CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE: Athanasius—Then Conditionalism Into Eclipse

As we come to the last spokesmen for the Conditionalist and Immortal-Soulist schools—Athanasius and Augustine, respectively—that we shall trace in volume one, let us take a retrospective view of the path we have traversed here in historical Part IV, covering the first five centuries of the Christian Era. These last chapters comprise a tragic tale of shifting realignment among the three schools of thought on the nature and destiny of man, each well crystallized by the fourth century. They reveal an inexorable shift in power, and a foreboding pattern for the future. In due course, two of these three schools on man’s nature and destiny become submerged by the ascendant school stressing the dogma of Eternal Torment for the damned. Darkness descended as the light of Conditionalism was increasingly suppressed.CFF1 1053.1

We have space only for the barest outline of this saga of tragic suppression. We must restrict ourselves merely to mentioning a few representative names, noting little more than their churchly positions and locations, as they take their position in this fateful change-over. With an eye on Tabular Chart F we can easily follow the developments, now moving on with accelerating momentum. It is actually a portrayal of the repression of opposition and the emerging supremacy of error. Note first the two basic lines of departure from the apostolic platform—that is, of the Conditionalist School. They reveal a tragic development.CFF1 1053.2