IV. Phelps-Sweeping Portrayal of “Immortal Soul” Issues

Amos AUGUSTUS PHELPS (1805-1874) was graduated from Yale Divinity School in 1830. In due time he entered the Methodist ministry, wherein he continued to preach successfully for twelve years, following the traditional teachings of the church, including the orthodox position on the nature and destiny of man. But a growing dissent regarding this teaching, resulting from a painstaking review of the Bible witness, brought such censure and opposition from his superiors and fellow ministers that he withdrew in order to be free faithfully to preach his new-found convictions regarding Christ as the only Source of life for man.CFF2 552.4

He continued his preaching as an evangelist among different churches in various parts of the country. He was an effective writer, and for several years edited a religious weekly, The Bible Banner, of New York. Finally he affiliated with the Congregational Church in Rochester, New York, laboring effectively as city missioner under the direction of the Union Missionary Society of the city.CFF2 553.1

Inasmuch as his contribution is one of the most comprehensive chapters in The Life Everlasting Symposium, we will epitomize the entire presentation, in order to provide an over-all conspectus. It is one of the most penetrating summaries, historically, Biblically, and logically, of his time. Phelps knew well the sting of such epithets as “heretic” and “infidel,” and what it was to receive the anathema of some of the clergy. But he rejoiced in the fact that “hundreds of pious and scholarly men” had already repudiated this relic of “baptized Platonism.” He introduced his stand in this way:
“Having given the whole subject a careful and Prayerful investigation-examining alike the strongest rational and Scriptural arguments used to support the dominant view-I am compelled to reject the current doctrine of inherent immortality, for the following twelve reasons.” ^{4444) Amos A. Phelps, “Is Man by Nature Immortal?” in Pettingell, The Life Everlasting, p. 640.}CFF2 553.2

1. IMMORTALITY OF SOUL “HAS A BAD HISTORY.”

Here is the initial paragraph in his series of indictments:
“1. Satanic origin. This doctrine can be traced through the muddy channels of a corrupted Christianity, a perverted Judaism, a pagan philosophy, and a superstitious idolatry, to the great instigator of mischief in the garden of Eden. The Protestants borrowed it from the Catholics, the Catholics from the Pharisees, the Pharisees from the Pagans, and the Pagans from the old Serpent, who first preached the doctrine amid the lovely bowers of Paradise to an audience all too willing to hear and heed the new and fascinating theology-‘Ye shall not surely die.’” ^{4545) Ibid., pp. 640, 641.}CFF2 553.3

Then, he says, “Satan patched up his system by inventing the double-entity theory,” that man is a “dual being,” with “material body and an immaterial soul” constituting the “r man,” with the soul leaving the body at death, and continui to exist as a “conscious personality,” “through all eternity, happiness or misery.” ^{4646) Ibid., pp. 639, 640.} When this theory is accepted, he ad God is “discredited and Satan believed.” ^{4747) Ibid., p. 641.}CFF2 553.4

2. “HEATHEN PHILOSOPHY” BECOMES PREDOMINANT

Next, “Satan’s oily argument” was adopted by the paga down the “stream of time,” especially by the Egyptians, wi the added element of “transmigration.” Among the Greeks became a philosophy rather than a religion, accompanied “endless confusions and speculations.” Then “Plato, the leading defender, coupled the doctrine of immortality with that of pre-existence and transmigration.” ^{4848) Ibid.}CFF2 554.1

3. “JEWISH BELIEF” CORRUPTED BY ASSOCIATION

Not until after long association with the heathen did the Jews adopt these extraneous views-after the Babylonian captivi Then the Pharisees tried to “couple the Scriptural doctrine resurrection with the pagan doctrine of natural immortality while the Sadducees rejected both.” Jesus warned His disciples “not to accept the doctrine of either.” ^{4949) Ibid., pp. 641, 642.}CFF2 554.2

4. “CHRISTIAN COMPROMISE” EFFECTED SLOWLY

Flowing the Conditionalist teaching of Christ and the apostl all five Apostolic Fathers held to the clear “Gospel of life a death.” But at the end of the second century the penetrati began:
“While Theophilus, Polycrates, Irenaeus, Lactantius, and so others proclaimed life only in Christ, Athanagoras, Tertullian, Augustine and others affirmed the doctrine of immortality for all men, and endl torments for the wicked.” ^{5050) Ibid., p. 642.}CFF2 554.3

