IMMORTAL AND IMMORTALITY.
In turning to the Bible, our only source of information on this
question, to learn whether or not man is immortal, the first and most
natural step in the inquiry is to ascertain what use the Bible makes of
the terms “immortal” and “immortality.” How frequently does it use them?
To whom does it apply them? Of whom does it make immortality an
attribute? Does it affirm it of man or any part of him?
Should we, without opening the Bible, endeavor to form an opinion of its
teachings from the current phraseology of modern theology, we should
conclude it to be full of declarations in the most explicit terms that
man is in possession of an immortal soul and deathless spirit; for the
popular religious literature of to-day, which claims to be a true
reflection of the declarations of God’s word, is full of these
expressions. Glibly they fall from the lips of the religious teacher.
Broadcast they go forth from the religious press. Into orthodox sermons
and prayers they enter as essential elements. They are appealed to as
the all-prolific source of comfort and consolation in case of those who
mourn the loss of friends by death. We are told that they are not dead;
for “there is no death; what seems so is transition;” they have only
changed to another state of being, only gone before; for the soul is
immortal, the spirit never dying; and it cannot for a moment cease its
conscious existence.
This is all right provided the Bible warrants such declarations. But it
is far from safe to conclude without examination that the Bible does
warrant them; for whoever has read church history knows that it is
little more than a record of the unceasing attempts of the great enemy
of all truth to corrupt the practices of the professors of Christianity,
and to pervert and obscure the simple teachings of God’s word with the
absurdities and mysticisms of heathen mythology. It has been only by the
utmost vigilance that any Christian institution has been preserved, or
any Christian doctrine saved, free from some of the corruptions of the
great systems of false religion which have always held by far the
greater portion of our race in their chains of darkness and
superstition. And if we arraign the creeds of the six hundred Protestant
sects, as containing many unscriptural dogmas, it is only what every one
of them does, in reference to the other five hundred and ninety-nine.
To the law, then, and to the testimony. What say the Scriptures on the
subject of immortality?
FACT 1. The terms “immortal” and “immortality” are not found in the Old
Testament, either in our English version or in the original Hebrew.
There is, however, one expression, in Gen. 3:4, which is, perhaps,
equivalent in meaning, and was spoken in reference to the human race;
namely, “Thou shalt not surely die.” But unfortunately for believers in
natural immortality, this declaration came from one whom no person would
like to acknowledge as the author of his creed. It is what the devil
said to Eve, the terrible deception by means of which he accomplished
her fall, and so “brought death into the world and all our woe.” But
does not the New Testament supply this seemingly unpardonable omission
of the Old, by many times affirming that all men have immortality?
Remembering the many times you have heard and read from Biblical
expositors that you were in possession of an immortal soul, how many
times do you think that declaration is made in the New Testament? One
hundred times? Fifty? Thirty? Twenty? Ten? No. Five? No. Twice? _No._
ONCE? NO! Does not the New Testament then apply the term immortal to
anything? Yes; and this brings us to
FACT 2. The term immortal is used but once in the New Testament, in the
English version, and is then applied to God. The following is the
passage: 1 Tim. 1:17: “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible,
the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”
The original word, however, αφθαρτος (_aphthartos_) from which immortal
is here translated, occurs in six other instances in the New Testament,
in every one of which it is rendered incorruptible. The word is defined
by Greenfield, “Incorruptible, immortal, imperishable, undying,
enduring.”
It is used, first, to describe God, in Rom. 1:23, “And changed the glory
of the _uncorruptible_ God into an image made like to corruptible man,
and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.”
It is used in 1 Cor. 9:25, to describe the heavenly crown of the
overcomer: “And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in
all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an
_incorruptible_.”
It is used in 1 Cor. 15:52, to describe the immortal bodies of the
redeemed: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump;
for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
_incorruptible_, and we shall be changed.”
It is used in 1 Tim. 1:17, to describe God as already quoted.
It is used in 1 Pet. 1:4, to describe the inheritance reserved in Heaven
for the overcomer: “To an inheritance _incorruptible_ and undefiled,
that fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for you.”
It is used in 1 Pet. 1:23, to describe the principle by which
regeneration is wrought in us: “Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of _incorruptible_, by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth forever.”
It is used in 1 Pet. 3:4, to describe the heavenly adorning which we are
to labor to secure: “But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that
which is _not corruptible_, even the ornament of a meek and quiet
spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.”
And these are all the instances of its use. In no one of them is it
applied to man or any part of him, as a natural possession. But does not
the last text affirm that man is in possession of a deathless spirit?
