J.H. King's From Passover to Pentecost 'essential Christ'/'historic Christ' terminological distinction was probably derived from literature produced and conversation generated by the late nineteenth-century American Congregationalist 'future probation' controversy. An examination of the use of this language in that debate confirms that King's From Passover to Pentecost 'essential Christ'/'historic Christ' paragraph is simply an expression of hope for the salvific status and afterlife fate of at least some of the unevangelized, and in continuity with the rest of his writings, is not a positive, optimistic assessment of the value of non-Christian religions.