The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

CHAPTER THIRTY: Masterful Swiss and Belgian Voices Speak

I. Petavel-Greatest Conditionalist Treatise in French

Dr. EMMANUEL PETAVEL-OR PETAVEL-OLIFF (18361895), eminent Swiss theologian and author, was the bestknown Continental Conditionalist of the century, and materially influenced the thought of his time, attracting and winning many scholars in various lands to his view of Life Only in Christ. His father, Prof. Abraham-Francois Petavel, was a specialist in Hebrew, and one of the founders of Neuchatel University. Emmanuel studied theology at Neuchatel and Geneva, with special studies under Dr. Frederic Godet, noted Swiss commentator, and Prof. Perret-Gentil, Old Testament translator. He was also markedly influenced by the lectures of Prof. Louis Gaussen and Dr. Merle D’Aubigné. After his ordination in 1858 and a period of ministerial service in Switzerland, Petavel became pastor of a Swiss congregation in Endell Street, London, at which time he formed the acquaintance of Conditionalist Edward White. CFF2 602.1

While still a student in college Petavel was required to preach an assigned sermon on Matthew 10:28—“Fear him who is able to cause the loss of both body and soul in Gehenna” (Ostervald tr.)-and with reluctant loyalty he presented the traditional dogma of Eternal Torment in Hell. Soon afterward, however, he found that Ostervald had mistakenly translated the Greek verb apolesai as “to cause the loss of,” but that it actually signified “to destroy.” Like a flash the thought came, “Then the soul is capable of perishing!” As he pursued this line of thought the entire Bible became illuminated with a new radiance and meaning. And this text became the base from which he began to undermine the whole argument for Innate Immortality, along with the dogma of the indestructibility of the soul that he had formerly championed. CFF2 602.2

Picture 1: Dr. Emmanuel Petavel
Left: Dr. Emmanuel Petavel (d. 1895), Emminent Swiss Theologian—Produces Greatest Conditional Treatise in French.
Right: Neuchatel University.
Page 603

1. UNIQUE INTRODUCTION TO FELLOW CONDITIONALIST WHITE

Shortly after this, on a visit to London, he was in the home of the foundress of an organization of Bible women. Looking over her library, he chanced to see a small volume entitled Life in Christ: Four Discourses (1846), which he discovered to be a masterly exposition of the very viewpoint he had secretly espoused. CFF2 603.1

Inquiring concerning the author, Edward White, he was astonished to learn that he was none other than the brother of his hostess, whose library he was scanning. He quickly arranged to meet White. They had each come independently to identical conclusions-that the end of the impenitent must be complete destruction, not eternal suffering, and the paralleling postulate that the life offered to dying men is life through union with Christ. Thus a common belief brought the two men together in lifelong intimate friendship. CFF2 603.2

2. IMPELLED TO DECLARE CONDITIONALIST BELIEF PUBLICLY

Petavel’s conviction developed into an inner mandate to declare his belief publicly. Upon leaving England, he spent a year and a half in Paris and Versailles, writing for La Croix and serving as secretary for a society to publish a translation of the Holy Scriptures which by its philological accuracy would have the support of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish scholars alike. But strong Catholic ultramontane (papal superiority and supremacy) opposition developed, and the project came to nought. It was during this period that Petavel brought out his first book, Bible en France, a history of the various French versions, which earned for him a D.D. degree. CFF2 604.1

Petavel’s accuracy of scholarship, literary skill, and personal zeal made a profound impression on the French-speaking theological world. From then on he became the apostle and principal proponent in Switzerland of Conditional Immortality. His first publication on Conditionalism was a lecture in 1869 in Neuchatel, his home town. His next was a paper before the Neuchatel Theological Society, in 1870, with replies to objections, and published in Switzerland in 1872 as La Fin du Mal. This launched his public campaign. CFF2 604.2

An English translation, made by Charles H. Oliphant, of Massachusetts, appeared under the title The Struggle for Eternal Life, with preface by Dr. Robert W. Dale, noted Congregationalist of Birmingham. Meantime a succession of articles came from his pen for La Revue Theologique, of Montauban, and Le Critique Religieuse, of Lausanne, and evidencing indisputable writing talent. CFF2 604.3

3. UNIVERSITY LECTURES STRESS POSITIVE SIDE OF CON DITIONALISM

In 1878 Petavel delivered a series of ten lectures on Conditional Immortality at the University of Geneva, attended not only by students but by many pastors. The next year White visited France and Switzerland, and in Lausanne visited Petavel, who was living in the former home of the historian Sismondi. White saw Petavel again in 1885, at his chalet in Nauchatel. CFF2 604.4

In 1886 Petavel gave a notable series of twelve lectures in the same University of Geneva, repeating them in Neuchatel. In the Neuchatel lectures Petavel had challenged his auditors to test the thesis he was setting forth, not as a negation but as an affirmation, and bearing not merely upon this single doctrine but touching, vivifying, and reorganizing all Bible truth. The primary purpose of the Incarnation, the atonement, and the resurrection was, he insisted, to make eternal life possible for repentant believers. That was the positive, effective side of Conditionalism. It was similar to White’s emphasis. CFF2 605.1

4. CONSTITUTES UNIFYING HARMONIOUS SYSTEM

These lectures formed the basis of his greatest work, the two-volume Le Probleme de l’Immortalite, published in Paris in 1891-1892. White took a deep interest in this remarkable work, then only in French, encouraging its translation into English. This was done by Frederick A. Freer, friend of both Petavel and White, and published in England in 1892 as The Problem of Immortality. While this almost six-hundred-page treatise was systematic and scholarly, it was nonetheless warm and persuasive. It was unquestionably the most far-reaching single piece of Conditionalist literature to appear in the nineteenth century. It was widely studied and constantly quoted on both sides of the Atlantic. CFF2 605.2

Petavel’s previous study of White’s revised and enlarged Life in Christ (1878), which had been translated into French in 1880 by Charles Byse (editor of Le journal du Protestantisme Francais) ¹ under the title L’Immortalite Conditionnelle, had strengthened Petavel’s personal convictions and confirmed his own conclusions that only by this doctrine can the entire evangelical system of the New Testament be unified as a complete and harmonious synthesism “capable of satisfying the demands of modern thinking.” CFF2 605.3

Petavel succeeded in winning prominent men to his view, and from his villa near Geneva he continued to exert an everwidening influence. A Hebrew scholar like his father, he was accurate in exegesis and logical and persuasive in deduction. He was an able polemicist and a brilliant speaker. Thus it was that Petavel’s life was closely interwoven with the controversy over Conditionalism that waged without intermission throughout his generation both on the Continent, and in Britain, and in North America, and out to the far reaches of earth. CFF2 606.1