The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

II. Masterful Portrayal of Historical Trilemma (Three Conflicting Positions)

Constable’s Duration and Nature of Future Punishment (1868) states, in the Preface to the Sixth (1886) Edition, that “the lapse of time has only confirmed” his original opinionthat is, that “upholders of Divine Truth” on the fate of the “Ungodly” must “contend alike against both these errors,” namely, “Eternal Suffering” and “Universal Restoration.” ¹ CFF2 339.2

Constable refers to the gratifying circulation of the book Future Punishment in Britain, the British Colonies, and the United States. It unquestionably had a wide distribution, and was constantly quoted. Taking the position that “Eternal Death” is the Biblical “everlasting punishment,” Constable traverses the entire testimony of the Old and New Testaments, the intent of the Greek terms employed, and the involvements of the resurrection of the wicked, as well as the application of divine justice, the extinction of evil, and all the leading problem texts. CFF2 340.1

In the latter chapters he compasses the historical witness of the Apostolic Fathers, then of Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, and the rise of the theory of “Eternal Life in Hell.” He next analyzes Tertullian’s Eternal Torment postulate and Origen’s theory of Universal Restoration. ² The representative importance of Constable’s treatise demands a fairly full summary. Its value is enhanced by citation of such British and American Conditionalists as Whately, Foster, White, Perowne, Minton, Hudson, Blain, and Denniston. CFF2 340.2

It is a highly readable work. And it is so filled with vital principles, facts, and gem statements that it is difficult to choose what must be left out in order to keep within space limits. CFF2 340.3

1. INNATE IMMORTALITY + ETERNAL PUNISHING = ETERNAL MISERY

Chapters one and two maintain that “Eternal Death” is indeed eternal. It is the eternal “loss of eternal life or existence,” which death process involves “various degrees of pain.” The same word, he shows, is used for the duration of the “opposite states”—everlasting life and everlasting death. “Eternal death,” he holds, is a state of “utter death and destruction.” Even a majority of the ancient philosophers held that death was an “eternal sleep.” It was Platonism that wrought the change. Connect the concept of the “immortality of the soul” (“inalienable existence”) with the theory of the eternity of punishing, and you have the “eternal life in misery” ³ of Augustine’s Hell. But Constable states emphatically: “The expression ‘immortality of the soul,’ so common in theology, is not once found in the Bible from beginning to end.” ⁴ CFF2 340.4

2. ETERNAL DEATH OF WICKED INVOLVES ULTIMATE NONEXISTENCE

Because of man’s sin in Eden “immortality was alienated: this priceless gift was thrown away and lost.” So “sinful man is not by nature immortal, but mortal.” And redemption by Christ bestows immortality on “some only of the fallen race”—those who accept its conditions and provisions. ⁵ The “eternal death” of the wicked, Constable insists, involves “future non-existence.” It is indeed “everlasting destruction.” ⁶ CFF2 341.1

3. ORIGINAL SENTENCE INVOLVED LOSS OF EXISTENCE

In chapter three Constable again stresses the fact that the death “penalty which God originally pronounced against human sin,” means “loss of life or existence,” not “eternal existence in agony.” And he stresses the elemental principle of jurisprudence that the “parties” in Eden, under law, had a right to know the intent of the penalty threatened, which was loss of life and returning to nonexistence ⁷—not endless torment. The Old Testament teaches “dissolution of that organized form which constitutes man,” or “resolution into its original parts, its becoming as though it had never been called into existence.” Such is the fate of the sinner. Then he says:
“While the redeemed are to know a life which knows no end, the lost are to be reduced to a death which knows of no awaking for ever and ever. Such is the testimony of God in the Old Testament.” ⁸ CFF2 341.2

He disclaims the term “annihilation” in its philosophical sense, as a term not used by Conditionalists, but one put upon their lips by opponents. “Destroyed” and “destruction” are the terms commonly used. For “the destruction of the wicked is the testimony of the Word.” ⁹ CFF2 341.3

4. PRICELESS TABULATION OF GREEK TERMS USED

Turning to the New Testament, in chapter four, Constable shows its “perfect agreement” with the Old Testament teaching—namely “loss of existence,” or “putting out of existence.” In support he canvasses the Greek words used, and declares, “We challenge their [the opponents’] contradiction of what we have written.” ¹⁰ He could so do, for he was a scholar in his own right, and knew his ground. In chapter five, on the precise Greek terms, Constable covers all key words used, quoting their classical use, then their New Testament use. Next he shows how Platonic usages have supplanted the New Testament intent. ¹¹ Then (in chapter six) he gives a priceless “Table of Greek Words and Their Meaning,” ¹² in which the fourteen basic Greek terms are given, with their variant uses. It is excellent for reference, and reliable. CFF2 342.1

