The nature of the human soul is important in the discussion of conditionalism for three reasons. First, the conditionalists themselves demonstrate that the topics are necessarily connected. Second, the nature of man’s existence is related to the nature of man’s punishment. If the human soul has the God-given attribute of continued existence, then annihilationism is proven false. On the other hand, if the human soul automatically and naturally ceases to exist upon physical death, then annihilationism is supported. Third, the nature of Jesus‘ humanity is at stake in conditionalist thought and this has a profound impact on His sacrifice on the cross. So, ignoring the relevance would be wrong.

The conditionalists themselves demonstrate the direct relationship between the nature of the soul and conditional immortality, also known as annihilationism. Please consider the following quotes.

• “…the Bible always speaks of human immortality as God’s gift to the saved, never as an inherent quality or birthright of every person born into the world.”¹Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 24). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition, underline added.
• “While “those who belong to Christ” at the resurrection of the dead will “put on immortality,” immortality is never promised to those who reject God.”²Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 510-511). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition, underline added.
• “There is nothing in the nature of the human soul that requires it to live forever. The Bible teaches conditionalism: God created humans mortal with a capacity for life everlasting, but it is not their inherent possession. Immortality is a gift God offers us in the gospel, not an inalienable possession.”³Pinnock, Clark H., Zondervan. Four Views on Hell (Counterpoints: Bible and Theology) (Kindle Locations 2153-2155). Zondervan. Kindle Edition, underline added.

As you can see, the late Edward William Fudge, a well-known conditionalist, says that immortality is not an inherent quality of the soul but is something that must be granted to a person by God. This has direct reference to his view of conditionalism because it would mean that immortality is given only to the redeemed and that the unbelievers will cease to exist. Clark Pinnock says “there is nothing in the nature of the human soul that requires it to live forever… it is not their inherent possession.” In the book Rethinking hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism, says that “immortality is never promised to those who reject God.” So, the conditionalists themselves relate the nature of the soul to conditional immortality which makes soul sleep important to the whole discussion.

In addition, most conditionalists I’ve interacted with say that the human soul falls into two categories:  1) nonexistence upon death and 2) soul sleep.

• “When death occurs, then it is the soul that is deprived of life. Death cannot strike the body or any other part of the soul without striking the entirety of the soul . . . It is deliberately said both that the soul dies (Judg 16:30; Num 23:10; et al.), that it is destroyed or consumed (Ezek 22:25, 27), and that it is extinguished (Job 11:20).”⁴Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 27). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition, underline added.
• “soul sleep,” the view that death is a state of total unconsciousness, rather than survival in heaven, hell, or purgatory.”⁵Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 503-504). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.
• “The first man was created when the dust of the earth and the breath of God were brought together (Gen 2: 7), and just as surely as the man did not exist prior to creation, he does not exist when the spirit returns to God who gave it and the dust returns to the earth (Eccl 12:7).”⁶Peoples, Glen, A., Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 583-586). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition, underline added.

Again, most conditionalists I’ve interacted with claim that upon a person’s death, he either ceases to exist or enters a state of soul sleep. Few conditionalists believe in the conscience continuation of the soul after physical death where they will be annihilated upon the final judgment.

Nevertheless, the majority of conditionalists hold to nonexistence and soul sleep.  I’ve written on the problems of both positions in other articles.⁷In conditionalism, there is a logical problem with the soul ceasing to exist then being resurrected; Examining soul sleep and its problems; Questions on soul sleep  But in summary, if the soul ceases to exist and then exists again, there is the problem of continuity where the personal identity of an individual is lost, which implies that a new, exact copy of the original person is created by God. This exact copy then experiences God’s blessing or judgment. Second, what exactly is soul sleep? No conditionalist can tell me. Is it a state of the soul that has absolutely no activity during this period? But if that is the case, what is the difference between it and nonexistence since a nonexistent soul also has no activity? When I ask detailed questions about soul sleep and what activities there might be of the soul, I am met with silence or dismissal. In my opinion, I do not believe the conditionalists really understand what they assert when they use the ambiguous term “soul sleep” to describe the state between a person’s physical death and physical resurrection.

Jesus and Soul Sleep

One of the important issues relates to the nature of Jesus’ humanity. What happened to the hypostatic union upon the death of Christ? Did it cease to function? Did Jesus’ human nature cease to exist? These are important questions. For more on this please the article Soul sleep, Jesus’ human nature, and conditionalism

Conclusion

The nature of the soul is important in the discussion of conditionalism because the conditionalists themselves relate the two topics by addressing the nature of the soul and claim that it does not naturally possess immortality which in turn supports annihilationism. But what I find interesting is that the majority of conditionalists I’ve talked to about the nature of the soul routinely avoid discussing it. Though they might address an issue or two, generally they do not want to get into the topic very deeply. I suspect it is because there are weaknesses in their position dealing with the problem of the continuity of the soul, the activity or inactivity of the soul, disagreements among them about what it means, and not having a clear understanding of what soul sleep really is.

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