By: Gen Jim – 6/11/22
“What? Can you please explain this?” In order to do this I have to give you Plato’s take on “immortality.”
Traditional Proofs
One theologian writes that aside from the question of resurrection, the Greco-Christian view that a man/woman (somehow) survives death & lives on in the hereafter has certainly occupied a secure position in western thought. This “life-after-death” thing has been debated/researched/dismissed blah, blah, blah for centuries. I put together a whole (large) magazine on this subject, drawing from Hebrew/Greek/Jewish/Christian & Pagan theologians, Bible scholars, authors, scientists etc. etc. I dug out all I could find – ancient & contemporary – so as to find out what was/is said about immortality of the soul. (Being in Prison at this writing, sources were very limited.)
Since I don’t have my library to consult, I’ll draw from memory & present a short article.
To Start
Just what is immortality? (from here on I’ll use “I”).
First, how do the Christians/Greeks/Hebrews define Immortality?
Immortal: 1 Tim. 1:17/ “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise…”
note: vv.15-17: v.15 is speaking of Jesus Christ (Son), the Savior; v.16 speaks of Him as well; v.17 (in the KJV) uses “the King eternal, immortal.” In the New Am. Bible uses “the King of ages, incorruptible.” “King of ages:” through Semitic influence, the Greek expression could mean “everlasting King;” it could also mean “King of the universe.” [note: see Ps. 10:16 = “The LORD is King forever & ever…” = eternal; Rom. 1:23 = “and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into…” (KJV); The NAB uses “immortal God,” as do other translations.]
Let’s define “immortal:” The Strong’s Concordance (Greek) has this: apthartos (as a neg. particle) = “undecaying (in essence or continuance): – not (in-, un-) corruptible, immortal. (see aphtharsia = incorruptibility; unending existence; (fig.) genuineness, sincerity”).
There is a Gk. word off the above – phtheirō, meaning “to pine away or waste, to spoil, to ruin, to deprave, to corrupt, defile or destroy.” This tells us that God can’t be destroyed or ruined; neither can the soul of man, for it is eternal. However, as I’ve shown in my Wrath/Hell series, the soul can be separated from the blissful life/light/love of God eternally.
Immortality: Gk./ (see Rom. 2:7; 1 Cor. 15:53,54; 1 Tim. 6:16; 2 Tim. 1:10). Rom. 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:10 are the same as the above defin.; 1 Cor. 15:53,54 is athanasia (as a neg. particle) = “deathless” (another Gk. Word is thanatos = (used as a noun) “death (lit. or fig.) be dead.”
Train of Believers
The list of theologians, scholars, scientists, poets etc. have affirmed the soul’s existence. Cicero once wrote “… somehow or other, there is inherent in the mind of forecast of times to come, & this is especially the case & most readily exhibits itself in the highest character & the loftiest souls” (Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, 2,15 (found in The Basic Works of Cicero, 1951, by Robert Black).
Heretic & Christianity hater, Voltaire, had to admit that the world was profoundly indebted to the New Testament (NT) for its teaching concerning the future state of man. Voltaire, like Karl Marx (& Stalin) set out to dethrone God & destroy Christianity. How have their efforts worked out for them? Their souls are in an eternal HELL while, the departed Christians are in the bosom of the Father & the Son ETERNALLY, i.e. FOREVER & EVER!
For the Record
Philosophy of religion (be it Christian or secular) is philosophizing in a more or less analytic manner about religion. This is not the same as theologizing, which is more restrictive. One can use philosophy as a means to analyze language, concepts, ideas, methods etc. But when one does a Bible study one must ask, what did the authors want to relate to others, i.e. their audience, what was the context & content, the culture, the time, place etc. Philosophical theology encompasses a number of issues, immortality being one of them. But, for the most part, study/discussion revolves around ONE central issue: God. And, as we know, this takes one on the Yellow Brick Road into: “does He exist at all?” Dogmatics, dialectical theology, ecclesiology, ecumenism, efficient causality, empiricalism, anhypostatic/enhypostasis, epistemology, eschatology, essentialism, exegesis, Christo-centrism/Christology, cognitionism, contextualization, deductivism, demythologizing, anthropocentricism, hermeneutical theology, heuristicism, historical theology, idealism, ideology, paradigm, perdition, pragmaticism, reductionism, relativism, revelation, scholastic theology, prolegomenaism, propaedeutics, propositionalism, rationality, realism theology, immutability, impossibility divine, infallibility, infinite, inter-subjectivity, liberal theology/orthodox theology, logico-deductiveism, logos, Christology, metaphysics, – Christological/classical/idealist, transcendental philosophy, Univ. history, secularism, sovereignty, speculative, subjectivity, systematic theology, theocentric, theodicy, theonomous, pluralism, polemic, pragmaticism, predestinationism, process theology, etc. etc. etc. add to the list meta-theological, methodology, mysticism, mythology, neo-orthodoxy, neo-scholastic, omnipotence /omnipresence, ontic/ontology, original sin, Hell, damnation, wrath, fury, indignation, eternally lost but not dead!
The Soul That Sinneth
“The soul who sins shall die…” – Ezek. 18:20. I have written on this in other writings (my “Hell” series). Some take this to mean – soul – as not the body but the real person, soul. Others believe it is another word for “person,” i.e. soul. Ezek. 18:4 says the same thing (NKJV). Paul wrote: “The wages of sin is death…” – Rom. 6:23.
