The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

II. Rector Huntington-Outspoken Champion of Conditional Immortality

WILLIAM REED HUNTINGTON, D.D., LL.D. (1838-1909), rector of All Saints church, Worcester, Massachusetts, for twenty-one years (1862-1883), then of Grace church in New York City, was trained at Norwich University, Vermont, and at Harvard. He became one of the most widely known clergymen of his time. He was elected bishop of Iowa, but declined in order to continue his parish work. ⁵ While rector at Worcester he gave a memorable series of sermons on various aspects of Conditional Immortality, which position he had frankly espoused. These addresses he later published in book form under the same title Conditional Immortality (1878). CFF2 542.2

Dr. Huntington frankly states that his purpose in publishing was twofold: (1) To offer a Biblical alternative for those who cannot accept the horrors of the dogma of the Eternal Torment of the wicked; and (2) “to test the right of a clergyman thinking as I thought to keep a standing place in the ministry of the Episcopal Church.” ⁶ This explanation he wrote in 1881. Then he states, “Having accomplished the last object, and done what little I could towards the former end, I am content.” His plan was successful. His Conditionalist views did not affect either his churchly standing or his influence. CFF2 542.3

Picture 1: Dr. William Reed Huntington, Dr. George Dana Boardman, Amos Augustus Phelps, Dr. John Steward Holden
Upper left: Dr. William Reed Huntington (d. 1909), episcopalian, Worcester, Massachusetts—ultimate and utter destruction of wicked. Upper right: Dr. George Dana Boardman (d. 1903), Baptist pastor of Philadelphia—innate immortality negates resurrection. Lower left: Amos Augustus Phelps (d. 1874), congregational clergyman and editor—sweeping portrayal of immortal-soul issues. Lower right: Dr. John Steward Holden (d. 1934), vicar, St. Paul’s church, London—dead all sleep till second advent.
Page 544

1. HUNTINGTON INFLUENCED BY WHITE AND HUDSON

In Suter’s Life and Letters of William Reed Huntington (1925), in a letter dated August 1, 1878, in connection with a statement as to his own belief in Conditional Immortality, Huntington alludes to Conditionalist Edward White as “author of the best book there is on ‘Conditional Immortality.’” Suter also refers to the earlier influences leading to Huntington’s espousal of the teaching of Life Only in Christ, and the vicissitudes resulting therefrom:
“Presentations of this subject had strongly influenced Dr. Huntington, even in the years before he entered upon the work in Worcester, especially Charles Frederick Hudson’s book entitled, ‘Debt and Grace.’ Furthermore, it is of interest to remember that it was in relation to the ‘doctrine of the last things’ that young Huntington, the candidate, was thought to be unsound by Bishop Eastburn, and possibly one to whom ordination should be denied.” ⁷ CFF2 544.1

But he was ordained, nevertheless. Suter then makes this pertinent observation: “It is to be noted that this theory of conditional immortality appears to have had a certain fascination for preachers and leaders in the Episcopal Church.” ⁸ CFF2 544.2

The truth of this statement is attested again and again on both sides of the Atlantic. CFF2 544.3

2. CONDITIONALIST VIEWS REAFFIRMED AT CLOSE OF LIFE

Toward the close of Dr. Huntington’s life, in a letter written in 1906, he reiterates his unchanged conviction of Life Only in Christ in these explicit words quoted by Suter:
“I have never changed my conviction that eternal life in Christ and no eternal life away from Him is the real New Testament teaching. It can be set forth without lurid accompaniments, and yet in a way to startle the conscience, and certainly the conscience needs startling now and then It certainly is a very curious fact in theology that, among all the voices in the Bible, that of the mild and gentle Jesus is the one most eloquent of doom There is much more about hell in the Gospels than in the Epistles, and very much less in the Old Testament than in either Gospels or Epistles The sulphurous symbolism of the Apocalypse, of course, stands by itself as a thing apart, but even there I seem to discern more hints of spiritual death and destruction than of everlasting con sciousness of torment” ⁹ CFF2 544.4

Picture 2: Jesus, Wondrous Connecting Link Between Heaven and Earth
Jesus, wondrous connecting link between heaven and earth, is our sole hope of restoration to life eternal.
Page 545

3. IMMORTALITY A GIFT BESTOWED ON SEEKERS

In Conditional Immortality (1878), in commenting on 1 Peter 4:17 (“What shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?”), Huntington refers to three views commonly held (1) That the soul is mortal and perishes with the body, (2) that the soul is immortal and cannot die, and continues to exist forever, and (3) that the soul, subject to death in consequence of sin, may by the grace and gift of God become immortal and live forever-which belief is Conditional Immortality. This he considered the true position He maintains that a CFF2 545.1

