p. 1 | THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 22, 1879

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

BY ELD. D. M. CANRIGHT.

DURING THE REFORMATION.

This brings us to the time of the Reformation, when, once more, we find the doctrine of the soul's immortality, purgatory, eternal torment, conscious state of the dead, etc., called in question and rejected.

From a canon enacted in the Lateran Council, under Leo X, 1513, it appears that some persons were denying the immortality of man. Thus says the Council: “Whereas, in these our days, some have dared to assert, concerning the nature of the reasonable soul, that it is mortal, or one and the same in all men; and some, rather philosophizing, declare this to be true, at least according to philosophy, we, with the approbation of the sacred council, do condemn and reprobate all those who assert that the intellectual soul is mortal.” This shows that the question was being discussed. We also see how ready Rome was to defend its pet child.

LUTHER.

In 1520, Luther published forty-one propositions in favor of his position. In the twenty-seventh, he says thus: “I permit the pope to make articles of faith for himself and his faithful; such as, the bread and wine are transubstantiated in the sacrament; the essence of God neither generates nor is generated; the soul is the substantial form of the body; the pope is the emperor of the world, and the king of Heaven, and God upon earth; the soul is immortal; with all those monstrous opinions to be found in the Roman dunghill of decretals, that such as his faith is, such may be his gospel, such his disciples, and such his church, that the mouth may have meat suitable for it, and the dish, a cover worthy of it.”

This indicates very plainly that the great reformer believed the immortality of the soul to be only a child of the pope. I think it can be shown that Luther did embrace the doctrine of the sleep of the dead, and died in that faith. I will present some of the evidence for the reader's consideration:—

1. We see that Luther calls the doctrine of the soul's immortality a “monstrous opinion.” 2. Cardinal Du Perron says: “Luther held that the soul died with the body, and that God would hereafter raise both the one and the other.” 3. A Lutheran minister denied this charge, and in refuting it, said: “The origin of this calumny is a letter he [Luther] wrote to Amsdorf in the year 1522: in which he appears much inclined to believe that the souls of the just sleep to the day of Judgment, without knowing where they are. He does not pretend to say that they are dead in this interval, but only lie in a profound rest and sleep, in which opinion he followed many fathers of the ancient church.”

We could ask no better confession than this to Luther's faith in the sleep of the soul. It also confesses that this was the faith of

the ancient Fathers. 4. Another learned writer, speaking of the appearance of ghosts in 1534, says: “But after Luther's doctrine came to be understood, and had gained a little strength, this kind of specters by degrees vanished away. For Luther teaches from the Scriptures, that the souls of the dead are at rest, waiting for the final day of Judgment.” Here is another witness exactly harmonizing with the others. 5. Dr. Priestly says: “The Helvetic convention condemns all those who believe the sleep of the soul, which shows that a considerable number must have maintained it. Luther himself was of this opinion, though whether he died in it has been doubted.” 6. Dr. Alger says, of Luther: “It is probable that the great reformer's opinion on this point was not always the same. For he says distinctly, ‘The first man who died, when he awakes at the last day, will think he has been asleep but an hour.’” 7. The papists accused Luther, and said that he taught thus: “We can now find out a better way to abolish purgatory, the mass, and the Roman pontiff, than by saying that the soul and body die together.” Such was the opinion of this gentleman. And then afterward, to confirm this doctrine, came out public theses, printed and disputed in Geneva, in the year 1558, wherein were these words: “All that is said concerning the immortality of the soul,” said this proponent, “is nothing else but an invention of Antichrist, to make his pot boil.” 8. Luther's comment on Eccl. 9:10 plainly shows that he believed in the sleep of the dead. These are his words: “For in the grave is no work, etc.—another condition, because the dead know nothing. Therefore Solomon thinks that the dead are wholly asleep, and utterly unconscious. There the dead will rest, not remembering the days or the years; but when raised up they will seem to themselves to have slept scarcely a moment.” Again, commenting on Gen. 25:8, he says: “So the spirit, after death, enters the abode of its rest, and, sleeping, is unconscious of its slumber; and yet God preserves the watchful spirit. God is able to raise up Elias and Moses, etc., and thus to ordain that they shall live. But in what way we do not know. The likeness of corporeal sleep suffices, and that God declares the sleep to be quiet and repose.”

