The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

IX. Piper—Popular Historical Sketch of Conditionalism’s Vicissitudes

FREDERICK LEROY PIPER (1858-1940) is best known as editor of The World’s Crisis. In 1881 Piper helped to initiate the foreign mission enterprise of the Advent Christian Church, first by wide distribution of literature among Protestant missionaries in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and the islands of the sea. In all this, the Second Advent was stressed. He also edited Working and Waiting, and aided the China Inland Mission. CFF2 661.3

In 1891 he was elected secretary of the American Advent Mission Society, and in 1892 launched a quarterly called To All Nations. This was merged into the Prophetic and Mission Quarterly. Copies were sent to two thousand mission stations throughout the world, and in April, 1900, he sent out 24,000 copies of a forty-eight-page issue on Conditional Immortality. The mailing list included eight thousand Protestant ministers in North America and several hundred missionaries overseas. The cordial reception of these publications indicated that many were already impressed with the claims of Conditionalism. CFF2 661.4

In 1900 Piper was elected editor of The World’s Crisis, which post he held until 1922, when he was released from his secretaryship of the mission board. In April, 1902, another special Conditional Immortality issue was put out and extensively distributed. In 1903 the name was changed to Prophetic and Mission Record, and in 1904 still another special appeared. CFF2 662.1

Piper’s most permanent contribution was doubtless his 231-page Conditionalism: Its Place in Eschatology, History and Current Thought (1904). This twenty-five-chapter popular portrayal of Conditionalist principles, with its terse historical sketch of its vicissitudes but persistence through the centuries, is noteworthy. He touches on the leading Conditionalists across the Christian Era, and writes up the most important. It is only to be regretted that the typical quotations assembled were not consistently documented. This seriously detracts from its authority. But his historical outlook is sound and conforms to fact. CFF2 662.2