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The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1 - Contents
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    III. The Five English Uses of Immortal/Immortality Examined

    1. GOD THE POSSESSOR, MAN THE FUTURE RECEIVER

    Let us next coordinate the evidence of the terms “immortal” and “immortality.” These are used but five times in the whole of Scripture, and all occur in the New Testament. An examination of these five illuminates and clarifies the whole immortality question. Note them:CFF1 449.9

    Picture 1: Reality of Christ’s Resurrection Body:
    The Reality of Christ’s Resurrection Body Is a Type of Our Glorified Bodies That Will Live Forever in the Earth Made New.
    Page 450
    CFF1 450

    (1) “The blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality [athanasian, “deathlessness”], dwelling in the light which no man [oudeis, “no one of men”] can approach [aprositon, “inapproachable,” “inaccessible”] unto” (1 Timothy 6:15, 16).CFF1 450.1

    Here the word “immortality,” one of three places where it comes from the Greek athanasia in Holy Writ, is expressly declared to be an attribute that belongs to God alone, along with His omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. It is in the same category of exclusives. The inescapable inference therefore is that Immortality (like the other restrictive attributes of Deity) is a quality that man does not possess inherently, inalienably, or naturally.CFF1 450.2

    This declaration agrees with the description in 1 Timothy 1:17of “the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God.” It stands out in contrast with “mortal man” (Job 4:17), who is subject to time and to death. We are admonished to “seek” for Immortality (Romans 2:7), and are to receive it as a “gift” (Romans 6:23). But it will not be “put on” until the resurrection, when “mortality” shall “be swallowed up of life” (2 Corinthians 5:4). It is not ours inherently, or actually, as yet. It is ours now in Christ—vested in Him.CFF1 450.3

    (2) “By the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life [zoen] and immortality [aphtharsian, “incorruption”] to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10).CFF1 451.1

    Here Christ is presented as the revealer and bringer of Immortality to man. The eternal Son of God came into the world to bring within the knowledge and range and experience of man that everlastingness of perfect being which is now the exclusive possession of Deity alone. But it is promised to and for us.CFF1 451.2

    (3) “To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for .., immortality [aphtharsian, “incorruption”], eternal life [zoen aionion]” (Romans 2:7).CFF1 451.3

    Immortality is therefore not a present, innate possession of the human race, but is something diligently to be sought for and gained, and to those who seek for it in God’s approved way, Immortality, or eternal life (zoe aionios), will be granted. It is incredible to think of being admonished to seek for something already possessed, and from which, according to popular theology, we could not be dispossessed.CFF1 451.4

    (4) “For this corruptible [phtharton] must put on incorruption [aphtharsian], and this mortal [thneton, “liable or subject to death”] must put on immortality [athanasian]” (1 Corinthians 15:53).CFF1 451.5

    The inference is consequently clear that man in his present state is mortal and corruptible, but that it is God’s plan for him to “put on” Immortality and incorruption. Needless to say, one does not put on what is already a natural, inherent, and inalienable quality or possession. We would not put on what we have had ever since being born into the world. And man obviously cannot be both mortal and immortal at the same time. He is not immortal now.CFF1 451.6

    (5) “So when this corruptible [phtharton] shall have put on incorruption [aphtharsian], and this mortal [thneton] shall have put on immortality [athanasian], then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54).CFF1 452.1

    The time, according to the same apostle, when this mortal shall “put on” Immortality is at the resurrection, or translation—the resurrection at the Second Advent being the central theme of this chapter (see 1 Corinthians 15:52).CFF1 452.2

    2. RECAPITULATION OF FIVEFOLD WITNESS

    God is the sole present possessor of Immortality. He is therefore the source from which man, at present mortal, must obtain Immortality. Christ is the revealer, the channel, the custodian, and the conveyer of immortal life. Not only has He brought to light the possibility of Immortality for dying man but He has provided in Himself the channel through which it may flow to us. Man is to seek for it by patient, godly living in Christ—and all such seekers will be rewarded. It is the reward of vital faith. Mortal man will put on Immortality at the resurrection of the just (Luke 20:36).CFF1 452.3

    Immortality, then, is not a prerogative but a privilege, not an inheritance but an achievement, not a natural endowment conferred by nature at birth but a conditional gift conferred by Jesus Christ at His second advent, on the ground of a new birth, and abiding faith in and obedience to Him throughout life. The belief that man is immortal is an a priori assumption, that is, a reasoning based upon deducing consequences from definitions regarded as self-evident, but by reason alone, and not through established Biblical evidence. It is therefore presumption, without Scripture proof, and contrary to Scripture.CFF1 452.4

    Next let us turn to a serious problem that perplexes many.CFF1 452.5