III. Fundamental Fallacy of Immortal-Soulist Concept

Before closing this chapter let us face this incontestable fact frankly: Something happened long ago in the theological world. The radical distinction between the natural and the supernatural, as pertains to the nature and destiny of man, came to be confused and flouted, along with a denial of the gulf that is fixed in Scripture between the physical, earthly, and transitory, and that which is spiritual, heavenly, and eternal—a distinction explicitly spelled out by Inspiration.CFF1 517.1

An unwarranted, mystical, allegorical interpretation has been imposed upon the pivotal words of Scripture, such as “soul,” “death,” “resurrection,” “destruction.” This whole area of doctrine has been arbitrarily brought under a specious system of allegorization, or spiritualization, borrowed from Philo the Jew and Origen the Neoplatonic Christian philosopher. “Death,” instead of being recognized as an unconscious sleep, is considered by multiplied millions to be the mystic door by which the righteous enter forever upon that higher state of existence for which they have been preparing here below.CFF1 517.2

And as for the irreparably wicked, “death” is likewise conceived to be the inexorable door by which the wicked enter upon a hopeless state of paralleling eternal life, only in sin and misery. To such, “death” is still eternal existence. So to the Immortal-Soulist, the “second” death is simply unending life in ceaseless sin and irremediable torment. Such contenders are completely baffled in attempting to explain the “second death” aspect—merely making it unalterable continuance forever, instead of a penalized ending, and thus missing the fundamental point of the comparison.CFF1 517.3

Beyond question, the notion of Innate Immortality started somewhere, some time. And history attests that it stems back through Protestantism to the older Catholicism, and thence back to the early Christian and Jewish apostasies, and prior to that back to pagan philosophy—and, before all these, back to the original lie of Satan, uttered within the gates of Eden. Such is the indelible trail of this delusive fiction that has insinuated itself into the teachings of Christianity and has established itself as a preponderant belief of both Catholicism and Protestantism. But such a lineage is the reason we do not hesitate to challenge its validity and to urge its repudiation.CFF1 518.1

1. DUALISM NOT PART OF DIVINE PLAN OF THE AGES

There is also a related involvement in the Eternal Torment dogma. If Satan and his demonic and human followers are not to be and cannot be destroyed, then Christ cannot become “Lord of all,” nor His kingdom a universal kingdom. In such an event, a special segment of His kingdom would have to be portioned off, for all eternity, as a special habitation for enemies that He cannot conquer and destroy. He can torment them and isolate them, but they can still blaspheme His name and defy His power to harm them further—and that forevermore. So they say.CFF1 518.2

Picture the scene: Raging hosts below, with groans and blasphemies, living on forever under a pagan dualism spawned in Persia of old. But the dualistic concept of Persian Zoroastrianism was based on the contention that there are two eternal principles (Ormuzd and Ahriman), one eternally good and the other everlastingly evil; that these were both without beginning and both without end, and so continue on in eternal, unending conflict with each other.CFF1 518.3

On the contrary, Christian theologians who are proponents of Immortal-Soulism, while holding that there are two such opposing principles, and principals, now at war with each other, say that only the Godhead had no beginning and was eternally existent throughout the eternity of the past. They recognize that evil, stemming from Satan as author, is an innovation and had a beginning. But they illogically hold that now, having begun to be, it must forever remain in being, endlessly marring and challenging God’s once perfect universe. More than that, they maintain, or concede, that God Himself cannot put an end to its existence.CFF1 518.4

That is a tremendously serious charge to make, and one that is completely at variance with the Sacred Word, which declares that God will finally extirpate all evil from the universe. What He has created He can destroy. The truth is that evil is but a tragic episode—a temporary interlude—in the divine, eternal plan of the ages. And as it had a beginning in time, so will it end within the confines of time, before the aeons of the eternity of the future begin to unroll. Sin is relatively incidental and passing, not integral and perpetual. The time will come when it will end. The “lake of fire” will mark the exodus of sin and death forever.CFF1 519.1

Thus the subtle, delusive, dual fiction of Innate Immortality and Endless Torment obscures the glory of the gospel and weakens its power and appeal (1) by denying to Christ His chief glory—the bestowal of life eternal upon the righteous, and (2) by denying His ultimate triumph in the destruction of all His foes. That is why we stand upon the Bible platform of Conditionalism. That is why we are Conditionalists.CFF1 519.2