We might quote other comments from him to the same effect; but these plainly show that he believed in the sleep of the dead. Put these facts and testimonies together, and it clearly appears that the great reformer believed in the mortality of the soul, and the unconscious state of the dead. He used this truth, too, against the Romish doctrines of purgatory and saint worship. Archdeacon Blackburne, of the Episcopal church, in the appendix to his “Historical View,” has given many quotations from Luther upon this subject, to which the reader is referred, if he desires further proof.

Moreover, Blackburne, Priestly, and others, are of opinion that Luther's doctrine would have been generally received by Protestants, had it not been for the opposition and authority of Calvin.

THOUSANDS EMBRACE THE FAITH.

Very many of the early reformers embraced the doctrine of the sleep of the dead, and defended it in books and arguments. This appears from what Calvin was stirred up to write against them, which he did at first in a very harsh, violent style, in a tract called “Psychopannychia.” In the preface, he says: “Long ago, when certain pious persons invited, and even urged me, to publish something for the purpose of suppressing the extravagance of those who alike ignorantly and tumultuously maintain that the soul dies or sleeps, I could not be induced by all their urging, so averse did I feel to engage in that kind of dispute. At that time, indeed, I was not without excuse, partly because I hoped that that absurd dogma would soon vanish of its own accord, or at least be confined to a few triflers. . . . The result, however, has been different from what I hoped. These babblers have so actively exerted themselves, that they have already drawn thousands into their insanity.” “They are said to circulate their follies in a kind of tracts, which I have not happened to see.” This is dated, Orleans, 1534.

From the above, we see that, 1. This doctrine had been advocated “long” before he wrote. 2. It was not confined to “a few triflers.” 3. Its advocates “actively exerted themselves” in spreading the doctrine, by publishing books, etc. 4. It was gaining ground so fast that “thousands” had already received it. But it seems that Calvin himself did not yet realize how extensively it had spread, and that “some good men” had received it. Hence his book gave much offense. So, in another edition of his book, dated Basil, 1536, he says: “On again reading this discussion, I observe that, in the heat of argument, some rather severe and harsh expressions have escaped me, which may perhaps give offense to delicate ears; and as I know that there are some good men into whose mind some parts of this dogma have been instilled, either from excessive credulity, or ignorance of Scriptures with which, at the time, they were not armed so as to be able to resist, I am unwilling to give them offense so far as they will allow me, since they are neither perverse nor malicious in their error.” Says Dr. Priestly: “It was, however, the firm belief of so many of the reformers of that age, that, had it not been for the authority of Calvin, who wrote expressly against it, the doctrine of an intermediate state would, in all probability, have been as effectually exploded as the doctrine of purgatory itself.”

Duke George, of Saxony, wrote to his brother Frederick, complaining that, in consequence of Luther's teachings, this doctrine was spreading among his people. Says Milner, in his “Church History”: “In a letter written with his own hand, he [George] complains heavily to this prince, of the heretical transactions at Wittemberg and Zwickau, and of the remissness of his brother, the elector. The faithful clergy were insulted, and even pelted with stones, while those of the Lutheran sect married wives, and wrote books in defense of the marriages of the monks. There were even some who were destitute of all religion, and denied the immortality of the soul. All these evils, said he, proceed from the moral doctrines of arch-heretic [Luther]; and gave him the more pain, since he had found the contagion spreading among his own subjects.” Here again we see the denial of the immortality of the soul spreading among the reformers, and it is, by all, ascribed to Luther. The same doctrine, also, was advocated by certain Protestants in Italy.

WILLIAM TYNDALE.

William Tyndale, the great English reformer and translator of the Bible, was a believer in the sleep of the dead. In 1530 he answered Sir Thomas More's Dialogue. More objected to Luther that he held “that all souls lie and sleep till doomsday.” We would expect that, if this were not Luther's doctrine, Tyndale would have denied it. Instead of that, however, he proceeds to defend it, both as the doctrine of Luther and of the Bible, thus: “And ye, in putting them [departed souls] in Heaven, hell, and purgatory, destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resurrection. What God doth with them, that shall we know when we come to them. The true faith putteth the resurrection, which we be warned to look for every hour. The heathen philosophers, denying that, did put, that the souls did ever live. And the pope joineth the spiritual doctrine of Christ, and the fleshly doctrine of philosophers together, things so contrary that they cannot agree, any more than the spirit and the flesh do in a Christian man. And because the fleshly-minded pope consenteth unto heathen doctrines, therefore he corrupteth the Scripture to establish it.” “If the souls be in Heaven, tell me why they be not in as good case as the angels be. And then, what cause is there of the resurrection?”

