Immortality and Its Source
By J. H. Parsons
It is a very remarkable fact that though God told Adam that if he disobeyed His commandment, he should surely die (Gen. 2:17), and man lost eternal life by believing the devil, who said, "Ye shall not surely die" (Gen. 3:4), yet with this plain record before us, it seems to be an almost universal belief that man has a soul that can not die. And what is still more remarkable, the spiritual shepherds of this generation have allowed "higher criticism" to destroy a belief in the plain statements of the word of God, which alone can reestablish eternal life in man. Jesus bade His disciples, "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life." John 5:39. "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." John 17:3. "And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments." 1 John 2:3. It follows as a matter of logic, that no man has eternal life unless he knows God; and if he knows God, he will be found keeping His commandments, which will finally give him a right to the tree of life. Rev. 22:14. Before he can keep the commandments, he must be born again, born of water and the Spirit. John 3:5. He must be washed in the water of the Word (Eph. 5:26), and drink at the fountain of life (John 4:14). (Higher critics "have forsaken . . . the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." Jer. 2:13.) He must eat the bread of life, which is the word of God (John 6:48-63), because Jesus was the Word made flesh (John 1:14). "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 1 John 5:11, 12. The New Birth and Eternal Life
If he allows the word of God to enter into his heart, he will be "born of the Spirit." "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come [present tense] in the [man's] flesh is of God." 1 John 4:2. "And we know that the Son of God is come [in our flesh], and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life." 1 John 5:20. Before man fell, he was in constant communion with God, and had access to the tree of life, and it was God's intention to people the earth with sinless beings. Gen. 1:28. As nothing can permanently alter the plan of God, the earth will yet be inhabited by a redeemed and sinless people (Isa. 66:22), having the same characters — no doubt more highly developed through tribulation — every one separate and individual (Rev. 2:17), yet a complete family, as was intended by God in the beginning, before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4-11). Every man born into this world has a spiritual birthright, foreordained and predestined, to one of these characters (1 Tim. 2:4), through "being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." 1 Peter 1:23. Therefore it is essential for a man to believe in the word of God, and allow God to write His word in his heart (Heb. 8:10), or he will lose the chance of obtaining eternal life, "and his remembrance shall perish from the earth" (Job 18:17), and he shall be as though he had not been (Obadiah 16); "for the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6:23.