Facts and Theories as to a Future State.doc

Facts and Theories as to a Future State
By
F. W. Grant
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION (1889.) A NEW edition being called for, I have sought to make it as complete as
possible; and the book having been stereotyped, the new matter has been put
in the shape of an appendix. This has had its advantage, however, in
allowing some systems of unbelief which have only lately obtained
prominence, and have received, so far as I am aware, little or no
examination, to be more thoroughly investigated - a thing demanded by the
fact of their doctrines being disseminated over the face of the country
with a zeal worthy of a better cause. May the Lord grant in mercy that the
answers furnished to these, though still brief, may be used of Him to
preserve some from the flood of error, ever rising higher. The testimony to
this is decisive. The fact can surprise no one who is intelligent as to the
Scripture-witness to the apostasy of the last days. Mr. Spurgeon's "Down-
grade" papers in The Sword and Trowel are well known, and his withdrawal
from the Baptist Union gives emphasis to his statements as to the decline
of orthodoxy upon the subject of eternal punishment along with other
fundamental truths. Seven years before, a lecture by Mr. Edward White traces the spread of the
doctrine of Conditional Immortality over the world, and names as its
adherents many of the most noted writers and thinkers in all the Protestant
denominations. Among these appears the name of Dr. Joseph Parker, of the
City Temple, London, who shortly after Mr. Spurgeon's letters, announced in
Boston that "not one leading Congregational minister in England, as far as
he knew, preached now the eternal retribution of sin in the world to come,
but rather a gospel of hope." While quite recently Dr. Hannay, secretary of
the Congregational Union, is reported as saying that "in England, the
doctrine of Eternal Torment was practically dead, the doctrine of
Conditional Immortality stationary, and perhaps declining, while that
theory of the future life known as the 'larger hope' was being widely
accepted."
This must be taken, of course, with qualification. That such statements can
be made, however, shows but too well the drift. If here in America the same
things cannot be yet said, the tendency is still in the same direction.
There is need, and urgent need, for that which meets it. No argument known
to me, of the least importance, has been omitted from the present volume;
while a full index of texts and another of subjects will give any one who
consults its pages the means of ready reference to the whole contents. To
the Lord's grace and blessing it is now commended.
THE present work is the development of one published some years ago, and
now out of print, but which took up only a portion of the subject here
considered, and at much less length. The rapid spread of the views in
question, their variety and their importance, render a prolonged and
patient examination of them absolutely necessary. The question has become
one of the leading questions of the day, and nothing short of an extended
appeal to Scripture will satisfy the need of those entangled by the error,
or of those who may be in danger of becoming entangled. For others also,
quite outside of these, the careful examination of Scripture upon a subject
of such deep interest will be found very far from unprofitable. Truth as a
whole is so connected in its various parts, that we cannot apprehend any
one of these more fully, without this leading us to a fuller apprehension
of many other points in which kindred truths touch this. While the
perfection and profundity of the word of God will more and more be realized
as its ability is proved to satisfy the real need of the soul and meet the
natural thoughts and questions of the mind. Scripture thus proved will be
its own best evidence as a Divine revelation.
No doubt there is abundance of external witness to its truth; but the
surest of all is its own direct testimony to man's heart and conscience.
Without Scripture he is an enigma which his own wit cannot explain: he
knows not from whence he came or whither he is going; he knows neither
himself nor God. With Scripture, "light is come into the world;" and what
makes all things manifest needs not, although it everywhere finds, a
testimony outside itself. Truth speaks for itself -"commends itself to
every man's conscience in time sight of God"- although the true it is who
alone will hear it.
In the following pages, then, the doctrine of Scripture is what is first
examined, not merely negatively an answer sought to certain views. The
statement of the truth is the only proper answer to the error. This the
writer has sought everywhere to keep in mind, while yet endeavouring to
meet whatever has been advanced on the other side as fully as possible.
Especial attention has naturally been given to certain writers who are most
prominently identified with the theory of annihilation on the one hand, or
of universal salvation in its various modifications upon the other; and
they are allowed to speak for the most part in their own words, and at
sufficient length to ensure that there shall be no doubt or mistake as to
the views they hold. Among these, Mr. Constable has challenged criticism of
his arguments, and to him I have naturally sought the more fully to reply.