This shows that Tyndale did not believe that souls go to Heaven at death, but that they sleep till the resurrection. He argues correctly that the opposite doctrine destroys the resurrection. He also agrees with Luther that the immortality of the soul was a popish doctrine borrowed from the heathen. Again, More says: “What shall he care how long he live in sin, that believeth Luther, that he shall after this life feel neither good nor evil in body nor soul, until the day of doom?” Tyndale answers: “Christ and his apostles taught no other, but warned to look for Christ's coming again every hour, which coming again, because ye believe will never be, therefore have ye feigned that other merchandise.” This plainly shows what was the doctrine of the first reformers upon this subject.

But all the ability and authority of Calvin were brought to bear against the doctrine of the mortality of the soul and sleep of the dead. He established a school of theology at Geneva, which became very famous, and attracted students from all parts of Europe; and the doctrine of immortality, as there taught, gradually came to be considered the orthodox doctrine of the various Protestant churches. Many things conspired to bring this around. The reformers were accused of overturning and denying all religion. Hence, many doctrines and practices of Rome, which they were at first inclined to reject, were finally retained to avoid offense. In all but what they considered vital points, they took this compromising course. Melanchthon, especially, was noted for this.

OPPOSITION IN ENGLAND.

“The honor of first condemning this tenet [the sleep of the soul] was reserved for our English reformers, who, in the fortieth of King Edward's articles, composed in the year 1552, and published the year following, expressed themselves thus:—

“They who say that the souls of such as depart hence do sleep, being without all sense, feeling, and perceiving, until the day of Judgment, or affirm that the souls die with the bodies, and, at the last day, shall be raised up with the same, do utterly dissent from the right belief declared unto us in the holy Scriptures.”

This shows that the doctrine had become sufficiently extended to claim the attention of that honorable body. In the year 1566, was published the second Helvetic confession, fabricated entirely upon the Calvinistic plan. A part of Article XV runs thus: “We hold that man consists of two, and those different, substances in one person: of an immortal soul, seeing that, being separated from the body, it neither sleeps nor dies; and of a mortal body which yet, at the last Judgment, shall be raised from the dead, that the whole man, from thenceforward, may remain to eternity, either in life or death. We condemn all who scoff at the immortality of the soul, or bring it into doubt by subtle disputations, or who say that the soul sleeps.”

This shows that all previous efforts had failed to put down those who denied the immortality of the soul. Article XXVI of the same confession says: “We believe that the faithful migrate directly from their corporeal death to Christ. . . . We also believe that the wicked are directly precipitated into hell.” This is the first public avowal, by a Protestant church, of the belief that the saints go directly to Heaven at death. Thus, they directly contradicted Tyndale, Luther, the early Fathers, and the Bible.

THE EARLY BAPTISTS.

Mosheim mentions the “General Baptists,” who flourished in England in the sixteenth century. In enumerating the articles of their faith, he says: “VI. They believed that the soul, between death and the resurrection at the last day, has neither pleasure nor pain, but is in a state of insensibility.” Of their number, he says that they “are dispersed in great numbers over many provinces of England.” Here we have the whole of a large sect of the early Protestants believing in the sleep of the soul. And even in Scotland we find that there were believers in the sleep of the dead, who had made some stir there. In the year 1560, the Scotch drew up a confession of faith which was ratified by Parliament. Article XVII reads thus:—

“The elect departed are in peace, and rest from their labors, not that they sleep and come to a certain oblivion, as some fanatics do affirm.” This shows that “soul sleepers” were well known in Scotland, as well as in England, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and throughout Christendom. Indeed, from that time forward until the present, an animated discussion upon the subject of the nature of the soul, condition of the dead, and the punishment of the wicked, has been carried forward in the church and out, among all the civilized nations. Every few years books by different authors, issued from different places and in different languages, advocating the sleep of the dead and the destruction of the wicked, both upon philosophical and scriptural grounds, have been put forth. Many of these authors were learned men in high positions in the church and in the State. They spoke out boldly against the heathen doctrine of the immortality of man. These works, in turn, have called forth answers from the other side, advocating the immortality of the soul. Quite a complete list of these works, with a brief notice of their authors, may be found in a catalogue of works upon this subject, by Ezra Abbott, in an appendix to “Alger's Doctrine of a Future Life.”