The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

II. Servetus—Conditionalism Included Among His “Heresies”

Under the provisions of this specious theocratic theory, DR. MICHAEL SERVETUS (1509-1553), highly trained Spanish lawyer, physician, and theologian, was put to death. But along with his well-known rejection of the Trinity and of infant baptism—which contravened both Protestantism and Catholicism—Servetus also believed the soul to be but mortal, with immortality bestowed only by the grace of Christ at the resurrection. In other words, he also held to Conditional Immortality. ² CFF2 115.3

Having been previously arrested and brought to trial before Roman Catholic authorities at Vienne, he made his escape and was headed toward Italy. However, on the way he was arrested at Geneva, with the full consent of Calvin, and after a lengthy trial and refusal to retract was condemned for heresy and blasphemy. ³ He was burned at the stake, along with his books, on October 27, 1553. This was Calvin’s most tragic deed. And Conditionalism, it is to be remembered, was a definite factor in his condemnation. CFF2 115.4

Calvin relentlessly opposed all the “marginal sects,” particularly the Anabaptists, who believed that civil authority had no rightful jurisdiction in spiritual matters, and many of whom believed that “the dead know not any thing” until the resurrection. It may safely be said that, aside from the Roman communion, Calvin was of all the Protestant Reformers the foremost opposer of the doctrine of Conditional Immortality. And with it he was the most ardent Protestant advocate of the inseparable dogma of the Eternal Torment of the nonrepentant nonelect. As a consequence, to this day the most intense advocates of these twin dogmas are Calvinists as a group. CFF2 116.1