V. Presents Positive Conditionalism to World Successfully

Instead of the presentation of specific quotations from White, which would require too much space, there will be set forth as accurately and succinctly as possible the great principles he enunciated and the provisions he declared—often in his own phrasing—that lifted Life Only in Christ above petty polemics and compelled the religious world to accord it the new stature and standing. The texts he cited, the history he rehearsed, and the expositions he gave, had been presented a hundred times before, in one form or another, by good and scholarly men. He brought them together into focus with new effectiveness.CFF2 332.4

The new impetus that came was obviously the result of changing the emphasis from the negative to the positive—not simply that there is no Eternal Life of suffering for sinners but that Eternal Life only in Christ the Life-giver is for saints only—with, of course, the inescapable alternative of eternal loss of Eternal Life for the disobedient. This change was largely brought about by Dr. White. Under his skilled hand and voice positive Conditionalism was no longer a dogma of death, but a doctrine of life. That was the essence.CFF2 333.1

This gave Conditionalism its new stature, standing, and appeal, and obtained for it recognition to a degree hitherto unknown. In increasing numbers men came to see that it explained and harmonized all the known facts and factors in life and destiny. Many bitter opponents modified their attitudes and many new friends were gained. Here are the essential principles White set forth, and the reasoning he employed:
Conditionalism harmonizes scripture with scripture as to “life” and “death.” It likewise reconciles the sovereignty of God and the freedom of the human will. It recognizes the second death as an everlasting penalty, and at the same time the final extinction of evil—not by Restoration but by the ultimate cessation of the impenitent.CFF2 333.2

It meets the contention of spiritual “life” and spiritual “death” by incorporating them as the conditions of actual immortality.CFF2 333.3

It makes the incarnation, atonement, redemption, and regeneration the basis and means of introducing life to a race that was losing it, the deliverance of life by a Representative Life laid down, and the recommunication of life through a uniting trust in the Life-giver.CFF2 333.4

It gives an intelligible place to miracles—the pre-eminent life-demonstrating miracle of Christ’s resurrection, as the symbol and sample in the regaining of the human life in forfeiture.CFF2 333.5

It shows how the sinner, through his sinfulness, is unfit to live. And so God simply withdraws life from him who is unbelieving. It shows that it is the sinner who has broken off the fundamental condition of Eternal Life.CFF2 334.1

It gives new purpose and significance to the eschatological doctrine of the last things.CFF2 334.2

It attests that all punishment will be proportionate. The guilty one who has received much will suffer much—because he will lose much.CFF2 334.3

Conditionalism is thus a synthesis which sets forth the various doctrines of the gospel in their true light and just relation-strengthening, intensifying, and unifying them.CFF2 334.4

It absolves God from the charge of cruelty, arbitrariness, and vindictiveness, and shows the punishment for sin to be in full accord with His gracious, righteous, and merciful character.CFF2 334.5

It shows how, freed from the prospect of endless sin and consequent misery for the rejected, the true doctrine of Bible election becomes reasonable and just.CFF2 334.6

It shows that there is no injustice in the eventual withdrawal of life from those who have no fitness for its endless perpetuation.CFF2 334.7

It gives to man his true dignity, but takes away from him the assumption of Innate Immortality that he has fallaciously claimed for himself.CFF2 334.8

1. LARGER SIGNIFICANCE OF CONDITIONALISM

Man being mortal in this life, a new condition of life is needed to become immortal in the life to come. The entrance into that new condition is a new birth from above, through the Divine Spirit, bringing a condition of life over which the second death will have no power.CFF2 334.9

Salvation becomes clearer and more consistent, with a due sense of our dependent relation toward God—salvation being the consecration of the life and the personality, which would otherwise be extinguished in the “second death.” Only through a new birth can we enter the kingdom of heaven (John 3:3).CFF2 334.10

Conditionalism generates a strong belief in the deity of Christ the Saviour. His incarnation was to make expiation for human sin—as a man suffering the death penalty for sin, yet Himself being sinless. So our immortality depends upon the deity of the Son. A creature may be able to give happiness to others, but only the eternal Son of God, the Creator, can communicate Eternal Life to a perishable creature. Therefore if man is to obtain Eternal Life in Jesus, He, Jesus, must be none other than God manifest in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16).CFF2 334.11

It displaces Innate Immortality by introducing the provision of the resurrection, so widely obscured in Christian circles. It makes the resurrection central in the divine scheme of redemption—first the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and then of those who are His. If Jesus had remained the prey of death, He could never have provided, or introduced others to, the necessary condition of immortality.CFF2 334.12

Conditionalists thus deal with the supreme question—to live or not to live. It is a question of our eternal destiny, involving the character of God, the destiny of man, and the future state of the universe. It is therefore not on the periphery but at the very center of Christian revelation and doctrine. That is the logic, the soundness, the truthfulness, the winsomeness of Conditionalism—according to Edward White.CFF2 335.1