I AM aware that some, who plead for the mortality of the soul, adduce, 1 Tim. 6:16 to this end but when it is said of God that “He only hath immortality,” the reference is to essential, not to conferred, being. Even the mis-users of the text do not deny that the angels are immortal. Certainly our Lord has laid down that such is their condition, and that the risen saints shall resemble them in this respect. “Neither can they die anymore, for they are equal unto the angels” (Luke 20:36). Therefore God's only having immortality is perfectly consistent with the immortality of angels; and, if so, with the immortality of the human soul. The soul is immortal as angels are; but it is through God's constituting both so. God only hath immortality. Again, the objectors urge that Christ abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Tim. 1:11). But this, as far as “immortality” is concerned, is notoriously a mistaken version, known for many years to all scholars, and now corrected by the Revisers, who properly say “incorruption” for immortality. Christ has brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel; life in Himself alive again for evermore, and incorruption for the body. For the last, the soul is not in question here at all. Further, in 1 Cor. 15:53 and 54, not only is it plain that this corruptible must put on in-corruption, but that this mortal must put on immortality—two clauses which refer only to the body when the resurrection comes.
Mortality is never said of man's soul. All Scriptures of Old Testament and New Testament alike treat the inner man as immortal, though in the Old Testament it may be somewhat obscure. Through the gospel all is now brought to light, whether for soul or body. Hence, in the Book of the Revelation, no shadow overhangs the prophetic visions. “And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those that had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held, and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Master, the Holy and True, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth (Rev. 6:9, 10)? “These are the souls of saints, no doubt, but they are neither extinct nor yet slumbering; and as they cry with loud voice for the righteous judgment of God, there was given to each one of them meanwhile a white robe, and the dealing of the Lord is assured in due time. No doubt there is symbol here as there was figure in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus; but the symbol here, like the figure there, supposes life and acceptance and communion with God's mind, not extinction of being nor stupor after death. They had died as to the body, not as to the soul. It was separate, not sleeping, and it awaits resurrection.
So again in the vision of Rev. 20:4, “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and (I saw) the souls of those that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God; and such as worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” The first class, consisting of the enthroned, were already in the resurrection state; but two other classes follow in the separate state, whose souls accordingly were seen by the prophet, as they are subsequently said to live in order to reign with Christ, no less than those who already sat on thrones. Here, again, the souls clearly existed, even before they “lived” in the sense of their bodies being re-united to their souls.
The doctrine of Scripture, therefore, is throughout certain, plain, and consistent; and this for all souls, wicked as well as righteous. Even while living the wicked are by Scripture called “lost” or “destroyed” —the very same word which ignorance would force to mean annihilated. That this is false is therefore unquestionable; for whilst they live now, they are said to be destroyed as positively as when judgment seizes them forever. Then only will it be everlasting destruction. Annihilation is, therefore, out of the question. They are morally destroyed, certainly not annihilated, whilst they now live to reject the Savior and the gospel. No honest man can deny it. The fact is, that God alone could annihilate what He has made, and this He never says that He will, but expressly—a wholly different thing—that He will raise the wicked, and judge them by the Lord Jesus. For resurrection will introduce into a state fixed and changeless forever.
And now, my reader, be not turned away from the truth by empty speculation, or by vain jangling of words. If not born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. You have spirit, soul, and body of incomparably higher character than that of natural animals without reason, made to be taken and destroyed. You have far greater advantages than the Jew of old, as he had much profit every-way over the heathen. You have God's oracles in all their fullness; you hear not the law merely, but the gospel. But you are fallen; you are a sinner, yea, a rebel against God, not only in will, but by that spirit which is the highest part of your nature. In vain do men seek to allay your fears or their own by the false philosophy which denies immortality to that inextinguishable nature which belongs to the human race alone of all that breathe on earth. You are not a superior sort of brute; nor does the difference consist only in powers of mind, reflection, and language. You have the consciousness not only of self but of God in your soul, and about your spirit as well as your body. You, therefore, alone of animals are morally responsible, alone must be raised from death, alone must give account to God.
But with all your endowments and privileges, especially under the gospel and the church, you are lost forever if you flee not to Christ and His precious blood which cleanses from all sin. In Him only is eternal life, by Him only eternal redemption. They are God's free gift to every one that believes. Oh! then repent, and believe the gospel. If you turn from Him Who now speaks from heaven, you prove that you judge yourself unworthy of eternal life, that you prefer the world to heaven with Christ before the Father. So living, so dying, what can be said to you by and by, but “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels?” Not Moses, but the Son of Man so warns. It was not for guilty man that God prepared this everlasting punishment. It was for the enemies of God and man; but if men now reject His grace in Christ to take part with the enemies, the doom of the enemies will be theirs. And what more just as against those who trample on mercy to the uttermost? The greater the grace preached in the gospel of God, the more unsparing will, and must, be His righteous retribution, when the rejected Son of man appears in His glory, and executes judgment not for this life only but for eternity.
W. K.