II. Joseph Parker-Outspoken “Conditionalist” and “Destructionist”

Among London preachers who rose to eminence in the last quarter of the nineteenth century two were conspicuous above others-Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Baptist pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and Joseph Parker, Congregationalist minister of the City Temple. Both drew immense audiences, and both were widely quoted in the secular as well as the religious press. They were alike symbols of pulpit oratorical power. Each had a worldwide following, both being regarded as master preachers and able Bible expositors.CFF2 638.1

But there the similarities ended. Their views in the area of eschatology were radically different. And they consequently held opposite views on the nature and destiny of man. Charles Spurgeon almost fiercely maintained the Innate Immortality of the soul, and the eternal, agonizing punishing of the unsaved, reminiscent of Jonathan Edwards and Dante. Dr. Parker, on the contrary, neither held nor taught the immortality of the soul, nor the endless punishment of the wicked. He mintained that the terms “destroy” and “destruction” were to be taken literally, and indicated utter, ultimate destruction. He even declared that none among the clergy of the Independent Churches at that time preached the doctrine of Eternal Torment. ^{3434) Petavel, The Problem of Immortality, p. 22} Let us note the positions of Parker, the Conditionalist.CFF2 638.2

JOSEPH PARKER, D.D. (1830-1902), Congregationalist divine, was for a little time a Wesleyan preacher, but in 1852 he returned to Congregationalism, ministering in Banbury, Manchester. In 1869 he became pastor of the Poultry Street Chapel, London, where his pulpit power attracted large congregations. He had the gift of investing old themes with a new luster. Then, in 1874, in the newly completed City Temple, he ministered uninterruptedly, with great influence, until his death twenty-eight years later. He was pre-eminently a Bible preacher, and his popularity never waned. Many ministers of various churches were seen in his congregation.CFF2 639.1

His numerous publications include the People’s Bible (25 volumes); The Pulpit Bible; and Ecce Deus; a Preacher’s Life (1899). He was a strong advocate of temperance, and in 1901 became chairman of the Congregational Union of Britain and Wales. Here are some of his clear positions on record.CFF2 639.2

1. OPTIONAL: RECEIVE IMMORTALITY OR CHOOSE DESTRUCTION

Man is “constituted” for immortality, wrote Parker, but must and does choose eternal life-or death. This is distinctively man’s prerogative and inescapable responsibility:CFF2 639.3

“Glorious to me is this idea (so like all we know of the Divine goodness) of asking man whether he will accept life and be like God, or whether he will choose death and darkness for ever. God does not say to man, ‘I will make you immortal and indestructible whether you will or not, live for ever you shall’ No, he makes him capable of living; he constitutes him with a view to immortality; he urges, beseeches, implores him to work out this grand purpose, assuring him, with infinite pathos, that he has no pleasure in the death of the sinner, but would rather that he should LIVE A doctrine this which in my view simplifies and glorifies human history as related in the Bible Life and death are not set before any beast; but life and death are distinctly set before man-he can live, he was meant to live, he is besought to live; the whole scheme of Providence and redemption is arranged to help him to live—why, then, will ye die?” ^{3535) Joseph Parker, The People’s Bible: Discourses Upon Holy Scripture, vol. 1, p. 126.}CFF2 639.4

2. EVIL ENDS IN “UTTER, FINAL, EVERLASTING EXTINCTION.”

No eternal Hell, but final extinction of sin and sinners, and a clean universe, is the divine program:CFF2 640.1

“By destroying evil I do not mean locking it up by itself in a moral prison, which shall be enlarged through ages and generations until it shall become the abode of countless millions of rebels, but its utter, final, everlasting extinction, so that at last the universe shall be ‘without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing’—the pure home of a pure creation.” ^{3636) Ibid., p. 160.}CFF2 640.2

3. INDEFEASIBLE IMMORTALITY IS PALPABLY ABSURD

All God’s gifts, including life, are conditional. Man cannot defy God to destroy him. It is not true thatCFF2 640.3

“having once given you life you are as immortal as he himself is, and you can defy him to interfere with his own work! The doctrine seems to me to involve a palpable absurdity, and hardly to escape the charge of blasphemy. Throughout the whole Bible, God has reserved to himself the right to take back whatever he has given, because all his gifts have been offered upon conditions about which there can be no mistake.” ^{3737) Ibid., p. 222.}CFF2 640.4

4. SODOM AN EXAMPLE OF “EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION.”

Sodom’s destruction, says Dr. Parker, resulted in the “utter end of its existence“:CFF2 640.5

“In this case [of Sodom] we have an instance of utter and everlasting destruction. We see here what is meant by ‘everlasting punishment,’ for we are told in the New Testament that ‘Sodom suffered the vengeance of eternal fire,’ that is of fire, which made an utter end of its existence and perfectly accomplished the purpose of God. The ‘fire’ was ‘eternal,’ yet Sodom is not literally burning still; the smoke of its torment, being the smoke of an eternal fire, ascended up for ever and ever, yet no smoke now rises from the plain,—‘eternal fire’ does not involve the element of what we call ‘time’: it means thorough, absolute, complete, final: that which is done or given once for all.” ^{3838) Ibid., p. 223.}CFF2 640.6

That was the clear published position of this great Congregationalist preacher just before the turn of the century.CFF2 640.7