The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

IV. Eternal Destiny Revolves Around Intent of “Life” and “Death”

1. LIFE AND DEATH—KEYS THAT UNLOCK INSPIRED INTENT

The issues of eternal destiny turn on the intent of Holy Scripture, as seen in the prologue (of Genesis) and in the epilogue (of the Revelation). The terms “life” and “death” are the dual keys that unlock the Biblical intent as to the destiny of man. Everything turns upon these two antithetical expressions. CFF1 113.1

As mentioned, life and death are ever set forth as opposites, like black and white. For one to say that death is simply another kind or state of life is like insisting that black is only a variation of white. But if death were a certain state of life, it would simply be a continued manifestation of that same life. The usage of Biblical language protests such violence. To die is to cease to live, or exist, not to suffer on forever, simply away from the presence of God, but to keep on living. CFF1 113.2

2. PLATONIC PERVERSION OF DEATH AS PERPETUAL LIFE

When man is under consideration, life—in the historical and grammatical sense—refers to his existence as manifested through animation, action, and sensation. Death, on the contrary, is the end of that existence, the termination of all action and sensation. But under the Platonic influence, with its notion of the absolute and indefeasible immortality of the human soul, and the consequent flaunting of the total testimony of Scripture, the traditionalist took his stand on the premise that the inherent life of the soul cannot cease. CFF1 113.3

As a result the death of the soul inevitably came to signify its Perpetual life in the midst of sin and suffering—without any possible end. Ever dying, the soul nevertheless could never die. Death was consequently replaced by pain that is interminable, while life was made synonymous merely with holiness and blessedness in that existence. It was a travesty of truth both in word and in intent. CFF1 113.4

3. INNATE IMMORTALITY POSTULATE REVERSES TRUE EXEGESIS

But the postulate of the innate Immortality of all souls involves an inescapably unnatural and arbitrary interpretation of Scripture—a reversal of true exegesis—so that instead of death being the penalty for the unrepentant sinner, with unending life solely for the righteous, eternal life is instead asserted to be the final destiny of both righteous and wicked—only with the one class in bliss and the other in torment. But such a procedure is undeniable eisegesis—a reading into the text of what is not there, and of what is, moreover, fundamentally contrary to the uniform, overwhelming testimony of Scripture. CFF1 114.1

4. CHRIST’S DEATH, NOT SUFFERINGS, CONSTITUTED ATONING SACRIFICE

There is often, of course, intense suffering with death—but always ending in destruction. However, it is not the suffering but the destruction that is the ultimate. Suffering precedes it. Thus it was with the death of Christ, if we are to consider this point at the highest level. There is frequent allusion to His “sufferings” in our behalf. But, dreadful as these were, Christ’s sufferings alone did not constitute His atoning death. They were only the accompaniments thereof. Death is ceasing to live. CFF1 114.2

The fundamental point is that Christ did not endure Eternal Torment. He paid the designated penalty due to Adam and the race—which was death. The death of Christ on Calvary, though including fearful mental and bodily suffering, required the extinction of His life. This principle was illustrated back in the case of Old Testament Israel: CFF1 114.3

“If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, The Lord Thy God; then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses .... Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed .... And it shall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought” (Deuteronomy 28:58-63). CFF1 114.4

Thus all suffering terminates in final destruction, and comes to nought. That is the over-all Bible evidence. CFF1 115.1

5. DESTRUCTION, NOT ETERNAL TORMENT, THE PUNISHMENT

Man was placed in the Garden of Eden with the explicit warning that “in the day that thou eatest thereof [of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Should he disobey he would be subject to capital punishment—death, by forfeiting his life. There is nothing in the language employed that conveys any concept other than utter destruction as punishment for transgression. There is no intimation of a prolonged, much less endless, existence in torment. CFF1 115.2

Life and death must have appeared as opposites to Adam—the threat of “death” being the opposite of “living forever.” CFF1 115.3

We must therefore repeat that there was absolutely no Biblical declaration of death as an endless life in interminable misery as the penalty for sin. CFF1 115.4