What Christadelphians believe about ...

Immortality

1 To whom does the Bible apply the term "immortal"?

Answer: To God. "The King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God" (1 Timothy 1:17).

2 Does the Bible allow that man is immortal as well?

Answer: No. It says God alone is immortal: "The King of Kings, and Lord of Lords: who only hath immortality " (1 Timothy 6:16).

3 Does it ever apply the term "immortal" to man?

Answer: Never. On the contrary, a passing reference is made to "mortal man" (Job 4:17).

4 Then is man entirely cut off from immortality?

Answer: No; but it is a thing he has to seek for in order to obtain it. "By patient continuance in well doing seek for glory, honour, and immortality" (Romans 2:7).

5 Is the doctrine of immortality taught by the Greek philosophers and others a mistaken doctrine?

Answer: It must be so: " Jesus Christ … brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Timothy 1:10). If he brought it to light, how can the philosophers have done so, three or four hundred years before?

6 Could the doctrine of philosophers and the doctrine of Christ have been the same?

Answer: They are not the same: they differ on all points. Paul says the wisdom of the philosophers was "foolishness" in God's estimation (1 Corinthians 3:19, 20): and he told believers to "beware" of philosophy (Colossians 2:8), which he speaks of as "vain deceit" and "babblings" (1 Timothy 6:20).

7 How does Christ's doctrine differ from the doctrine of the philosophers?

Answer: Christ teaches that men have no immortality in themselves (John 6:53); that they are mortal men - men in whom death works as a law of their being, because of sin (Romans 5:12; 7:24; 2 Corinthians 1:9); and that only those who believe and obey him will receive immortality (John 8:12, 24; 10:27,28).

8 Can it be expressed briefly in Bible terms?

Answer: Yes: "The wages of sin is death, and the gilt of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23).

9 Is immortality received in the present state of existence then?

Answer: No: it is conferred at the return of Christ: "When the Son of Man shall come in his glory the righteous (shall go) into everlasting life" (Matthew 25:31). "At the last trump … this mortal shall put on immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:53). "Those that have done good shall come forth to the resurrection of life" (John 5:29). "Those that are accounted worthy … shall not die any more" (Luke 20:35-36).

10 What becomes of them in the meantime?

Answer: If they die, they "sleep in the dust of the earth" (Daniel 12:2). They are "the dead in Christ" (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

11 Is there any consciousness in the death state?

Answer: No. The Bible explicitly declares it. "In death, there is no remembrance of Thee" (Psalm 6:5). "The dead know not anything" (Ecclesiastes 9:5).

12 What becomes of the unjust?

Answer: They also sleep in the dust; but at the resurrection, they come forth to condemnation (John 5:29)

13 Is there a resurrection of the unjust as well?

Answer: Yes. There shall be a resurrection both of the just and of the unjust" (Acts 24:15).

14 What is the difference between them in that case?

Answer: There is a great difference. They will "all appear before the judgment seat of Christ … to receive according to that [they] have done" (2 Corinthians 5:10). While the righteous will enter an immortal state, the unjust will suffer "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish" (Romans 2:8-9), and disappear finally in the corruption of "the second death" - or death a second time (Galatians 6:8; 2 Peter 2:12; Revelation 21:8). "The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell therein for ever … But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off" (Psalm 37:29-38; 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9).

15 Is there any passage in the Bible that declares that man will not die?

Answer: Yes, there is one: "Ye shall not surely die" (Genesis 3:4): but the author of the saying was the serpent, who was a liar (2 Corinthians 11:3).