The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

III. Edinburgh’s Read-Not Something “Released at Death”

Dr. DAVID H. C. READ, ²⁵ chaplain of the University of Edinburgh, likewise differentiates sharply between a surviving “life beyond” and God’s power and provision of “resurrection” —the popular misconception being of “an eternal something,” possessed by all and “released at death.” Scripture calls for a “re-creation.” After discusssing the “spiritual body” of 1 Corinthians 15, Read says: CFF2 918.1

“The importance of the doctrine of the Resurrection is that it means that our life beyond is a fully personal life, dependent on the power of God to raise us up. This is a quite different teaching from that of the ‘immortality of the soul’ which suggests that all human beings possess an eternal something which is released at death to form part of some greater whole. The Christian Faith speaks always in personal terms. The eternal life which it promises is a re-creation of all that we mean by a ‘person’ here and now.” ²⁶ CFF2 918.2