III. Schultz-Immortality Contingent; Destruction to Be Total

HERMANN SCHULTZ (1836-1903), well-known Lutheran theologian, was trained at the universities of Göttingen and Erlangen. He was successively professor of theology at Basel (1864), Strasburg (1872), Heidelberg (1874), and at Göttingen for the remainder of his life. Schultz made a profound study of the Christian teaching concerning immortality. Author of important German works, he also contributed to the American Symposium, The Life Everlasting.CFF2 588.3

1. EVERLASTING LIFE ONLY IN GOD

In 1861 Professor Schultz published Die Voraussetzungen der Christlichen Lehre von der Unsterblichkeit (“Presuppositions of the Christian Doctrine of Immortality”). In this carefully reasoned treatise he maintained that immortality, in the strict sense, is the absolute possession of God alone, and that in its relative sense it is acquired only as the gift of God. Writing in retrospect in 1881, he repeats that-CFF2 588.4

“this [natural immortality] doctrine is not derived from Christian origins, but from the dogmas of Greek philosophy which made God and the world equals, and naturally would find the source of divine and immortal life in nature, especially in the nature of man. The Gospel, teaching us that there is no life except from God’s will, compells us to think that there can be no everlasting life but only in God and in those natures which are got from him.” ^{66)Hermann Schultz, “A Letter,” in Pettingell, The Life Everlasting, pp. 737, 738.}CFF2 589.1

2. SINFUL MAN HAS ONLY “TRANSIENT” LIFE

God made man in His image, as the “heir of immortality,... but he did not give him to have life in himself, separated from his Creator.” ^{77) Ibid., p. 738.} This Schultz expands in these words:CFF2 589.2

“He made man heir of God’s own immortal life, but on condition of his remaining bound to his Lord in love and obedience (the tree of life in Eden). But man in his sinful separation from God has not this life. He is given to death, and only for his salvation or his judgment, he was gifted with a transient life.” ^{88) Ibid.}CFF2 589.3

3. IMMORTAL LIFE GAINED SOLELY FROM CHRIST

Life Only in Christ was Schultz’s steadfast belief.CFF2 589.4

“Only one of men has life in Himself-God’s Son.... Only from Him, and saved by Him, we may accept it and have it as our own. Whoever has God’s love has passed from death to life.CFF2 589.5

“Whoever has not yet accepted God’s mercy has transient life, as long as he is capable of salvation or judgment. When he is saved he gains immortal life.” ^{99) Ibid.}CFF2 589.6

4. TOTAL DESTRUCTION FOR THE REPROBATE

Schultz was likewise explicit on the point of the ultimate, utter destruction of the willfully reprobate, and expressed satisfaction that this truth is spreading in various lands. He continues:CFF2 589.7

“Whoever is forever separated from God’s love in Christ is in the dominion of death....CFF2 589.8

“The Gospel teaches us that there will be a Second Death, and that God will give the reprobate, with hell and death and the devil, to the eternal flames of His wrath-i.e., that he will destroy them as fire will destroy straw and wood thrown into it. That is what I think to be the doctrine of the Gospel, and I am glad to hear that this doctrine is now spreading fast in Christian countries.” ^{1010) Ibid.}CFF2 589.9

Dr. Ezra Abbot’s bibliographical annotation on bis main treatise is, “Denies the natural immortality of the soul; favors the doctrine of the destruction of the incorrigibly wicked.” ^{1111) Abbot, The Literature of the Doctrine of a Future Life, no. 2363 b.}CFF2 590.1

5. CONVINCED OF SOUNDNESS OF VlEW IN RETROSPECT

In a letter to Frederick A. Freer in 1890, Dr. Schultz stated that in retrospect he was “more than ever assured of the correctness of the main thesis of that [1861] work.” ^{1212) Freer, To Live or Not to Live? p. 119, note 24.}CFF2 590.2