Loading...
Larger font
Smaller font
Copy
Print
Contents
The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2 - Contents
  • Results
  • Related
  • Featured
No results found for: "".
  • Weighted Relevancy
  • Content Sequence
  • Relevancy
  • Earliest First
  • Latest First
    Larger font
    Smaller font
    Copy
    Print
    Contents

    II. Innate Immortality Concept Rests on “Authority of Satan”

    Along with the foregoing is placed the paralleling origin of the alien Innate Immortality of the soul theory. Its source, its authority, and its aftermath are placed squarely on Satan:CFF2 719.6

    “The only one who promised Adam life in disobedience was the great deceiver. And the declaration of the serpent to Eve in Eden,—‘Ye shall not surely die,’—was the first sermon ever preached upon the immortality of the soul. Yet this declaration, resting solely upon the authority of Satan, is echoed from the pulpits of Christendom, and is received by the majority of mankind as readily as it was received by our first parents. The divine sentence, ‘The soul that sinneth, it shall die,’ is made to mean, The soul that sinneth, it shall not die, but live eternally. We cannot but wonder at the strange infatuation which renders man so credulous concerning the words of Satan, and so unbelieving in regard to the words of God.” 1515) Ibid. (Italics supplied.)CFF2 720.1

    1. PARALLELING ETERNAL TORMENT COROLLARY

    The inception of the age-old conflict over the final destiny of man is then portrayed:
    “After the fall, Satan bade his angels make a special effort to inculcate the belief in man’s natural immortality; and having induced the people to receive this error, they were to lead them on to conclude that the sinner would live in eternal misery. Now the prince of darkness, working through his agents, represents God as a revengeful tyrant, declaring that He plunges into hell all those who do not please Him, and causes them ever to feel His wrath; and that while they suffer unutterable anguish, and writhe in eternal flames, their Creator looks down upon them with satisfaction.” 1616) Ibid., p. 534. (italics supplied.)
    CFF2 720.2

    2. ETERNAL TORMENT FOR BRIEF EARTHLY LIFE REVOLTING

    Satan is consequently the malign instigator of this revolting theory, for “cruelty is satanic. God is love.” Satan is unmistakably its author. NeverthelessCFF2 720.3

    “the great deceiver endeavors to shift his own horrible cruelty of character upon our heavenly Father.” 1717) Ibid.CFF2 720.4

    “How repugnant to every emotion of love and mercy, and even to our sense of justice, is the doctrine that the wicked dead are tormented with fire and brimstone in an eternally burning hell; that for the sins of a brief earthly life they are to suffer torture as long as God shall live. Yet this doctrine has been widely taught, and is still embodied in many of the creeds of Christendom.” 1818) Ibid., p. 535.CFF2 720.5

    3. SHOCKING INVOLVEMENTS OF UNIVERSALIST ALTERNATIVE

    Such a vicious concept involves the “indifference of the stoic” and the “cruelty of the savage.” Nevertheless, the theory of Eternal Torment, stemming originally from paganism, penetrated Catholicism. And Protestantism, in turn, has “received it from Rome.” That was the historical sequence and channel of transmission. But this appalling dogma has given rise to “universal salvation” as an alternative, or opposite, view.CFF2 720.6

    “A large class to whom the doctrine of eternal torment is revolting, are driven to the opposite error. They see that the Scriptures represent God as a being of love and compassion, and they cannot believe that He will consign His creatures to the fires of an eternally burning hell. But holding that the soul is naturally immortal, they see no alternative but to conclude that all mankind will finally be saved.” 1919) Ibid., p. 537.CFF2 721.1

    Thus three major concepts as regards the nature and destiny of man appeared and have persisted throughout the ages. These constitute the great trilemma that we have been tracing and studying throughout the chapters of this volume. But Universalism, the third, involves the shocking position that ultimately “the vilest of sinners,—the murderer, the thief, and the adulterer,—will after death be prepared to enter into immortal bliss.” 2020) Ibid., p.538.CFF2 721.2

    These warnings are examples of the broad groundwork laid by Ellen G. White in her writings on the nature and destiny of man.CFF2 721.3

    4. ETERNAL MISERY AND UNIVERSALISM EQUALLY ERRONEOUS

    Back in 1858, it may be added, Mrs. White wrote of the two extremes held as concerns the destiny of man: (1) The alleged “eternal misery” of the wicked, suffering “unutterable anguish” as they “writhe in eternal flames,” and (2) the idea that “all, both saint and sinner, will at last be saved.” But she, on the contrary, contended that those who reject God’s gracious offer of salvation will be ultimately and utterly destroyed and become “as if they had not been.” They will be “consumed by fire, and return to dust again.” 2121) Ellen G. White, Early Writings, 218-221. That she declared to be the undeviating Bible truth.CFF2 721.4

    5. UNCHANGING CONDITIONALIST TENOR OF HER TEACHING

    It might be added that, from the appearance of her earliest periodical articles onward, Ellen White uniformly maintained that there are no “immortal sinners,” and that persistent sinners will at last die “an everlasting death; a death that will last for ever, where there will be no hope of a resurrection.” She further stated that “the same fire that will devour the wicked, will purify the earth.” In fact, back in 1850 she concludes a letter-article with the expression, “In hope of immortality at the appearing of Jesus.” 2222) Ellen G. White, Letter “To the ‘Little Flock,’” The Present Truth, April 1850, p. 72.CFF2 722.1

    Never did she deviate from this position. In November of the same year she placed the “execution of the judgment” at “the close of the 1,000 years.” And this joint consuming of the wicked and the earth is to be followed by the “glorious and beautiful” “earth made new” as the eternal inheritance of the redeemed. 2323) Ellen G. White, Letter, The Present Truth, November, 1850, p. 86.CFF2 722.2

    Larger font
    Smaller font
    Copy
    Print
    Contents