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The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

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    VI. Scotland’s Stewart-Pauline Truth v. Greek and Jewish Errors

    Church of Scotland’s Dr. JAMES S. STEWART, 5151) JAMES. STEWART (1896-), of the Church of Scotland, was trained at St. Andrews, Bonn, and New College. After a series of pastorates, in 1947 he became professor of New Testament language, literature, and theology at the University of Edinburgh. He is author of seven volumes. well-known professor of New Testament language, literature, and theology at the University of Edinburgh, in his A Man in Christ, likewise points out the error of the Greek concept of Innate Immortality-a spiritual entity persisting without a body, with death as the “escape” of the soul from its body prison. He stresses, instead, the Biblical necessity of the resurrection. He says, “Paul could not thus conceive a realm of disembodied spirits.” Here is Stewart’s key statement:CFF2 792.6

    “Philosophy had taught the Greek to believe in a purely spiritual immortality, without a body of any kind. Wise men regarded the body as a tomb in which the living spirit lay buried.... Death was the imprisoned soul’s escape. But Paul could not thus conceive a realm of disembodied spirits. To him, the very idea would have been repugnant: witness the earnestness of his desire that he should ‘not be found naked’ after death, but ‘clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.’ The real point at issue, of course, as Paul saw very clearly, was the continuance of personal identity. Some sort of body there must be, if the soul’s essential individuality was to survive.” 5252) James S. Stewart, A Man in Christ. The Vital Elements of St. Paul’s Religion (Harper and Row), p. 267 (Italics supplied.)CFF2 793.1

    Next note the antecedents he lays down.CFF2 793.2

    1. ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENTS OF SALVATION

    Stewart speaks of “the fact of death,” and how it must be “destroyed,” “else Christ’s work remains incomplete.” He tells how the “very principle of death” will ultimately be “eliminated and cease to be.” And he speaks of how the “universe itself” will be “remade.” Then he takes up the “coming resurrection” and the “destiny of believers”—and cautions that Paul’s “all shall rise” declaration “cannot be conclusively proved” to mean that “all in the end must enjoy salvation” 5353 Ibid., pp. 265, 266—the premise of Universalism. (Stewart photo on page 783.)CFF2 793.3

    Stewart emphasizes the fact that the Christian has “passed from death to life. Hence the resurrection of the hereafter is simply God’s seal set upon the life in Christ which the believer now possesses.” Stewart then points out that to the Greek mind “the whole conception of a resurrection was strange and novel and puzzling.” 5454) Ibid., p. 267. But it is God’s plan and glorious provision.CFF2 793.4

    2. FALLACY OF SURVIVING DISEMBODIED SPIRITS

    Dr. Stewart then examines the erroneous Greek contention of “disembodied spirits” surviving death, as already depicted. He presents the fundamental clash with Paul’s inspired portrayal of the afterlife, and its “continuance of personal identity” and “essential individuality.” 5555) Ibid., pp. 267, 268.CFF2 794.1

    3. “CRASS MATERIALISM” OF JEWISH CONCEPTS

    Dr. Stewart next deals with the basic difference between Paul’s portrayal of the resurrection and the concept of the Jews, and emphasizes the contrasting twin errors of the Greeks and the Jews:CFF2 794.2

    “But if Paul differed from the Greek conception of immortality, he differed equally from the Jewish. Resurrection was a familiar enough idea to the Jews, but it was marked by a crass materialism. The very body which had died was to rise again. Even if its elements had been dissolved and its particles scattered, they would be reassembled and made to live by a miraculous act of God. This, too, Paul rejected. His own position was one midway between the Greek and the Jewish. And it seems to have been the direct consequence of the vision that came to him at his conversion. There Christ had appeared to him with His resurrection body.CFF2 794.3

    “It was the same Jesus who had died. On the question of identity, there could be no doubt whatever. And yet there was a difference. A change had happened. ‘The body of humiliation’ had become ‘the body of glory.’... The Greek view of immortality safeguarded spirituality, but endangered personal identity. The Jewish view safeguarded identity, but endangered spirituality. Paul’s view preserves both spirituality and personal identity. And this is what gives it its surpassing influence and appeal.” 5656) Ibid.CFF2 794.4

    4. TWIN BLESSINGS OF THE SECOND ADVENT

    Coming to the “indwelling” Christ as the “believer’s security,” the sobering scenes of the “judgment,” and the glorious Second Advent that will break upon the world “like dawn in the eastern sky,” Stewart speaks of the twin blessings it will bring- (1) “the life of glory” for the “individual believer,” when “this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality,” and (2) for “the cause of God” there will be “victory, final and complete.” 5757) Ibid., p. 272. Such was Dr. Stewart’s graphic depiction.CFF2 794.5

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