Topic

Immortality

Deathlessness. In Scripture it is attributed to God alone and is presented as something human beings seek and receive rather than something they hold by nature.

Also called: deathlessness, immortal soul, imperishability, athanasia

Paul writes that God alone has immortality, and that Christ brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Elsewhere immortality is sought by patience in well doing, and the perishable puts on the imperishable at the resurrection. That pattern places immortality in the gift rather than in the creature.

The alternative view holds that human beings, uniquely among earthly creatures, are made for endless existence, so that the only question at judgment is where a person spends eternity rather than whether they continue at all. On that reading the image of God carries deathlessness with it.

Scripture never defines the image of God as inherent immortality, and it describes human life as grass, breath, mist and a passing shadow. Whether the soul is naturally deathless is the hinge on which much of this debate turns, which is why it is treated before the disputed passages rather than after them.

What this is not

Terms in this dispute are routinely collapsed into one another. These distinctions are what keep the argument honest.

Immortality is not the same as eternal life, which includes quality and relationship as well as duration.
Surviving into the intermediate state is not the same as being immortal by nature.
The imperishable body of 1 Corinthians 15 is promised to those raised in Christ, not to everyone raised.

Principal passages

1 Timothy 6:15-16Listed in the Scripture index
2 Timothy 1:10Listed in the Scripture index
Romans 2:7Listed in the Scripture index
1 Corinthians 15:50-54Listed in the Scripture index
1 Peter 1:23-24Listed in the Scripture index

Where this is argued in the case

RB2 Does the Image of God Make Humans Immortal?Why the image of God does not entail an indestructible soul, and where Scripture locates immortality instead.
S22 The Biblical Case for Conditional ImmortalityThe synthesis: 1 Corinthians 15 read through, and the short chain of reasoning from perishable bodies to the fate of the soul.
S21 The Tree of Life and Conditional LifeWhat Genesis says the tree did, where it stands in Revelation, and which part of this argument is inference.
S09 Why Final Judgment Is DelayedWhy continued existence before judgment is evidence of God sustaining, not of inherent immortality.

S31 Would God Destroy His Image-Bearers?The good instinct behind the objection, taken seriously, and why it does not lead where the objection supposes.
S32 Why Might Satan and His Angels Have a Different Fate?The author’s reasons, the alternative conditionalist position stated fairly, and why the human case does not depend on this.

Sources for this topic

God Alone Is Immortal. Afterlife (afterlife.co.nz) View original of God Alone Is Immortal (opens in a new tab) Details
Joseph Dear. The Bible Teaches Annihilationism. 1st edition, PDF version. 2016. approximately 590 pages View original of The Bible Teaches Annihilationism (opens in a new tab) Details
Irenaeus of Lyons. Against Heresies. c. AD 174-189. Book II, chapter 34, section 3 View original of Against Heresies (opens in a new tab) Details

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