X. Barth Over Radio Affirms Man Mortal, Not Immortal

Swiss Reformed DR. KARL BARTH (b. 1886), worldrenowned theologian, was trained in the universities of Bern, Berlin, Tübingen and Marburg. He was professor, successively, at Göttingen, Munster, and then Bonn-when expelled by Hitler’s gestapo in 1935. Since then he has been professor of theology at Basel. Barth has sought to lead Protestant thinking away from the erroneous outlook of modern religious philosophy back to a Biblical basis, and the principles of the Reformation.CFF2 1022.2

Barth’s many writings-beginning in 1919, and now over 30 in number-show his transition from an existentialist position to a “theology of the pure Word of God.” In the first phase of his activity he uttered a condemning protest against the complacency of theology and the church, questioning everything that was man-made. In this he was supported by Emil Brunner, Friedrich Gogarten, and others. In the second phase, beginning about 1925, the growing influence of Calvinism upon his thinking is seen. Theological differences led to a break with Brunner and Gogarten.CFF2 1022.3

Barth holds that since man is utterly dependent upon divine grace, all his boasted cultural achievements are rooted in sin. He stresses that the sole revelation of God is in Jesus Christ and the Word, as His means of communication with man. He opposes natural theology by Scriptural theology. Such is the Barthian position.CFF2 1022.4

1. POSITION ON IMMORTALITY SET FORTH IN RADIO DISCUSSION

In a radio discussion of “Immortality,” four distinguished participants spoke over a station in Beromünster, Germany. These were Norbert M. Luyten, a Jesuit; Adolphe Portmann, a biologist; Karl Jaspers, a philosopher, and the distinguished Protestant theologian, Dr. Karl Barth.CFF2 1023.1

The four addresses, given in German, were published originally by the firm of Friedrich Reinhardt, in Basel, Switzerland, under the title of Unsterblichkeit (“Immortality”). A French translation was published in 1958 by Delachaux and N iestlé, producers of evangelical literature (including various books, such as by Oscar Cullmann, with a Conditionalist viewpoint), of Neuchatel, Switzerland. The following translation of Dr. Barth’s message from the French text, titled Immortalite, is by C. J. Kearney. Here are the crucial paragraphs in Barth’s presentation, presented with some fullness without comment.CFF2 1023.2

2. BIBLE AFFIRMS IMMORTALITY ONLY OF GOD

“They say ‘He is immortal’ of a being who will not die, a being of such a species that he could not and, in consequence, would not die. The question which I am to answer here briefly is, then, this: Should man consider himself immortal, and in what sense?CFF2 1023.3

“The assignment to express myself as a Protestant theologian implies that my answer will be inspired by the Bible. It follows that if I am to speak with a clear conscience, I must make certain statements which will surprise many of you, because they run counter to accepted ideas.CFF2 1023.4

“Do you know that the word ‘immortality’ is not found in the Old Testament, and only twice in the New Testament? That in itself is very significant. And the sense in which the word is used in these two passages makes it all the more striking.CFF2 1023.5

“It is used of God (1 Timothy 6:16) and not of man. This Scripture proclaims that He possesses immortality and, even more, that He the Sovereign Lord is the only One who has it.”CFF2 1023.6

3. INNATE IMMORTALITY NOT POSSESSED BY MAN

“It is obviously implied that man does not possess it-neither as an individual entity, nor as a part of his being, nor through his origin, nor by acquisition of any sort.CFF2 1023.7

“Moreover it is not a matter of human ideas or works, or of posthumous influence of extraordinary men. Immortality cannot be the acquisition of man (of any man) except as a new and unmerited gift; a free gift from Him who alone possesses it, who only, by nature, is immortal.CFF2 1023.8

“It is with this latter concept that the second passage deals (1 Corinthians 15:53). It proclaims the resurrection as a divine act, free and unprecedented, dealing with all men. By grace of this act this ‘mortal body’ (men themselves, since they are mortal through and through) will ‘put on’ immortality as a garment which was not there before and which is in no way their own.”CFF2 1024.1

4. “LIFE BEYOND” WHOLLY DEPENDENT UPON GOD

“We must look the facts in the face. Man, in himself and as he is, and all his works with him is mortal, according to the testimony of the Bible. ‘Mortal’—that means that his life is limited by temporal boundaries which have been assigned to him. He lives within these time limits. He did not exist before; he will not exist after. He will not live beyond the limits that have been fixed and which will be marked by his death.CFF2 1024.2

“Beyond this death, is the immortal God and He alone will be the ‘Life Beyond’ of man, his future and his hopes. If God is not there in front of him, in his death and consequently in his end, he will have nothing to which he can look forward and with death everything will be ended. And there remains nothing to tell him except that all flesh is like the herb which dries up, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.CFF2 1024.3

“But, also, in that moment when his life is finished, God will be to him in exact relation to his existence as it was lived within the appointed limits. God, then becomes both his future and his present. The future even as it is here and now; in the present which is now, and until he dies. And all that remains to him is the hope which shines over his limited existence which is already terminating. Now he depends on God, and on Him alone, that this mortal body may put on immortality.”CFF2 1024.4

5. BIBLICAL VIEW PERVERTED BY PLATONIC PHILOSOPHY

“This view, so clear, so firm and-if it is well understood-so comforting, the Christian church early chose to dilute by limiting the domain of death to man’s physical nature, to his body. It reserved immortality for his soul and it chose to look on death as the liberator of the soul, penned up in the body as in a prison.CFF2 1024.5

