The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

I. Gronigen’s Leeuw Soul Ceases to Exist Until Resurrection

DR. GERARDUS VAN DER LEEUW, ¹ of the Netherlands, long a professor at the University of Gronigen, in 1947 issued his wellnamed book Onsterfelijkheid of Opstanding (“Immortality or Resurrection”). This scholarly educator likewise places the issue squarely before his readers-that the traditional dualist concept of the “corruptible body” and “immortal soul” is of Grecian origin and at variance with the true Christian faith. Here is his clean-cut statement: CFF2 825.2

“Many preachers of recent times are rather hesitant to preach about immortality. But in former days, when preaching about eternal life, it was without effort that they dwelt upon imaginations of a corruptible body and an immortal soul. The older devotional books and church hymns are full of it. Even now people in the house of bereavement and on the graveyards are being comforted from the same source-yet these representations are not in any respect Christian, but purely Grecian and contrary to the essence of Christian faith.” ² CFF2 825.3

Picture 1: Gerardus Van der Leeuw, Dr. Aubrey R. Vine, Martin J. Heinecken
Left: Gerardus Van der Leeuw (d. 1950), of the University of Gronigen—soul ceases to exist until resurrection. Center: Dr. Aubrey R. Vine, secretary of free churches Federal Council—man not immortal, but “immortizable.” Right: Martin J. Heinecken, professor at Lutheran Theological Seminary—man has no inherent immortality.
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1. EVEN THE SOUL DIES IN DEATH

After quoting Ecclesiastes 3:19-21, Dr. Van der Leeuw states that as the “whole life of man” dies, so the whole man will be raised up. Resurrection is our hope. Thus: “[Innate] Immortality is a conception which fits into the philosophy of pantheism. With death belongs not immortality, but Resurrection.” ³ CFF2 826.1

Here is the essence of his position:
“The Church has-no matter how much Hellenized it may be in doctrine and practice-always maintained the resurrection of the body.... The body dies, death is not being denied at all. Even the Spirit, the soul that I am, wall not exist. The soul will also die. But the whole life of man will be renewed by God. God will raise me up ‘in the latter day.’” ⁴ CFF2 826.2

2. WILL RECEIVE IMMORTALITY AT RESURRECTION

Only God is intrinsically immortal. Man acquires immortality as a gift at the resurrection. Hear it: CFF2 826.3

“Only God is immortal (1 Timothy 1:16). To men He gave the promise of resurrection.... CFF2 827.1

“Creation will change into re-creation. And re-creation is resurrection, a raising up by God.” ⁵ CFF2 827.2

Dutch theologian Leeuw thus agrees with numerous other Continental, British, and American Conditionalists scattered out to the ends of the earth at this time. CFF2 827.3