THAT the soul is immortal is denied by many, especially by the followers of crank religions. The writer cannot count the number of letters he has received, calling him to prove the statement that the soul is immortal. In nearly every case the challenge is given, “Show me the verse in Scripture that asserts that the soul is immortal. Show me the expression in the Bible, ‘Immortal Soul.’”
Then generally the writers of these letters draw attention to 1 Timothy 6:16:
“God... 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,”
triumphantly pointing to the words,
“WHO ONLY HAITI IMMORTALITY,” and charging anyone who holds that the soul is immortal with contradicting, this passage. What then is the reply to these assertions?
That God can confer immortality as His gift is very evident. To take the stand the writers of these letters do is to prove too much, even for them. It would debar God from conferring eternal life upon the believers on the Lord Jesus Christ. These writers all stand for the doctrine of “conditional immortality.” that is, only believers on Christ will live forever. But their use of 1 Timothy 6:16,16Who 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. (1 Timothy 6:16) would clearly shut out this, and their treatment of that passage proves too much even for them.
That God cannot confer immortality inherently upon anyone is clear. To do so would be to abrogate His own Godhead, for it would be equivalent to making another God, independent of Himself, an utter impossibility. We may assert that God can do anything, but it is likewise trite that God cannot do anything that is a contradiction of His own Being. We are told for instance in the Scriptures that God cannot lie, for departure from the truth would be the denial of His holy Being, and to communicate immortality inherently on any would be to do that likewise.
Now for the question, Where in the Bible is it stated, in so many words, that the soul is immortal? The answer is, that nowhere is Scripture, in so many words, is it stated. But that does not prove that the soul is not Scriptures take it for granted that it is, and there are many proofs of this.
It is a very significant fact that in lands, where the Bible and the gospel have not penetrated, the heathen have universally a belief in the survival of the soul after death.
It was said that Charles Darwin, when on his scientific voyage in the “Challenger,” found very degraded natives in the cheerless regions of Patagonia, who, he affirmed, had no belief in a future state; but when the missionaries finally got in amongst them, and obtained more intimate knowledge of them, they found they were no exception to the universal belief in survival after death.
Why should there be this universal belief. It does not in the case of the stark heathen, come from the Scriptures. Where then does this belief come from? Surely it is an intuitive belief borne in upon men’s minds by the Spirit of God. Why should men in this land of gospel light, men with the Scriptures in their hands, deny the immortality of the soul? We fear that the true answer is, they desire to throw overboard their responsibility to God. At the bottom there is that desire to get rid of accountability for sin, and the reckoning with God that flows therefrom. They are determined to get rid of hell.
But let us come to Scripture proof. We read,
The body at death goes downward to the earth, and if the spirit of the beast goes downward to the earth, it implies that the spirit dies with the body, and the beast ceases to exist. But why should the spirit of man go upward? Surely this implies survival after the death of the body; that the spirit of man survives the death of the body.
This implication is directly sustained when we read,
Here we have the truth, not that the spirit ceases to exist at the death of the body, but that it returns to the God, who gave it. That teaches two things, that the spirit lives after death and that it is not dependent upon the body for continued existence, but responsible to the One who gave it.
When king David was chided by his servants for eating when his child was dead, whereas he fasted and wept whilst it was alive, he replied,
Here we get David’s belief in survival after death; viz., the immortality of the soul. There is no intimation that it will be otherwise.
This our Lord quotes adding the words, “God is not the God of the dead, but of the LIVING” (Matt. 22:3232I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. (Matthew 22:32)), thus emphasizing the present existence of the patriarchs, long centuries after the death of their bodies. No limit is put to their existence. It teaches the immortality of the soul.
When the prophet takes up his proverb against the king of Babylon, he says,
Here is a very vivid description of the recently dead joining those of earlier date, and the stir that his entrance among them made. This is not a picture of souls ceasing to exist, but of continued existence.
Take the case of the Apostle Paul. He says, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:88We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8)).
There is no thought with him of anything but being consciously in the presence of the Lord, the moment he was absent from the body. But is that condition permanent?
He says in another epistle, referring to the coming of the Lord, when the sleeping saints shall be raised, and those alive on the earth shall be changed, “So shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:1717Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:17)).
This looks like immortality of the soul.
But says someone, “The instances you adduce are of saints, and we are all agreed that they will have immortality.” Listen to the Lord’s own words, “The rich man also died, and was buried, and in hell [hades] he lift up his eyes being in torments (Luke 16:22, 2322And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. (Luke 16:22‑23)).
Here we get an unbeliever depicted as having died and been buried. That was as to the body. But what of the soul? Did it continue after death? The Lord Jesus teaches that very clearly. There is no indication that this condition of things should cease. Further listen to the words of our Lord again, “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” (Matt. 25:4646And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. (Matthew 25:46)).
These are intensely serious words as far as the unbeliever is concerned. You cannot fritter away their solemn meaning. If the punishment is not eternal, the life is not eternal. The one half of the verse is the antithesis of the other. Here again is the affirmation of the immortality of the soul, whether of the believer or unbeliever. We cannot question the authority of our Lord’s own words.
The immortality of the soul is not affirmed in Scripture, in just those words, but the truth of it is clearly taught in Scripture, making our belief in it as certain as if it had been.
In conclusion it is interesting to remember that “This mortal [referring to the body that dies] must put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:5353For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:53)).
Now this is said of the body, but never of the soul. Why? The body is mortal. Therefore when the resurrection comes immortality becomes the condition of the body. But it never says that the soul puts on immortality. Why? Because it never was mortal. If the soul ceased to exist at death, not being immortal, then we should at the resurrection have bodies without souls. How could bodies put on immortality if there were not the living element of the soul to complete the person?
Much more evidence could be drawn from the Scriptures but this ought to suffice.
A. J. Pollock.