5. OPPOSING POSITIONS TABULATED AND ILLUSTRATED

To this is added a six-page Table with three paralleling columns on (1) the “Augustinian Theory”; (2) the “Scripture” position; and (3) the “Theory of Destruction.” ¹³ In the first column terse extracts from ancient and modern ImmortalSoulists appear, contrasted in column three with gem statements from past and present Conditionalists—with the determining Scriptures of truth texts set in the column between. These tables cover “Life” and “Live,” “Death” and “Die,” together with “destruction,” “destroy,” “perish,” “consume,” loss of “being,” and “corruption.” They are tremendously impressive and conclusive. CFF2 342.2

6. SCRIPTURE NEGATES BOTH ETERNAL TORMENTISM AND UNIVERSALISM

In chapter seven (“The Illustrations of Scripture”) Constable shows that all the expressions of Scripture used concerning “future punishment” are “not merely unsuitable but they are positively false,” if f applied t o the Eternal Torment or Universal Restoration theories. And the Scripture illustrations are “fatal to both views alike.” ¹⁴ In chapter eight (“The Resurrection of the Wicked”) no immortalizing “change” transforms the wicked at their resurrection, as with the righteous. They do not receive an “immortal body” to join an “immortal soul.” They are raised in sinful state in order to be punished. Paul’s “we shall be changed” does not apply to the wicked. ¹⁵ CFF2 342.3

7. SCRIPTURE ASSERTS UTTER EXTINCTION OF EVIL

Coming to chapter ten (“The Extinction of Evil”), Constable insists that “evil is not to be eternal.” A time will come when all “iniquity shall have an end”—but not by Universal Restoration. And the Biblical truth likewise contradicts” ¹⁶ the Eternal Torment theory. Then in chapter eleven (“Examination of Particular Texts”) Constable deals with the problem passages—Mark 9:44-48; Isaiah 33:14; Revelation 14—showing that instead of supporting Eternal Torment they in reality contradict it. He refers to supporting authorities like Hudson and Trench. ¹⁷ In Biblical proof Constable uses Jude 7, showing that the fire is “eternal” because it is “eternal in its efects.” That is the classic Biblical example of the “destruction” to be visited upon the wicked. ¹⁸ CFF2 343.1

8. CHALLENGES OPPONENTS TO CONTROVERT VIEW

Constable next (in chapter fifteen) reviews the testimony of the Apostolic Fathers, taking Clement of Rome as an example. Then follows this impressively clear and accurate declaration:
“From beginning to end of them [the writings of the Apostolic Fathers] there is not one word said of that immortality of the soul which is so prominent in the writings of the later fathers. Immortality is by them asserted to be peculiar to the redeemed. The punishment of the wicked is by them emphatically declared to be everlasting. Not one stray expression of theirs can be interpreted as giving any countenance to the theory of restoration after purgatorial suffering.” ¹⁹ CFF2 343.2

But he goes further, and again says: “We challenge our opponents to controvert our view of them in a single particular.” ²⁰ No one, apparently, was able to take up his challenge. CFF2 344.1

9. CITES JUSTIN MARTYR AND IRENAEUS AS CONDITIONALISTS

In chapter sixteen Constable discusses Justin Martyr, claiming him as “among our [Conditionalist] supporters.” He shows that Justin expressly teaches ultimate “cessation of existence or being” for the wicked. Immortality is a “gift of God” received by the redeemed only, at the “resurrection.” ²¹ Man, he reiterates, does not have Innate Immortality. Justin clearly taught the “utter destruction of existence in hell.” ²² Then follows Irenaeus (chapter seventeen), teaching the mortality of man, with immortality to be bestowed as a gift through Christ. Irenaeus thus confines immortality to the redeemed, or “just.” And he likewise asserts that the wicked will “perish,” being reduced to “non-existence.” The punishment is eternal because it is the “loss of blessing which is eternal.” ²⁴ The utterances of these historical characters are all carefully documented. Here is a terse recapitulation, which speaks volumes: “The second death cuts off from an eternal life, and is therefore an eternal death.” CFF2 344.2

10. TERTULLIAN BUILDS ON ATHENAGORAS’ FOUNDATION

Chapter eighteen deals with the “Rise of the Theory of Eternal Life in Hell.” Here Constable cites Athenagoras as the “very first” Christian philosopher to bring forward the concept of universal Innate Immortality. ²⁵ Then Tertullian (chapter nineteen) builds up the Eternal Torment theory into a system. His watchword was, “Every soul is immortal.” Man’s soul, he held, is made out of “some part of God,” and is therefore “immortal” and “incorruptible.” And he maintained that for this “eternal anguish,” a supernatural fire is necessary. ²⁶ Here, in the words of Constable, was his horrific picture: “The devouring flame supplies its inexhaustible fuel! Roaring, crackling, raging, scorching, paining, in the lurid vaults of hell, it supplies the bones, and marrow, and blood, and flesh, round which it roars, and crackles, and rages, with a noise as loud as the shrieks and wailings of the damned. Such was the philosophical theory which forced Tertullian to his view of future punishment. Men now laugh at the philosophical dogma. They accept the diabolical conclusion which was based upon it!” ²⁷ CFF2 344.3

