The late Edward William Fudge (d. 2017) was a strong proponent of conditionalism, the idea that upon final judgment, the wicked cease to exist. But he also taught that when the human person dies physically, his soul is deprived of life. This necessarily leads to heresy.

• All these details lead to a single conclusion: “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).”49 This is the consistent witness of the Old Testament.¹Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (pp. 27-28). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.
• “The overwhelming testimony of Scripture leads me to believe that the dead person is thoroughly dead until the resurrection — which, from his or her perspective, seems to be the very next instant.”²https://edwardfudge.com/2012/03/death-as-separation/
• “death is the absence of life.”³Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 169). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.
• Paul never gives reason to suppose that eternal death is anything other than the absence of life…”⁴Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 211). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.

If the human soul is deprived of life, it has no action, no awareness, no attributes, and no personhood. If we were to consider the examination of a physically dead human body, we would acknowledge that there is no activity, no awareness, no thought, and no attributes of personhood exhibited at all. Personhood is such things as self-awareness, awareness of others, having a will, being able to contemplate, communicate, have emotions, etc. None of these are present in a lifeless body. Therefore, though the body is physically present, there is no quality of the existence of human personhood. With this, Mr. Fudge’s position leads to false doctrine. Let me explain.

Jesus is both human and divine

The correct biblical teaching concerning Jesus is that he has two distinct natures: divine and human. We call this the hypostatic union. There is another, very important doctrine called the communicatio idiomatum. This fancy Latin term simply means that the attributes of both natures are ascribed to the single person. In other words, Jesus, the person, claimed the attributes of both humanity and divinity. From the human perspective, he spoke of being distressed (Luke 12:50), that he was with the disciples (John 7:33), that he was thirsty (John 19:28), etc. But he also spoke that he had glory with God the Father before the foundation of the world (John 17:5) and that he had descended from heaven (John 3:13). So, we see that the single person of Christ exhibited attributes of both humanity and divinity. This is proper biblical theology and to deny it is to adopt heresy.

When Mr. Fudge says that upon a person’s physical death his soul ceases to have life, then he must be consistent and affirm that Jesus’ human nature also ceased to have life. This further means that between Jesus’ death and resurrection he was no longer the God-man because there were no attributes of humanity being ascribed to the single person of Christ. That’s what it means to have no life. It means no attributes of personhood are being exhibited at all – because they are dead and gone. Therefore, according to Fudge, upon Jesus’ physical death, his human nature ceased to have life, ceased to function, ceased to display, ceased to have the attributes of personhood, etc. Therefore, Fudge is denying the true doctrine of the hypostatic union and the communicatio idiomatum of Christ. He promotes heresy.

His doctrine needs to be rejected for the heretical teaching that it really is.

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