VII. Other German Scholars Support Conditionalist View

Several other German scholars should be briefly noted: Dr. FRANZ DELITZSCH (d. 1890), Lutheran Hebraist and exegete, of Rostock, Erlangen, and Leipsig, asserted that “the whole of Scripture knows nothing of an immortality founded upon the nature of the soul.” ^{3737) Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on Genesis 3:22, tr. in Freer, To Live or Not to Live? p. 120.}CFF2 596.2

Prof. WOLFGANG E. GESS (d. 1814), of Breslau, taught thatCFF2 596.3

“we are evidently finite, limited beings, for example in relation to intelligence and power. But if our capital of life is limited as to its intensity, how can it be unlimited as to duration?” ^{3838) Wolfgang E. Gess, in Preface to L’Immortalité Conditionelle, p. xix, tr. in Freer, To Live or Not to Live? pp 120, 121.}CFF2 596.4

And in his book The Eschatology of Paul, R. KABISCH asserts that in Paul’s writingsCFF2 596.5

“those who are perishing always appear not as being condemned to eternal torment but as on the way to extinction. Extinction (vernichtung) is the word chosen all through to denote the fate of the unrighteous; but the process is accompanied by anguish and pain.” ^{3939) R. Kabisch, Die Eschatologie des Paulus, p. 250, tr. in Freer, To Live or Not toLive? p. 120.}CFF2 596.6

The learned Dr. Petavel has this to say about the German Conditionalists:CFF2 596.7

“The great Rothe was a Conditionalist.... Baader, Weisse, Olshausen, Twesten, Karsten, Hermann, Schultz, Von Rudloff, Gess, Glaubrecht, F. Ecklin, the preacher, Otto Funcke, have adhered more or less explicitly to the same general views.” ^{4040) Petavel, The Problem of Immortality, p. 291, note 1.}CFF2 596.8

We now turn to a group of French writers.CFF2 596.9

Picture 1: Dr. Alexandre Vinet, Charles Secretan
Left: Dr. Alexandre Vinet (d. 1847), French conditionalist—immortality dependent upon resurrection. Right: Charles Secretan (d. 1895), professor at Lausanne—no infinite punishment for finite fault.
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