The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

V. Moomaw-Life Only in Christ; Total Destruction Without

Among lesser groups were voices like B. C. MOOMAW (fl. 1875-1892), minister of the German Baptist (Dunkard) church, ²² of Buena Vista, Virginia. He was the contributor of chapter fifty-two, the last in the widely publicized Symposium, That Unknown Country. Contending that the Bible is the only source of reliable information, and that God through Christ is the “Only Source of Life,” Moomaw affirms that the soul is not independently immortal. And further he holds to the “Total Destruction of the Finally Impenitent and Incorrigible.” ²³ A few key excerpts must suffice. (Pictured on page 574.) CFF2 574.2

1. LIFE OF SOUL IS NOT SELF-SUSTAINING

The heart of Moomaw’s position is compressed into this terse paragraph:
“It [the soul] is not self-sustaining. It does not possess within itself the springs of immortality. It hath not ‘life in itself.’ These attributes belong to God alone. Only ‘as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.’ In every creature existence is dependent and conditional,—dependent upon God, and conditional upon conformity with his law. Sever the branch from the vine and it slowly but surely withers. ‘And men gather them and burn them in the fire.’ This is not for punishment but for destruction. When sin therefore separates the soul from God death begins because it is cut off from the only source of life.” ²⁴ CFF2 575.1

2. SECOND DEATH ANNIHILATES BODY AND SOUL

Elaborating on man’s hopeless condition, as far as his own power and volition are concerned, as pertains to future life, Moomaw presents Christ as our only hope for eternal life. Then, turning to the fate of willful rejectors of God’s overtures of life, he declares:
“The great predominance of Scriptural testimony points to an extermination, a blotting out of the finally impenitent and ungodly, as though they had not been. For them remains that ‘lake of fire,’ that ‘second death,’ ‘which was prepared for the devil and his angels.’ Nothing could be more terrible than these familiar symbols of total annihilation. The terms ‘destroy’ and ‘destruction’ are frequently used in this connection in the most unequivocal sense. Death is not a kind of life. The first death compasses the destruction and disintegration of the body. The second death destroys both body and soul.... CFF2 575.2

“From the profound and eternal silence of this death there shall be no awakening, no resurrection. In the very nature of things there can be no continuity of being in sin. The doctrine of an endless conscious existence in sin is false in philosophy, and monstrous in religion. It is the supreme mission of Christ ‘to finish the transgression and make an end of sins.’ It cannot be eternal. The dread experiment of apostasy and transgression will never be repeated. Its awful history will be a sufficient lesson for all the eternities to come.” ²⁵ CFF2 576.1

He adds that outside the provisions of God there is no hope when “the angel of the gate” “closes the portals of life.” Moomaw then asks:
“What of those who are left without? Ah! ask the unfathomable abyss whose vast profound no arm of help can reach, or wing explore. Ask the eternal midnight upon whose threatening brow is seen no star, or dawn.” ²⁶ CFF2 576.2

His point is clear. His was a voice from among the lesser Christian bodies. CFF2 576.3