The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

I. Switzerland’s Cullmann-Eminent Champion of Conditionalism

We now come to one of the best-known Old World Protestant theologians-Prof. OSCAR CULLMANN, ¹ since 1938 professor of New Testament and early Christianity of the theological faculty of the University of Basel, and since 1949 concurrently of the Sorbonne in Paris, as well. He is, in fact, the only Protestant professor of religion in the Sorbonne. He has lectured in many theological centers and is author of at least six books, including Christ and Time (1951) and The Early Church (1956). A number are translated into English. CFF2 913.1

In 1955 Dr. Cullmann gave “The Ingersoll Lecture on the Immortality of Man,” in Andover Chapel, Harvard. ² This was published under the title Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? He stresses the fundamental differences between the Christian doctrine of the resurrection and “the Greek concept of the [innate] immortality of the soul.” ³ A “whole abyss” separates the two. And Cullmann states at the outset that “no other publication of mine has provoked such enthusiasm or such violent hostility.” ⁴ CFF2 913.2

1. CREATIVE RESURRECTION RESTORES WHOLE MAN

The basic question here discussed by Cullmann is, Does the New Testament teach that man is innately immortal, or is man’s only hope of a life beyond based on a resurrection from the dead? Contrasting the death of Socrates with the death of Christ, Cullmann says significantly of Christ, as the “Mediator of Salvation“: CFF2 913.3

“He must indeed be the very one who in His death conquers death itself. He cannot obtain this victory by simply living on as an immortal soul, thus fundamentally not dying. He can conquer death only by actually dying.... CFF2 913.4

“Whoever wants to conquer death must die; he must really cease to live-not simply live on as an immortal soul, but die in body and soul, lose life itself, the most precious good which God has given us.” ⁵ CFF2 913.5

Dr. Cullmann then notes the basic contrast between Christian truth and Platonic philosophy:
“If life is to issue out of so genuine a death as this [“body and soul”], a new divine act of creation is necessary. And this act of creation calls back to life not just a part of the man, but the whole man —all that God had created and death had annihilated. For Socrates and Plato no new act of creation is necessary. For the body is indeed bad and should not live on. And that part which is to live on, the soul, does not die at all.” ⁶ CFF2 914.1

For the Greek philosopher, believing that the body is a garment shed by the soul at death, liberating the soul, there would be no object in the conquest of death. Christian truth and Platonic philosophy are therefore totally opposite. Then Cullmann adds: “Death is the destruction of all life created by God. Therefore it is death and not the body which must be conquered by the Resurrection.” ⁷ Mere “immortality” is negative —simply that we do not die; resurrection is thoroughly “positive.” CFF2 914.2

2. BODY NOT SOUL’S “PRISON” BUT “TEMPLE.”

After showing the connection “between death and sin,” ⁸ Professor Cullmann touches on the fundamental fallacy of the Greek dualism of body and soul: CFF2 914.3

“The Greek doctrine of immortality and the Christian hope in the resurrection differ so radically because Greek thought has such an entirely different interpretation of creation. The Jewish and Christian interpretation of creation excludes the whole Greek dualism of body and soul.” ⁹ CFF2 914.4

Cullmann then immediately adds: “The body is not the soul’s prison, but rather a temple.... The basic distinction lies here.” Furthermore, “behind the pessimistic interpretation of death stands the optimistic view of creation.” ¹⁰ CFF2 915.1

3. RESURRECTION NOT AT DEATH BUT AT “END.”

He points out that Jesus says “the soul can be killed. The soul is not immortal. There must be a resurrection for both” ¹¹—a divine act on God’s part-Dr. Cullmann reasons: CFF2 915.2

“Because resurrection of the body is a new act of creation which embraces everything, it is not an event which begins with each individual death, but only at the End. It is not a transition from this world to another world, as is the case of the immortal soul freed from the body; rather it is the transition from the present age to the future. It is tied to the whole process of redemption.” ¹² CFF2 915.3

