The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

II. Comprehensive Survey of Arnobius’ Arguments and Evidences

1. ARNOBIUS PRESENTS THE CASE FOR CHRIST

Point by point and step by step in book one, in logical sequences and close reasoning, Arnobius answers the charges and insinuations of paganism by counterattacking and exposing the foibles and fallacies of the heathen gods of wood and stone he had formerly worshiped, and boldly avows his faith in Christ as both God and man. “Led into the paths of truth,” he now declares of Christ, “He is God in reality and without any shadow of a doubt.” ⁷ Then He appeared among men “in human shape,“ taking the “form of man,” and was “cut off by death,” dying in our stead on the cross, ⁸ that we might have life. CFF1 920.3

2. CHRIST OPENED THE GATE OF IMMORTALITY

In book two, coming directly to the issue of immortality, Arnobius declares that it is Christ who has “prepared for you a path (note 4: or “opened paths ... and the gates of immortality”) to heaven, and the immortality for which you long.” He carefully explains that “He neither extended the light of life to all, nor delivered all from the danger which threatens them through ignorance (note 1: “danger of destruction”).” ⁹ Some refuse. And as the pagans believe Plato, so, Arnobius states, “we [Christians] believe and confide in Christ.” And “if we choose to compare cause with cause, we are better able to point out what we have followed in Christ, than you to Point out what you have followed in the philosophers.” ¹⁰ And he decries their “speculative quibblings.” ¹¹ CFF1 921.1

Book two was clearly the peak of his presentation. Here Arnobius argues at length on the “error” of the Platonic claim of the soul’s inherent immortality. Once lost in the blindness and error of paganism himself, and devoted to the worship of images brought forth from the furnace and made with human hands, Arnobius now rejoices in the truth of Life Only in Christ, who is our Supreme Creator. ¹² He had already clearly declared that the pagan gods “are not immortal.” And that death “ends all things, and takes away life from every sentient being.” ¹³ And Arnobius was a fitting champion of the cause he had espoused. CFF1 921.2

3. SEARCHING QUESTIONS ON LIFE, DEATH, AND HEREAFTER

In chapters thirteen and fourteen Arnobius propounds a cumulative series of searching questions leading up to the question of the destruction of the wicked. Addressing the pagan philosophers, particularly the followers of Plato and Pythagoras, he points out the inconsistency of their quibbles, and turns the argument upon them. Hear him: CFF1 921.3

“Do you dare to laugh at us because we revere and worship the Creator and Lord of the universe, and because we commit and entrust our hopes to Him? ... Does he [Plato] not exhort the soul to flee from earth? ... CFF1 922.1

“Do you dare to laugh at us, because we say that there will be a resurrection of the dead? ... Does not he [Plato] say that, when the world has begun to rise out of the west and tend towards the east, men will again burst forth from the bosom of the earth? ... CFF1 922.2

“Do you dare to laugh at us because we see to the salvation of our souls? ... You, indeed, do not take every pain for their safety.” ¹⁴ CFF1 922.3

“Do you dare to laugh at us when we speak of hell, and fires, which cannot be quenched? ... Does not your Plato also, in the book which he wrote on the immortality of the soul, name the rivers Acheron, Styx, Cocytus, and Pyriphlegethon, and assert that in them souls are rolled along, engulphed, and burned up?” ¹⁵ CFF1 922.4

4. A DESTRUCTION THAT LEAVES NOTHING BEHIND

After referring to paganism’s problem of a soul that is “immortal, everlasting, and without bodily substance,” yet being “punished” and made to “suffer pain,” Arnobius asks, “But what man does not see that that which is immortal, which is simple (note 17: “i.e., not compounded of soul and body”), cannot be subject to any pain; that that, on the contrary, cannot be immortal which does suffer pain?” He then speaks of those who, being cast into the flames, are “annihilated,” and “pass away” in “everlasting destruction.” ¹⁶ CFF1 922.5

5. ULTIMATE “ANNIHILATION” IS MAN’S “REAL DEATH.”

Arnobius next declares that according to Christ “theirs [the souls’] is an intermediate state”—there are those that “may on the one hand perish if they have not known God, and on the other be delivered from death if they have given heed to His threats and proffered favours.” ¹⁷ Then follows Arnobius’ clear definition of man’s “real death“: CFF1 922.6

