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The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2 - Contents
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    IV. Minton—Helps Lift “Life in Christ” From Obscurity

    SAMUEL MINTON, later Minton-Senhouse (1820-1894), Anglican, of London, received his academic training at Rugby, and his M.A. from Worcester College, Oxford, to which he had won a scholarship. He was ordained in 1843, his first curacy being that of St. Silas church, Liverpool.CFF2 389.4

    In 1857 Minton transferred to Percy Chapel, London, where Haldane Stewart had presided. Then in 1864 he was called to Eaton Chapel, where he ministered for ten years. It was here that he confessed publicly and henceforth openly championed Conditional Immortality, in which he had become interested through reading Edward White’s Life in Christ twenty years before. Upon the occasion of his declaration he was surprised to find that eight members of his congregation had already adopted similar views. Soon there was wide acceptance among his members—more than half professing Conditionalism.CFF2 389.5

    Picture 2: Samuel Milton
    Samuel Minton (d. 1894), minister of Eaton Chapel—introductory speaker at 1876 Breakfast Conference.
    Page 390
    CFF2 390

    1. APPROVAL AND CONDEMNATION FOR ESPOUSING CONDITIONALISM

    As his views became known, letters of commendation were received from all parts of Britain, expressing hearty approval and support. On the other hand, he was, by others, called a heretic and an apostate and was repudiated by not a few of his former friends. Up until this time he had been regarded as one of the rising stars in the Church of England’s ecclesiastical firmament. As a consequence of Minton’s courageous stand, many who had published or spoken on Life Only in Christ, and had been rebuffed, took fresh courage and renewed their witness. There was now a widespread “lifting up of the trumpet.”CFF2 390.1

    It should be added that at the time many early Gonditionalists still believed in a conscious intermediate state but not in the Eternal Torment of the wicked. This was now steadily replaced by belief in the unconscious sleep of the dead.CFF2 390.2

    2. FIRST SPEAKER AT 1876 CONFERENCE ON CONDITIONALISM

    In 1860 Minton launched a successful innovation-evangelism in the Victoria Theatre, to reach those who would not come to a church. He there proved to be a successful soul-winning missioner. Minton was also the introductory speaker at the epochal 1876 Breakfast Conference on Conditional Immortality, held in the Cannon Street Hotel in London, with Lieutenant General Goodwyn as chairman. He there set forth the main positions on which all were in agreement, couching his strong message in kindly terms. He was also one of the speakers, in 1888, at the retirement of his close friend, Dr. Edward White. In this he was joined by various other noted speakers—clergymen, scientists, and educators—from other parts of Britain and abroad.CFF2 390.3

    In his earlier writings Minton had dealt largely with prophecy and the Tractarian Movement. Then he turned to Conditionalism and replied effectively, in The Christian World, to,J. Baldwin Brown’s attack on “The Miserable Doctrine of Annihilation.” Six of his leading works were: The Glory of Christ; A Nezu Bible; The Eternity of Evil; Immortality; The Way Everlasting; and The Harmony of Scripture on Future Punishment. Minton was thus one of the prominent participants in the last third of the nineteenth-century revival of the ancient testimony on Conditional Immortality, an ever faithful advocate of an unpopular truth. He was a cogent thinker and a persuasive writer and speaker, and helped to lift the great Life Only in Christ truth from the obscurity t under which it had been largely hidden for centuries.CFF2 391.1

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