VII. Conditionalism Makes Increasing Friends Among Clergy

Many were the ministers around the turn of the century who expressed sympathetic interest in, if not outright espousal of, the principles of Conditionalism. For instance, there was DR. GEORGE W. SHINN, ^{9696) Dr. GEORGE W. SHINN (1839-1910), Protestant Episcopal clergyman, and graduateof the Philadelphia Divinity School (1863), was pastor of churches in Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts. He was author of seven books.} rector of the Episcopalian Grace church, Newton, Massachusetts, who declared:CFF2 584.5

“‘Eternal’ is not always the attribute but the result. Thus ‘eternal redemption’ means eternal in its results. The act of redemption was accomplished on the Cross in a day; the results are eternal. Sodom and Gomorrah are spoken of as the prey of eternal fire, yet the fire does not continue. It is the result of the fire which is spoken of.” ^{9797) Theology at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century, p. 166.}CFF2 584.6

“The doctrine of conditional immortality makes it necessary to deny the natural immortality of the human soul. This is a most important point, for if the soul may cease to be, then eternal death means a dissolution which continues eternally. It is boldly declared by those who hold this view that the Scriptures speak nowhere of immortality apart from Christ; that there is no permanent life except for the believer.CFF2 584.7

“There are many things connected with this doctrine of conditional immortality which would make almost any one wish he could accept it.” ^{9898) Ibid., p. 167.}CFF2 584.8

About the same time Dr. CHARLES A. DICKINSON, pastor of the Berkeley Temple, Boston, wrote significantly in this same work:CFF2 585.1

“If, however, a man should tell me that in the far-off aeons of eternity the vast asylum of the lost shall be depopulated because the madness of sin has spent itself and its victims have dropped away into that eternal unconsciousness which is ‘the blackness of darkness,’ and ‘the second death,’ I should be more willing to agree with him, for I am more and more convinced that the final end of sin is death, and that life and immortality are the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” ^{9999) Ibid., p. 188.}CFF2 585.2

And shortly before these two, HENRY THEODORE CHEEVER, D.D. (1814-1897), ^{100100) HENRY THEODORE CHEEVER, D.D. (1814-1897), Congregationalist, was a graduate ofBowdoin College, then of Andover and Bangor Theological seminaries. He held pastorates inNew Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts, and was for a time editor of the New YorkEvangelist, and author of several volumes including Biblical Eschatology.} Presbyterian-Congregationalist minister of Worcester, Massachusetts, in his Biblical Eschatology (1890), left these words on record:CFF2 585.3

“Christianity needs to base its hope of immortality for man more distinctly upon the fact that Christ is risen, and that perishable man is to live again, not because of his inherent immortality, but because God has provided that in Him, the Christ, ALL shall be made alive. And this new resurrection-life for the race of man through its second Adam, the ideal perfect man, must be viewed as but the consummation of a creative process and promise begun from the foundation of the world.” ^{101101) Henry T. Cheever, Biblical Esc : Its Relation to the Current PresbyterianStandards and the Basal Principles that must underlie Their Revision: Being a Review of theWritings of the Presbyterian Divine, L. C. Baker, pp. 53, 54.}CFF2 585.4

Again we see that these individual leanings were not confined to any one denomination.CFF2 585.5