Has Man an Immortal Nature?
By John Nevins Andrews
THIS question is worthy of serious consideration, for many important consequences depend on the answer given to it. If all men are immortal by nature, then every member of the human family will live to all eternity. The greater part of mankind live and die in sin, but, if they all possess immortality, wicked men will live as long as God shall live, and unless God has some way to save them in their sins, they will be eternally miserable. If men possess an immortal nature they must at death enter upon the bliss of the saved or the misery of the damned. This doctrine, therefore, sets aside the necessity of a future day of judgment, for it makes it necessary that men should be judged when they die. Moreover, as the vast majority of mankind die in wickedness, if they are by nature immortal, we must believe that at death this innumerable host enter upon a state of endless misery. Nor is this the only consequence of the doctrine especially worthy of attention. Vast numbers who die in sin have never had any greater light than the dim light of nature. Even in Christian lands millions of young people, who have but just commenced to be accountable to God, die in sin. All these if immortal are destined to an endless sinful life. Is it then true that God endows human beings with immortality at the commencement of their existence? If such be the case the most degraded of our race are in their spiritual nature immortal as the angels of God; and the Cannibals, the Esquimaux, the Hottentots, Digger Indians, and the most debased and imbecile of the Negro tribes—races that for the most part have no idea of God, or of a future existence, are all immortal and destined to an endless miserable existence. Do men already possess immortality, or are they to seek for it as the recompense for well-doing? Has God made man immortal, or has he instead of this made him with the capacity to seek for immortality? Does God give to men immortality when he gives them existence, or does he give it in the day of judgment to those that he finds worthy to receive it? Do we have immortality through Adam or through Christ? To answer these questions we appeal, not to human reason or to mental philosophy, but to the word of God. Life and immortality have been brought to light through the gospel; 2 Tim. 1:10. God our Creator has spoken on this subject and it becomes us to listen to his words with reverent attention. The Scriptures reveal to us man's origin, nature, and destiny. They speak of everything pertaining to his existence. He is represented as consisting of body, soul, and spirit, and each of these elements of his being is largely treated of in the Scriptures. If man is immortal as a whole or in any one of the constituent parts which compose his being, the Scriptures will undoubtedly reveal that fact. The words rendered soul in the Old and New Testaments occur in the Hebrew and Greek 851 times, and the words rendered spirit in the Old and New Testaments occur about the same number of times. We have then about 1700 passages which mention either the soul or spirit, and we have innumerable passages which speak of the body; also a very great number of passages which speak of man as a whole. There is therefore the most abundant opportunity for the Spirit of God to reveal the doctrine of man's immortality. What then do the Scriptures say with reference to the immortality of man's entire being? And what do they say concerning the immortality of his body, or of his soul, or of his spirit? They never speak of man as an immortal being. On the contrary they speak of him as mortal and corruptible and under sentence of death. Job 7:1; Rom. 1:23; Heb. 9:27. Though the term soul is used in so great a number of instances, it is never called immortal nor is any similar term applied to it. The same is true with respect to the spirit. The Scriptures are silent concerning the immortality of soul or spirit of man. When we read modern religious authors we find that they rarely speak of the soul or spirit of man without uniting with it the term immortal or deathless; but when we read the sacred writers, though they speak of the soul or spirit some 1700 times, there is not one instance in which they connect the word immortal or any similar word with either the soul or spirit. Yet these men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Pet. 1:21. But do the Scriptures say nothing concerning immortality? They use the term but they use it sparingly. In the entire Bible this word is found but five times and we give each of the instances. In 2 Tim. 1:10, we are told that life and immortality are brought to light through the gospel. This is an assurance that the New Testament writers correctly understood the subject of immortality. In 1 Tim. 6:16 we are told that God only hath immortality. Certainly this represents immortality as something peculiar to the Almighty. In Rom. 2:7, we learn that immortality is something which the people of God are to seek after, whence it follows that they do not now have it in possession. In 1 Cor. 15:53, 54, the two remaining instances in which the term immortality is employed in the Bible, we learn that the people of God receive immortality at the sound of the last trumpet. These five passages contain every instance where the word immortality is used in the Bible and they clearly show that immortality is not something man inherits by nature; that it is given to those who seek after it by patient continuance in well-doing; that the wicked will never receive it, and that it will not be given even to the just till the sound of the last trumpet. The word immortal occurs but once in our translation of the Scriptures. It is applied not to man but to God. "The King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God." Immortality then is something of infinite value which God alone possesses, and it is given, not to all mankind without respect to character, but only to those whom God finds worthy to receive it when the books are examined before him. The subject merits our serious attention and we invite the reader to unite with us in giving it a thorough investigation. J. N. A.