The immortality of the soul - a grievous error of doctrine (Part 1)

There is no Death! What seems so is transition; This life of mortal breath Is but a suburb of the life elysian, Whose portal we call Death.

Part 1: What is death

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 

The serpent in Eden pronounced the first lie of creation. God had told Adam and Eve that if they ate of the Tree of Knowledge, they would die. God's words were unequivocal, yet for some reason the serpent thought differently. Sadly, Eve believed the serpent's lie and as a result of her and Adam's sin in taking of the Tree of Knowledge, God pronounced that terrible sentence of mortality on man.

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Go back and read God's warning and commandment to Adam and Eve in Genesis 2 v 15-17. 

It's pretty clear isn't it ...”you will surely die". In actual fact, the wording from the original text is better rendered,  "dying, you shall die” and denotes not only the experience of death itself but the sentence of mortality that went with it. The punishment was everything from that point forwards which inevitably lead to them drawing their last breath. They had to suffer the removal of their ability to commune directly with God, the giving to them of a nature of mortality which would be subject to sorrow, suffering and disease and, at the end of that existence, the finality of death. 

So, we're all clear on God's punishment to Adam and Eve (and to mankind as a whole - refer Romans 5 v 12) aren't we? Man sinned; Death followed as the punishment for sin, coupled with mortality and suffering. 

How to reconcile this with the doctrine of the immortality of the soul? 

Think for a minute about what you hear from the church pulpit. Your soul is going to heaven at death, isn't it? So, in the words of Longfellow, death is not really death - it is merely the portal, the way to transition from the earthly plane to the heavenly plane. 

Death, for the ministers of the established churches is the time at which either reward (heaven) or punishment (hell) is meted out. It is a transition phase. Does this sound like a punishment to you? No? It doesn't to me either and yet God very clearly intended death to be the punishment for sin So, how can we reconcile God's words with this doctrine? In short, we can't - because the idea of the immortality of the soul runs contrary to every part of God's punishment in Eden. It is but a continuation of the serpent's lie - you shall not surely die.

The complete cessation of life. 

Solomon was one of the wisest men who ever lived. He wrote extensively about the futility of mortal life on this earth. If you have time, read the entire book of Ecclesiastes. 

You'll find it full of very insightful, honest commentary about the state of mankind and the pointlessness of existence on this earth. He uses the word "vanity" as translated in the KJV, meaning a vapour or a wisp of smoke. That was man's life in Solomon's estimation, a temporary thing which lasts for a mere instant and then disappears, never to be seen again. 

And so, we come to Ecclesiastes Chapter 9, which contains possibly the clearest description of death and its consequences. 

For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. 

Death is the end of life. 

When life ceases, consciousness ceases. When consciousness ceases so does memory, emotion - everything that comes with life.  If you're tempted to kick against this rather uncomfortable truth, consider the words of Hezekiah in Isaiah 38 v 18-20. 

Hezekiah had just been told that his sickness would result in his untimely death. He was mourning that his life would be cut off when Isaiah told him that God had extended his life by 15 years. His song of thanksgiving to God is recorded from verse 9 onwards, but take note of the three verses I referred to above.  

For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth. The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD. (Isaiah 38 v 18-20)  

It's pretty clear how Hezekiah understood death. His death would result in his life being ended and his ability to praise God ceasing. The living praise the Lord, not the dead and this is entirely consistent with Solomon's observations in Ecclesiastes and in God's words to Adam and Eve. There's no harps on clouds in heaven. 

It's a lie as grievous as any that has ever been told because it gives man false hope of an afterlife. 

The allure of the immortality of the soul

Mankind has wanted to escape the consequences of Adam's sin from the moment that it occurred. The immortality of the soul was invented as a doctrine to provide the means of doing that. Most ancient civilisations had some version of this doctrine in their religion. "You don't die, you live on or pass over". 

Sorry to break it to you but, in actual fact, you don't. Once you die, that's it - at least that's it without the redemptive work of God.

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6 v 23.   

There is hope of escaping the permanence of death but it only comes through Jesus Christ. We'll talk more on that later and circle back to show why his Second Coming to this earth is crucial to this hope. I challenge all who read to the end of this blog to make a choice as to the basis of their hope. Do you choose the words of Solomon and Hezekiah or the words of Longfellow and the Churchmen of your age? Your life literally depends on you making the right choice.