p. 5 | Thoughts on the Soul’s Immortality by JOHN N. QUINN

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 29, 1912

Thoughts on the Soul’s Immortality

By JOHN N. QUINN

JOHN N. QUINN

The Soul’s Immateriality

MATTER not being able to think, and thought being a power possessed by man, this power, it is contended by many, must be vested in the soul, which is immaterial, and consequently immortal. The soul out of Christ is to be consigned to hell-fire, remaining there, these claim, in conscious suffering throughout eternity.

But will material fire cause suffering to an immaterial soul? How can a material element cause pain to immateriality? Immateriality is nonentity, and nonentity is non-existence. How reasonable

the Bible doctrine that at death thought ceases; that the dead are unconscious, remaining in that condition until the resurrection, when the righteous will be immortalized, and the ungodly become as though they had not been.

Immortality and the Penalty for Sin

An offense is committed against the laws of the state, and after a just trial, the offender is sentenced to sixteen years’ imprisonment in the penitentiary. The transgressed law will be satisfied either when the sentence has been fully met, or by the death of the transgressor before the expiration of the sentence. A friend offers himself as a substitute, and his offer is accepted. How long must the friend remain in jail?—Sixteen years.

Eternal suffering is the penalty attached to the transgression of the divine law, according to that school of theology which teaches the immortality of the soul. Christ came into the world as man’s substitute, to meet the penalty of the law. Must Christ therefore be cast into the ever-burning pit, to remain there eternally?—Impossible; he is at the right hand of God, having met the penalty; and this comforting truth forever refutes the doctrine of eternal suffering. Death is the penalty, and Calvary is God’s declaration of the fate of the ungodly. “The wages of sin is death.”

Immortality and Unconsciousness

Immortality means eternal, continued consciousness. If the soul is immortal, then not for a second of time can it become unconscious. God is immortal, and he is eternally conscious—he never slumbers nor sleeps. But human beings become unconscious in sleep, or by the use of drugs, when anesthetics are administered, or by an accident which injures the brain. The fact that material things, such as drugs, interfere with consciousness, disproves the immateriality of the soul, for how is it possible for material things to interfere with the operation of immateriality? And what is immateriality?

Infinite Evil Versus Infinite Righteousness

When the doctrine of the soul’s immortality is advocated, then the eternity of evil follows as a consequence; for if the soul of the ungodly exists in eternal fire, this certainly is evil. This makes the penalty for sin infinite, as that which is eternal is infinite; and as the punishment fits the crime, the crime also becomes infinite. Righteousness we know is eternal, therefore infinite. But how can two infinites exist at the same time, in the same universe, and the one the opposite of the other? This is the dilemma in which those are placed who believe in the immortality of the soul.

Sinners are to be banished from the presence of God, and as God is omnipresent, only non-existence can banish them from the presence of God. Praise God, righteousness is eternal; sin but for a moment. God will one day have a clean universe, wherein 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,” are heard 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. This text completely refutes the doctrine of the eternity of evil, the soul’s immortality, and the everlasting suffering of the lost.

Takoma Park, D. C.