The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

VII. Additional Features in Enlarged American Edition

We will not give further details of Dr. Ives’s theological evidence, which largely coincides with that of scores of other writers in the second half of the century. We will simply note a few of his striking statements in the larger American printing, and will then turn to his searching appeal to the clergy to align themselves with Bible truth, and thus help to complete the reformation that was arrested in this particular field. CFF2 492.6

1. “INNATE IMMORTALITY” DERIVED FROM PLATO

Of the tragedy of the “great departure,” Ives says:
“Ensnared by the more subtle influence of the most civilized nation of the age, they bowed before the intellectual power of that philosopher [Plato] whose commanding genius has swayed the world of thought to this day. They yielded up the Bible doctrine of conditional immortality, and from Plato accepted the pagan doctrine of universal immortality.... CFF2 493.1

“But it was the original lie of the great adversary-that enemy of all truth-that they thus accepted. And having begun by losing the accessory truths of revelation, erelong the darkness of ‘The Dark Ages’ came down upon them, and again priest and people bowed before the idolatrous shrines of their graven images.” ¹⁰¹ CFF2 493.2

2. “UNCONSCIOUS” OF PASSING OF TIME IN DEATH

As to the interval between death and the resurrection, Ives says this:
“The intervening time between his death and his resurrection, be it actually centuries or but moments, is virtually the same to the believer of every age. It is a period of unconscious sleep till the awakening at the resurrection of the just, which thus comes to each as the next conscious moment after his falling asleep in death.” ¹⁰² CFF2 493.3

3. USE OF PROTESTED TERM “ANNIHILATION.”

Ives deals with the protested term “annihilation” in this way: There are two different meanings to the term— (1) the particles of which matter is composed are totally destroyed and cease to exist; and (2) the present form under which matter exists as an organized object is destroyed. The first, he comments, is an abstract conception of the return of matter to nothing out of which it was spoken into being. The second is illustrated by the destruction of a “tree”—often symbolizing the doom of the wicked—in which the existence and individuality of the “tree” is totally destroyed, or annihilated, or, the destruction of a marble statue, which is ground to powder and annihilated as a statue. In that sense the term “annihilation” is proper and permissible. But “destroyed” is the common term, not subject to misunderstanding. CFF2 493.4

4. IVES’S APPEAL TO THE CLERGY

After stating that the “doctrine of universal immortality” is the “great, all-pervasive error” that has permeated the church, Dr. Ives appeals to the “minister of God’s Word,” because of his “position of peculiar responsibility.” ¹⁰³ He urges him not to be influenced by the fear that his “usefulness will be greatly impaired” should he espouse such views, or by the economic jeopardy into which he might be placed by “ecclesiastical authorities” who may seek to “thrust” him out. He urges him not to maintain positions that would compel him to “explain away the natural meaning of Scripture,” and warns pointedly, “The Bible contradicts the devil’s lie; the church creed upholds it!” ¹⁰⁴ CFF2 493.5

Then he makes the prediction:
“If each, who has doubts of the theology he has been taught, were, without waiting for others, to investigate the teachings of God’s Word on these points, and declare the convictions at which he arrives, he would soon find himself not one alone. He would be one of a mighty host to do battle for the truth, and to drive into its merited darkness that flaunting lie of Satan’s device.” ¹⁰⁵ CFF2 494.1

5. SUPPLEMENTAL WORD TO LAYMEN

And to “Christian laymen” he says essentially the same:
“If you find the Bible denies the universal immortality which modern theology teaches, then it is your duty, within the sphere of your influence, freely to declare so important a fact it;s your duty to stir up your friends and neighbors to study the neglected Word of God, and to disseminate the knowledge of his truth, till a correct public sentiment in our churches will uphold their pastors and religious teachers in breaking away from the trammels of a corrupt past, and in standing boldly for the truth, as God has revealed it to man” ¹⁰⁶ CFF2 494.2

That was what Dr. Ives presented to his adult Bible class while teaching at Yale, and spread to the world in book form. CFF2 494.3