A Living Soul
Ever play Jenga? The game ends when the tower falls. The tower falls when you move a key block that upends the base and upsets the balance. Arghhhhh!
The key block in the Endless Torment Jenga is immortality of the soul. Remove that piece and the whole thing collapses.
In my own personal search of the Scriptures on eternal destiny, the unraveling of what I’d always been taught, thus the hemming of what has predominantly been set forth, had everything to do with an immaterial part of man that cannot die.
While surveying Bible commentaries and dictionaries it soon became evident that most writers postulated the immortality of the soul as the starting point of any discussion on death, the intermediate state, and final judgment. I would dare say of all of our absorbed creedal assumptions, this one is the most foundational and pervasive. Like our idea of hell itself, the undying soul was unquestioned and unquestionable.
So for me the nagging question became “Where does the Bible teach the immortality of the soul?” I wanted chapter and verse. It suddenly struck me after thirty years of indoctrination including four years of Bible college, I didn’t know the answer. “Never dying soul” was one of my favorite clerical cliches. Surely something so basic would be plainly revealed by a multitude of clear texts. But I couldn’t think of a one.
So I began asking friends who were students of the Scriptures. In accord with the commentaries and dictionaries there was no “verily” verse cited, yet the theory was maintained as an undeniable fundamental. Some wondered if the worm that “dieth not” could be the immortal soul, or suggested that being made in the image of God implied immortality. All seemed sure that God breathing into man’s nostrils the breath of life resulting in man becoming a living soul was proof enough. Others drew back as if in fear of being infected by even entertaining such a heretical inquiry.
Somewhere along the way someone recommended the book Immortality, considered the classic defense of the orthodox view well-written by esteemed theologian Loraine Boettner. Boettner carefully defined the word: “Immortality means the eternal, continuous, conscious existence of the soul after the death of the body.” By the time he considered the “Scripture Teaching Regarding Immortality” (point 8 in chapter 2), he made this astounding admission: “In general the Bible treats the subject of the immortality of the soul in much the same way that it treats the existence of God, — such belief is assumed as an undeniable postulate.” Assumed? Yes, according to Boettner- assumed, not expressed; implicit, not explicit; and yet, undeniable. Incredible!
He then curiously proceeded to cite texts about the resurrection of the body as proof of the survival of the soul (such as Job 19:25, 26; Psalm 16:10; 17:15; Ecclesiastes 12:7; Acts 2:31). These verses show conclusively that any hope of future life was in an after-death raising of the body, not an afterlife consciousness of the soul.
And that’s the classic defense.
But this is what I wanted to know: What is written? Have ye not read? What saith it?
A Berean search revealed that only God is immortal, the soul can and will die, and eternal life is not the intrinsic possession of the soul but rather the gracious gift of God, and is not received by our first birth in Adam but by our second birth in Christ!
That God is immortal and man is not is evident: “Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen” (1 Timothy 6:16). Only is unshared. That man was created in God’s image is no more an argument for man’s immortality as it would be for man’s omnipotence or omnipresence.
In 1 Timothy 1:17 “immortal” is listed between “eternal” and “invisible,” adjectives that exclusively describe “the only wise God.” To single out immortality as the one attribute of God bestowed upon man created in his image is arbitrary and illogical. Why not invisible?
Romans 1:23 contrasts “the glory of the uncorruptible God'' and “an image made like to corruptible man.” One of Job’s pitiful comforters asks a question that expresses an understood difference between God and man, “Shall mortal man be more just than God?” (Job 4:17).
God alone is immortal. Eternal life is the gift given by the immortal God to mortal man, not the result of souls surviving separation from our bodies, but by our bodies being raised and changed at the resurrection: “this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53). We don’t have it; we have to get it.
“Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life” (Romans 2:6, 7). If immortality is something we seek, then it is not something we possess.