11. LED TO “FORCED” INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE

Such were Tertullian’s philosophical figments of the immortality of the soul and the nature of what was called “divine or secret fire.” ²⁸ But such a theory compelled Tertullian “knowingly and confessedly, to alter the proper sense of some of the most common terms of Scripture to a non-natural and improper sense”—such as “kill” and “destroy” as indicating merely “some change or condition of life,” so as to be suitable to his theory. ²⁹ Constable’s comment is emphatic. Tertullian, he says, “put a forced, improper, unsuitable sense on the words of Scripture,” and then justified this “by saying that the theory of Scripture demanded that its words should not be understood in their suitable sense, but in an improper, forced, unnatural, and unsuitable sense!” ³⁰ CFF2 345.1

He did this because “he supposes the loss of existence by one who might have had it for ever as no punishment!” ³¹ So he resorts to a “figurative and allegorical” meaning. But the “source of this new language” was to be “found in a new doctrine”—Platonism. So with Tertullian “hell was a scene where endless slaughtering (aeterna occisio) was being endlessly enacted.” ³² CFF2 345.2

12. ORIGEN CONVERTS HELL INTO “VAST PURGATORY.”

In chapter twenty (Origen’s “Theory of Universal Restoration”) Origen is shown to have rebelled against such a fearful picture of God, and takes this turn:
“Origen converts hell into a vast purgatory, and sends men and devils forth from it, purified and humbled, to the feet of the Great Father, and to the joys which are at His right hand for evermore. It is the old story of human thought passing from one extreme to its opposite.” ³³ CFF2 345.3

Then Constable tritely observes, “The truth always lies between the two.” ³⁴ Origen had laid hold of the truth of the “final extinction of evil,” while at the same time retaining the “very same dogma of the immortality of the soul which had led Athenagoras and Tertullian to this endless life in hell.” ³⁵ So Plato’s Innate Immortality was the root of both errors. The result was perversion in both cases. CFF2 346.1

13. PURIFICATION OF THE “INDESTRUCTIBLE” SINNER

As noted, Origen’s element of truth was the ultimate “abolition of evil.” But he erred in misunderstanding the way it was to be brought about—actually by the destruction of evil. Origen felt that the soul was “indestructible.” His scheme was to convert “hell into a universal purgatory, where evil was destroyed and the evil-doer purged, where sin was blotted out while the sinner was preserved.” ³⁶ CFF2 346.2

14. SPIRITUALIZED SCRIPTURE TO SUPPORT PLATONISM

Constable repeats that Platonism was therefore responsible for both divergent views. “Heathen philosophy had given his idea to Origen, but he had, as a Christian teacher, to apply it to the language of Scripture.” So he simply spiritualized its interpretation, weaving around it a “cobweb veil of allegory,” because the foundation of his system was always the “inalienable immortality of all souls.” ³⁷ CFF2 346.3

15. ETERNITY OF EVIL COUNTERS BIBLE TESTIMONY

Thus it was that the three basic theories of future punishment became established in the church, ever after to continue in relentless conflict. And in the battle between the opposing concepts of the ultimate extinction of evil versus the eternal existence of evil, Origen erred fatally as to the “means” of extinction. His false premise “compelled him to promise life where God had threatened death.” ³⁸ CFF2 346.4

But Constable closes on the Biblical note of the ultimate “termination of moral evil.” It will “have an end.” “It is not from eternity, and it will not be to eternity.” Eternity of evil, Constable declares, is “not a doctrine of the Bible.” “Evil is a thing of time, and is not an essential part of the constitution of God’s universe.” ³⁹ Thus he likewise disposes of Tertullian Augustinianism. This leaves the ultimate and utter destruction of sin and sinners as the truth. CFF2 347.1

16. ERROR’S FATAL GAP OF TWO CENTURIES

Constable’s final Table impressively shows how Tertullian’s theory of Eternal Torment was not projected until A.D. 235, and how Origen’s Universal Restoration was not introduced until 253—and he was its “earliest known advocate.” The lapse of time represented by the “blank span” between the apostles and Tertullian and Origen is “fatal to both” of the latter. ⁴⁰ The Table provides a powerful visual portrayal of his logical argument. The truth of Conditional Immortality and the ultimate, utter destruction of the wicked goes back to Christ and the apostles. The other two theories were later innovations, and clearly not apostolic. Constable’s is a classic argument. CFF2 347.2