Immortality

Question: How do you prove the immortality of the soul?

In the Bible, immortality as applied to man is used of the body and not of the soul, but I suppose the question means: How do you prove that there is a future existence after death?

We prove it from the Bible. In another of my books, I have proven that the Bible is the Word of God and that all its teachings are absolutely reliable. ("Powerful Faith"). The Bible teaches beyond a doubt that all men will be raised from the dead - the righteous to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment (John 5:28-29). It furthermore teaches what the exact state of those who accept Christ and of those who reject Christ will be in the future eternal existence. Moreover, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the best-proven facts of history and demonstrably proves that death is not the end of everything.

There are scientific and philosophical arguments for immortality, but if we leave out the arguments that are built on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, all these other arguments prove is the probability of life after death, the probability of a future existence. However, when we include the arguments based on the Bible - above all, the resurrection of Jesus Christ - our belief in a future existence is no longer based on a mere probability. It is removed from the domain of the merely probable into the domain of the absolutely certain and proven.

Question: Do the Scriptures teach conditional immortality?

The doctrine of conditional immortality is that man is naturally mortal and only gains immortality in Christ. There is an element of truth in the belief that man is naturally mortal. Since man began to exist at one point, he could, of course, cease to exist. But it is the plain teaching of Scripture that all the sons of Adam receive endless existence through Christ. In 1 Corinthians 15:22, we are told that "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive." If we deal fairly with these words, one "all" is as comprehensive as the other. Everyone who loses existence in Adam, who returns to the dust (Genesis 3:19; 5:5), is raised from the dust in Christ. The whole race gets back in Christ what it lost in Adam.

But whether this existence, this immortality that we receive in Christ, will be a resurrection to life or a resurrection to judgment and everlasting shame and contempt (John 5:28-29; Daniel 12:2) depends entirely on what we do with he Christ in whom we receive it. Every man's endless existence becomes an existence of unspeakable blessedness if he accepts Christ, but that existence becomes an existence of unspeakable misery if he rejects Christ. It is  "the second death" (Revelation 21:8), a share with the devil and his angels in the lake of fire prepared for them (Matthew 25:41), a portion in the lake of fire where there is no rest, day or night, forever and ever (Revelation 20:10).

~R. A. Torrey~