The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

II. Samplings of Overton’s Conditionalist Contentions

1. DURING DEATH MAN CEASES TO BE UNTIL THE RESURRECTION

Chapter one of this treatise is epitomized thus: CFF2 167.3

“Of Man’s Creation, Fall, Restitution, and Resurrection how they disproved the Opinion of the Soul, immagining the better part of Man immortall: And proveth him (quatinus Homo) wholy mortall.” ⁸ CFF2 167.4

And Overton clearly states that, in death, man returns to dust and is without any being, in whole or in part, until the resurrection, when he is restored to being. Thus: CFF2 167.5

“Death reduceth this productio Entis ex Non-ente ad Non-entem, returnes Man to what he was before he was; that is, not to Bee: Psalm 115:17. the Dead prayse not the Lord, neither they that goe downe into silence: And Psalm 146:4. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to the Earth, in that very Day his thoughts perish. (see more pag. 5. 6. 7. 8.) But the Resurrection restoreth this non-ented Entitie to an everlasting Being, 1 Corinthians 15:42. It is sowne in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.” ⁹ CFF2 167.6

2. MORTALIZED BY ADAM; IMMORTALIZED BY CHRIST

Mortality is the inheritance of all of Adam’s posterity, while conversely, “what was mortallized by the earthly Man shall be immortallized by the Heavenly man.” ¹⁰ Man thus became wholly mortal, without “his soule” continuing “immortall.” And he concludes: “Immortallity or the Resurrection cannot be by Propagation or Succission, as mortallity from Adam to his Issue.” ¹¹ CFF2 167.7

3. ALL HOPE GROUNDED ON RESURRECTION

In chapter two Overton marshals the evidence of the Old Testament and the New Testament Scriptures. He quotes from Obadiah 4; Job 3, 4, 14, and 34; Psalm 6, 89, and 103; Ecclesiastes 3; and Isaiah 38, to show that “man is wholy mortall.” In death the wicked is not now in torment, but “absolutely is not” until the resurrection. And from the New Testament—such as 1 Corinthians 15; 1 Peter 1; 1 Timothy 4 and 6; and Luke 20 he likewise shows that “all his hope of future life was grounded upon the Resurrection.” ¹² And he concludes that in death men do not live on “in their soules,” but man ceases to be “till the Resurrection.” ¹³ That is his continuing theme. CFF2 168.1

4. PARADISE ENTERED BY WAY OF RESURRECTION

In dealing specifically with Luke 23:42, 43, concerning the thief on the cross, Overton says in the heavy phrasing of the time: CFF2 168.2

“Then it must be meant, (as the Malefactor desired) when he [Christ] was in his Kingdome, which could not be before his Resurrection: therefore, the Malefactor could injoy no such soulary beatitude, as from hence is supposed, and that before he [Christ] had received this Kingdome himselfe, but must receive the Paradice, as Christ did, by a totall Resurrection.” ¹⁴ CFF2 168.3

R. O.’s closing words, in this connection, are: CFF2 168.4

“Thus having found Mans Foundation to be wholy in the Dust, from thence taken, and thither to returne: Let this then be the use of all: That man hath not wherewith at all to boast no more then of dirt under his feet, but is provoaked wholy out of himselfe, to cast himselfe wholy on Jesus Christ, with whome in God our lives are hid, that when he who is our life shall appeare, he might also with him appeare in glory, to whom be the honour of our immortality for ever, and for ever. Amen.” ¹⁵ CFF2 168.5

So much for Overton in 1643-1655. CFF2 168.6