This last feature was “so revolting” that others began contend that “all” will be ultimately and “eternally save Thus the “commingled systems of Christianity and Platon philosophy” permeated the church-the “unholy leaven” working “until nearly the whole lump was at last infected.” ^{5151) Ibid.} It is but fair to state that Phelps evidences a remarkable grasp of the historical facts. ^{5252) See Part I of this volume.} And he was but one of many on both sides of the Atlantic at this time making independent studies of background facts, thus lifting the whole question out of the realm of surmise and misconception.CFF2 554.4

5. “PAPAL DECREE” FORMALLY OFFICIALIZES DOGMA

Finally, to affix the “seal of the church” upon the dogma of the “natural immortality” of the soul, Leo X, in 1513, affirmed that the soul is “immortal,” and decreed those who asserted otherwise to be “heretics.” ^{5353) Phelps, “Is Man Immortal?” in Pettingell, The Life Everlasting, pp. 642, 643.} Nevertheless, “most of the Reformers” retained this papal dogma, the Helvetic Confession echoing the papal position by declaring: “‘We condemn all who scoff at the immortality of the soul, or bring it into doubt by subtle disputations.’” ^{5454) Ibid., p. 643.}CFF2 555.1

6. “AT VARIANCE” WITH “SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT OF MAN’S CREATION.”

“The history of man’s origin” sheds light on his “nature.” Formed of the dust, he was “vitalized with ‘the breath of life.’” The “whole man, thus vitalized, ‘became a living soul.’ Not a word is said about an ‘immortal soul.’” The prevalent theory could never be deduced from Genesis 1 and Genisis 2. ^{5555) Ibid., pp. 643, 644.}CFF2 555.2

7. “CLASHES” WITH “BIBLE STATEMENT OF MAN’S FALL.”

Our first parents were placed “between two possible destinies —mortality and immortality.” From the day of the Fall, Adam “became a dying man.” He “subjected himself to a death—destiny.” He was excluded from Eden lest, as a sinner, he might live forever. He was thus cut off from all possibility of “becoming immortal in misery.” ^{5656) Ibid., p. 644.}CFF2 555.3

8. “OPPOSED” TO “SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE OF DEATH.”

“Popular theology” transforms death into a “blessing,” an “emancipator,” a “gate to endless joy,” a “glorious coronation.” But the Bible represents the dead as having “gone to a land of darkness, of silence, of sleep, and of absolute unconsciousness” (Ecclesiastes 9:10; Psalm 6:5; Psalm 115:17; Psalm 146:4; Ecclesiastes 9:5; 1 Corinthians 15:17, 18). It is a “negation of life,” a state of complete inaction, in contrast with “uninterrupted” survival and “conscious existence.” But the Bible represents the dead as having “ceased to live,” and as “absolutely dependent upon the resurrection for future life.” ^{5757) Ibid., p. 645.}CFF2 555.4

9. “EQUALLY OPPOSED” TO “PHYSIOLOGICAL FACTS.”

Science shows that the “mind is not a separate entity,” but an “attribute of the living man-the result of vitalized organization.” The brain is the “organ of thought,” as the eye is the “organ of vision.” A head injury, indenting the skull, may produce “sudden unconsciousness,” which may continue for “days, weeks, or months,” until the skull is trepanned and the piece of bone lifted that compressed the brain. Then consciousness is restored, and a “blank in personal history” is ended. It is “a gratuitous assumption to say that though one blow may reduce the soul to a state of unconsciousness, two or three blows will thrill it into a more vigorous life than it ever knew before!” ^{5858) Ibid., pp. 645, 646.}CFF2 556.1

10. “IMMORTALITY” NOWHERE ASCRIBED TO MAN’S “PRESENT STATE.”

Turning next to the Biblical testimony, Phelps declares that the term immortality does not occur in the Old Testament, and occurs only five times in the New Testament. “Immortal” is applied only to the “Eternal King,” not to man in whole or part (1 Timothy 1:17). As to “immortality,” God alone “possesses it” (1 Timothy 6:16); Christ “brought it to light,” not as an “attribute of man,” but as a “glorious possibility through Himself” (1 Timothy 1:10). To obtain it we must “seek” for it (Romans 2:7). And this mortal “must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53). And it cannot be put on “till the resurrection morning.” Thus the Bible “does not teach the immortality of the soul.” ^{5959) Ibid., p. 646.}CFF2 556.2

11. “BLESSING TO BE SOUGHT”; NOT “BIRTHRIGHT LEGACY.”

