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The pamphlet opens with an attempt to prejudice the reader against the doctrine of
Conditional Immortality, by associating it with Evolution:--
"It is a remarkable fact that with the advancement of the Darwinian Theory of
Evolution the doctrine of annihilation became popular."
No attempt is made to justify this association; it is left to work upon the sensitiveness
of the believer. A further appeal to prejudice is the substitution without comment or
explanation of the word "annihilation" for "conditional immortality".
The next paragraph reads:--
"When belief in the fall of man was widely abandoned and a more or less materialistic
view of his nature was adopted, a restatement of the doctrine of eternal punishment
followed as a matter of course."
Again, this creates a prejudice and would lead the uninstructed to imagine that the
doctrine of Conditional Immortality denies the fall of man, an inference which would be
completely false.
Again, the author writes:--
"It would be difficult to find a pamphlet written by opponents of eternal punishment
which does not prejudice its argument by the suggestion that it is inconceivable that a
loving, heavenly Father will punish His children with endless torment."
We can at least find one pamphlet that makes no such appeal--our own pamphlet
entitled: Hell, or Pure from the blood of all men. Moreover, it is not the teaching on
either side that a loving, heavenly Father punishes "His children", either by destruction or
by eternal torment. He punishes the unsaved.
Further, the author writes:--
"Without going to the Word of God, even for its terms, Conditionalists have decided
that, since the Fall, man has in his nature no element which survives death."
Anyone who is acquainted with the work of Edward White, Canon Constable and
J. R. Norrie, to mention only three names, will know that the above statement is not true
to the facts.
The appeal to prejudice continues throughout the pamphlet. "A hesitating support";
"Texts are bent to the theory"; "Figures are manipulated". Such expressions as these
appear in its pages without reference, proof or support.
Another phase of prejudice is illustrated by further statements on pages 5 and 6.
Mr. Pitt writes:--