The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

III. World in Ferment in Mid-century Decades

1. REVOLUTIONARY WORLD DEVELOPMENTS FORM SETTING

The late forties and the whole of the fifties were years of world stress and upheaval. The year 1848 in particular was marked by numerous revolutions in Europe. Around this period England had its Chartist (social reform) agitation and its Romeward Oxford Movement. France turned republic, and Germany and Austria felt the impact of the French Revolution aftermath, and were plagued with internal riots and rebellion. Italy had her war of independence. CFF2 651.1

Russia’s aggression against Turkey resulted in the Crimean War. And in the Orient, Japan was opened by Perry, while the Sepoy Mutiny occurred shortly afterward in India. Then in the Western World there was the 1846-1848 war with Mexico. Meanwhile the Abolition movement was boiling in the United States, with the resultant Fugitive Slave Law and the underground railway, as the nation moved toward its epochal Civil War. The world was like a seething caldron. CFF2 651.2

2. DEVELOPMENTS IN REALM OF RELIGION AND SCIENCE

The Shakers with their celibacy and the Mormons with their plurality of wives both came to the fore about this time. And in 1848 Spiritism appeared and took permanent root in Christendom’s belief in the consciousness of the dead. Likewise in the realm of science, the revolutionary evolution hypothesis was yet another force, brushing aside the historic claims of Creationism. It was, in fact, virtually a faith, or religion. It soon penetrated the thinking, the texts, and the teaching of the educational and religious worlds. And along with it came the mental sciences and philosophies, which likewise challenged the historic fundamentals of Christianity. So agitation, transition, and ofttimes disintegration, were all about. CFF2 651.3

3. MYSTICAL STUDIES LED TO SUBTLE SPECULATION

Special areas of study clamored for attention. One was metaphysics-that branch of philosophy that deals with speculatively “first principles.” It was concerned with the science of being, reality, substance, time, space, beginning, change, eternity, cause, et cetera, especially that which is beyond the realm of human consciousness. It thus involves God, the world, and the human mind. It claims to be the philosophy of the ultimate nature, cause, or reason of things. It purported to be the answer to the materialism of the mid-century. But this speculation often led astray. CFF2 651.4

Then there was ontology, that department of metaphysics that investigates and explains the nature and essential properties and relations of all beings, or the principles and causes of being. And many followed such reasonings into unprofitable speculation, often being diverted from the simplicity that constitutes the essence of the gospel revealed in the Word. CFF2 652.1

4. DIVERSIONARY PERILS BESET BASIC CHRISTIAN FAITH. -

Cognizance must also be taken of the philosophical and theological trends of the time, and of their different frames of reference, and the rival theodices struggling for first place. One of these confusing elements was a revival in some quarters of pantheism, the doctrine that there is no God but the combined forces and laws that are manifested in the existing universe as a whole. CFF2 652.2

Then there was theosophy, a system of mystic philosophy that claims to have intercourse with God and superior spirits, and consequent superhuman knowledge. It purports to have special knowledge of God by means of mystical insight into the processes of the divine mind. Such knowledge of God is allegedly obtained through spiritual intercommunication. In ancient times it included Neo-Platonism. In modern times the Buddhistic and Brahmanic theories are involved, including a pantheistic evolution and the doctrine of reincarnation. All these were alluring, but subtle and misleading. CFF2 652.3

5. ESCHATOLOGY RECEIVES SETBACK FROM EVOLUTION THEORY

We should remember that the climax of the Conditionalist emphasis needs to be studied in the light of the perspective of the ages. Conditional or unconditional immortality constitutes the heart of the age-old controversy over the nature and destiny of man. Thus the resurgence of Biblical theology at the close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century involved the realm of eschatology. And eschatology embraces death, immortality, resurrection, the Second Advent, the millennium, judgment, and future existence. Eschatology therefore provides the perspective from which the end events of Conditionalism should be viewed. CFF2 652.4

It is also to be noted that through the widespread adoption of the evolution theory, eschatology was reduced by many of the former’s ardent proponents to a mere principle of progress. Thus the discussion was shifted from the center to the periphery. And as no new issues or perspectives advanced, in large circles the interest waned as to its challenge. There was definite deterioration in study. Like tired champions, not a few of the former stalwart Conditionalists retired from the conflict. And Conditionalism’s prominence was lost with the passing of some of the giants that have been noted. CFF2 653.1

6. THEOLOGICAL TRILEMMA AGAIN ASCENDANT IN NINETEENTH CENTURY

From the three schools developed in the church of the fourth and fifth centuries as regards the nature and destiny of the wicked, and the theological trilemma which they created, lines of continuity persisted throughout most of the Christian Era. But with Conditionalism and Restorationism both heavily repressed during the Middle Ages, the triangular discussion did not again break forth fully until after the Reformation was launched. Then it grew in intensity throughout the succeeding centuries. CFF2 653.2

As we have seen, in North America, Universal Restorationism had an early start. But at last, from the beginning of the nineteenth century onward, Conditionalism came to the fore in scholarly ecclesiastical circles, though not as extensively as in Britain. The old theological trilemma was once more ascendant, with Conditionalism making its impact, along with its stern realistic note of justice and transcendent holiness,b lended with God’s gracious proffer of life, and holding tenaciously to the coming total end of all sin. This was the situation in the mid-nineteenth century. CFF2 653.3

7. CONDITIONALISM’S ROLE IN THEOLOGICAL DISCUSSION

While Conditionalism never attained a dominant voice, it did win a respectful place and hearing. It emerged in the nineteenth century as one of the significant alternatives to the demands of Calvinism, and was unquestionably one of the factors in forcing a modification of Calvinism. Conditionalism is very clearly cast in the Arminian tradition. The doctrine of the redemption of free moral agents lies at the very heart of the issue. And in Conditionalist methodology the Bible is not an argument but a revelation-a revelation that utters irrefutable truths. It states basic facts and reveals foundational principles. It constitutes the supreme and only authority, superseding all the speculations of philosophy and unaided human reasoning. To the Conditionalist the Bible is supreme. This, then, constitutes the other side of the picture as we come to the emergence of the two Adventist bodies. First note the Advent Christians. CFF2 654.1