THE MORTALITY OF MAN by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Oct 3, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 38.

THE MORTALITY OF MAN.

By G.

THE popular fallacy that man is naturally possessed of an immortal soul is primarily responsible for all the false worship in the world. It was first promulgated in the earth when Satan contradicted the word of God, and told the first woman that she would "not surely die" if she should disobey God. The Lord had told Adam and Eve that death would be the result of their eating of the fruit of a tree of which He forbade them to eat. They believed the tempter and ate of the fruit. After they had eaten, the Lord explained to them distinctly what it meant to die. As a consequence of his sin, God said to Adam, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

In this language the whole personal being was addressed; the personal pronoun "thou" always implies the entire person with all his attributes. Further along in the record we read that "all the days that Adam lived [not merely the days of Adam's body, but of Adam himself] were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died." From the circumstance

of Adam's disobedience, not only did he die, but all his posterity were afflicted with the sinful nature, "and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." Thus it came to pass that "by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."

That through disobedience of the commandment of God, man became absolutely mortal, we have the statement that after the sin was committed, God placed an angel guard over the tree of life, lest the man should eat of it and "live forever." It was by eating of the tree of life that man's life was to be perpetuated; therefore when his access to the tree was cut off, he must naturally and necessarily wear out and die. And as proof that when man dies the whole man is dead, we have other testimony of the inspired Word: "The living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun."

When a man does not know anything, has no memory, and can not exercise any of the characteristics common to living persons, he certainly has lost all consciousness. Any one who by any incident has been rendered even temporarily insensible, knows by experience that he can not recognize or communicate with those who are close by, to say nothing of those who are at a great distance. This shows conclusively that all the organs of intelligence or sense are dependent for their action upon the activity of the physical machinery—we may say, upon the circulation of the blood, for "the life of the flesh is in the blood."

Moreover, in the plainest possible expression, the patriarch Job asks, "shall mortal man be more just than God?" To this we may add the positive testimony of the prophet Ezekiel, that "the soul that sinneth, it shall die." And this is illustrated by the action of Joshua's army, as recorded in Joshua 10. They encamped against Eglon, "and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein he utterly destroyed that day." The same thing is said of other towns—Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Hebron, Debir, etc. The testimony of David is also to the point: "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish."

These explicit statements of Holy Writ add much emphasis to the Gospel declaration of Christ to Nicodemus: "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

As to immortality, the "King of Kings and Lord of Lords" only is thus endowed, and He dwelleth in light "which no man can approach unto." The apostle Paul, through whom we get this statement, did not expect his crown of life—his immortal condition—until the Lord comes the second time to bestow it upon him by a resurrection from the dead. See 1 Cor. 15: 12-18, 51-58; 1 Thess. 4: 13-18; 2 Tim. 4: 6-8. G.