“In this framework the significance of Platonic thought on the death of Socrates, so triumphantly described, is beyond question. But never lose sight of the fact that the Bible, in speaking of perishable man (even during his earthly life), depicts man in his unity, in his entirety, his soul, that is personal life, which can be distinguished from his body, but not separated from it, just as the body can be distinguished from his soul, but not separated from it.”CFF2 1024.6

6. MAN A UNIT, NOT A SEPARABLE SOUL

“The Bible does not speak in a materialistic manner, neither in an idealistic sense. It expresses, if you will, realism. Indubitably it addresses itself to the soul, but to the soul which is incarnated in the human body, which eats and drinks, which wakes and sleeps, which works and fights, which suffers and rejoices, which is a man either young or old, and the life of the soul is exactly like the life of his body.CFF2 1024.7

“Precisely, in this unity and in this totality it points to death, that is, it reaches the end of its temporal existence, after which God is its Beyond, its future, its hope.CFF2 1025.1

“It is not a soul deprived of its body nor is it a body deprived of its soul, but it is a complete man who is, at the same time, the soul of his body and the body of his soul (or who, after death, is a ‘was’). It is the man who reaches the last boundary, beyond which there is for him neither time nor the means of spending it, neither spiritually nor corporeally. It is at that point that the immortal God stands and enters the ‘game’ for him, for his finished work and for actions during his lifetime. It is now that this intervention of God signifies for him that salvation which delivers him from death and brings him to eternal life-not just a prolongation but as an eternalization of that earthly life which is his in its unity and totality, by whose operation that which is totally mortal is totally clothed in immortality.CFF2 1025.2

“I cannot refrain from a further remark, my dear listeners. Please note that from the Biblical point of view, it cannot be implied that the immortal God is no more than the Beyond and the future of man who dies in his totality and his unity. It does follow that He is also his hope and that God will intervene in his death, for him, so that consequently, this meeting with God will save him from death; and will bring him eternal life.”CFF2 1025.3

7. OUR ONLY HOPE OF LIFE TO COME

“According to the Biblical, or Christian, conception of the human state-which is also in that respect the realist conception-the relation between God and man is a condition broken by pride, by slothfulness and by bad faith, in which every one of us has a part and which none of us can re-establish.CFF2 1025.4

“Is man good? In his behavior toward God, and-this necessarily goes with it-toward his neighbor is he perfect? Certainly not. What will happen to us when God, who is also the God of our neighbor, finally becomes our Beyond? When our life has definitely ended? What will be the consequence of our present when in Him alone is our future? Could this encounter have any other prospect, or signify anything else than a fearful truth that each of us, in the limits of time which had been assigned to us, showed us to be useless workers, even enemies of God?CFF2 1025.5

“And God, who is our only life to come, our future, will He not obviously be against us? And does that not mean that we will be cast off by Him, with all that we are and have done, lost, facing eternal death, at our end, which is the limit of our earthly life? Plato did not enter that line of discussion, neither have many other serious and deep thinkers.CFF2 1025.6

“Nevertheless I can change nothing and I do not wish to disguise what the Bible says—the mortal nature of man holds within itself this terrible menace—a menace which comes from God inasmuch as He is the judge.”CFF2 1025.7

8. ETERNAL LIFE ONLY THROUGH CHRIST

“What can we do to meet this menace? By ourselves, nothing at alll But God Immortal, and in this I am standing on the undisputed testimony of the Bible-He can face it.... For it is He who, in Jesus Christ, became mortal man, and as such His obedience has healed the breach in relations between man and Him. And His death has so worked that He assumed the sins of man and their consequence. The eternal death of man-of all men-He has taken on Himself, He has removed them from us. Yes, it is He who has done thisHe who loved man, this useless workman, even an enemy, and He loved him totally, actively, powerfully.CFF2 1026.1

“It is He, this Immortal God, the only One with whom man has to deal in the hour of death. It is He, the judge before whom man must present his life which has been terminated by its assigned boundaries which He has appointed. It is He, who is the Beyond of our ‘Here Below,’ the future of our present. But God is also obviously man’s hope. In the human and unique person of Jesus Christ, God has no longer rejected man, He has chosen him, toward him He is just and compassionate. He has already saved him from death, He has accepted him, mortal that he is, He has already given him eternal life-and all this as a free and unmerited gift, but at the same time achieved and unchangeable.”CFF2 1026.2

9. THE MESSAGE OF THE WORD OF GOD

“Such is the attitude of God toward mortal man-and thereby is defined the attitude of mortal man toward the immortal God. It may be defined as an attitude of hope, cautious but confident, serious but joyful,... based on Him who alone possesses immortality and who can bestow it, on Him who has already promised it to us as a gift in the person of His only Son, our Brother.CFF2 1026.3

“Dear listeners, I have tried in these final phrases and in answer to the question assigned to me, to announce the gospel, that is, the good news of Him who has made it clear, as the Son of God and as our Brother, in these words: ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whosoever believeth in me, will live, even though he be dead.’ Do you know what to do with this news? One thing is certain, it is that He who is the purpose and plan of all Bible testimony—to which I have sought here to hold myself.—He will know what to do with you, and will do it at the proper moment.CFF2 1026.4

“As a ‘Protestant theologian’—since it is in that capacity that I must speak to you—I might have preferred not to talk on this theme, but I could offer you no other on the question of immortality. It is not the word of a theologian, whatever that might be, but the Word of God, who lives eternally.” ^{9999 Italics supplied.}CFF2 1026.5

That is the unique public testimony of Karl Barth on Immortality. And that is his exposure of the fallacy of the assumptions of Platonism.CFF2 1026.6