The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE: Recapitulating the Evidence for Individual Conclusions

I. Unfolding Panorama of the Centuries Epitomized

We have now completed the sweeping survey of the centuries in our quest for the leading advocates of Conditionalism across the Christian Era. As we have seen, the continuing conflict over the nature and destiny of man began, outside of pagan ranks, in the Jewish Church in the Inter-Testament period, when Platonism began to infiltrate and alter the Jewish faith. As a result, the Apocryphal and pseudepigraphical writers of the last three centuries B. C. were split into two opposing schools. CFF2 1039.1

One group maintained the Biblical positions of Moses and the other inspired Old Testament writers, as presented at some length in volume one. The other school, adopting the subtle Platonic philosophy of universal, Innate Immortality, sought, chiefly through Philo, to reconcile the two antagonistic and mutually exclusive positions of Plato and Moses, but actually accepting Plato’s view of the soul. This was likewise set forth in volume one. CFF2 1039.2

1. PLATONIC INROADS PRODUCE THREE-WAY SPLIT

Then, following the authoritative testimony of Christ, the supreme embodiment and spokesman of truth and life, together with that of the inspired apostles, whose united teachings accord with Old Testament patriarchs and prophets-similarly set forth with fullness in volume one-we traced the irruption of the same basic conflict of views into the expanding Christian Church, not beginning, however, until toward the close of the second century. CFF2 1039.3

This belated conflict was likewise created by the injection of the same pagan Platonism, continued as Christian Neoplatonism, in a similar attempt to reconcile and set forth the terms and positions of Platonism in a Christian framework. This was accomplished through spiritualizing and the explaining away of the obvious original intent of the canonical writers of both the Old and the New Testament. CFF2 1040.1

This development produced a cleavage that divided the Christian “fathers” into three opposing theological schools, and thus created a theological trilemma, as pertains to the nature and destiny of man. This reached its climax in the third and fourth centuries. And the subsequent battles of the centuries have been between these three irreconcilable concepts. Ours has been the task of tracing this conflict across the years, with primary attention, of course, to the champions of Conditionalism. CFF2 1040.2

2. DOMINANT IMMORTAL-SOULISM SUPPRESSES OPPOSING VOICES

The School of Universal Innate Immortality became dominant by the fifth century. By the sixth century it had largely suppressed the Conditionalist and Universal-Restoration schools, which situation prevailed for several centuries thereafter. Those were the bleak and largely silent centuries so far as the Conditional Immortality position was concerned. But even then there were occasional dissentient voices. These were quickly subdued. CFF2 1040.3

It was not until the late Middle Ages that a series of forceful protests arose, challenging the dominant view. These were first uttered by illustrious Jewish rabbis. But these were joined, and then surpassed, by respected Christian spokesmen of stature and Christian philosophers breaking with the established tradition. Conditionalism was on its way to a slow comeback. There were enough dissentients to show that not all subscribed to the Platonic view of the soul. And these pathfinders were forerunners of a coming challenge, the impact of which was to be increasingly felt in steadily widening cirles. CFF2 1040.4

3. REFORMATION FIRST RESTORED FUNDAMENTALS OF SALVATION

The task of the great Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century was so vast in scope that although nearly all great Christian doctrines were involved in the revival and restoration of apostolic truth, not all restorations could be brought to the forefront at the same time. And not all had the same reception. The great papal perversion had not only corrupted every essential Christian doctrine but had struck at the primary principles and provisions of salvation itself. CFF2 1041.1

Luther and his associates, and the Reformers of other lands, had first to restore the foundation of Christian faith itself- salvation through Christ alone, by grace, and justification through faith in Him, not by human works and penance. That was basic, and must and did come first. It was a tremendous step, and was foundational to all related doctrinal reforms. Christ had first to be restored to His rightful place, and justification by faith in Him re-established. Upon this primary emphasis there was general agreement among all Protestant leaders, though with varying emphases. CFF2 1041.2

4. DIFFERENT DOCTRINES BUT SLOWLY RESTORED

On various structural doctrines of the faith there was greater divergence, and slow restoration-if not, indeed, opposition. On baptism, for example, there was no uniformity-a majority still clinging to sprinkling, while the upspringing Baptists contended that immersion was the original Christian form over a period of centuries. They held that its abandonment should be repudiated as a papal departure. That was typical of other doctrinal receptions. CFF2 1041.3

The question of the Sabbath was likewise left largely untouched, except as Seventh Day Baptists in Britain and on the Continent challenged the observance of the first day as similarly a papal innovation, without scriptural warrant, and began slowly to re-establish the original seventh-day Sabbath that they championed. But that issue was largely bypassed, and was adopted only by a small minority. Its wider acceptance was delayed until the nineteenth century. CFF2 1041.4

5. INTENSE CONFLICT OVER SLEEP OF SOUL IN DEATH

The same hesitancy obtained with reference to the three-pronged question of the nature and destiny of man-that is, of Conditional Immortality, of man’s unconscious sleep in death until the resurrection at the Second Advent, and of the ultimate and utter destruction of the incorrigibly wicked. Consideration of this multiple question was likewise circumscribed, both in discussion and in action by the early Reformers. Purgatory was repudiated, but the vast majority still held to the pagano-papal immortality-of-the-soul dogma and the Eternal Torment-of-the-wicked postulate. CFF2 1042.1

Stalwarts like Luther and Tyndale recognized the importance of the issue, and took their stand. But the bulk of their associates did not. And while individuals, and then groups, began to espouse the positions of Conditionalism, powerful voices like Calvin violently challenged the view of the sleep of the soul, and championed the traditional Platonic-papal teaching of Innate Immortality, sentient continuance of the soul after death, and the eternal agony of the wicked. CFF2 1042.2

On the other hand, many Anabaptists, general Baptists, and others, including not a few Anglicans, challenged these traditional Catholic positions retained by the majority of Protestants. The battle was joined in earnest, and was fought out on Biblical grounds. But gradually, during the seventeenth century, more outstanding religious leaders in Britain and some on the Continent began to break with the traditional positions and to take their stand on Conditionalism. CFF2 1042.3

6. SMALL GROUPS RETAINED CONDITIONALISM FROM EARLY TIMES

Moreover, certain dissentient groups on the geographical fringes of Catholic Christendom-including some among the Waldenses in the fastnesses of the Piedmontese Alps, others down in the heart of African Ethiopia, and still others over on the Asian Malabar coast of India-had retained certain aspects of the Conditionalist concept from early times, that is, that man is mortal, and sleeps between death and the resurrection. This was an added angle. CFF2 1042.4

But in due course agitation broke out in high places, in different lands, and in the various Protestant faiths or denominations, eventuating in a growing chorus of respected voices individually advocating the Conditionalist position. These remained, however, largely personal or individual views. Nevertheless, their number and prominence increased throughout the eighteenth century. CFF2 1043.1