The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

IV. Hurls Invectives Against Anabaptist Soul Sleepers

We now turn to the text of Calvin’s militant anti-soul-sleep “tractate,” with its blistering introductory denunciations. It is this treatise that is credited with checking the spreading acceptance of the sleep-of-the-dead postulate, and with ranging all deniers of soul sleep behind Calvin. It was this document that is believed to have forestalled the espousal of Conditionalism as a possible plank in the various Protestant creedal platforms. Ostensibly aimed directly against the Anabaptists, it is basically a “refutation” of the “soul sleep” principle as a fundamental “error” wherever found. Calvin bluntly declared that those who hold such a concept are “unskilled and ignorant.” CFF2 118.1

Attention should also be directed to the illuminating declaration that while Calvin was but twenty-five when his Psychopannychia was published, it was written several years prior thereto, when he was still in his late teens, according to Blackburne, ¹¹ and not yet a full-fledged Protestant. That doubtless accounts for some of its brashness, and its immature, searing strictures. The English rendering of the title is: CFF2 118.2

Psychopannychia: Or a refutation of the error entertained by some unskilled persons, who ignorantly imagine that in the interval between death and the judgment the soul sleeps, together with an explanation of the condition and life of the soul after this present life. ¹² CFF2 118.3

In the Preface, Calvin frankly declares that he publishes it “for the purpose of repressing the extravagance” of those who teach soul sleep. Stating that while he had hoped that such an “absurd dogma” would soon vanish, he now sadly admits the contrary, and records, “These babblers have so actively exerted themselves, that they have already drawn thousands into their insanity.” Calvin evidently considered the doctrine alarmingly widespread. Referring to Eusebius’ references to certain early Arabian philosophers who maintained that “the soul dies with the body,” and the later defense of such a position by John, one of the bishops of Rome, Calvin says, in the caustic style he here employs: CFF2 119.1

“It lay smouldering for some ages [centuries], but has lately begun to send forth sparks, being stirred up by some dregs of Anabaptists. These, spread abroad far and wide, have kindled torches.” ¹³ CFF2 119.2

After the Preface, in a candid note “To the Reader,” Calvin refers to his admittedly “severe and harsh expressions,” that may offend the ears of “some good men into whose minds some part of this dogma has been instilled,” that is, some besides the Anabaptists. But he explains that his searing strictures were designed primarily for— CFF2 119.3

“the nefarious herd of Anabaptists, from whose fountain this noxious stream did, as I observed, first flow, and against whom nothing I have said equals their deserts.” ¹⁴ CFF2 119.4

Contending that against them he had “not given immoderate vent” to his bile, but rather had tempered his pen, Calvin maintains that they manipulate the Word of God. And he continues in the same condemnatory strain: CFF2 119.5

“They proceed obstinately to defend whatever they have once rashly babbled, they begin to consult the oracles of God, in order that they may there find support to their errors. Then, good God! what do they not pervert, what do they not adulterate and corrupt, that they may, I do not say bend, but distort it to their own view? As truly said by the poet, ‘Fury supplies armour.’ CFF2 119.6

“Is this the way of learning—to roll the Scriptures over and over and twist them about .... O pernicious pest! O tares. certainly sown by an enemy’s hand.” ¹⁵ CFF2 120.1

Urging the reader to shun such teaching as “deadliest poison,” Calvin asserts that “Divine Truth is avowedly attacked,” therefore “we must not tolerate the adulteration of one single iota of it.” He asserts that they are witnessing “God’s light extinguished by the devil’s darkness.” Hence he urges “their [the soul sleepers’] temerity must be repressed, lest it should prevail over the truth.” ¹⁶ Such was the crusading introduction to the tract proper. CFF2 120.2

Reluctant though we have been to cite Calvin’s immoderate language we need to be aware of the intensity, yes, even the violence, of Calvin’s attack upon what he believed to be the vicious teaching of “soul sleep,” and directed against not only the Anabaptists but such others as Luther and Tyndale—a persisting minority, however, particularly in Britain, that was destined to grow with each passing century. But the effectiveness of Calvin’s line of attack is seen from the fact that largely through his instrumentality the doctrine of the soul’s immortality and its dependent dogmas of the consciousness of the soul in death and the Endless Torment of the wicked in Hell-fire gradually found their way into most Protestant confessions and creeds. CFF2 120.3