“This is man’s real death, this which leaves nothing behind. ¹⁸ For that which is seen by the eyes is only a separation of soul from body, not the last end—annihilation: this, I say, is man’s real death, when souls which know not God shall be consumed in long-protracted torment with raging fire.” ¹⁹ CFF1 922.7

Arnobius clearly distinguishes between the first death and the final death, and declares that in the true, or final, death of the wicked there is “nothing left behind”—absolute destruction after the final death agonies. He warns against the presumption of Innate Immortality. Continuance of life, he holds, is conditional. CFF1 923.1

6. MAN NOT “IMMORTAL” LIKE GOD; ONLY “CREATURES.”

Next Arnobius speaks of those who are obsessed with “an extravagant opinion of themselves, that souls are immortal, next in point of rank to the God and ruler of the world.” ²⁰ Then Arnobius appeals earnestly, to the Platonists to lay aside their prideful claim to being “immortal,” which is only a pretense, and to remember that we are but “creatures.” He appeals: CFF1 923.2

“Will you lay aside your habitual arrogance [note 12: “that pride of yours”], O men, who claim God as your Father, and maintain that you are immortal, just as He is? Will you inquire, examine, search what you are yourselves, whose you are, of what parentage you are supposed to be, what you do in the world, in what way you are born, how you leap to life? Will you, laying aside all partiality, consider in the silence of your thoughts that we are creatures either quite like the rest, or separated by no great difference?” ²¹ CFF1 923.3

7. SWEEPING SURVEY OF PAGANISM’S INADEQUACY

With keen satire Arnobius then launches into a vivid description of human nature as it is, to refute the argument then current for the “extravagant opinion” of the soul’s immortality. ²² In sweeping strokes he paints the over-all picture—covering whole chapters. Follow it: CFF1 923.4

Is man divine? Why is he half animal? ²³ Is the soul a thing of reason? Let man show himself rational. ²⁴ Then the arguments from human skills, the sciences and the fine arts, and man’s hopes and fears, are duly considered. ²⁶ Also the argument from the nature of the soul as a simple substance—as “divine, and therefore immortal”; and from its supposed reminiscences of a pre-existent state. Then there are the practical tendencies of this and that belief. Must not whatever is immortal, be ever free? What reason for alarm, then, if such a soul should revel in vice? ²⁷ CFF1 923.5

And what is the ground of hope if, as Epicurus held, the soul must die? ²⁸ The “golden mean” is a mingled hope and fear, based on the doctrine of a soul that must either live or die. ²⁹ Are souls indeed a divine and royal offspring? How unroyally do they behave! ³¹ And the notion of a pre-existent state is met with a long list of questions as to why man is reduced to his present state. If God created souls not only where they are, but as they are, is He not the author of evil? But are there too few good men to allow the belief that they alone will live? Then by what rule of induction do they immortalize the race? It is a compelling outline. CFF1 924.1

8. CLAIMS AND ASSUMPTIONS OF IMMORTAL-SOULISTS

Touching in chapter sixteen on the popular concept of transmigration of “immortal souls” from man to beast, ³⁴ and the position in chapter twenty-two that the souls of men are divine and therefore immortal, ³⁵ Arnobius then discusses, in chapters twenty-six and twenty-seven, the nature of the soul and the concept that the soul is deprived of remembrance of former existences by being “fettered” with the human body. ³⁷ Next, he deals with the claim that sentence cannot be pronounced on “immortal” souls who, on such a premise, are equal with immortal God, “seeing there is the same immortality in both.” CFF1 924.2

9. “ENRICHED WITH ETERNAL LIFE” THROUGH CHRIST

And now, in chapter thirty-two, he observes that “souls are set (born) not far from the gaping jaws of death,” but that “they can, nevertheless, have their lives prolonged by the favour and kindness of the Supreme Ruler if only they try and study to know Him.” And he urges them to “be ready for that which shall be given.” ³⁸ In chapter thirty-four he reminds his readers that neither Plato nor any other philosopher had promised “a way to escape death,” but that Christ has “not only promised it” but can bring His promises to reality, thus to “escape a death of suffering” and “be enriched with eternal life.” ³⁹ CFF1 924.3