The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR: Augustine—Immortal-Soulism’s Hour of Supremacy

I. Projects Fallacious Philosophy of History

We close this group survey of post-Nicene personalities with a relatively brief comment on AUGUSTINE, one of the admittedly great intellects of the centuries. His life marks the transition hour between the developing theology of the Post-Nicene Church witnesses and the long period of the Middle Ages when dogma had become fixed, with no freedom of mind allowed outside the rigid confines of the Catholic ecclesiastical system. And this included pre-eminently the nature and destiny of man. CFF1 1070.1

1. “INFALLIBLE” SYSTEM OF DOCTRINE BASED ON AUTHORITY

It is well, before continuing, to note that the Roman mind was by nature of a legal turn, with God conceived of as a stern lawgiver and judge, holding man to obedience through pain of punishment. Augustine really held that man comes to Christ under the influence of fear. Man must therefore have a mediator. And this, he held, was the function of the church. Therefore salvation operates within the custody of the church. CFF1 1070.2

The thought of a church with an infallible system of doctrine, based upon authority, intrigued him. Thus it was that Augustine the philosopher became Augustine the theologian, with this concept as foundational. His view of the church is formulated in his famous treatise, the City of God, which is the most elaborate, and enticing, philosophy of history ever attempted. To him all history is a conflict between the earthly “city,” or community, belonging to the children of the world, and the “City of God,” the church—an imposing drama ending in the final victory of the church. CFF1 1070.3

Picture 1: Augustine of Hippo:
Under Augustine of Hippe the Eternal-Torment Postulate Developed by Tertullian Was Fastened Upon Catholic Christendom.
Page 1071

2. BASIC FALLACIES OF AUGUSTINIAN CONCEPTS

Augustine, in this crucial century, was now the most powerful and influential exponent of universal Innate Immortality, and the indestructibility of the human soul. His was an extension and augmentation of Tertullianism. But his fundamental view was based on a contradiction—that “death” means endless life. He confused “eternal loss” of life with an “eternal life of loss,” as aptly phrased. Remove that contention and the Augustinian structure falls. Nevertheless, the influence of Augustine was strong enough to secure the prevalence for centuries of the doctrine of the universal, indefeasible immortality of all men, and the consequent eternal life of the sinner in endless, agonizing misery. CFF1 1071.1

However, the most serious error of Augustine’s theory was that evil for a time and evil for eternity are essentially one and the same. He thereby flouted the scriptural distinction between time and eternity. God permits the triumph of evil for a determined duration, then He will cause it to cease forever. Evil is but transitory and temporary, in contrast with Augustine’s enduring and eternal continuation theory, which stemmed back to Persian dualism. Time is a relatively brief period between the two eternities of the past and the future—with the triumph of good as the final end and goal. And in that future age that will have no end there will be no reprobates. In contrast, Origen had restored them all to Heaven; while Augustine held the wicked perpetually in Hell. But the influence of Augustine prevailed over that of Origen. That molded the course of history. CFF1 1072.1

3. ALREADY COMMITTED TO IMMORTAL-SOULISM BEFORE CONVERSION

It was the powerful advocacy by Augustine of the doctrine of the indefeasible immortality of the soul and its “logical consequent,” the doctrine of Eternal Torment in hell-fire, that won general acceptance in the Medieval Church, becoming the dominant view for a thousand years. But it should be noted that in this Augustine simply brought with him into Christianity the speculations of Greek philosophy that he had adopted in his pre-Christian days. CFF1 1072.2

It is also well to remember that, before his conversion to Christianity, Augustine had written a book giving sixteen reasons for the immortality of the soul. So he was already committed to this pagan postulate before he became a Christian. Christian Neoplatonism simply formed the bridge. In Augustine, Immortal-Soulism reached the high-water mark of post-Nicene times. Now observe his personal life. CFF1 1072.3