To the arguments of Mr. Roberts also, the present leader of the
Christadelphian body, who has printed an extended examination of my
original volume, "Life and Immortality," I have necessarily devoted
considerable space. May the Lord in His pity and love to souls, for whom He
has died, be pleased to use these pages for the blessing of many, and to
His own glory! INTRODUCTION
FORMS OF THE DENIAL OF ETERNAL PUNISHMENT
IN entering upon a subject like the present, it will be desirable in the
first place to get as clear a view as possible of what is involved, the
questions it is proposed to answer. The denial of eternal punishment has
two main forms, that of annihilationism, or, as some prefer to call it now,
"conditional immortality," and that of the final restoration and salvation
of all men. Of these two there are again several modifications, and even
(contradictory of one another as they may seem) amalgamations. Each of
these we must briefly notice.
I. Annihilationism is at the present moment very widely spread, and there
are perhaps few Christians who have not in some shape or other already met
with it. It is a dish dressed up by skilful hands to suit very different
tastes. From Dr. Leask and the various writers in the "Rainbow" to the
editor and contributors to the Christadelphian; from Mr. Morris, late of
Philadelphia, to Miles Grant and the Adventists of various grades, it is
found in association with very distinct and very opposite systems of
doctrine, from Trinitarianism down to the lowest depths of Socinian and
materialistic infidelity. But, on this very account, it will be well to
look at it, not only in itself but in its associations, To lead the minds
of those who, meeting it in more decent form, may be in danger from its
plausible sophistries, to apprehend what it naturally connects itself with
and prepares the way for; and, moreover, to arouse the minds of Christians
in general to a sense of the practical bearing and results of an evil which
is spreading rapidly, and lifting up its head in unlooked for places.
This may be my justification, if I should lead my readers into the
examination of points which for the Christian may be deemed unnecessary,
and speak too of things which rightly shock his sensibilities as such.
Moreover, I do it because upon any point whatever, where Scripture is
appealed to, it is due to those whose minds might be injuriously affected
by the mere seeming to decline such an appeal. My desire is, God helping
me, to meet the honest, need of minds unexercised in the subtleties
presented to them, too often with a skill which, alas, shows in whose hands
these poor annihilationists are unwitting instruments. And if, in so doing,
the very foundations of our faith should have to be examined (and they can
sustain no harm by it), it may at least (I repeat) serve to convince my
readers of what is brought in question by a false system, which is helping
to ripen fast the predicted evil of the later days.
To come now to the point in hand. We have a number of steps to take before
we reach the lowest level of so-called Christadelphianism. Materialism is
indeed its inevitable tendency; yet a large number of those now holding it
are by no means materialists, as Edw. White, Heard, Maude, Morris, Dobney,
etc. On the other hand, Mr. Constable is the leader of a very pronounced
materialistic section of this school (which we may call the Trinitarian
school of annihilationism), and with whom, though differing in many ways,
General Goodwyn finds his place. The "Adventist" school, on the other hand,
with some exceptions, are not only materialistic but anti-Trinitarian also:
to these belong Hudson, Hastings* and Miles Grant. Christadelphianism is
all this and more, a system in which no element of real Christianity
remains behind. They have rightly, therefore, given up the name of
Christian. *Messrs. Hudson and Hastings are to some extent exceptions.
The psychological question is that upon which these writers differ most
among themselves. Some believe in a true trichotomy of body, soul and
spirit, as Mr. Heard; some are dichotomists, believing the spirit to be
superadded in the case of the regenerate, as Morris of Philadelphia; most
are, as already said, materialists wholly.. I shall notice briefly the main
distinctions on these points.
1. And first as to the spirit of man. Mr. Heard in his "Tripartite Nature
of Man" maintains its substantive existence in all men, as that which
implies "God-consciousness," which the brute has not. In the unconverted it
is deadened and inert, but quickened by the Spirit of God when we are born
again. With him, as to the la