Professor Beet Defends Conditional Immortality
PROF. JOSEPH A. BEET, who has for seventeen years held the position of principal of Richmond College, the most important training school of the Wesleyan Methodists in England, has embraced the view that man is not by nature immortal, and that there is no Scriptural foundation for the doctrine of eternal torment in hell for those who fail of salvation. Being asked what kind of immortality he believed in, he replied, “Eternal and blessed life for the righteous through Jesus Christ.” But for his belief on this point he is likely to be deposed from the position he has so long and ably filled in the Wesleyan communion, preliminary steps to this end having been taken by the general educational committee which governs the Wesleyan colleges. Dr. Beet declares that whatever success he has gained has been due to the fact that he has devoted his life to the study of the Bible, as “the only safe method of learning the truth revealed in Christ;” that he cannot “disavow principles which a life of study declares to be sound,” and therefore that he will not shrink from their consequences. He affirms his readiness to accept whatever may come, laying it “with joy as a lowly sacrifice on the altar of Him who, in order to bear witness to the truth, laid down his life.”