The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

III. St. Paul’s Holden-Dead All “Sleep” Till Second Advent

Keswick leader and devotional writer, Anglican JOHN STUART HOLDEN, ²⁰ Of St. Paul’s Church, Portman Square, London, in an article in the Canadian Evangelical Christian, of April, 1953, pages 177-179, discusses the keen current interest in the question “Where Are the Dead?” He then refers to the variant materialistic, philosophical, and “Christian faith” answers that are offered, showing that the first two are invalid. Here is his statement of the basic question involved: “Are the dead now in a state of active enjoyment, or active suffering? Are further opportunities of accepting Christ granted to them Are they influenced by our prayers?” ²¹ CFF2 961.1

1. DEAD ARE IN “PLACE OF WAITING.”

Dr. Holden’s explicit rejoinder on death as a “place of waiting” then follows:
“The answer of the Scriptures is that they [the dead] are in a place of waiting, waiting for the great consummation, or resurrection, and judgment. Only then will the finally-impenitent be exiled, and only then will the faithful enter upon the fulness of their reward. The entire conception of Purgatory, on which the idea of Prayers for the Dead is based, is altogether out of harmony with the teaching of the New Testament.” ²² CFF2 961.2

Holden thus denied immediate entrance upon eternal rewards or punishments at death. Inasmuch as he was associated as parochial mission preacher for five years (1901-1905) with the ardent Conditionalist Canon Hay Aitken, “one of the greatest mission preachers of our age,” ²³ one can but wonder whether that early connection may not have directed his thoughts toward Conditionalism at that time.” ²⁴ CFF2 961.3

2. ALL THE DEAD IN STATE OF SLEEP

Dr. Holden then sets forth the inevitable “further query that arises,” pertaining to the intermediate state:
“If the dead are in a place of waiting: i f they are in a state where prayer does not reach them, are they conscious of what is going on here on earth? Or are they in a state in which all progress is suspended until that great Day of God?” ²⁵ CFF2 962.1

Holden’s answer to this is equally candid. Note it:
“The answer of the Scriptures seems to be—and again I would remind you that this is not an article of faith, but a matter of interpretation —the great preponderance of the evidence of the Scriptures, points to the fact that both the believing and the unbelieving dead are asleep. We find that in both the Old and New Testaments alike.” ²⁶ CFF2 962.2

That is as strong a statement on the intermediate state as any uttered by a cleric in the decade. CFF2 962.3

3. SLEEPER AWAITS SOUND OF ANGEL’S TRUMP

Rehearsing the Old and the New Testament descriptions of death, Dr. Holden notes how Daniel, Jesus, and Paul uniformly designate death as a “sleep.” Holden observes that throughout Scripture this place of rest is called Hades, which simply means the “hid-den place.” It stands for the “place of rest.” “They are resting against the day when the trump of the Lord shall sound, when the sea shall give up the dead, and they shall stand before God.” ²⁷ He then affirms: CFF2 962.4

“Our dead are there, yours and mine, in that place of rest, waiting the sound of the archangel’s trump: and they are there with Christ. We shall never meet them again on earth: but only the place of our meeting is changed. They sleep in Christ: we live in Him. ‘Death can hide, but cannot divide, if we are on Christ’s side.’ It may well be that the believing and the unbelieving will not be raised together. It may be that those who fall asleep in Jesus, and are resting until the resurrection of the dead, will be raised first at the Coming of Christ: and that the unbelieving will not be raised until after the millennial reign of Christ. That, at any rate, seems to be tolerably clear from the Scriptures.” ²⁸ CFF2 962.5

“The dead,” he adds, “without us, will not be made perfect.” ²⁹ Such is the unique testimony of Dr. Holden, vicar of St. Paul’s Church, Keswick chairman, and editor of The Christian. Next we turn to a Baptist pastor in the United States. CFF2 963.1