p. 523 | IS MAN IMMORTAL? by George B. Thompson

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 24, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 33.

IS MAN IMMORTAL?

By George B. Thompson

MANY believe that he is. They have been taught it from childhood by the religious teachers of the day. On funeral occasions, the bereaved are told by the minister that there is no such thing as death, that the deceased is not dead, but that he is now amid the celestial glories of the world to come, singing songs of praise and adoration to God.

NEVER DYING SOUL FOREVER DIES

So much is said of the immortality of the soul, that one would think it could be found on almost every page of the Bible. Poets have written about it, and from our youth up we have sung about it. One favorite hymn says: "A charge to keep I have, A God to glorify; A never dying soul to save, Fitted for the sky." Then the poet, seeming to have overlooked what he said in the first stanza, says in the second: "If I my trust betray, I shall forever die." This rime has been sung thousands of times, and but few persons have ever stopped to inquire how "a never dying soul" could "forever die."

THE BIBLE DOES NOT SAY IT

We would like to ask how anybody knows that man is an immortal soul. Nowhere in the Bible have we ever read a verse that says such a thing. The words "soul" and "spirit," it is true, occur something over 1,700 times in the Bible, and the word "immortal" is found in the Bible; but not in a single instance do we find a text that says anything about an immortal soul.

This seems a strange omission, indeed, when men have been saying so much about immortal souls. The facts are that the doctrine of the soul's inherent immortality is based not on the declaration of God, but rather upon a statement made by Satan in Eden. The Lord had set forth as a penalty for sin, that in the day that man would eat, he should surely die. Death is a penalty for sin. But Satan appeared as the tempter, and said:

"Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." Gen. 3: 1-3.

SATAN RAISES A QUESTION

True to his nature, Satan raised a question in regard to what God had said. Notice the words, "Hath God said," as though it seemed impossible to think that the great and mighty God of truth would make such a declaration as that. "Hath God said?" Is it possible that you tell me the God of verity has said such a thing? Then he followed his words with, "Ye shall not surely die."

God had said man would die as a penalty for sin. Satan disputed it, contradicted Jehovah by saying that man would not die. When man sinned, the penalty for transgression was death. Adam was banished from his Eden home, and soon death appeared. The leaves began to wither upon the trees, nature became seared, and the human family began to pass down into the tomb. What now? — Satan was seen to be a liar unless he could bring forth something that would prove that his words were yet true. So in his councils he concocted the dogma of the soul's immortality. He said man was not really dead; it only seemed so. The body was but the temple, the tenement in which the real man resided; but the real, living man was the soul, which survived the stroke of death, and lived on in uninterrupted consciousness. And, sad to say, this satanic falsehood is echoed and reëchoed throughout the world.

THE ONE SOURCE OF IMMORTALITY

The Bible very plainly declares that man does not now possess inherent immortality. We are admonished to "seek for glory and honor and immortality." Rom. 2: 7. Why should we seek for what we already possess? This would be nonsense. We are plainly told that man is mortal. Job 4: 17. And we are told that God "only hath immortality." 1 Tim. 6: 15, 16. Immortality is an attribute of the Deity, and will never be given to those who refuse to accept the precious boon of eternal life. Immortality is a gift of God to the overcomer, and it will be bestowed upon them at the resurrection of the just. When the trump of God shall reverberate through the long galleries of the grave, and the righteous dead shall come forth, then, and then only, will man receive immortality.

"Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" 1 Cor. 15: 51-55.