The soul, e.g. (Hebrew) nephesh/nâphash = “to breath, breathed upon (as in Gen. 2:7 = man became a living soul, i.e. person.) Man, i.e. male & female, became a living soul/person, having a body & a soul. The Strong’s gives a lengthy def. for soul. Jesus uses the word psyche (Gk.) in Mt. 10:28 et al., meaning the rational & immortal soul, + us, + you, + me. The author of Hebrews writes about the soul & spirit of man. Paul writes about “… your whole spirit, soul, & body” in 1 Thes. 5:23, a tri-unity. In short, man is a soul, has a spirit, & lives in a body.
So, soul can mean either the inner man or woman or the man or woman themselves.
Q. Can a soul die, as Ezek. says? Can it be as Jesus said, “…do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to DESTROY both soul & body in hell,” i.e. (Gk.) Gehenna (lake of fire). In my Hell booklets I go into great detail on this subject. The word “destroy” does not in any wise mean annihilate as many believe. The soul/spirit cannot die – they only die in the fig. sense, for they are immortal. If Hell /Hades /Gehenna did not exist, the Bible authors would never use these words, nor would Jesus. Death is the SEPARATION of soul from body, but then it lives on. This is our study.
Old Job
There is no doubt that Job was the question-asking-man: “If a man die, shall he live again?” – Job 14:14. If no then no worry; if yes, where will one go, Heaven or Hell? Job spoke of a SHEOL (17:16 – “Will they go down to the gates of Sheol? Shall we have rest together in the dust?” Was he referring to the place of the (physically dead (for the body) or the place of the soul, Hell?) Sheol, in the O.T., was known as the place of the dead, a grave. But can or does it mean the place of the dead (being spiritually separated) for the soul? (see my “Hell” series).
Job used the word Hell (11:8/26:6 NKJV) as well: Hell/Sheol (Heb. she’ôwl or she’ôl = “hades or the world of the dead, grow, hell, pit” Hell/Sheol had not been defined clearly in the O.T. times, but Jesus & the New Testament authors made it clear: Hell (Gk.) Gehenna = “valley of Hinnom/Gehenna, a place (or state) of everlasting punishment,” (a pit where refuse was burnt outside Jerusalem). Hell (Gk.) Hadēs = “the place (or state) of the dead, i.e. departed souls (i.e. grave for the soul: body went into ground, back to dust till the resurrection of the dead for judgment. Hell/Hades was like a jail where the convicted awaited trial, then sentenced to prison, i.e. Gehenna, lake of fire, i.e. the second death (Rev. 21:8). [note: there is another Gk. word used to describe the hereafter: “Tartaroō = “the deepest abyss of Hades, to incarcerate in eternal torment = “to cast down to Hell!” – “For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but CAST THEM DOWN to HELL (“tartarus”) & delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment” – 2 Pet. 2:4 -read on if you think the sinners will merely go to the (physical) grave.
Immortality//Pascal
Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662), French thinker (see his Pensées & the Provincial Letters), wrote: “The Immortality of the soul is a matter which is of great consequence to us, & which touches us so profoundly that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent as to knowing what it is.” (No.194). “All feeling to be indifferent as to knowing what it is.” This sums up today’s Church/world (with exceptions). Most today don’t consider the consequence of their actions – or lack of them. Hell is far from their minds.
The Hereafter
We know that in the Old Testament times and before the rise of philosophy (around 600 B.C.) the Greeks had only a vague /pessimistic idea of the hereafter, i.e. eternity. Homer (for you Homer fans) believed the soul is a shadowy something that departs the body at physical death & is transported across the, what he called, the gloomy river Styx to the House of Hades – abiding indefinitely in the “dank darkness of the underworld.”
As per Sheol (place of the departed) was as unknown as the Greek Hades (see Plato’s, Phaedo, 67 & The Last Days of Socrates, translated by Hugh Tredennick (1954).
Thru the decades /centuries this unknown-ness underwent a radical revolution/reformulation. The classical Gk. puts the body & soul in different categories – the soul superior to the body.
Securing A Future
Most people want to secure happiness, health, peace & prosperity. Fewer want to secure their eternal destiny – there are multitudes of ways people seek to find & secure what would make them healthy wise & prosperous – taking human life if need be!
There are those who think being a “good person” guarantees a secure future. Well, the Bible never, ever teaches this. There are conditions to meet (see my articles on the “if” / “then” clause – please study this clause). Eccl. 9:18 says “Just one sinner can destroy much good.” Prov. 14:12 tells us, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to DEATH” (both physical/spiritual). James wrote, “you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.” – Ja. 4:14. The Bible is chucked full of good advice & also plenty of warning of doom & gloom for the person /persons who follow THEIR OWN WAY. I have mentioned certain men that were philosophers /Christians /pagans. The Bible WARNS the readers that false teachers/prophets (and pagans) will be prosecuted/punished forever. Peter warned his readers that “There were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will introduce destructive heresies…” – 2 Pet. 2:1. One false teaching is that “all will (eventually) be saved; no one will go to Hell!” Another is “once saved always saved.” There are plenty more but what does the Bible really say about the SAVED & the DAMNED? (I have dozens & dozens of articles in print on this).
Mixing Philosophy with N.T. Theology
This dualistic idea is reflected in many books/writings by both Christians & non-Christians. Hesiod’s Theogony was passed along by Orphics & the Phythagoreans.
Call upon the Lord Jesus Christ & be saved! (1 Tim. 2:4)