The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

VI. Malabar Coast Witness—Dead Rest Until Judgment

As noted, this second group of Portuguese Jesuit missionaries found among descendants of the ancient Nestorians in the Malabar communities beliefs similar to those in Ethiopia concerning the nature of man. In addition, they possessed complete copies of the Syrian Scriptures. The Roman Catholic testimony concerning this group was written by Fr. Joao dos Santos, O.P., and is found in Ethiopia Oriental, but deals with Asian as well as African countries. ²⁶ It was published in 1609. CFF2 108.3

Their beliefs are likewise recorded in Journado do Arcebispo de Goa D. Fr. Aleixo de Menezes (1606). There it is further recorded that at the Synod at Diamper in 1599, ²⁷ a sizable number of these St. Thomas Christians defected, under pressure, to the Catholic Church, surrendered their Nestorian views and espoused the opposite Roman Caholic beliefs. This involved a rightabout-face on the nature of man. CFF2 109.1

1. JESUIT RECORD OF MALABAR CONDITIONALISM

According to the Jesuit Dr. Joao dos Santos they had steadfastly denied the immaculate conception, refused the worship of images, and did not invoke the saints. But what is far more significant is the fact that they believed that at death the righteous “did not see God” nor “enjoy His glory until at the last universal judgment.” And they held, furthermore, that “the wicked that died in their sins, did not go immediately to hell.” Instead, they were held in darkness “until the day of the judgment, in which day all the wicked were to go to Hell together.” ²⁸ Here again, then, in this faraway region, we find independent persistence of early Conditionalist beliefs retained by this group from Early Church times. Unquestionably it was another branch in the widespread stream of Conditionalism. CFF2 109.2

2. PROTESTANT RECORD CONFIRMS CONDITIONALIST BELIEFS

The Protestant record is provided by Michael Geddes, Anglican chancellor of the Cathedral church at Sarum. In his history of the region he says that the Church of Malabar expressly affirmed the Church of Rome to be “fallen from the true faith.” In the dedication he states his design in publishing, namely: “To satisfie the World, That there has always been a considerable visible Church on Earth, that never believed the doctrines of the Pope’s Supremacy, Purgatory, Transubstantiation,” et cetera. And the title page adds, “agreeing with the Church of England, in opposition to that of Rome.” CFF2 109.3

The Portuguese Catholic prelates not only introduced the Roman faith but displaced the Church of Malabar’s Syriac version of the Bible with the Vulgate. ²⁹ Geddes also attests that the St. Thomas Christians not only denied the dogma of transubstantiation and condemned the worship of “Images” but specifically denied the existence of “purgatory.” ³⁰ CFF2 110.1

The Portuguese emissaries had charged that they must “answer for the souls that were now burning in Hell.” ³¹ They stressed the Romanist dogma of “a Purgatory, and that the Souls which are cleansing from their Sins, do receive benefit from the Prayers and Devotions of the Faithful,” and that “the Souls of the Just and Faithful, which at their departure out of this Life, have entirely satisfied for the Punishment due to the Sins that they have committed.” They declared that the St. Thomas Christians denied the concept that “the Saints now reigning with Christ in heaven, are to be Reverenced, and Invoked.” ³² CFF2 110.2

Geddes records the “persecution and violent methods of the Roman Prelates, to reduce them [the St. Thomas Christians to the subjection of the Church of Rome,” as well as recording the actions of the Synod of Diamper, in 1599, subscribed to by those who defected to Rome. Here a complete reversal took place on the part of those who went over to the Roman Church. These new converts to the Catholic faith declared that they now “hold and confess” that “there is a Purgatory, and that the Souls which are cleansing from their Sins, do receive benefit from the Prayers and Devotions of the Faithful.” They also affirmed that “the Souls of the just ... do at the moment of their death go immediately into Heaven, where they behold God as he is.” The reversal was complete. CFF2 110.3

And further, Geddes states that they now “condemn, and anathematize the Heresy” of their former associates, who continue to hold that “the Damned are not Tormented” until they “enter into [such “torments”] after the day of judgment.” They were also compelled to affirm that “the Saints now reigning with Christ in Heaven, are to be Reverenced, and Invoked, and that they offer Prayers to God for us.” ³³ CFF2 111.1

There could scarcely be a more revolutionary about-face. The St. Thomas Christians and the Romanists were diametrically opposed in their concepts regarding the nature of man. Such was another recorded conflict in the running battle of the centuries. CFF2 111.2

3. TAMPERING WITH THE RECORDS

But that is not the whole story. Geddes, writing in 1694, adds that all available ecclesiastical records of this ancient church, found by the Inquisitors, were destroyed “in order that no pretended apostolic monuments may remain.” ³⁴ They likewise forced the alteration of the local copies of the Syrian Scriptures of the Thomists, to conform to the Latin version then in use by the Romanists. It is the familiar story of papal tampering. Wherever possible the Jesuits compelled their churches to submit to the Roman ceremonials. Since that time, however, from a segment of St. Thomas Christians dwelling in the interior valuable early manuscripts were recovered, in the language used by Christ and His apostles, who “brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10) ³⁵ Thus the original witness was preserved. CFF2 111.3

Thus from the category of their alleged “errors” it is obvious that the Catholic dogma of the inherent immortality of all souls had no place in the earlier Malabar theology which was derived from Early Church times. CFF2 111.4