The words “incorruptible” and “spirit” both occur, it is true, in the
same verse; but they do not stand together, another noun and its
adjectives coming in between them; they are not in the same case,
incorruptible being in the dative, and spirit, in the genitive; they are
not of the same gender, incorruptible being masculine or feminine, and
spirit, neuter. What is it which is in the sight of God of great price?
The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. What is the nature of this
ornament? It is not destructible like the laurel wreath, the rich
apparel, the gold and gems with which the unsanctified man seeks to
adorn himself; but it is incorruptible, a disposition molded by the
Spirit of God, some of the fruit of that heavenly tree which God values.
Does man by nature possess this incorruptible ornament, this meek and
quiet spirit? No; for we are exhorted to procure and adopt this instead
of the other. This, and this only, the text affirms. To say that this
text proves that man is in possession of a deathless spirit, is no more
consistent nor logical than it would be to say that Paul declares that
man has an immortal soul, because in his first epistle to Timothy
(1:17), he uses the word immortal, and in his first epistle to the
Thessalonians (5:23), he uses the word soul. The argument would be the
same in both cases.
FACT 3. The word “immortality” occurs but five times in the New
Testament, in our English version. The following are the instances:--
In Rom. 2:7, it is set forth as something for which we are to seek by
patient continuance in well-doing: “To them who by patient continuance
in well-doing seek for glory and honor and _immortality_, [God will
render] eternal life.”
In 1 Cor. 15:53, 54, it is twice used to describe what this mortal must
put on before we can inherit the kingdom of God: “For this corruptible
must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on _immortality_. So
when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on _immortality_, then shall be brought to pass the
saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”
In 1 Tim. 6:16, it is applied to God, and the sweeping declaration is
made that he alone has it: “Who only hath _immortality_, dwelling in the
light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can
see: to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.”
In 2 Tim. 1:10, we are told from what source we receive the true light
concerning it, which forever cuts off the claim that reason or science
can demonstrate it, or that the oracles of heathenism can make it known
to us: “But now is made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus
Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and
_immortality_ to light through the gospel.”
How has Christ brought life and immortality to light? Answer: By
abolishing death. There could have been no life nor immortality without
this; for the race were hopelessly doomed to death through sin. Then by
what means and for whom has he abolished death? Answer: By dying for man
and rising again, a victor over death; and he has wrought this work only
for those who will accept of it through him; for all who reject his
proffered aid will meet at last the same fate that would have been the
lot of all, had Christ never undertaken in our behalf. Thus through the
gospel, the good news of salvation through him, he has brought to light
the fact, not that all men are by nature already in possession of
immortality, but that a way is opened whereby we may at last gain
possession of this inestimable boon.
As with the word immortal, so with immortality: the original from which
it comes, occurs a few more times than it is so translated in the
English version. There are two words translated immortality. These are
ἀθανασία (_athanasia_) and ἀφθαρσία (_aphtharsia_). The former is
defined by Greenfield and Robinson simply “immortality,” and is so
translated in every instance. It occurs three times, in 1 Cor. 15:53,
54; 1 Tim. 6:16, as noticed above. The latter is defined, by the same
authorities, “incorruptibility, incorruptness; by implication,
immortality.” In addition to the instances above cited, it occurs in the
following passages; in all eight times:--
1 Cor. 15:42: “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in
corruption; it is raised in _incorruption_.” In verses 50, 53 and 54, of
the same chapter, it is that _incorruption_ which corruption [our
present mortal condition] does not inherit, and which this corruptible
must put on before we can enter into the kingdom of God. In Eph. 6:24,
it is used to describe the love we should bear to Christ, and in Titus
2:7, the quality of the doctrine we should hold, in both which instances
it is translated “sincerity.”
We now have before us all the testimony of the Bible relative to
immortality. So far from being applied to man, the term is used as in
Rom. 1:23, to point out the contrast between God and man. God is
incorruptible or immortal. Man is corruptible or mortal. But if the real
man, the essential being, consists of an undecaying soul, a deathless
spirit, he, too, is incorruptible, and this contrast could not be drawn.
It is placed before us as an object of hope for which we are to seek:
declarations which would be a fraud and deception if we already have it.
It is used to distinguish between heavenly and eternal objects, and
those that are earthly and decaying. In view of these facts, no candid
mind can dissent from the following
CONCLUSION: So far as its use of the terms “immortal” and “immortality”
is concerned, the Bible contains no proof that man is in possession of
an undying nature.