The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

V. Lyman Abbott-Denies Innate Immortality and Eternal Torment

Dr. LYMAN ABBOTT (1835-1922), Congregationalist churchman, editor, and author, originally studied for the law, but after three years he abandoned its practice for the ministry. He received his education at New York University. He became the successor of Henry Ward Beecher, both as editor of Christian Union and The Outlook and as pastor of the famous Plymouth church, Brooklyn (1888-1899). Abbott was a prolific writer, and became widely known for his public rejection of the dogma of endless conscious punishment and for holding the doctrine of the final extinction of the wicked. CFF2 509.2

1. REJECTS BOTH UNIVERSALISM AND ETERNAL TORMENTISM

Because of his well-known religious liberalism, one might expect that Dr. Abbott would lean toward the view of Ultimate Restorationism, or Universalism. But that surmise is set at rest by his frank but admirable address before the Universalist Association on “Why I am not a Universalist,” and the “fatal objection to the ‘Larger Hope’ theory.” His view of man’s mortal nature and ultimate destiny, and the basis for such views, may be seen from his specifically prepared contribution to the widely circulated 943-page Symposium-That Unknown Country. CFF2 509.3

“The notion that the final punishment of sin is continuance in sin and suffering is also based in part on, what seems to me, a false philosophy as to man. This philosophy is that man is by nature immortal. The conviction has grown on me, that, according to the teaching both of science and Scripture, man is by nature an animal, and like all other animals mortal; that immortality belongs only to the spiritual life; and that spiritual life is possible only in communion and contact with God; that, in short, immortality was not conferred upon the race in creation whether it would or no, but is conferred in redemption, upon all those of the race who choose life and immortality through Jesus Christ our Lord. CFF2 510.1

“Let me add, what may be regarded as rather a sentiment than a reason, that while the thought of eternal suffering might perhaps be endured, the thought that there is to be any corner in God’s universe where sin, lawlessness, rebellion, selfishness, deceit, malignity, shall continue eternally is a thought which has grown to me spiritually not only unbearable but unthinkable; not any longer to be reconciled with faith in, I will not say the love, but even the purity, of God.” ⁸⁰ CFF2 510.2

2. REPUDIATES PAGAN TEACHINGS ON FATE OF WICKED

Abbott held what he considered to be “a Return to the Scriptural as Against Pagan Teachings” on the fate of the wicked, and repudiated the theory of “Unending Conscious Sin and Torment” as “Not a Bible Doctrine.” ⁸¹ “All our knowledge of the future life is derived from Revelation,” he reminds us. ⁸² Regarding “God and His government,” he declares his revolt against “Puritan theology” thereon, and commends CFF2 510.3

“the theology of Paul and the primitive church, from which we have been carried away by the incursion of Pagan thought into religious philosophy, as the church was carried away from the simplicity of Christian worship by the incursion of Pagan rites into church worship.” CFF2 510.4

3. GOD NEVER SAVES SOUL AGAINST ITS WILL

Taking his stand against “universal salvation,” he denies that “salvation” is ever “independent of character.” But “salvation is character, and character lies in the free act of a free will.” Then he adds, “I am not a Universalist because I believe in the absolute free will of man.” The Scripture points to the “possible choice of death against all gracious influence.” ⁸⁴ Then, he adds, “They have not persuaded me that it is within the power of omnipotent love to save a soul against its own will.” ⁸⁵ CFF2 510.5

4. POPULAR THEOLOGY IGNORES WHOLE SET OF TEXTS

As to the alternative contention “that some of God’s creatures will continue in conscious sin and suffering forever,” Abbott chides the “orthodox” scholars for ignoring or explaining away a whole set of texts that declare there will ultimately be a clean universe, wholly without sin, suffering, and death. The concept of the Eternal Torment of the damned is not the only alternative. Though “I once reluctantly held” it, he declares, “I hold no longer.” To him such a position is “based partly on a false view of God” and “partly on an ignoring of some passages of Scripture, and a misconstruction of others; and partly in a false philosophy both of human nature and of redemption.” ⁸⁶ CFF2 511.1

5. MISCONSTRUES ORIGINAL INTENT AND USE

Popular theology has misconstrued into “images of torment what were clearly in their original use and to the original hearers images of destruction.” ⁸⁷ For example, Christ’s warning of “the worm that dieth not” was “clearly a symbol not of torture but of destruction.” Then follow the main paragraphs, before quoted, that man is not by nature immortal, but that immortality is conferred only upon those “who choose life and immortality through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Then he adds, in summary:
“I can only say, as the result of a quarter of a century’s study of the New Testament, that in my judgment there is very little in it to warrant belief in endless conscious sin and suffering, and much in it to warrant the belief that the end of sin is death, that life and immortality are the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, that when God shall have finished the work of redeeming grace, and the song of triumph shall ascend from his redeemed children, no groan and no rebellious and despairing discords shall mingle with and mar the hymns of praise.” ⁸⁸ CFF2 511.2