While rejecting purgatory, Protestantism took over this eschatology.
Souls passed at once to heaven or to hell; a doctrine even less adequate
to the complex quality of human life. Luther himself looked for the
passing away of the present evil world. Socinianism taught a new
spiritual body, an intermediate state in which the soul is near
non-existence, an annihilation of the wicked, as immortality is the gift
of God. Swedenborg discards a physical resurrection, as at death the
eyes of men are opened to the spiritual world in which we exist now, and
they continue to live essentially as they lived here, until by their
affinities they are drawn to heaven or hell. The doctrine of _eternal
punishment_ has been opposed on many grounds, such as the disproportion
between the offence and the penalty, the moral and religious immaturity
of the majority of men at death, the diminution of the happiness of
heaven involved in the knowledge of the endless suffering of others
(Schleiermacher), the defeat of the divine purpose of righteousness and
grace that the continued antagonism of any of God's creatures would
imply, the dissatisfaction God as Father must feel until His whole
family is restored. It has been argued that the term "eternal" has
reference not to duration of time but quality of being (Maurice); but it
does seem certain that the writers in the Holy Scriptures who used it
did not foresee an end either to the life or to the death to which they
applied the term. The contention should not be based on the meaning of a
single word, but on such broader considerations as have been indicated
above. The doctrine of _conditional_ immortality taught by Socinianism
was accepted by Archbishop Whately, and has been most persistently
advocated by Edward White, who "maintains that immortality is a truth,
not of reason, but of revelation, a gift of God" bestowed only on
believers in Christ; but he admits a continued probation after death for
such as have not hardened their hearts by a rejection of Christ.
According to Albrecht Ritschl "the _wrath_ of God means the resolve of
God to annihilate those men who finally oppose themselves to redemption,
and the final purpose of the kingdom of God." He thus makes immortality
conditional on inclusion in the kingdom of God. The doctrine of
_universal restoration_ was maintained by Thomas Erskine of Linlathen on
the ground of the Fatherhood of God, and Archdeacon Wilson anticipates
such discipline after death as will restore all souls to God. C.I.
Nitzsch argues against the doctrine of the annihilation of the wicked,
regards the teaching of Scripture about eternal damnation as
hypothetical, and thinks it possible that Paul reached the hope of
universal restoration. I.A. Dorner maintains that hopeless perdition can
be the penalty only of the deliberate rejection of the Gospel, that
those who have not had the opportunity of choice fairly and fully in
this life will get it hereafter, but that the right choice will in all
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