The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

VI. Immortality’s Place in the Prophetic Outline

1. ROME’S DIVISION, ANTICHRIST, AND COMING CLIMAX

In chapter sixteen (“Of the Devastation of the World”) Lactantius plunges into Bible prophecy, and tells how Rome, which followed the world kingdoms of Persia and Grecia, will pass, being divided into ten smaller kingdoms. Then, he declares, will a “powerful enemy”—Antichrist—arise that will harass with “intolerable rule,” persecuting, and substituting his own laws, and profound disturbances will follow. Celestial signs will also be seen in the sun and moon, and the “gliding of the falling stars.” ⁵⁶ CFF1 1047.1

And then a false prophet will arise that will demand worship, and create unsurpassed “distress and tribulations.” And Antichrist will “desolate” the world for “forty-two months,” and seek to impose his mark. Then the saints will flee into the “solitudes.” And finally the God of Heaven will deliver them and “destroy all the wicked.” ⁵⁷ CFF1 1047.2

2. SECOND ADVENT AND THE RESURRECTION

Chapter nineteen portrays the second advent of Christ in power and glory, as He descends as Deliverer, Judge, and Avenger. The wicked and Antichrist will be destroyed. ⁵⁸ Thus Lactantius unfolds his remarkable eschatology. The “dead shall rise again,” on whom God will “pass judgment.” The saints, however, will be delivered and will reign with Christ during the thousand years. ⁵⁹ The good are “given to a life of blessedness,” while the evil are “condemned to punishment.” ⁶⁰ CFF1 1047.3

3. PARALLELING BUT DISTORTED CONCEPTS OF POETS

All through this vivid recital Lactantius interweaves many of the similar and familiar statements of the poets, which were “near to the truth.” ⁶¹ And in their strange commingling of truth and error Lactantius recites in chapter twenty-two, their “partly corrupted” ⁶² teachings concerning the wicked undergoing “tortures and everlasting fire,”—referring to the alleged “divine fire” of pagan lore, that “replaces” or renews as it “consumes.” ⁶³ Thus he alludes to these “figments of the poets.” And with these distorted concepts of truth there was a misshapen view of coming events, for they did not know how, or when, the last things would occur. CFF1 1048.1

Let no one imagine, Lactantius says, “that souls are immediately judged after death.” Rather, they are detained until “the great judge shall make an investigation of their deserts.” Then the pious will “receive the reward of immortality,” and sinners be “destined to certain punishment.” ⁶⁴ CFF1 1048.2

It is to be especially noted that the philosophers and poets cited, and particularly Plato, all fancied the soul to be immortal. Samples of confusing and conflicting citations are introduced from Pythagoras, Chrysippus, and Cicero. Then Lactantius says impressively, “Let us return from human to divine things.” ⁶⁵ He had already declared: CFF1 1048.3

“God will come, that, having cleansed the earth from all defilement, He may restore the souls of the righteous to their renewed bodies, and raise them to everlasting blessedness.” ⁶⁶ CFF1 1048.4

He had also said: “We affirm the doctrine of the resurrection, and teach that souls will return to another life.” And “the resurrection cannot take place while unrighteousness still prevails.” This he places in substitution for the uncertainties and confusions of the teaching of those who “most foolishly believed the poets.” ⁶⁷ CFF1 1048.5

4. SATAN BOUND, CITY PLANTED, WICKED DESTROYED

In chapter twenty-four he states that the Son of God “shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” “When He shall have destroyed unrighteousness, and executed His great judgment, and shall have recalled to life the righteous,” He “will be engaged among men a thousand years.” Then the “prince of devils” is bound during the thousand years. The “sacred city shall be planted in the middle of the earth.” ⁶⁸ And now, he affirms—on the basis of the sayings of the “prophets”—comes the loosing of the devil, and the siege of the surrounded city by the wicked. Then God shall “utterly destroy them,” and the wicked will “utterly perish.” CFF1 1049.1

This “second” resurrection, of the “unrighteous,” is followed by “everlasting punishments.” Lactantius then affirms: “This is the doctrine of the holy prophets which we Christians follow.” ⁶⁹ Such, he affirms without recorded contradiction, is the avowed teaching of the church in the fourth century. He was the outstanding Conditionalist spokesman of his time. CFF1 1049.2

And now, having finished his treatise, and addressing the emperor, he states that “all factions have now been hushed,” ⁷⁰ the Christians are allowed freedom, and “truth now comes forth from obscurity, and is brought into light.” ⁷¹ That was the purpose of his treatise. It was the classic defense of his day, not too long before the tide of recession began to turn, with its heavy repression of Conditionalism. CFF1 1049.3

5. LACTANTIUS’ CONDITIONALISM PRESENTED TO EMPEROR

Such is the remarkable witness, for the time, that Lactantius addressed to the Roman emperor, Constantine, and to all pagan citizens. Paralleling the familiar, partial truths enunciated by their own philosophers and poets, which were commonly understood and accepted—but which often veered away from Biblical truth, and its prophetic outline concerning the last things—and the final destiny of man and the world, Lactantius stands forth as a Conditionalist spokesman—albeit inconstant at times—maintaining that immortality is a gift from God received by the righteous only at the Second Advent and concurrent resurrection of the saints. CFF1 1049.4

And this, be it noted again, was written in the great fourth-century transition hour of the church, not only as the breakup of Rome impended but as the tide of Innate Immortal-Soulism was steadily rising in parts of the empire. CFF1 1050.1