Proof of Natural Immortality.
By R. F. Cottrell
"For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity. Nevertheless through envy of the Devil came death into the world; and they that do hold of his side do find it." Wisdom of Solomon, ii, 23, 24. A certain minister was making a special effort to disprove the position of S. D. Adventists, and to support the doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul; and the above text, or at least the first part of it, was used as proof. We thought it a bad selection for his purpose. The text does not affirm that God created man immortal, but he created him to be immortal; as though a probation or trial of some kind were wanting to complete and carry out the purpose. It may be argued that the purpose of God in creating man to be immortal is sure to be carried out. But the disjunctive clause which follows clearly shows that the envy of the Devil introduced death into the world to thwart this purpose of the Creator: and that one class of men, those that hold to the Devil's side, find death instead of immortality, their portion. Whether the text is given by inspiration of God or not, one thing is evident, that is, that the writer took death to be the opposite of immortality. This, in a writing of such antiquity, ought to have considerable weight. Those that Paul represents as seeking for immortality, seek deliverance from death. To say that by patient continuance in well doing they seek for a pure, incorruptible character, is confounding cause and effect. It is by patient continuance in well doing, that is, by continually maintaining an incorruptible character, that they seek for the promised reward. The reward is immortality, eternal life, complete and permanent deliverance from death. "If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead"—a resurrection from among the dead, the first resurrection. "On such the second death hath no power." The second death, the reward of sin, is something besides sin. It is said that the second death is separation from God. If it is a literal separation from God, it is literal death, for the living cannot go from his presence. But if it is a moral separation from God, the wicked are already thus separated from him by sin, and to continue the separation cannot be a second death. There cannot be a second death without a resurrection from the first. Hence no sinner can suffer a second moral death unless he has been converted to God, made alive in Christ Jesus, or raised from the death in trespasses and sins. None but those once converted will have a part then in the second death; but "all liars" share in it, and some of them, there is reason to fear, never will be converted. How much better to believe the plain, simple, unsophisticated testimony that, after being raised from the dead, the wicked will die a second time.