalized at the first resurrection. He declares: “God will raise up by His Christ, and will make us incorruptible, and undisturbed, and immortal [aphthartous kai apatheis kai athanatous].” ⁵³ CFF1 830.3

The same thought is continued in chapter sixty-nine, where Christ, who even raised the dead at His first advent, will come for His own at His second advent, and “He shall raise him [the maimed] up at His second advent perfectly sound, after He has made him immortal, and incorruptible, and free from grief.” ⁵⁴ CFF1 831.1

3. SOUL NOT “TAKEN TO HEAVEN” AT DEATH

In chapter eighty, Justin discusses faithfulness in following the Scriptures. He assures Trypho that he will not “say one thing and think another.” Then referring to differences of view among professed Christians, Justin states candidly that “some who are called Christians” are “godless, impious heretics,” and “teach doctrines that are in every way blasphemous, atheistical, and foolish.” Declaring that he himself chooses to “follow not men or men’s doctrines, but God and the doctrines [delivered] by Him,” he states: CFF1 831.2

“If you have fallen in with some who are called Christians, but who do not admit this [truth], and venture to blaspheme the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; who say there is no resurrection of the dead, and that their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven; do not imagine that they are Christians.” ⁵⁵ CFF1 831.3

And near the close of the same chapter he says that he and others who share his views are “right-minded Christians on all points,” and “are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead” and a coining millennium. CFF1 831.4

4. WICKED PUNISHED AS GOD DEEMS PROPER

In chapter eighty-eight, after speaking of “the human race, which from Adam had fallen under the power of death and the guile of the serpent, and each one of which had committed personal transgression,” Justin touches on the result of man’s free will in relation to the question of life and death: CFF1 831.5

“For God, wishing both angels and men, who were endowed with freewill, and at their own disposal, to do whatever He had strengthened each to do, made them so, that if they chose the things acceptable to Himself, He would keep them free from death and from punishment; but that if they did evil, He would punish each as He sees fit.” ⁵⁶ CFF1 832.1

5. “DESTRUCTION” IS EQUATED WITH “DEATH.”

In chapter one hundred, in speaking of Christ as both the Son of God and Son of man, through assuming flesh and being born of Mary, Justin harks back to Eve, who, “having conceived the word of the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death.” And now the virgin Mary brought forth the Son of God— CFF1 832.2

“by whom God destroys both the serpent and those angels and men who are like him; but works deliverance from death to those who repent of their wickedness and believe upon Him.” ⁵⁷ CFF1 832.3

It will be observed that again “destroy” is equated with “death.” CFF1 832.4

6. “TORMENT” NOT IDENTICAL WITH “DESTRUCTION.”

Several chapters are then devoted to the Old Testament prophecies concerning Christ and the predictions of His resurrection (chapter 106), the conversion of the Gentiles predicted by Micah (chapter 109), and the rest of Micah’s prophecy not fulfilled at the first advent, which shall be completed at His second coming, when “He shall come from heaven with glory,” when, “together with the most righteous, and only spotless and sinless Christ, we are taken away out of the earth.” ⁵⁸ Then in chapter 111, on the two advents, Justin remarks: “For this is, was, and shall be the strength of Him alone, whose name every power dreads, being very much tormented because they shall be destroyed by Him.” ⁵⁹ CFF1 832.5

That is, they are “much tormented” now, because they will later be “destroyed” at the Second Advent. CFF1 832.6

7. THE RESURRECTED FACE CONTRASTING DESTINIES

In chapter 117 the climax is reached, and the separation is portrayed: CFF1 832.7

“He [Christ] shall raise all men from the dead, and appoint some to be incorruptible, immortal, and free from sorrow in the everlasting and imperishable kingdom; but shall send others away to the everlasting punishment of fire.” ⁶⁰ CFF1 833.1

In the light of this he exhorts men “to repent before the great day of judgment come.” ⁶¹ CFF1 833.2

Reverting to the fall, condemnation, and death of man, Justin says his “discourse” was intended— CFF1 833.3

“to prove to you that the Holy Ghost reproaches men because they were made like God, free from suffering and death, provided that they kept His commandments, and were deemed deserving of the name of His sons, and yet they, becoming like Adam and Eve, work out death for themselves.” ⁶² CFF1 833.4

And he warns that each shall be “by himself judged and condemned like Adam and Eve.” CFF1 833.5

Coming finally, in chapter 130, to “The Conversion of the Gentiles,” Justin states: CFF1 833.6

“We know from Isaiah that the members [kola, “limbs”] of those who have transgressed shall be consumed by the worm and unquenchable fire, remaining immortal [athanata, “deathless”]; so that they become a spectacle to all flesh.” ⁶³ CFF1 833.7

As to the expression “remaining immortal [“deathless”],” scholarly Dr. Beecher makes this significant observation: CFF1 833.8

“No stress can be laid on the word deathless (athanata), for it simply denotes the fact that, during the time of exposure to the fire, the bodies cannot die, but not that they cannot be annihilated by God, at such time as he shall see fit.” ⁶⁴ CFF1 833.9

Such is the testimony of Justin’s Dialogue. CFF1 833.10