After death — What? The question is of paramount importance and ought not to be brushed aside; for what lies beyond can no more be avoided than death itself. No prolongation of the expectation of life, no improvement in medical techniques amounts to the abolition of death which, sooner or later, overtakes every one. For all our boasted progress, everyone in our gener­ation is as mortal as in the generations that have gone. 'We must needs die'. Then what? The question refuses to be disregarded, and throughout history only a minority has dared to answer 'There is nothing beyond'.

The awe-inspiring element of finality which attaches to death is too obvious to call for argument.

As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.Job 7:9

As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up; so man lieth down and riseth not: till the heavens be no more they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.Job 14:11, 12  

If the dead still exist they do not come back to tell us what continued existence in a disembodied condition is like. (Spiritists, or Spiritualists, claim that they have contact through mediums with some of the dead. This is not the time to dispute their claim, but obviously these people have no doubt about the existence of the soul after it leaves the body).

Nevertheless, in spite of the obvious finality of death, men have from earliest times and with a remarkable consensus persisted in demanding, 'If a man die, shall he live again?' (Job 14:14).

This consensus, prevailing throughout the whole span of human history, points unmistakably to an innate conviction alongside that of belief in the existence of God, and the distinction between right and wrong in the order of first principles which are intuitively acknowledged. To emphasize this point, I shall briefly mention two or three diverse cultures in which belief in personal immortality is a marked feature.

The ancient writings of the Babylonian civilization show that the Babylonians believed in a life beyond the grave. One excavated cone, obviously from a coffin, had an inscription praying anyone 'who finds this coffin to leave it in its place', and closes with words of blessing on him who does this: 'May his name be blessed in the upper-world and in the under­world; may his disembodied spirit drink clear water.' The writings of ancient Assyrians describe the experiences which they believed their friends had in a lower world. The Egyptians believed the departed spirit would later return to the body, and so they went to great lengths in embalming dead bodies to make them fit for the return of the spirit. The Greeks put a silver coin in the mouth of the corpse to pay its passage across the river. Their famous poets made frequent allusions to the soul's immortal state. Homer, for example, describes the descent of Ulysses into hell. Some describe the punishment of wrongdoers, e.g. Ixion who was fastened to a wheel and whirled about continually. Others describe the place of the virtuous as Elysian fields where souls enjoy perpetual bliss. Famous Greek philosophers most assuredly believed in the soul's existence after death. Socrates spoke of it at great length before his death, and as he had done in his writings, he gives as good a vindication of the belief as anyone destitute of Scripture light could do, arguing that the soul acts from a principle intrinsic in its own nature, and not from the influences of some external cause, as things material do. He also argued that if death were the final dissolution of being, the wicked would be great gainers by it by being delivered at once from their bodies, their souls and their vices; but as the soul is immortal, it has no other means of being freed from its evils but by becoming very good and very wise. Plato did not believe in immortality in the strictest sense, only in the transmigration of souls into other bodies. He believed, that is, in a temporary existence of the soul after death.

Until the emergence of the Marxist State in modern times, it is doubtful if any civilization or culture can be found which denied belief in immortality; and time alone will tell whether the masses of people subjected to Communism have in fact shared the official unbelief of the system. Certain it is that a review of times, ancient and modern, highlights this belief among the technologically sophisticated Babylonians, the philosophically profound Greeks, the barbaric Norsemen and the naïve Eskimoes, of whom Alexander Pope has written:                             

Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutored mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
Whose soul proud science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk or milky way;
Yet simple nature to his hope has giv'n,
Behind the cloud-topped hill, an humbler heav'n.

Nor should we overlook the fact that in the great non-Christian religions (in­cluding Hinduism, Mohammedanism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Shin­toism) belief in immortality in some form is quite explicit.

All that we have observed, so far, does not, of course, amount to an authoritative demonstration of the validity of the belief. But the widespread non-collusive prevalence of the belief and its persistence from century to century argue very powerfully that it has its roots deep in the very heart of man.

If this is so, how are we to explain the modern phenomenon of unbelief? For it can hardly be disputed that for some years now our thinking and cul­ture have been increasingly alienated from the notion of the reality of another life. I would suggest that the most potent factor, though by no means the only one, which accounts for this is the widespread credence given to the theory of biological evolution. This theory contradicts the Divine revela­tion, and so undermines the authority of Scripture. It severs God from the world, and deposes man from the noble estate allotted to him in creation as in the image of God. Far from being the offspring of God, man is, in this view 'merely an accident in the cosmic process'. This is the view held by materialistic scientists for whom the problem of man's destiny has been completely eradicated. Conscious life, it is maintained, is only a function of the brain, and when the material organism of the brain dissolves after death, it is impossible for life to continue.

