Immortal
Souls?
Damned souls. Detail, Beaune Altarpiece
van der Weyden. c 1450
The common concept among most Christians about the
"soul" of man goes something like this:
"Man has a
conscious, supernatural component in him, separate from his
body, called
the 'soul.' Although his body can die and decay, this soul is immortal. That word immortal means that
it can never die or be destroyed, even by God Himself.
After his body dies, man's immortal soul exists forever. Since it is immortal, it must exist
somewhere
for eternity. For the "saved," that will mean a conscious
existence, beginning immediately after death, in the presence of God, and blessings for ever and
ever. For the unsaved, that will mean a conscious existence,
beginning immediately after death,
separate from God, and torture and torment in the flames of
Hell for ever and ever."
Is that
description accurate, and supported clearly by the Bible?
Beginning
at the Beginning
The phrase
"immortal soul" is not in the Bible at all. That does not
mean that the concept can't be biblical, but this
fact should cause
the serious Bible student to at least stop and consider carefully what is
the biblical basis for the belief that souls have the kind
of immortality proposed by the statement above.
For you see, the word "immortal" is only found in the KJV
once, in I Timothy 1:17, and it there refers to God.
Now to the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for
ever and ever. (I Timothy 1:17)
And the
word "immortality" only occurs 5 times, only in the letters
of Paul. And all of these instances need to be considered in
the light of this scripture:
... the King of Kings, and Lord
of lords, who only hath immortality... (I Timothy 6:15‑16)
In the
other "immortality" scriptures, "immortality" is something
which can be aspired to by humans, but is not inherent in
them. In fact, Paul says...
For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. (Romans 6:23)
"Eternal
life" is given as the opposite of "death." And such eternal life is
not inherent
in man, but must come as a gift from God.
Since I
Timothy clearly states God alone is immortal, how did man
come up with the concept of the "immortality of the soul"?
Definition
of Immortal
The real confusion
may be in the common definition of "immortal." In
one sense, according to the Bible, there is a component in man that continues past the
death of our physical body. It is immortal in the sense that it
is not subject to the physical "decay" (mortality) of the flesh. This
component is what is commonly referred to as the soul. The mistake is
in assuming that this kind of "after‑life" of the soul's existence
means it can never cease to exist. The Bible does
not say
that the soul has that kind of inherent "immortality." Even
though it cannot physically decay, the Bible clearly says
that God can destroy the soul. God alone has inherent
immortality, the kind that is "never‑ending existence." He
can
bestow that kind of immortality on humans as a gift. But if He
does not, the soul is subject to destruction.
Do not be
afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.
Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and
body in hell [Greek: Gehenna]. (Matthew
10:28)
Those who
are absolutely convinced by their own reasoning from other
scriptures that the human soul cannot possibly come to an
end are forced to invent creative ways to interpret
this verse so that it does not mean what it clearly seems to
mean. One suggestion is that the word "destroy" in the
passage doesn't really mean to bring something to an end. It
rather implies to "cut off from God." Thus separation for
all eternity from the presence of God is viewed as
equivalent to destruction. But there is absolutely nothing
in the meaning of the Greek word used in this verse that even hints
at such a notion. The word, apollumi (Strong's Greek
Lexicon word #G622), is said by Strong to mean "destroy
fully." There are other Greek words that could easily have
been used if the intent was to imply mere separation from
God.
For further
exploration of the nature of the soul, see the article
Body, Soul, Spirit, Heart, Mind
elsewhere on this website.
Immortal
Worms?
One passage
often used to establish that the souls of the unsaved can
never be destroyed, and are subject to permanent torture in
an ever-burning Hell, is this from Mark:
And if
your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with
one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell
[Greek: Gehenna],
where
"their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched."
(Mark 9:47-48)
See the
article Immortal Worms on
this website for commentary on these verses.
This site contains a collection
of articles, on the topic of Hell and the Afterlife, that may
each be used independently for research purposes. But it also is
designed as a systematic, sequential overview of the whole
topic, which can be read like a book.
For those who would like to take
advantage of this perspective of the content, the articles are
arranged in the
Reading Guide as they would appear as chapters in a book, along
with a few reference chapters at the end such as would appear in
a book Appendix.
