What is Immortality? by Dudley Marvin Canright

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 11, 1865

What is Immortality?

By Dudley Marvin Canright

THE received definition of immortality, is that it is a principle, or an attribute which if once bestowed upon a being, can never be taken from him. He must live on to all eternity whether God wishes him to or not. Once immortal, and he can bid defiance to his Maker—he can never die. This would not only limit the power of God, but it would place his government in jeopardy. If one or more of these immortal beings should rebel against the government of God, he has a foe that can never be destroyed. Nay even this rebel could not destroy himself if he wished to! Thus he would be compelled to exist not only contrary to the will of the Creator, but against his own desire! To say the least, it looks very absurd that the all-wise God should ever bring into operation such a principle as that. We firmly believe that this is not the nature of immortality.

Our idea of the nature of immortality is this: It is a right, or an access, to the tree of life. Look at the example of Adam and Eve. "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (or dying thou shalt die, margin)." Gen. ii, 8, 9, 16, 17.

Here we see that man could freely eat of the tree of life. Its very name—tree of life denotes its object, viz. to give or maintain life. As long as Adam could eat of this tree of life he would not die whether he were righteous or wicked. What follows proves this to be true. Adam sins—incurs the penalty of death. God had said that in the day that thou eatest of the forbidden fruit thou shalt surely die or dying thou shalt die. Observe now how he carries the penalty into execution; And the Lord God said, "Behold, the man is become as one of us to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever; therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east end of the garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." Gen. iii, 22-24.

After Adam had sinned, the very first thing that the Lord does toward executing the penalty of death upon him, is to cut him off from the tree of life. Why was this? Lest he should eat and live forever. It does not say lest he should eat once and live forever, but eating continues as long as the living—eat and live forever. This demonstrates that as long as Adam could have access to the tree of life he would live, but no longer. If he had never sinned, he would always have had access to the tree of life and would have lived always. Then certainly he would have had immortality. Thus we see that immortality is simply a right, or an access to the tree of life. So long as any being has this right he has immortality. Deprive him of this right and you deprive him of his immortality. That minute he becomes mortal and must die. So it proved in the case of Adam. Dr. A. Clark's comment on Gen. ii, 17, sustains this idea. He says, "Heb., Muth tamuth," literally a death thou shalt die, or dying thou shalt die. "Thou shalt not only die spiritually by losing the life of God: but from that moment thou shalt become mortal, and shalt continue in a dying state till thou die."

To illustrate: A thrifty evergreen tree is growing before your door. It draws its nourishment from the earth—the ground is its source of life. You wish to kill that tree; so you take a spade and cut all around and under it, thus severing all the roots from the ground. Then you set it up on a board, and thus it is entirely cut off from its source of life—the earth. Now does it die that minute? that hour? that day? No, it does not, for the nourishment which it has already obtained will support its life some time. But you watch it: the leaves soon begin to wither, dry up, and turn yellow. The bark begins to shrivel up and the limbs to hang down. At length a leaf falls—then another—

then a limb—and so on till it all turns to the dust from whence it was taken. So with Adam. God pronounced the penalty of death against him. To execute this he cuts him off from his source of life and immortality—the tree of life. Then Adam, like the evergreen tree, soon begins to wither—grows weaker and weaker—and at last dies, and returns to dust. Thus is literally accomplished the threatening, "Dying thou shalt die."

The further the human race has come from the tree of life, the less of its strength is left in them. Hence we find them growing weaker and shorter lived in each successive generation, until now a man is born—looks around—and dies.

That a right to the tree of life constitutes immortality, we think is plainly taught in the New Testament. In 1 Tim. vi, 16, Paul says that God only has immortality; in 2 Tim. i, 10, that it is brought to light through the gospel; in Rom. ii, 7, that we should seek for it; and in 1 Cor. xv, 51-54, he gives us an idea of when and how we shall get it. The whole chapter is an argument on the resurrection. He says, "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 (mark the time): for the trumpet shall sound (this is when Jesus comes 1 Thess. iv, 16), 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." N. B. Immortality is something that can be put on; therefore it can also be put off.

From the above we learn that we get immortality when the resurrection takes place at the coming of Christ. But we are not here told what constitutes immortality. By comparing this with Rev. xxii, 12-14 we shall obtain the desired information. Here, only in different words, the same event is described i. e., the coming of Christ and the bestowal of immortality upon God's people. Says Jesus, "And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. (Now mark the reward). Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Ah! here it is. A right to the tree of life is the reward that Jesus brings with him. Paul calls it immortality; Jesus calls it a right to the tree of life; thus showing that these are synonymous terms. By comparing verses 1-3, with Isa. lxvi, 22, 23, we see that the saints in the new earth will come up and eat of the fruit of the tree of life every month. Thus their immortality will be perpetuated forever.

As our space will not permit a longer argument on this point, we will close by asking a few questions. 1. Why is it necessary for the saints to eat of the fruit of the tree of life if it has nothing to do with immortality? 2. We would ask them who hold that simply once partaking of this fruit will forever bestow immortality, why is it necessary for the saints to continually partake of it?

Having now learned what immortality is, we readily see that God can bestow it upon, or take it from any creature at his will. This leaves immortality entirely in the hands of God and makes the saying of Paul true that "God only has immortality."

D. M. Canright.