But though there is a subtle and intricate relationship between the mind and the brain, no one would be so bold as to undertake to demonstrate that the destruction of the brain involves the extinction of life. If that were the case, it would more or less equate man with 'the beasts that perish'. But 'how much better is a man than a sheep?' exclaims our Saviour. Man is better than any other earthly creature because he is endowed with reason and conscience, and both of these are essentially of more than sense or time. It has been well said that 'the intelligence which knows things in time is not, and cannot be itself of time, and indeed, there could not be for us such a conception as that of time if we, who conceive it, did not stand above it.'

As with the rational life, so with the moral conscience. Conscience neither seeks its authority from the things of this world, nor binds itself to justify its laws by them. So that man, even if he denies his own immortality, is com­pelled by the very nature of his being, to live as if he were immortal. Every time he deliberates, and every time he strives to attain the ethical ideal, he lives according to principles, and laws which cannot be fulfilled in his life in this world. Is it then consistent with reason to say that the climax of the labour of evolution is to make a being who is to live under eternal principles, and for eternal ends and yet under temporal conditions? Even a heathen philosopher said, 'God and nature do nothing in vain'.

In an article on 'God and Human Religion and Morals', Benjamin Warfield points out that man differs from other earthly creatures in that 'he is constantly and profoundly sensible of his dependence and obligation and they are not'. He continues:

It is because man is conscious of his dependence that he is a religious being. And it is because he is conscious of his obligation that he is a moral being ... Religion is not only the natural, but the necessary, product of man's sense of dependence, which always abides as the innermost essence of the whole crowd of emotions, which we speak of as religious, the lowest and also highest. Similarly man's fundamental sense of obligation gives its character to the whole range of his activities which we speak of as moral, up to the most lofty and complicated of them all...

...Both religion and morality are rooted in God, live in God, and in all the stages of their development, and phases of their manifestation alike reflect man's essential relations to God, relations of dependence and obligation, in which again, as when he was unfallen, he shall, now that he is redeemed and in process of sanctification and in prospect of glorification, ever find his chief joy.¹

Another explanation for present-day disregard of the fact of immortality is the broad-fronted impact of modernistic theology, with its anti-supernatural prejudice. Under the influence of this prejudice all biblical statements on the supernatural are reduced to the status of legend or myth or misconception. Adherence to the theology of the Bible is synonymous with obscurantism, and evangelistic exhortations which refer to death and the hereafter are regarded as offensive to good taste.

I mention these things, not, I hope, in a critical spirit, but because it is conspicuously and lamentably true that 'the prophets prophesy falsely', and the people 'love to have it so'.

But it is time now to state and examine the subject from the biblical point of view.

Immortality in the biblical sense is the continuing and endless conscious existence of the soul after its separation from the body, the separation which we describe as death. In the biblical view this separation is not permanent, for re-union of body and soul will take place at the time of the resurrection, both of believers and unbelievers. Inevitably, therefore, an exposition of the biblical doctrine of immortality involves reference to the resurrection.

It is sometimes said that this doctrine is not taught directly and explicitly in the Old Testament. This is quite true; but as Louis Berkhof points out in his Systematic Theology, the Bible clearly 'assumes (it) as an undisputed postulate'. Clearly, the doctrine of a future life was not unknown to the Patriarchs and to the writers of the Psalms, but they did not know it as we know it now. 'Christ shed a flood of light on the darkness beyond the grave', says Charles Hodge. In the words of Paul, 'He brought life and immortality to light through the gospel'.

It is assumed in all parts of the Old Testament that at death the person is not annihilated: he continues to exist in sheol, the place of the dead. Warfield has an interesting and illuminating comment to make on this word:

The Old Testament never falls into the error of looking upon death as natural to man. It conceives man as a unit, and death — the sundering of soul and body — as the most dreadfully unnatural thing that can befall him ... It never falls into the error of supposing death to concern merely the body. It clearly realizes, and makes its every reader realize, that it has profound meaning also for the soul. The body is laid in the grave and the soul departs to sheol, and every soul that departs to sheol is a dead soul, just as truly as the body that is laid in the grave is a dead body ... Quite irrespective of any and everything else that may be true of any and every soul gathered there (and much also we now know under New Testament light to be true of them) this is the fundamental thing that is true of them all — they are all dead. The immense stress that the Old Testament lays on sheol as the place of death is certainly justified by the nature of the case, and its effect was to throw the eyes of the Old Testament saint for his hope, not across the gulf that divides "this" from "the other" world, but on into the future. This made the Old Testament religion emphatically an eschatological religion; it is resurrection, not mere immortality, that men long for.

