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The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1 - Contents
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    IV. Justin’s Definitive Positions on Nature and Destiny of Man

    1. CONTENDED FOR LITERAL RESURRECTION OF DEAD

    Justin took an unyielding position on the literal resurrection of the dead, already under attack, holding that those who deny it are “wrong.” Thus, “They who maintain the wrong opinion say that there is no resurrection of the flesh.” 1414) Justin, On the Resurrection, chap. 2, in ANF, vol. 1, p 294.CFF1 813.6

    2. SOULS NOT TAKEN TO HEAVEN AT DEATH

    Justin felt strongly about the resurrection, and denied the actual Christianity of those who taught that the soul goes to Heaven at death:CFF1 814.1

    “If you have fallen in with some who are called Christians, but who do not admit this [truth], [note 4: i.e., “resurrection”], and venture to blaspheme the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; who say there is no resurrection of the dead and that their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven; do not imagine that they are Christians.” 1515) Justin, Dialogue With Trypho chap. 80 in ANF, vol. 1, p 239. (Brackets in original.CFF1 814.2

    3. “MAN” COMPOSED OF BOTH “BODY AND SOUL.”

    Justin also refutes as heresy the theory just then being introduced, that the soul alone is the real man, and can act without the body:CFF1 814.3

    “What is man but the reasonable animal composed of body and soul? Is the soul by itself man? No; but the soul of man. Would the body be called man? No, but it is called the body of man. If, then, neither of these is by itself man, but that which is made up of the two together is called man, and God has called man to life and resurrection, He has called not a part, but the whole, which is the soul and the body.” 1616) Justin, On the Resurrection, chap. 8, in ANF, vol. 1, pp. 297, 298.CFF1 814.4

    Because of the vital character of the issue he presses the point, adding, “How then did he raise the dead? Their souls or their bodies? Manifestly both.” 1717) Ibid., chap. 9, p. 298. And he illustrates it in this way:CFF1 814.5

    “For as in the case of a yoke of oxen, if one or other is loosed from the yoke, neither of them can plough alone; so neither can soul or body alone effect anything, if they be unyoked from their communion.” 1818) Ibid., chap. 8, p. 297.CFF1 814.6

    4. DENIES SEPARATE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL

    Justin denied that the soul can live on independent of, or separate from, the body. And it ceases to live when God so wills:CFF1 814.7

    “Now the soul partakes of life, since God wills it to live. Thus, then, it will not even partake [of life] when God does not will it to live. For to live is not its attribute, as it is God’s; but as a man does not live always, and the soul is not for ever conjoined with the body, since, whenever this harmony must be broken up, the soul leaves the body, and the man exists no longer; even so, whenever the soul must cease to exist, the spirit of life is removed from it, and there is no more soul, but it goes back to the place from whence it is taken.” 1919) Justin, Dialogue With Trypho, chap 6 in ANF, vol 1, p. 198. (Brackets in original.CFF1 814.8

    5. TEACHES UTTER EXTINCTION OF THE WICKED

    Justin repeatedly taught the utter extinction of the wicked. As already noted, he did not believe in the eternal misery of the lost:CFF1 815.1

    “God delays causing the confusion and destruction of the whole world, by which the wicked angels and demons and men shall cease to exist.” 2020) Justin, Second Apology, chap. 7, in ANF vol 1, p 190 (Italics supplied.CFF1 815.2

    “Thus some which have appeared worthy of God never die; but others are punished so long as God wills them to exist and to be punished.” 2121) Justin, Dialogue With Trypho, chap. 5, in ANF, vol. 1, p. 197. (Italics supplied.CFF1 815.3

    Justin frequently uses the Biblical terms “everlasting punishment” and “eternal fire,” as will be noted. Yet he positively declares that the sinner will ultimately cease to exist. Therefore the term cannot, to him, mean “everlasting punishing.”CFF1 815.4

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