The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

III. Episcopal Bishop Hopkins-Denies Eternal Torment Contention

JOHN HENRY HOPKINS, S.T.D. (1792-1868), bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Vermont, was born in Ireland, and came to the States as a child. In 1817 he entered the legal profession, but soon abandoned the bar for the pulpit. In 1824 he was ordained and became rector of Trinity church, Pittsburgh, later transferring to the Boston Trinity church. He also served as professor of divinity in the Episcopal Seminary of Massachusetts. Then in 1832 he was consecrated bishop of Vermont. But he retained the rectorship of St. Paul’s church, at Burlington, Vermont, until 1856. He likewise sponsored the Vermont Episcopal Institution, a semitheological institution. CFF2 572.2

A rugged individualist, Bishop Hopkins was one of the most learned clergymen of his church in his generation and was a persevering and successful student in the field of theology. His voluminous writings included The Primitive Creed Examined and Explained (1834), and History of the Confessionals (1850). He contributed chapter twenty-five in the Symposium, That Unknown Country, dealing with what living men believe concerning punishment after death. CFF2 572.3

In this chapter Bishop Hopkins asks whether the words “the life everlasting” of the Apostles’ Creed and “the life of the world to come” of the Nicene Creed assert the “everlasting life of the wicked as well as of the righteous, and the eternity of the punishment of the lost as well as the unending joys of the blessed.” ¹⁸ He thus penetrated to the heart of the current agitation. After a number of pages of careful historical review and erudite opinion, he concludes with this declaration:
“It may be said, in brief, that the ‘life everlasting’ of the Creeds is clearly asserted of the righteous. It is not equally clear that those words are meant to apply to the wicked. The Universal Church has never made, in any General Council, any decisive statement on that point: and therefore there is full liberty among us for the private interpretation of such passages of Holy Writ as bear upon it. Nor is there the slightest probability that this existing liberty will ever be curtailed by any dogmatic decision of the Church upon the subject.” ¹⁹ CFF2 573.1

He endorses Canon Farrar’s expression that “‘Endless torments’ is an expression for which there is not one iota of direct Scriptural authority.” ²⁰ Hopkins also cites approvingly Professor 0lshausen, Bishop Rust, and others, in similar vein. Thus another prominent Episcopal voice challenges the majority view of the Eternal Torment of the wicked. These strictures now appear with rhythmic regularity on both sides of the Atlantic. (Portrait on page 574.) CFF2 573.2