Cullmann contends that “deliverance consists not in a release of soul from body but in a release of both from flesh. We are not released from the body; rather the body itself is set free.” ¹³ Previously he had said, in resurrection “the whole man, who has really died, is recalled to life by a new act of creation by God.” ¹⁴ CFF2 915.4

“Therefore the Christian belief in the resurrection, as distinct from the Greek belief in immortality, is tied to a divine total process implying deliverance. Sin and death must be conquered. We cannot do this. Another has done it for us; and He was able to do it only in that He betook himself to the province of death-that is, He himself died and expiated sin, so that death as the wages of sin is overcome.” ¹⁵ CFF2 915.5

Thus, Cullmann says, “Faith in the resurrection of the New Testament becomes the cardinal point of all Christian belief.” ¹⁶ CFF2 915.6

4. WHOLE CREATION TO BE FORMED ANEW

We live, Cullmann says, in “the interim time, between Jesus’ Resurrection, which has already taken place, and our own [resurrection, which will not take place until the End.” ¹⁷ There is therefore a “time lapse” between death and the resurrection. CFF2 915.7

“Men still die; even after Easter and Pentecost men continue to die as before. Our body remains mortal and subject to sickness. Its transformation into the spiritual body does not take place until the whole creation is formed anew by God.” ¹⁸ CFF2 916.1

Then “death will be destroyed with finality.” It is the “last enemy. CFF2 916.2

“Let us make no mistake: this is certainly not the Greek sense of bodiless Ideal A new heaven and a new earthl That is the Christian hope. And then will our bodies also rise from the dead.” ¹⁹ CFF2 916.3

To Paul the interim condition is an “imperfect state,” which idea is in contrast with the Greek concept that death is the perfect state.. CFF2 916.4

5. RESURRECTION DOES NOT OCCUR AT DEATH

In a previous work, The Early Church (1956), Cullmann similarly states that the resurrection is not concurrent with death, and that the New Testament teaching squarely contradicts the concept that the dead enter into bliss before the Second Advent and the resurrection of those who “sleep.” The stock passagesthe thief on the cross, and the highly figurative rich man and Lazarus, and Paul’s desire to depart-usually invoked, do not support the idea of immediate entrance into rewards at death, prior to the resurrection. On this Dr. Cullmann declares: CFF2 916.5

“Our bodies will not rise immediately after death, but only at the end of time. This is the general expectation of the New Testament which, in this respect, differs not only from the Greek belief in the immortality of the soul, but also from the view that the dead live even before the parousia beyond time, and thus at once enjoy the fruits of the final fulfillment. Neither the saying of Jesus, ‘Verily, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise’ (Luke 23:43), nor the story of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus who, after death, was carried by the angels ‘to Abraham’s bosom’ (Luke 16:22), nor the desire of Paul ‘to depart and be with Christ’ (Philippians 1:23), nor his account of the state of ‘nakedness’ (2 Corinthians 5:1 f.) supports the idea that those who die in Christ before the parousia are immediately clothed with a resurrection-body.” ²⁰ CFF2 916.6

Paul had an intense desire to share in the transformation at Christ’s second advent. It was not a wish for death but for translation. CFF2 916.7

“These passages simply state that belonging to Christ has consequences also for those who sleep, and 2 Corinthians 5.l f. shows in particular that the ‘earnest of the Spirit’ (verse 5) given to believers removes from the state of nakedness of the dead who die before the parousia every cause of fear. Through the nvEVwa [pneuma] they will be ‘with the Lord’ already during this intermediate period, which is described as ‘sleep’ (1 Thessalonians 4:13) or as a place of privilege ‘under the altar’ (Revelation 6:9). The whole account in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 f. of the lot of those who die in Christ before the parousia is deprived of any meaning if we attribute to Paul the idea of a resurrection of the body following the death of each individual believer.” ²¹ CFF2 917.1

To have Christ in life is to be nearer to Him in death than before. These passages simply express a “special nearness to God.” CFF2 917.2

Such is the position of Dr. Cullmann, of Basel and the Sorbonne-that man is not innately immortal. ²² CFF2 917.3