Dorner on the Future State
Isaac Dorner was one of the big guns of German evangelical protestant thought in the late 1800's. His views on future punishment and probation were enlightened and worth reviewing again. In his view, every person will have an opportunity for salvation after this present life, if they haven't already heard. It's a little known fact that most German theologians at that time went even further into various forms of universalism.
Dorner
on the
Future State
Being a
Translation of the Section of his System
of Christian Doctrine
Comprising
The Doctrine of the Last Things
With an Introduction and Notes
By Newman Smyth
New York Charles Scribner’s Sons 1883
Page 128-132
“The objective reason why dogmatically no positive categorical statement can here be made, lies in human Freedom. This does not allow the assertion of a universal process necessarily leading to salvation, because such a process is and remains conditioned by non-rejection and free acceptance.
But this same human freedom, so long as it lasts, also excludes any categorical dogmatical affirmation that there certainly are damned being; for so long as freedom of any kind exist, so long the possibility of conversion is not excluded, though it be through judgment and damnation to deep, long woe. And wherever this possibility issued in reality, there self-evidentl damnation could not continue. The necessary eternal duration of the rejection and damnation of the one class could be maintained, with complete definiteness, only provided we also taught, ad advocates of eternal damnation generally do teach, the total loss of freedom for conversion – absolaute hardening; whereupon the new question arises whether such are still men, and not rather beings that were men, but have really fallen back to a lower plane.
6. But a third theory seems now to meet increasing approval, in opposition both to church doctrine, and especially to the doctrine of apokatastasis, viz: the hypothesis of the annihilation of the wicked, which likewise thinks it can attain categorical statements respecting the question of persons. We accordingly dwell on it awhile.
If regard for the fact of freedom does not permit the affirmation of the doctrine that a harmonious conclusion of history and universal restoration are secured by means of a conversion certainly universal and without exception, -- for if the ethical process turned into a physical one, the result attained would be only apparently of ethical value, -- this harmonious conclusion might seem to be better secured by the view that, since the power of immortal life resides only in Christ and living communion with him, those who obstinately and finally withdraw from such communion perish and are annihilated. This theory may take account of human freedom and the divine justice further by leaving room for a punishment of the wicked, and making the very annihilation itself to be effected by the consuming divine penalties, which begin from the final judgment. In favor of the view of the final annihilation of the wicked, it is alleged that numerous expressions which are used in reference to those falling under sentence of condemnation suggest annihilation. The word death has, indeed, various meanings, but it always denotes the dissolution of a living power. … "
132
"This also seems to be held by all church teachers, who, in order to maintain the eternity of hell punishments, and cut off the continued possibility of conversion, assert a s a natural consequence and punishment of sin the entire loss of freedom in the case of the lost; with which, in keeping with the connection of knowledge and will, is linked a complete darkening of the spirit, and extinction of every remnant of higher light and knowledge of God. And however it may be disputed whether so shattered a being, in whom that which makes a man – reason and freedom – is extinguished, is still to be called a man, so much seems clear, that even the church teachers mentioned reach in the main point an annihilation of the ungodly. These are then to be viewed essentially as a kind of demeted beings, perhaps raging for ever in impotent fury, which again would be a sort of annihilation of their human character."
on the
Future State
Being a
Translation of the Section of his System
of Christian Doctrine
Comprising
The Doctrine of the Last Things
With an Introduction and Notes
By Newman Smyth
New York Charles Scribner’s Sons 1883
Page 128-132
“The objective reason why dogmatically no positive categorical statement can here be made, lies in human Freedom. This does not allow the assertion of a universal process necessarily leading to salvation, because such a process is and remains conditioned by non-rejection and free acceptance.
But this same human freedom, so long as it lasts, also excludes any categorical dogmatical affirmation that there certainly are damned being; for so long as freedom of any kind exist, so long the possibility of conversion is not excluded, though it be through judgment and damnation to deep, long woe. And wherever this possibility issued in reality, there self-evidentl damnation could not continue. The necessary eternal duration of the rejection and damnation of the one class could be maintained, with complete definiteness, only provided we also taught, ad advocates of eternal damnation generally do teach, the total loss of freedom for conversion – absolaute hardening; whereupon the new question arises whether such are still men, and not rather beings that were men, but have really fallen back to a lower plane.
6. But a third theory seems now to meet increasing approval, in opposition both to church doctrine, and especially to the doctrine of apokatastasis, viz: the hypothesis of the annihilation of the wicked, which likewise thinks it can attain categorical statements respecting the question of persons. We accordingly dwell on it awhile.
If regard for the fact of freedom does not permit the affirmation of the doctrine that a harmonious conclusion of history and universal restoration are secured by means of a conversion certainly universal and without exception, -- for if the ethical process turned into a physical one, the result attained would be only apparently of ethical value, -- this harmonious conclusion might seem to be better secured by the view that, since the power of immortal life resides only in Christ and living communion with him, those who obstinately and finally withdraw from such communion perish and are annihilated. This theory may take account of human freedom and the divine justice further by leaving room for a punishment of the wicked, and making the very annihilation itself to be effected by the consuming divine penalties, which begin from the final judgment. In favor of the view of the final annihilation of the wicked, it is alleged that numerous expressions which are used in reference to those falling under sentence of condemnation suggest annihilation. The word death has, indeed, various meanings, but it always denotes the dissolution of a living power. … "
132
"This also seems to be held by all church teachers, who, in order to maintain the eternity of hell punishments, and cut off the continued possibility of conversion, assert a s a natural consequence and punishment of sin the entire loss of freedom in the case of the lost; with which, in keeping with the connection of knowledge and will, is linked a complete darkening of the spirit, and extinction of every remnant of higher light and knowledge of God. And however it may be disputed whether so shattered a being, in whom that which makes a man – reason and freedom – is extinguished, is still to be called a man, so much seems clear, that even the church teachers mentioned reach in the main point an annihilation of the ungodly. These are then to be viewed essentially as a kind of demeted beings, perhaps raging for ever in impotent fury, which again would be a sort of annihilation of their human character."
posted by J B | Monday, November 14, 2005
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