Jesus is revealed as the “world’s Life-Giver.” To a “race of dying sinners” He uttered the “sorrowful lament: ‘Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life.’” This implies that (1) “men are dead, either in fact or in prospect”; (2) Christ is the “appointed source of life, spiritual and eternal”; and (3) to obtain it men “must make personal and earnest application” (John 5:26; 1 John 5:11, 12). Eternal life is “in his Son.” It is ours “by promise.” We “now have it by faith and hope,” and those who seek endless life will in “due time” receive it. ^{6060) Ibid., p. 647.}CFF2 557.1

12. “INHERENT IMMORTALITY” OPPOSED TO “SCRIPTURE Doom of WICKED.”

According to Scripture, he continues, they shall “die” (Romans 8:13; Deuteronomy 30:19; Ezekiel 18:4; Ezekiel 33:11; John 6:50; Romans 6:23; James 1:15; James 5:20; Revelation 2:11; Revelation 21:8). They shall “perish” (Psalm 37:20; Luke 13:3, 5; John 3:14, 16; Romans 2:12; 2 Corinthians 2:15). They shall be “destroyed” (Psalm 145:20; Psalm 37:38; Matthew 7:13; Matthew 10:28; Philippians 3:18, 19; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9). They shall be “burnt up” (Malachi 4:1; Psalm 11:6; Psalm 21:8, 9; Isaiah 66:15; Matthew 3:12; 13:40-42). The logic is inexorable: “If sinners were immortal they could not perish”; but since they will “perish,” they are therefore “not immortal.” ^{6161) Ibid., pp 647, 648.}CFF2 557.2

13. “SUPERSEDES NECESSITY FOR A RESURRECTION.”

Those who stress “immortality of the soul” logically place little emphasis upon the “resurrection,” as the two do not “coalesce.” One vitiates the other. Even Tyndale saw this three centuries ago-that those who send men to “heaven, hell, or purgatory at death” “destroy the argument by which Christ and Paul prove the resurrection.” ^{6262) Ibid., p. 648.}CFF2 557.3

14. “REDUCES THE JUDGMENT” TO “SOLEMN FARCE.”

The Bible teaches, Phelps continues, that the judgment will render the verdicts of “human destiny.” They will be “righteously rendered and faithfully executed.” That “does not occur at death.” There are not innumerable “judgment days scattered along the history of the race.” There is an appointed “day” when all will “stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.” But if “disembodied” spirits are rewarded at death, such a tribunal would be “nothing less than a solemn farce.” They are not brought back from heaven or a “penal hell” to have the verdict pronounced upon them. God’s way is just. ^{6363) Ibid., pp. 648, 649.}CFF2 557.4

15. “SUBVERTS” BIBLE DOCTRINE OF SECOND ADVENT

Moreover, if man has “an immortal soul capable of living without a body,” there is no necessity for a resurrection of the “physical organism.” If the saints go to Heaven and sinners to Hell at death, there is “no need” of Christ’s returning to “lift the curse and purify the earth for the saints inheritance.” ^{6464) Ibid., p. 649.}CFF2 558.1

16. THEORY IS “PROLIFIC SOURCE” OF “ERROR.”

A tree is judged by its fruits. Think of the harvest of grievous errors such a dogma has brought forth-Mohammedanism, Shakerism, Swedenborgianism, Spiritualism, Purgatory, Mariolatry, Universalism, Eternal-Tormentism. All these and more are “built upon the assumption” that “dead folks are alive.” That is the center and circumference of Spiritism. That is the basis of all the money extracted from the Romanist to “help his dead friends through the pains of purgatory.” And Universalism is only a “natural rebound” from the “doctrine of endless torment.” Those who start with the “assumption of natural immortality” are “compelled to adopt a spiritualizing system of interpretation” that “turns the Bible upside down and opens up the floodgates of damaging error.” ^{6565) Ibid., pp. 649, 650.}CFF2 558.2