The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

III. The Fatal Fallacy of Majority “Orthodoxy”

We have just noted how the “orthodoxy” of Augustine triumphed, becoming ensconced in a controlling position for centuries. But it is also to be remembered that the invoking of the authority and prestige of “orthodoxy” is merely appealing to human authority, and the dubious weight of majority view. Such a precarious basis of faith is obviously unsound. CFF1 1076.1

History tragically attests that majorities are frequently wrong. Seventeenth-century Anglican William Chillingworth uttered a truism when he said, “The Bible and the Bible only is the religion of Protestants,” and is the sole foundation of all true “orthodoxy.” That was Luther’s platform, and Tyndale’s. It was the affirmation of the Protestant princes at the Protest of Spires—and has been of all subsequent sound evangelical Protestants. That is the position maintained throughout this present work. CFF1 1076.2

1. BIBLICAL TRUTH IS RECOGNIZED IN TIME

Human-majority authority is but shifting sand, as the “orthodoxy” of one generation often comes to be recognized as the “heresy” of a succeeding age—or vice versa. The wholesome dissentients of the centuries—the Waldenses, Wycliffites, Hussites, Lutherans, Reformed, Baptists, Pietists, Wesleyans—were each, in their day of initial witness, condemned by their contemporaries as heretical, or at least as heterodox. But each had a sound Biblical principle to champion, which in time came to be widely recognized as actually “orthodox.” CFF1 1076.3

These champions of Conditionalism that we are tracing across the centuries considered themselves as similarly standing in the line of such dissentients, with a profound conviction that the views they held on the nature and destiny of man, though criticized and condemned by many of their contemporaries as “heretical” or “heterodox,” would ultimately come to be recognized as acceptable—or at least as one of the alternative acceptable views, both of which would be regarded as Christian, without incurring the opprobrious epithets of “heretical” ‘or “heterodox.” CFF1 1077.1

2. ORTHODOXY DETERMINED BY WRITTEN WORD

True orthodoxy is right thinking about Christian truth. And no thinking can be truly right that is not in accordance with the Written Word. Moreover, “orthodoxy” has usually been relative, and therefore defective—determined by men’s partial knowledge of the truth. The Pharisees in Christ’s day claimed to be pre-eminently “orthodox,” and in their smug complacency condemned the Saviour of the world—the Personification of Truth. The Greek Catholic Church incorporates the term “Orthodox” into her name. And the Roman Catholic Church imperiously insists that she alone is orthodox. Obviously, not all such assumptions can be right. CFF1 1077.2

In Protestantism, Lutheran scholars claimed adherence to pure doctrine, and in the name of orthodoxy made war upon the vital piety of seventeenth-century Spener and the Pietists. And in the name of orthodoxy Reformed scholastics divided the church into hostile camps. Orthodoxism assumes to pre-empt the truth, and is unwilling to learn or concede. All too often it is haughty and arrogant, assuming the divine prerogatives of infallibility and inerrancy—and all too commonly hating all truth with which it is unfamiliar. CFF1 1077.3

Nevertheless, the “orthodoxy” of Augustine’s Immortal-Soulism and Eternal Torment was destined to prevail for a thousand years. Error was entrenched and riding high. All opposers were under the ban and were largely driven underground—to the caves, the secluded valleys, the mountain fastnesses, to distant lands. They were compelled to use guerrilla tactics to keep the Conditionalist truth alive. But inspiring epics were to follow, in Reformation and Post-Reformation times, in the unremitting conflict over life, death, and destiny. CFF1 1078.1

3. TRUTH CRUSHED TO EARTH SPRINGS FORTH AGAIN

After the lengthening shades of night had fallen, and deepest midnight with its oppressive silences had come, the early glow of a new day pierces the darkness. Brighter and brighter it becomes, until the full orb of noontide reveals far more than a mere restoration of the interrupted testimony of Conditionalist witnesses. Mounting in number and of imposing prominence, a growing group of stalwart champions brings the testimony of Conditionalism to the forefront as never before, first in the Old World and then in the New—and out to the ends of the earth. And they advance in their understanding of the truth. CFF1 1078.2

Truth on the nature and destiny of man, crushed to earth, was bound to rise again. And rise it did. Despite the crushing dominance of the Tertullian-Augustinian School throughout the medieval centuries, men of sound training and powerful conviction began to speak forth again. The testimony of the Conditionalist School was once more heard in ever-growing voice—though at first under sharp ridicule and duress. Strong men sometimes went to prison for their faith—and, in instances, even to death. But that too would pass. CFF1 1078.3

Truth could not forever be repressed, and its advocates bore their witness in ever-increasing numbers and everwidening circles. The virile seeds of Conditionalism, planted during the ante-Nicene days of Justin Martyr and Irenaeus and the post-Nicene times of Arnobius and Lactantius, sprang forth and yielded their destined harvest. With this brief preview of things to come, we close this volume. The story of the subsequent centuries is the theme and scope of volume two. CFF1 1078.4