The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

VI. Augustana’s Wahlstrom-“Resurrection” Only Hope of Future Life

Scholar after scholar in America, around this time, dwells on the fallacy of the Greek immortality-of-the-soul concept, placing it “over against” the Biblical certainty of the JewishChristian concept of the resurrection as man’s sole hope of the future-resting on faith in God and assured by the resurrection of Christ. Here are the words of Lutheran Dean ERIC H. WAHLSTROM, ³⁶ of Augustana Theological Seminary: CFF2 851.3

“It was natural that Paul’s hope for the future should be expressed in terms of the resurrection from the dead. That was the traditional Jewish conception as over against the Greek idea of the immortality of the soul. It was inevitable also because the hope of the future rested on the resurrection of Christ. But here again Paul is not concerned about the exact manner in which this resurrection is to take place. He used the traditional figures of Jewish apocalypticism (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17). CFF2 851.4

“But in the great resurrection discussion (1 Corinthians 15:35 ff.) he is content to use the beautiful allegory of the wheat that falls into the ground and dies only to rise to a more glorious existence. In this miracle of renewed life Paul saw the power of God at work, and he is content to let his own resurrection rest on the assurance that ‘God gives it a body.’ His certainty of the resurrection, as his certainty of his present status as ‘a new creature,’ rests on his faith in God ‘who giveth life to the dead, and calleth the things that are not, as though they were’ (Romans 4:17).” ³⁷ CFF2 851.5