Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 51:201 (Jan 1894)
Article: Some Fallacies In The Views Of John Foster Upon Future Punishment
Author: George R. Leavitt

BSac 51:201 (Jan 1894) p. 37

Some Fallacies In The Views Of John Foster Upon Future Punishment

Rev. George R. Leavitt

Any matured views of a writer so cautious and so exact and elaborate as John Foster deserve more than ordinary attention. This is true of his views upon the subject of Future Punishment. It is well known that, in the reaction of his mind from his inherited religious opinions, he tended to reject the deity of Christ and to adopt concerning his person and word the Arian speculations. It is known also that he rejected the doctrine of future eternal punishment, and taught that it is safe to hold that God will not eternally punish human sin. His views are most fully elaborated in the letter, numbered 219 in his published correspondence, which was addressed to his distinguished correspondent, Rev. Edward White, in answer to a letter of inquiries and objections concerning the doctrine of eternal punishment. This letter states the view of Mr. Foster with great clearness, and with great variety of illustration. A single objection is presented with the utmost force, viz., that while sin deserves punishment, eternity of punishment is disproportionate to the sin of a creature so limited in his understanding as man. The discussion is based upon considerations of reason. While it is admitted that the statements of the Scriptures are formidable, the argument does not proceed on scriptural grounds. The aim is to show how exceedingly limited the average man is in his capacity to apprehend such a metaphysical conception as eternity, how inadequately it has been revealed to us, even in the Bible, or by any informa-

BSac 51:201 (Jan 1894) p. 38

tion, and how inconceivably awful is the idea of an unlimited duration of punishment. No person can read this thoughtful essay without realizing, underneath all the ingenious elaboration of its literary form, the intense earnestness of the great essayist. He will detect, also, the marks of that morbid imagination which furnished a lifelong irritation and torment to a man so delicately organized, early broken in health, so painfully sensitive to sentimental impressions, and whose admirable essays indicate, here and there, the corrosion of mind produced by early and long-continued failures and disappointments in his chosen profession of the Christian ministry.

It will not be a difficult task, I believe, to point out fallacies in the ingenious and powerful arguments of Mr. Foster, whose outline has been so well sketched by Mr. Snow.

The considerations now to be named, if not particularly-new, are pertinent, and to some may be suggestive and helpful. It may well be, in these times of ferment of opinion and religious unrest, that many thoughtful persons, including men of Mr. Foster’s own profession, the Christian m...