The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

II. Remarkable Conditionalist Faith Library Exerts Widespread Influence

The Faith Library was issued in the years 1897-1907. Singly, and bound together in volumes, the leaflets comprise a remarkable aggregation in number and quality, from varied and learned writers. The editors skimmed the cream, as it were, of the Conditionalist literature, and broadcast it everywhere. Some items were specifically prepared for the series. Others were chapters from books, outstanding periodical articles, public addresses, reports of conferences, reprints from out-of-print books, and from the regular monthly issue of The Faith. They were of convenient pocket size, and ranged in pages from sixteen or thirty-two, up to eighty. As such they attained wide circulation and covered nearly every aspect of the question. CFF2 459.2

1. SAMPLINGS OF TITLES AND WRITERS

The contributions embraced some of the ablest writers of the Old World, and some from the New. For example, No. 1 (“Man and Immortality”) was by Canon Henry Constable; No. 28 (“The Sinner’s Doom”) by F. A. Freer; No. 13 (“The Rich Man and Lazarus”) and No. 15 (“What Is Man?”), were by Miles Grant, of America; No. 18 (“Soul; or, the Hebrew Word Nephesh, and the Greek Word Psuche”), more technical, was by William G. Moncrieff, of Scotland and Canada; Nos. 19, 24, and 32 (on immortality) were from Dr. Petavel, of Switzerland; No. 20 (“Hear the Church of England”) by Rector H. S. Warleigh; No. 21 (“Spiritualism-True or False”) by Cyrus E. Brooks, editor of The Faith; and No. 22 (“The Two Doctrines of Human Immortality Contrasted”), a highly helpful series, by J. H. Pettingell, of America. CFF2 459.3

2. COMPREHENSIVE EXTRACT FROM LITTLE-KNOWN WRITER

There is citation and quotation from eminent Conditionalists like Dr. Dale, of Birmingham; Dr. White, of London; Professor Stokes, of Cambridge; et cetera. A summarizing extract from G. W. Winckler, a less-known writer, in No. 11 (“Is Man Immortal?”) will illustrate the content:
“1. A living man, or a living soul, is an organized being, made of the dust of the ground, having the breath or spirit of life. A dead man or a dead soul is the same being, without the breath or spirit of life.
“2. By man came death. In Scripture it is called ‘sleep.’ By Man [Jesus Christ] came also the resurrection of the dead.
“3. Sleeping souls, both just and unjust, will all be raised from the dead.
“4. The judgment will determine, whether to eternal life, or to suffer the eternal punishment of the second death.
“5. The nature of this second death is described in Revelation 20. It will not preserve, but it will ‘destroy both soul and body in Gehenna,’ in the ‘lake of fire.’
“6. Immortality, is the great reward forfeited by the fall, but offered now to all ‘who will seek for it by patient continuance in well doing.’ The source of immortality is He, who is the ‘Bread of Life,’ and although we may die the first death, which is appointed unto men, yet, the promise is sure ‘I will raise him up again at the last day.’ If we reject this Life Giver, then ‘there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
“7. The answer to the question, Is man Immortal? will determine the nacure and duration of eternal punishment. If man is immortal by nature, then eternal punishment must mean eternal conscious torment.” ²⁷ CFF2 460.1

That is multum in parvo. CFF2 461.1

3. HISTORICAL RECITALS HIGHLY HELPFUL

Anglican H. S. Warleigh contributes an important historical statement in his “Hear the Church of England” (No. 20). Here the important facts regarding the reduction of the forty-two Anglican articles of 1552, to the thirty-nine of 1562, ²⁸ and their significance, are clearly and reliably set forth, together with the test case of “Wilson v. Fendall,” in 1864. ²⁹ No. 27 is a report of twenty years (1878-1898) of the annual conferences of the British Conditional Immortality Association, by Cyrus Brooks, editor of The Faith monthly. And No. 29 is the 1899 Worcester Conditional Immortality Conference Report, with the six leading addresses. CFF2 461.2

4. BIBLE ARGUMENT PRESENTED BY EXPERT

NO. 32 (“Immortality According to the Bible”), by Dr. Emmanuel Petavel, is unique. It is a basic series of texts quoted in full, grouped under several comprehensive headings, with terse explanatory footnotes. The leading headings are:
“I.—Man Is Not Born Immortal; Immortality Is an Attribute of God Alone.”
“II.—Immortality Is a Privilege Granted to the Righteous, and a Favour Offered to the Penitent Believer.” “III.—Immortality Is a Conditional Privilege: The Bible Never Speaks of the Immortality of the Soul.”
“IV.—The Sinner Is Threatened With Death; That Is, a Gradual Destruction of Body and Soul.”
“V.—Partial Losses of the Guilty, Even Though Penitent.”
“VI.—God Takes No Pleasure in Punishing, and His Chastisements, Which Are Always Proportionate to the Guilt, Are Chiefly the Withdrawal of His Favours.”
“VII.—Final Destruction of the Impenitent.”
“VIII.—End of Satan and of the Reign of Evil.” ³⁰ CFF2 461.3

That covers the case, and comes from an expert. CFF2 462.1

Petavel’s notes are scholarly, and are often buttressed with quotations from recognized experts. His own comments are incisive and mature. The notes are full and documented. Here are three terse samples:
Note 2: “That [Innate Immortality] dogma is, then, of diabolical origin [Satan, “father of lies”] for which the sentence of death pronounced against the sinner substitutes eternal life in torments. Satan thus appears as the earliest and the most skilful advocate of unconditional immortality.” ³¹ CFF2 462.2

“4. The wicked, too, will be raised, but they will have to die again; this is called in the Revelation ‘the second death.’” ³² CFF2 462.3

“9. These words, ‘few stripes,’ can scarcely be reconciled with the idea of eternal suffering.” ³³ CFF2 462.4

These examples illustrate the character of the literature. CFF2 462.5

5. DEFENSE OF CONDITIONALIST POSITION AND ARRAY OF EVIDENCE

In No. 33 (an open letter to Rev. Frank Ballard), Dr. Petavel refers to the “contemptuous expressions” concerning Conditionalism and Conditionalists which questioned whether men with “Christian intelligence” can “entertain” such a “view.” Petavel replies, with devastating effect, that Ballard’s “taunts” reflect on such men as Dogmatician Richard Rothe; Dr. Plitt, an editor of the Herzog Encyclopaedia; Superintendent Gess and Prof. Hermann Schultz, of Germany; Prof. Charles F. Hudson, Horace Bushnell, Henry Ward Beecher, and Dr. Lyman Abbott, of America; French philosophers Alexandre Vinet, Charles Secrétan, Charles Renouvier, and Francois Pillon; and in England on Drs. Dale and Weymouth, Bishop Perowne, and Professors George G. Stokes, T. G. Bonney, Balfour Stewart; and Archbishop Tait and Prime Minister Gladstone. ³⁴ CFF2 462.6

Then Petavel marshals a list of brilliant witnessesVinet, Bois, Rothe, Schultz, Ménégoz—all attesting, by quotation, the Conditionalist view as Biblical and the Immortalist view as of Platonic, pagan origin. ³⁵ It is a searching survey of the whole field-philosophical, Biblical, technical, semantic. It is a truly scholarly coverage. CFF2 463.1