V. Dominican Trémel—Not “Natural Immortality”; “Resurrection” After “Sleep”

Even French Roman Catholic Dominican Y.-B. Trémel in a periodical article in 1957, which appeared originally in a French journal, makes a remarkable admission as to any assumed New Testament basis for the “natural immortality” position, with “life to come” dependent on the “will of God,” and the “victory of Christ” at His second advent, and the resurrection:CFF2 921.1

“The New Testament obviously does not conceive of man’s life after death philosophically or in terms of the natural immortality of the soul. The sacred writers do not think of the life to come as the term of a natural process. On the contrary, for them it is always the result of salvation and redemption; it depends on the will of God and on the victory of Christ.CFF2 921.2

“The New Testament links the resurrection of the dead with the glorious coming of Christ at the end of time to judge all mankind. Christ’s resurrection and His entrance into glory at the right hand of the Father are, according to the apostles, a guarantee and a pledge of this second coming. For St. Paul, the victory of the First Born among the dead will not be complete until it overcomes death itself and reveals itself in the risen bodies of those who have been asleep in death.” ^{3939) Y.-B. Trémel, “Man Between Death and Resurrection,” Theology Digest, Autumn, 1957, p. 151; taken from Lumiere et Vie (1955), pp. 33-37. (Italics supplied.)}CFF2 921.3

1. INNATE “IMMORTALITY” IS RELIC OF PAGAN PHILOSOPHY

Trémel’s closing words, “those who have been asleep in death,” are especially significant in the light of his emphasis on the “resurrection” at the Second Advent. In the same article he reports the view of several European scholars-Bultmann, Von Allmen, and Menoud-on death as a “sleep.” This is worthy of a somewhat extended quotation. Here, along with the concept of death as a “sleep”—and waiting for subsequent “awakening” at the resurrection—note is taken as to the conflict between the pagan Greek philosophy of “natural” immortality and the Biblical view of the “mortality” of man, with life after death as an “act of God.” Here is Trémel’s illuminating statement:CFF2 921.4

“Many critics think that the Bible teaches rather the mortality of the soul, and that the idea of immortality is a relic of pagan philosophy. Positions vary when it comes to interpreting particular texts. Rudolph Bultmann, for example, does not think that the New Testament contains any formal affirmations concerning this intermediary state: it is a ‘sleep.’ P. Menoud, in his book on The Destiny of the Dead, gives a more precise meaning to this sleep. It certainly signifies a period of waiting for the resurrection, but a period in. which the soul is already in communion with Christ.CFF2 922.1

“Von Allmen in his Biblical Vocabulary adopts similar conclusions. The sleep, according to him, does not rob the sleeper of his identity. It will end in awakening. Those who die in Christ are not abandoned by Him, nor are they far from Him even though they have not reached the fullness of beatitude.... Some mention of the Greek idea of the immortality of the soul is made by Menoud. He says that the New Testament does not teach the natural and certain immortality of the soul which the Greek philosophers taught. Christianity, he says, must deny that the destiny of man depends on his physical or psychological structure. Rather it depends on God Whose creature man is. I f the creature lives after death, it is by an act of God:” ^{4040) Ibid., pp. 151ff. (Italics sup lied.)}CFF2 922.2

Awareness of conflicting views and study into the actual nature of man are obviously widespread-even in circles where it is not expected.CFF2 922.3