Conditional Immortality and New Zealand Baptist Churches 1880-1892: The Bradford Challenge to New Zealand Baptist Orthodoxy

Abstract

In the 1880s the Rev George Brown from Bradford, England,
challenged Auckland Baptists with his preaching on
Conditional Immortality. George Aldridge, also from
Bradford, followed Brown and large crowds heard his
teachings. In 1889 the Rev. C.C. Brown of Timaru was
expelled from the Baptist Union, in part for associating with
Aldridge and his congregations. Thomas Spurgeon and a
number of others had threatened to resign from the Union
unless this action was taken. In 1892, after Spurgeon had left
the Auckland Tabernacle, Brown was reinstated with support
from the Canterbury Auxiliary. One of the influential laymen
demanding toleration and an advocate of Conditional
Immortality was Herbert Olney of the Oxford Terrace Church.
Changing attitudes since have made separation on account of
the doctrine of Conditional Immortality unnecessary.