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). Man was not given a soul; he became one. The breath of life animated the dust of the ground. The soul is not a distinct immaterial entity inside a man. Man doesn’t have a soul; he is one. “The first man Adam was made a living soul” (1 Corinthians 15:45). And it’s evidence of the pervasive power of absorbed creedal assumptions that anyone would presume that a “living soul” could not die. “Every living soul died in the sea” (Revelation 16:3).
And worms are worms, feeding on "carcases" (Isaiah 66:24), thus speaking of dead bodies, not undying souls.
Scripture uses the word “soul” as synonymous with individual, person, or personhood. Genesis chapter 46 numbers the souls: “all the souls... were thirty and three” (v. 15); “even sixteen souls” (v. 18); “all the souls were fourteen” (v. 22); “all the souls were seven” (v. 25); “all the souls were threescore and six” (v. 26); “two souls” (v. 27) “all the souls… were threescore and ten” (vs. 27). It’s interesting to note that “the souls… came out of his (Jacob’s) loins” (v. 26) and “were born” (v. 27), hardly language of the orthodox idea of an ethereal occupant, some kind of invisible ghostly passenger.
And in spite of traditional insistence to the contrary, Scripture says the soul can and will die:
Matthew 10:28 is a conundrum for defenders of endless torment. They employ it as evidence of the soul surviving the death of the body while avoiding the prospect of the soul being destroyed in hell. Here’s what it says: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Luke adds a few details: “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him” (12:4, 5). This is no dilemma for the Conditionalist. Man can kill the body, but only God can ultimately destroy the person. It's the difference between the first and second death.
It is contradictory to suppose that a man could “lose his own soul” (Matthew 16:26; Cf. Mark 8:36; Luke 9:25) and yet it be his soul that endures conscious torment. Where’s the man? But it makes perfect sense in happy harmony with the comprehensive coherency of Scripture on the subject when understood in the context of “whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it… For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works” (Matthew 16:25, 27). Ah, here is that consistent contrast of “perish” or “everlasting life”- a life that ends or endless life. The soul, the person, the individual life, is lost. To “lose his own soul” is to “lose himself” and “lose his life.”
Some who assert the immortality of the soul as associated evidence of endless torment will nevertheless carefully qualify that immortality is not innate but derived from God. Innate immortality would mean that every immortal soul will inevitably live forever somewhere- it’s just a matter of where, heaven or hell. Derived immortality presents the ghastly alternative (in the case of the wicked dead) that God must keep people alive in order to torment them.
In my reading it seems that some orthodox evangelicals have conceded the weakness of basing their argument for ongoing agony on undying souls, and a few have outright abandoned it. “The natural immortality of the soul question is irrelevant here,” vainglorious John Gerstner maintained. “God can make it and the body immortal if He chooses, everyone admits. The only question is whether He does so choose. I have shown that a holy and just God must make the sinner’s body and soul immortal in order that he receive his deserved punishment” Prolific author Jack Cottrell agrees: “The bottom line is this: the doctrine of hell as eternal conscious suffering is in no way dependent on the false notion of an immortal soul. The souls of the wicked, along with their replacement bodies, exist forever because God wills it, period.” So instead of the Divine Oops (see chapter ?), it’s the Diabolical Ogre.
In summary, immortality is the exclusive possession of God- “who only hath immortality” (1 Timothy 6:16). Eternal life is “the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23), who “abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10). Scripture uses “soul” to refer to personhood and says unequivocally that it can and will die. Becoming a living soul is not equivalent to having an undying one. Being made in the image of God is no more indicative of being immortal as it is of being omnipotent or invisible. And worms are worms.
The definitive proclamation of the New Testament is the resurrection of the dead, not the continued existence of an immortal soul. Paul was certain “if the dead rise not… then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished” (1 Corinthians 15:16-18). Think about that! If there is no resurrection, believers have perished! No resurrection? No survival. If souls are immortal, he should have said, “If the dead rise not… then the souls which are fallen asleep in Christ will not get their bodies back.” But no, he says they “are perished.”
For those counting on undying souls to defend unending torture, that's a vital piece pulled from the stack. With that block removed the tower falls and the game is over.
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