Lately, I used to be studying the Belgic Confession (1561), which is certainly one of The Three Varieties of Unity throughout the Reformed Church. In Article 19 of the Confession, on “The Union and Distinction of the Two Natures within the Particular person of Christ,” I used to be intrigued by the implications I discerned for the understanding of the character of hell which is dubbed “conditional immortality” or “annihilationism.” I welcome remark from readers of this submit.
Article 19 states:
We imagine that by this conception the particular person of the Son is inseparably united and related with the human nature; in order that there should not two Sons of God, nor two individuals, however two natures united in a single single particular person; but that every nature retains its personal distinct properties. As then the divine nature hath all the time remained uncreated, with out starting of days or finish of life [1Pet 3:18; Acts 2:24; Isa 53:8], filling heaven and earth, so additionally hath the human nature not misplaced its properties, however remained a creature, having starting of days, being a finite nature, and retaining all of the properties of an actual physique [1 Jn 1:2; Jer 23:6; 2 Tim 1:10; Jn 6:51]. And although He hath by His resurrection given immortality to the identical, nonetheless He hath not modified the truth of His human nature; forasmuch as our salvation and resurrection additionally rely on the truth of His physique.
It could have been a deal with to speak concerning the implications of this assertion, with Guido de Bres, who was the unique creator of the Confession, and with the Reformed theologians who ultimately formulated the doc in its current kind. De Bres was a pastor within the Netherlands, and he had been a scholar of John Calvin and Theodore Beza, in Geneva. Clearly, the ultimate framers of this Confession didn’t imagine people to be intrinsically immortal. Certainly, our mortality is so elementary to our humanity that the everlasting Son had so as to add mortality to the complicated of his attributes when he added human nature to his being. As pre-incarnate, he was “uncreated, with out starting of days or finish of life” however, in changing into “flesh,” he added a temporally restricted, finite, nature to his particular person.
I used to be notably intrigued by the assertion that “by His resurrection” he gave immortality to his personal physique. I hear on this so clear an announcement of conditional immortality that I ponder if the framers apprehended it as clearly. It appears very apparent. If the Father had not raised the incarnate Son, making him immortal, whereas nonetheless being totally human, then his dying would have been the tip of his human nature, it might have reached the “finish of life,” irrevocably. Briefly, Jesus, because the second Adam, turned immortal by advantage of his resurrection, which vindicated his claims and declared his righteousness, and solely those that are united to Christ by religion will share within the fruit of Christ’s resurrection, specifically, everlasting life or immortality.
Article 37
Alas, the framers of the Belgic Confession had been most definitely blind to the implications of their very own Christology for his or her eschatology. In Article 37, they acknowledged that the elect “shall see the horrible vengeance which God shall execute on the depraved [Dan 7:26].” It’s attention-grabbing that the textual content cited right here says that the ultimate rebellious king [antichrist?] could have “his energy taken away and utterly destroyed endlessly” [NIV], nevertheless it doesn’t explicitly say that the king himself might be “destroyed endlessly,” although it doesn’t rule out that risk both. The rub comes on the finish of that sentence within the Confession, as a result of the depraved “shall be convicted by the testimony of their very own consciences, and being immortal [italics are mine], shall be tormented in that eternal fireplace [Rev 21:8; 2 Pet 2:9].”
Hmmm! From the place, we should surprise, did the depraved get this reward of immortality? For the reason that Phrase incarnate solely turned immortal by the ability of his resurrection, the assertion that the depraved are immortal is extraordinarily puzzling. Many traditional affirmers of everlasting aware torment had affirmed a Platonic understanding of human souls as intrinsically immortal, however Article 19 had rejected this notion of humanity, so there’s a unusual pressure and discord between Articles 19 and 37. By now, I count on that the framers of the Confession have seen their critical blind spot and are blissful that conditionalists are correcting their error.
What do you make of this?