“never ending existence is not the common heritage of all men in virtue of their having been born into this world, but is rather to be regarded as a gift bestowed on those who seek it from the Eternal Himself” ¹⁰ CFF2 545.2

4. ULTIMATE AND UTTER DES-I RUCTION OF WICKED

On page 47 Huntington refers to the six prevalent concepts as to the fate of the wicked, which might be listed as (1) Extinction of being at death, (2) immediate admission to state of blessedness at death, (3) restoration after a season of punishment, (4) happiness or unhappiness, according to conduct, in present world, (5) never ceasing torment, and (6) final extinction of the unrepentant wicked after an appropriate period and degree of punishment-the position that he holds. CFF2 545.3

As to the fate of the wicked, there are three major schools of thought, constituting a theological trilemma, just as devel oped in the Early Church. These are: (1) Never-ending Punishment-which rests on antecedent belief that man is immortal; (2) Universal Restorationism; and (3) Conditional Immortality, with ultimate and utter destruction for the incorrigibly wicked. In championing the last of these schools, Huntington again concurs with all Conditionalists. Then he turns to the attitude of Anglicanism. CFF2 545.4

5. CONDITIONALISM IMPLICIT IN ANGLICAN FORMULARIES

In chapter twenty of The Everlasting Gospel, an appendix to his volume Conditional Immortality is republished. Dr. Huntington there discusses the Conditionalism implicit in the Anglican formularies, set forth by the revisionists from Edward’s to Elizabeth’s day. ¹¹ The reduction of the Forty-two Articles to Thirty-nine was, he avers, “in consequence of the perfectly loyal adherence of those sixteenth-century scholars to the early Christian tradition.” ¹² And “because the PrayerBook faithfully reflects Scripture,” it “presents conditional immortality as the likeliest purport of our Lord’s teaching about the future of man.” ¹⁴ Then he comments:
“When it is remembered how thoroughly the popular theology of the Reformation period, both Roman and anti-Roman, was committed to the doctrine of endless torment, it seems little short of miraculous that the revised service-book of the national Church (in 1562) should have been kept clean from so great a blemish.” CFF2 546.1

6. LIFE ONLY IN CHRIST IN PRAYER BOOK AND COLLECTS

Huntington then refers to the judgment rendered by the ecclesiastical court of 1864. ¹⁵ But passing the legal precedent, he comes to the plain English of the Prayer Book concerning “endless life through Christ,” and declares that one “could not frame one [a liturgy] better adapted to the purpose than that which already exists under the name of The Common Prayer.” Discussing the Latin aeternus and the Greek aionios, he declares the terms do not necessarily “connote endless duration,” and contends that life is “given to us only in Christ.” And consequently, “all life which is cut off from Christ’s life is a non-everlasting, perishable thing.” ¹⁶ CFF2 546.2

Discussing the Litany, “From everlasting damnation, Good Lord, deliver us,” Huntington refers to “everlasting damnation” as “inevitable loss,” or deprivation of “his very existence.” ¹⁷ Then, in the Morning Prayer, and others, appeal is made that we be brought “to everlasting life.” And in the first of the Advent collects, we pray that “ ‘in the time of this mortal life,’ we may so cast away the works of darkness that in the last day we may ‘rise to the life immortal;’ while in the second we ask that ‘we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life which Thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ.’” ¹⁸ Then Dr. Huntington declares: “The whole doctrine of conditional immortality may be said to be contained in these two collects.” ¹⁹ CFF2 547.1

7.CHRIST OPENED “GATE OF EVERLASTING LIFE.”

“On the Sunday before Easter we are bidden to pray that we may... be ‘made partakers of His resurrection.’” And on Easter, the opening collect refers to the Resurrected Christ as the One who has “‘opened unto us the gate of everlasting life,’” and by His death and resurrection “hath restored to us everlasting life.” ²⁰ Thus we may “come to the land of everlasting life.” ²¹ So it is through the Son of God that we are “strengthened and built up into that life which alone is permanent and abiding. CFF2 547.2

Such is Dr. Huntington’s argument on the Anglican formularies, placing their evidence before his readers. He closes with the thought that the Anglican manual of worship reflects “the great central truth of the revelation of Jesus Christ: ‘I am come that ye might have life, and that ye might have it more abundantly.’” ²² CFF2 547.3