Mortal or Immortal; Which? by S. THURSTON

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 28, 1911

Mortal or Immortal; Which?

By S. THURSTON

S. THURSTON

God made Adam of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul. Had he been created immortal, he could not have died, for immortality is proof against death and decay. But should man disobey the commands of God, he would forfeit his right to the tree of life; and his life, which is but a vapor (James 4:14), would become extinct, and he would return to dust again. Gen. 3:19.

When God visited Cain after the death of Abel, he said it was Abel’s blood which cried to him from the ground; he made no mention of an immortal soul crying to him on its way to heaven. When God told Adam that if he ate or touched the forbidden tree he would die, he spoke to the entire man, and the death sentence applied to the entire man as well. Even Satan did not tell Eve that they were immortal. He told her they would not die if they ate, but would be as gods; and thus he based immortality upon disobedience, whereas God based it upon obedience. Rom. 2:6-8. Those conditions have not changed.

More than four thousand years after Adam was created, the Holy Spirit directed Paul to say, The King of kings, and Lord of lords only hath immortality. 1 Tim. 6:15, 16. Who dare dispute the Holy Spirit and say, Man hath immortality, and goes to heaven or hell at death? Even Satan did not believe Moses had an immortal soul which had gone to heaven; for he only disputed about the body of Moses. See Jude 9. Neither did Christ the archangel believe Moses had an immortal soul in heaven, for had Moses been there, Christ would not have come all the way to earth simply to dispute with the devil about Moses’ body. No; the facts were these: Moses was dead, and there was no possible way for him to get into heaven but by a resurrection; and he had it, for he was at the transfiguration, and the disciples who were witnesses make no mention of any difference in the physical conditions of Moses and Elias. Both were real. Moses had been bodily raised from the dead, and Elias had been bodily translated; one was just as real as the other.

Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, was a good man. He died, and was dead four days. The Saviour said he was dead, and also called it sleep, and declared that he was going to awake him. He did awake him,—brought him back to life,—and it seems strange that there is not a book or chapter in the Bible in which he narrates his experience and tells of what he saw while in heaven, if he had been there during those four days. The Saviour declared that the righteous and wicked are both in their graves, awaiting their resurrection. John 5:28, 29.

Our immortal life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall the righteous appear with him in glory, to shine forth in the kingdom of their father. See Col. 3:3, 4; Matt. 13:43. Why at that time?—Because the resurrection takes place then, and this mortal puts on immortality. See 1 Cor. 15:51-55; 1 Thess. 4:13-18. It is true these scriptures do away with purgatory and a present burning hell; and who shall dare dispute the plain Word of God? In the language of Scripture, every child of God will say, “Let God be true, but every man a liar.” Rom. 3:4.

To believe in and teach a separate existence of man from the body, is to do away with the resurrection; and to do away with the resurrection, is to do away with Christ; for he said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” John 11:25.

Ventura, Cal.