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The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

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    V. St. Aldate’s De Berry-Not Eternal Torment, but “Annihilation”

    KEITH DE BERRY, 8686) KEITH DE BERRY, Anglican, was trained at Marlborough and St. John’s, Cambridge. After a period of ministry in industrial districts he served as vicar of Immanuel church, London (1939-1952), and chaplain to Belmont Hospital. Since 1956 he has been rector of St. Aldate’s, Oxford, and also of Surrogate since 1952. since 1956 rector of St. Aldate’s, Oxford, has likewise spoken out through his The Making of a Christian (1959). Discussing “the Nature of Man,” in chapter four he emphasizes “Man’s Freedom to Choose,” and comments, “Freewill presupposes the possibility of its misuse.” 8787) Keith de Berry, The Making of a Christian, p. 59. After noting that man is “a fallen creature, and hopelessly lost,” 8989) Ibid., p. 61. De Berry adds: “Man cannot free himself and get back to the original relationship. God cannot overlook sin.” Help must come from outside.CFF2 952.4

    1. CATHOLIC POSITION: ETERNAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN HELL

    De Berry alludes to the barrenness of Hinduism and Buddhism, which faiths “say the ultimate destiny for man is the dissolution of personality, separateness is ended in the eternal nothingness of Nirvana.” 9090) Ibid., p.76. He then comes to the question of the fate of the wicked, but first speaks of the righteous in these words: “The Christian hope is therefore a certainty of being in His Presence in a transformed resurrection body.” 9191) Ibid., p. 81. Then, speaking of those who reject the offer of eternal life, he alludes to Roman Catholic-and certain Protestant-positions on eternal torment:CFF2 952.5

    “The Roman Catholic teaching on Hell as a place of eternal agonising torture where no one ever loses consciousness is completely contrary both to the character of God and the teaching of the Bible on Eternal Life and Eternal perishing. Many of the cruder Protestant Sects have agreed with Roman Catholic teaching regarding eternal punishment.” 9292) Ibid. (Italics supplied.)CFF2 953.1

    2. NOT “EVERLASTING TORMENT” BUT “ANNIHILATION.”

    De Berry rejects this view, and takes the position of Archbishop William Temple on the utter destruction of the wicked, which he quotes as representing his own view:CFF2 953.2

    “‘One thing we can say with confidence: everlasting torment is to be ruled out. If men had not imported the Greek and unbiblical notion of the natural indestructibility of the individual soul, and then read the New Testament with that already in their minds, they would have drawn from it a belief, not in everlasting torment, but in annihilation. It is the fire that is called aeonion, not the life cast into it. But what the New Testament does most surely teach is the reality of “abiding consequences” of all we do.’” 9393) De Berry, op. cit., pp. 81, 82, quoting from William Temple, Christian Faith and Life, p. 81.CFF2 953.3

    God will destroy the wicked, “both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).CFF2 953.4

    In a personal note to the author dated May 30, 1960, Rector De Berry commented on the foregoing views as now “widely held by many people.” Then he added: “They seem to me to be the only views which square both with the scriptural evidence and what we know of the character of God as perfect love.”CFF2 953.5

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