IX. Oxford’s Quick-Man Wholly Dies Before Totally Living

Note must also be taken of British Dr. OLIVER C. QUICK ^{7979) OLIVER CHASE QUICK (1885-1944), Anglican, was educated at Harrow and Corpus Christi colleges, Oxford. After serving as curate, chaplain and vicar in several appointments, he became canon of Newcastle and then Carlyle, next of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and finally professor of divinity and ecclesiastical history at the University of Durham and then of the University of Oxford (1939-1943). He was author of twelve major books.} professor of divinity at Oxford, and his Doctrines of the Creed, originally given as lectures to the theological students of Durham. ^{8080) Olive, C. Quick Doctrines of the Creed, p. X.} All the way through his scholarly and conservative treatise ^{8282) Ibid., pp. 90, 91.} Quick contrasts the foibles of Greek Platonic philosophy with the certainties of Biblical revelation as relates to immortality Like many, many others he contrasts Bible truth as to man’s life and destiny with Buddhism’s futilely “undying cycle of birth and death and temporal becoming.”CFF2 800.2

Presenting the “atonement” as providing victory “not merely over death, but also through death,” ^{8484) Ibid., p. 212. 117 Ibid.} Quick declares that Christianity alone makes death “a positive and necessary contribution to the perfection of created life.” Other “philosophies of immortality” make death “unreal”—“a release for the spirit through the dropping off of the material body.” But with Christianity “life must be lost before it can be fully won.” ^{8585) Ibid., pp. 213, 214.} Quick brings the issue before us through this truism:CFF2 800.3

“Many believers in God reject belief in the [innate] immortality of the soul. And on the other hand some have believed in the immortality of the soul, while rejecting belief in God.” ^{8686) Ibid., p. 263.}CFF2 800.4

He then asks the question, “Is the human soul by nature such as to survive the death of the body?” ^{8787) Ibid.} His repeated answer, in varying forms, is No!CFF2 800.5

1. IMMORTALITY IS GIFT OF DEATH-CONQUERING CHRIST

Turning in chapter 24 to “The Teaching of the Bible on Life After Death,” Quick states that in the Old Testament “there are many passages which roundly deny that the human soul continues after life in any life worth having.” And as to the New Testament, “its emphasis” is “on the glorious hope of resurrection.” ^{8888) Ibid., p. 264.} Then he remarks:CFF2 800.6

“From first to last the Bible is chiefly concerned to teach us that our faith and hope must be in God, that it is on God’s Kingdom, not on personal survival and its particular phases and circumstances, that our aims and affections should be set.” ^{8989) Ibid.}CFF2 801.1

Then comes his crucial statement:
“This is the great conclusion which the Bible reaches. The immortality of man is the gift of the living God who conquers death. Of that the Bible assures us; but it does not answer our questions about what happens to the soul when the body dies. And it would be difficult to cite any text outside the Apocrypha which suggests that the soul of man is by the necessity of its own created nature immortal.” ^{9090) Ibid., p. 266. (Italics supplied.)}CFF2 801.2

The canonical Scriptures give no support to any Innate Immortality. Resurrection, Quick affirms, “is perhaps the most characteristic feature of the Christian gospel.” ^{9191) Ibid.} That is the means of receiving immortality.CFF2 801.3

2. “HEAVENLY LIFE” NOT THROUGH “LIBERATION OF SOUL.”

Noting the weakness of the “Hellenic doctrines of immortality,” Quick says of the Biblical truth:
“The change from earthly to heavenly life is not and cannot be a gradual process of ascension, in which the falling away of the material body is merely a further liberation of the soul; rather it is a process of increasing tension and conflict leading to a crisis in which the earthly man must wholly die in order wholly to receive life.” ^{9292) Ibid., p. 268. (Italics supplied.)}CFF2 801.4

And how is this provided?CFF2 801.5

“The gateway to the heavenly and eternal life is the self-sacrifice which Christ first accomplished only through his death, and in which he enables Christians to follow him.” ^{9393) Ibid.}CFF2 801.6

There is, Quick observes, an “essential difference” between believing in “resurrection” through Christ and innate “immortality of the soul.” ^{9494) Ibid., p. 269.} It is a gift to be received, not an inherent possession.CFF2 801.7