There is an immense distance between the Old Testament conception of immortality and the nebulous ideas of other religions. What is assumed in the Old and clearly affirmed in the New Testament is a real and complete continuance of being, not an incorporeal immortality, but a permanency of life in the integrity of man's entire nature. Think of the first reference to immortality we have in the Old Testament, 'and Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him' (Genesis 5:24). We may safely assume that Enoch's translation was witnessed by at least some of his contemporaries, otherwise it is difficult to see how it could serve the end for which it was designed, which was not solely to reward Enoch's piety but to demonstrate the certainty and to stimulate the hope of immortality. The translation of Elijah was similar. Here we know that there was a reliable witness.

David, 'the sweet Psalmist of Israel', expresses his assurance that God will not leave his soul in sheol (Psalm 16:10). True, this is a prophecy of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ (see Acts 2:30-32), but with His resurrection that of His people is inseparably connected.

Asaph stopped being envious at the prosperity of the wicked when he went into God's sanctuary and 'understood their end' (Psalm 73:17). Contrasting his own prospect with theirs, he says,

Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory.Psalm 73:24

The same sentiment is expressed in the prophecy of Daniel, 'and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt' (12:2).

So we see that the doctrine of immortality, if not directly taught in the Old Testament, was assumed as self-evident truth, immanent in the conscious­ness of the people. A fair summing up of Old Testament teaching on personal immortality would be in the following terms: Though the passages which clearly articulate the doctrine are comparatively few, they are not exceptional or alien to the general climate of truth taught. On the contrary, so obviously are they of a piece with the whole body of Old Testament teaching that we can assert that the fact of immortality is assumed, and only on the basis of this assumption can we appreciate the self-consistency and unitary nature of the truth taught. Accept this assumption — which, as we have seen, becomes specific in certain passages — and you can make sense of the whole. Reject it and the whole becomes incoherent.

Turning now to the New Testament, where the doctrine is directly and unmistakably taught, we shall quote, first, some of our Lord's statements. We consider that His teaching on this is crystal-clear, and we shall make no passing comment but let His words speak for themselves.

The hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. John 5:28, 29

The beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. Luke 16:22

Jesus said to the thief on the cross, 'Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise'. Luke 23:43

I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and who­soever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. John 11:25, 26

And these (the wicked) shall go away into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal. Matthew 25:46

The teaching of the Apostles on this matter is equally clear:

For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.2 Corinthians 5:4

...having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.Philippians 1:23

God ... who hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incor­ruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.1 Peter 1:3, 4

We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.1 John 3:2

You will have observed that in some of the texts which we have quoted, reference is made to the resurrection of the just and the unjust. The infal­lible assurance of our resurrection is the certain fact of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The resurrection will be a resurrection of the body, not of the soul. It will not be a new creation, but will be fundamentally identical with the body that was put into the grave. An obvious objection to this is that it is impossible that the same body should be raised, as the particles of which the body was constituted at death pass into other forms of existence. Paul replies to this objection in 1 Corinthians 15:35, 38. His answer briefly is this: Death is not annihilation but disorganization, the passing of one form or mode of existence into another. The sprouting acorn is not the same as the full-grown oak in substance, in form or in appearance. It is, however, the same individual organism. The plant that appears is very different from the seed which was sown, yet, in a very real sense, they are the same. The resur­rection body may differ as much from the earthly body as the light of the sun differs from a piece of clay.

The present body is corruptible, continually decaying and mortal; the resurrection body will be imperishable and incapable of decay. The body that is laid in the grave is a natural body, the body that is raised will be a spiritual body. This does not mean that it will be ethereal (i.e. made of spirit), but a body adapted to pneuma, or spirit. In other words it will be adapted to the principles in us which are unspeakably higher than those which belong to the animal creation.

Charles Hodge in his remarks on the identity of the earthly and heavenly refuses to say wherein the sameness consists:

Whether it be an identity of substance; or of expression and idea, as in works of art; or of the uninter­rupted continuity of the same vital force as in the plant and animal through their whole progress of growth and decay; or whether it is a sameness which includes all these; or something different from them all ... the body is to rise and it is to be the same after the resurrection that it was before, but neither the Bible nor the Church determines wherein that sameness is to consist.²

Immediately the resurrection occurs there will be a reintegration of body and soul. This will be an indissoluble union, and the believer, thus complete, will enter upon a life of unspeakable and unending joy in an open vision of Jesus, and in the fellowship of the triune God. This will be brought about by 'the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change the body of our humiliation that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself' (Philippians 3:21).

