Is the Soul of Man Immortal? by L. D. SANTEE

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 25, 1912

Is the Soul of Man Immortal?

By L. D. SANTEE

The Question Answered by Science and the Bible

L. D. SANTEE

Both science and the Bible treat of this subject. Inspiration asks, “If a man die, shall he live again?” Job 14:14. And science, through Joseph Cook, says, “Everything fundamentally Biblical is scientific, and everything fundamentally scientific is Biblical.”

A number of years ago, the Christian Register sent the following inquiries to some of the most distinguished scientists:— “Are there any facts in the possession of modern science which make it difficult to believe in the immortality of the personal consciousness? “Is there anything in such discoveries to support or strengthen a belief in immortality?”

The answers given to these questions by scholarly men, standing at the head in scientific research, will be read with deep interest. Said Charles A. Young, LL.D., professor of astronomy at Princeton College, New Jersey: “I think it must be frankly admitted that what is known about the functions of the brain and nervous system, does, to a certain extent, tend to make it difficult to believe in the immortality of the personal consciousness.”—“Science and Immortality,” page 15.

Thomas Hill, D. D., ex-president of Harvard College, says: “Many facts in the possession of modern science make it difficult to believe in immortality.”

Says Alexander G. Bell: “The possibility of thought, without a brain whereby to think, is opposed to experience.”

Says the distinguished scientist, F. L. Buchner: “Unprejudiced philosophy is compelled to reject the idea of an individual immortality and of a personal continuance after death.”—“Force and Matter.”

Said Lester F. Ward, A. M., of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.: “The consciousness, when scientifically examined, reveals itself as a quality of brain. It is a universal induction of science, that modification of brain is accompanied by modification of consciousness, and that the destruction of brain results in the destruction of consciousness. No exception to this law has ever been observed.”

We might extend these answers, but we forbear. It is certain that the voice of science is emphatically opposed to the doctrine of the immortality of the personal consciousness.

Now as we turn to the Bible, and examine this subject in the light of revelation, we are strongly impressed by the positive statement of the noted German commentator, Hermann Olshausen. It seems startling, when we consider the author: “The doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and the name are alike unknown to the entire Bible.”—Olshausen’s Commentary, Vol. IV, page 381, translated by A. C. Hendrick, D. D., 1858. Again, we ask the question that was asked at the beginning of this article, “If a man die, shall he live again?” On both sides of the question theological teachers have placed themselves. In a correspondence between Gerrit Smith and Albert Barnes, Mr. Barnes says: “In the distress and anguish of my own spirit, I confess that I see no light whatever as to why men must suffer to all eternity.”—“Practical Sermons,” page 123.

Says an eminent Baptist minister: “The Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, is utterly silent on the natural immortality of man, and the silence of the Scriptures corresponds to the silence of nature on this point. There is no place for endless misery or universal restoration.”

Paul asked, “What saith the Scriptures?” and the answer to this will be given in the rest of this article.

In the first place, why did God shut Adam away from the tree of life?—“Lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.” Gen. 3:22. The conclusion is unavoidable, that after he had sinned, God prevented him from becoming immortal.

“Who [God] only hath immortality” (1 Tim. 6:16); and he is not willing to share it with his enemies. He has decreed that enemies against his government shall come to an end. 1 Peter 4:17. “What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” It is hard for us to realize how much the future of the race is affected by the answer to this question.

In nearly every home are wayward children, perhaps an unconverted companion, mayhap kind-hearted, but worldly parents. All are drifting toward—what? Our lives are bound up with theirs, and when they are carried out to return no more, our bosoms feel the stress and strain of heart-break, and we ask with agonizing persistence concerning their future, whether eternal agony will be theirs to suffer, or whether they will die the second death (Rev. 20:14), and after that, be as insensate as the material from which they were created.

Here is God’s answer: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Eze. 18:4. “The wages of sin is death.” Rom. 6:23. “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” James 1:15. Here death is three times threatened as the punishment for sin. It is easy for us to understand the nature of death in a land where all are dying.

Webster defines death as “cessation of life, extinction of bodily life;” and this is the punishment for sin,—extinction of bodily life. We have already read that God “only hath immortality;” in contrast the Bible asks, “Shall mortal man be more just than God?” Job 4:17. But I read farther, for God has not spoken uncertainly concerning the destruction of his enemies: “But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.” Ps. 37:20. To perish means to be destroyed, to come to nothing, to be blotted from existence. “For, lo, thine enemies shall perish.” Ps. 92:9. Again in Ps. 73:27, “For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish.”

In John 3:14-16, perish is twice used in contrast with everlasting life. God often uses the word perish in describing the future condition of the wicked. Turn to Nahum 1:9: “What do ye imagine against the Lord?” His statement in the verse following, sets forth the truth upon this point plainly, and indicates the subject about which they have been exercising their imagination. Can anything be plainer than his words, “He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time. For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry”? The one that imagines otherwise, imagines against the Lord, and does injustice to his character. David says of the workers of iniquity, “Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be.” Ps. 59:13. Again he says, “Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more.” Ps. 104:35. Isaiah adds his testimony in the twenty-eighth verse of the first chapter of his book: “And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.” In chapter 10, verses 16-18, he makes it still more emphatic, showing that the “consuming,” includes both “soul and body.”

The doctrine of eternal torture rests upon the assumption that all these texts are not true. Dare we take that position? “He that reproveth God, let him answer it.” Job 40:2. When the wicked are last noticed, they are “ashes.” Mal. 4:3. After this John sees a universe cleared of sin. “And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” Rev. 5:13.

Faithful, God-fearing men have voiced their abhorrence of the doctrine of endless misery, and have found it impossible to reconcile it with justice. God feels the same way. “What do ye imagine against the Lord?” Men representing churches widely different, unite in their protest against this horrible dogma. Says Canon Farrar: “I can not find one single text in all the Scriptures which, when fairly interpreted, teaches the common views about endless torment.”

Bishop Foster, in his book “Beyond the Grave,” page 130, says: “The idea of the endless conscious suffering of the wicked is the most unwelcome thought ever suggested to my mind. My whole soul revolts against it. It is the horror of all horrors. I do not now see either wisdom or goodness in the plan, and possibly I never shall.”

The following from Rev. J. E. Roberts, a prominent pastor of the Baptist Church, is worthy of thought: “I have heard it declared from the pulpit, I was taught it in the seminary, and, God forgive me, I have preached it, that God would be eternally glorified by the undying agonies of the eternally lost. I affirm that this is a direct contradiction of every one of Christ’s teachings about God. It changes the Fatherhood to hatred; the compassion, to cruelty; the love, to anger; and banishes from the world that now is, and that which is to come, the God and Father whom Christ revealed.”

Said the Rev. H. F. Oliver: “I was trembling on the brink of infidelity, on account of the great and terrible papal fiction,—endless misery.” And still another Baptist minister, Dr. Frost, makes the following strong statement in the Los Angeles Evening Express: “I abhor with all my being, the eternal conscious misery of the wicked.”

Immortality is a gift from Jesus Christ; “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. 6:23. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish.” John 10:27, 28. It comes to us as a gift, through the mercy of Christ, and is not inherent; otherwise, it could not be given us. Again, we are told to “seek for glory and honor and immortality.” If we do this, we obtain eternal life.

We might say, in the words of another, “What a man hath, why doth he yet seek for?” We are of the race that God designates “mortal man.” When the Lord shall come, then “this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”

Moline, Ill.