The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

VIII. Pike and Pittenger-Not “Indestructible” Nature, but Resurrection

Impressive emphasis is given by Episcopal Bishop JAMES A. PIKE, ⁴⁰ of the diocese of California, and Prof. W. NORMAN PITTENGER, ⁴¹ professor of apologetics at General Theological Seminary, New York City, in The Faith of the Church (1951) —a joint production. The “innately indestructible” immortality of Platonic philosophy is strikingly placed over against the Biblical revelation of a re-created life through the promised resurrection of the “whole personality” jus, as scores of other contemporaries have declared in recent years. CFF2 852.4

1. “INDESTRUCTIBLE” SOUL V. RE-CREATED “BODY-SOUL

“The Pike-Pittenger presentation, which represents the “common beliefs” of the “Anglican Communion,” ⁴² is effectively stated in these words: CFF2 853.1

“Immortality implies that there is in man a soul which is innately indestructible, eternity being of its very nature. But resurrection implies that God, by a gift, will raise up and continue in life the whole man, including a medium of expression, i.e., a body. In short, the belief in immortality is conceived in terms of nature: resurrection is to be conceived in terms of grace. Immortality asserts an indestructible life for the soul; resurrection promises a re-created life for the whole personality, body and soul.” ⁴³ CFF2 853.2

2. “PLAUSIBLE THEORY” V. RESURRECTION FACT

Stating forthrightly “Immortality is of nature, resurrection of grace,” the authors note that “philosophers have concluded that there is something in man that is above physical process, something which will outlive it, something which is immortal.” ⁴⁴ As to this they state that Christianity insists: CFF2 853.3

“God alone is the source and sustainer of all life and it [“Christianity”] proclaims that he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [our] mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us (Romans 8:11). The indestructibility of the soul has no necessary place in the Christian teaching of the life to come; the determining fact on man’s side is sin which separates us from God: Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7:24). If eternal life is merely continuation without an action from God’s side to bridge the gulf between Himself and men, who are sinful and inadequate, it would then simply mean projecting sin and inadequacy into all eternity. Obviously that cannot be. CFF2 853.4

“Our confidence in eternal life rests not upon the plausibility of a theory but upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” ⁴⁵ CFF2 853.5

Eternal life is dependent on “God’s action,” not on man’s inherent continuation. ⁴⁶ CFF2 853.6

3. INNATISM DEFECTIVE; RESURRECTION COMPLETE

The authors then make this important distinction between fragmentation and entirety: “The belief in immortality concerns life for the soul; faith in resurrection promises a life for the whole personality-body and soul.” ⁴⁷ CFF2 853.7

Christianity’s provision is therefore totally different from Hinduism’s “merger of the individual soul with the universal soul,” for example, with the loss of “personal fulfillment for the individual.” “If the individual is absorbed into universality as a drop of water is absorbed into the sea,” ⁴⁸ personal fulfillment is impossible. CFF2 854.1

“God’s action will re-create those who live in and by God’s Spirit, bringing them through death to the perfect life of the Spirit with an appropriate embodiment, a spiritual body.” ⁴⁹ CFF2 854.2

In the end the “consummation of Christ’s reign includes more than human fulfillment: it involves the whole natural order.” ⁵⁰ That is the Christian goal and the Bible assurance. CFF2 854.3