There will be a bodily resurrection of unbelievers, and their bodies will be spiritual. This is how they shall be capable of enduring the vengeance of eternal fire, the torments of the 'second death', yet never dying. Some, and among them some prominent writers, do not believe in the eternal punishment of the unsaved, and to get round the difficulty they advocate a theory of 'Conditional Immortality' (this theory is very popular with some modern cults, especially Jehovah's Witnesses).

The theory, stated briefly, is that, after the final judgment, the souls of the impenitent will be annihilated. One view of it is, that man was created immortal, but that the soul which continues in sin is by a positive act of God ultimately destroyed. Another view is that man was not created immortal, but that, on believing, he is endowed with immortality as a gift from God. Scriptures given to support the theory are, for example, '(God) who alone hath immortality' (1 Timothy 6:16). But what that passage teaches is not that God has immortality and no one else has it but that He alone is necessarily and independently immortal. The immortality of a creature, whether man or angel, is not an eternal and necessary endowment, but is dependent on, and maintained by, the sovereign and almighty power of God. Other texts quoted are Matthew 7:13 and John 3:16, where the words 'destruction' and 'perish' are taken to mean cessation of conscious existence. That this is not the true meaning of these words is clear, for otherwise Scripture would be contradicting itself (e.g. in Revelation 14:11, 'and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever').

Those who hold this doctrine confuse the eternal life which is the gift of God to His people, with bare immortality. The term 'eternal life' has a spiritual connotation, and means much more than mere continuation of being. In any case, annihilation would not be a punishment on the wicked, but in reality a blessing.³

I now refer to one more passage of Scripture which, it seems to me, would be irrefutable proof of our subject, even if stood alone in this connection in the Bible. I refer to it specially because it is proof from Christ's own mouth both of the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body, and it also explains what seems to be the essential character of the Christian religion, which is real, living and unbroken fellowship between God and man. God has called us into the fellowship of "his Son" and He has put His Spirit into our hearts by which we call Him "Abba, Father". That this fellow­ship is not to last only for the brief span of our converted life in this world is implied in our Lord's answer to the Sadducees who denied the resurrection of the body: 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead but of the living' (Matthew 22:32).

If God proclaims Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, whatever tempor­arily may be their state, they belong fundamentally to the realm of the living, not to the realm of the dead, and cannot therefore, be permanently held by the bonds of death ... Death cannot have permanent dominion over those whose God is the living God; in the very nature of the case they belong to the Kingdom of Life. They must therefore emerge from sheol and return to the light of life, soul and body, alike partaking of the undivided life that belongs to human nature ... The living God has nothing in common with the shades of sheol ... in Him is the fountain of life, which to quaff is to abide for ever in fulness of life.⁴

As we conclude, let us think how comforting and stimulating this glorious doctrine is to the people of God. It is a valuable incentive to holiness of character in this world, for no-one who sincerely hopes for a perfectly holy life in the world to come will find pleasure in a life of sin in this one. 'Every­man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure' (1 John 3:3). The Christian life will not end in a cul-de-sac; 'there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God' (Hebrews 4:9). 'If it were not so', Jesus said, 'I would have told you' (John 14:2). Even if our lives are as happy as any life on earth can be, yet 'to depart, and to be with Christ, is far better'. If, on the other hand, we endure a 'great fight of afflictions'.

Let us comfort ourselves with the assurance that, our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal.     2 Corinthians 4:17, 18

And what a solemn warning this doctrine is to the unsaved! How terri­fying the thought that in a short time their souls will be required of them and taken to the world of spirits; that at the 'sound of the last trumpet' their bodies shall rise from their graves, and their bodies and souls, re-united, shall enter upon an endless existence which is really an endless death. Their resurrection will not be an act of redemption, but of sovereign justice on the part of the God whom they would not believe. Their eternal portion will be to be separated from the happy fellowship of God by the great and impassable gulf. Divine justice consigns them to the hell to which the devil and his angels are also sent. Is it possible for sinners among men to escape this fearful doom and instead obtain a crown of glory that fades not away? Blessed be God it is possible here and now. How? Jesus said,

I am the way, the truth and the life.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved'.
Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.