INTRODUCTION

Immortality is a subject of transcending interest, and has therefore been extensively spoken of. In many of the discussions on this subject rather startling statements are found as to what the Old Testament teaching about it is. Some writers go so far as to say it has nothing to say on this subject. This is an extreme statement, which very few would endorse, no doubt; yet many have expressed surprise that so little light was given in Old Testament times on a subject of such importance. That there must have been absorbing interest in the matter is not denied, but that men should have been left so long without an authoritative revelation, as they think, seems strange. They regard it as unaccountable that God should have left men to their own inferences and guesses while there must have been an intense craving for authoritative light.

I propose two questions:1. Is immortality taught in the Old Testament ? 2. If so, to what extent is the truth as to it unfolded ? Are there in it any divine, authoritative pronouncements on this vitally important subject ? If there are, are they so clear and full as to answer the earnest inquiries that must have been raised by exercised souls as to it ?

Before taking up the examination of Old Testament Scriptures in answer to these questions, it is important first to determine what is meant by immortality. For if our idea of immortality is vague and undefined, or if we start out with a false idea of what it is, we may be turned aside into paths which would make our investigation fruitless, at least so far as our present object is concerned.

In i Tim. 6:16 we find the expression, "Who only hath immortality," which we understand here clearly to mean deathlessness. For God is, indeed, the only being to whom deathlessness is intrinsic. He is essentially deathless-immortal. He is not dependently so, but intrinsically, essentially deathless. There are beings-as angels, fallen or un-fallen-who do not die, are immortal; but they are created beings, their existence is dependent, so that their deathlessness is dependent immortality-it is not intrinsic to them.

As firmly believing in the truth affirmed in the passage above mentioned, we are persuaded that there is nothing in the Old Testament to contradict or in any way to conflict with it. Consequently there are limitations within which our inquiries are confined. We are not seeking the voice of the Old Testament on that form of immortality possessed by God alone. We do not exactly assume, but accept as an ascertained fact that the Old Testament Scriptures uniformly represent God as having absolute immortality-an underived endless existence, without beginning and without end- eternal:that this is affirmed, in all those passages in which God speaks of Himself or is spoken of as the living God.

Our inquiry as to immortality will be, therefore, in relation to men. For, as to angels, we take as unquestionable the testimony of our Lord in Matt. 22:30; Mark 12:25; Luke 20 :36 that the angels are immortal-not intrinsically, of course, but as derived from Him who created them, which in no wise conflicts with i Tim. 6:16, as the angels are created beings, and as such have dependent immortality.
But men are creatures too, as well as the angels. Do they, like the angels, possess dependent immortality ? If so, to what extent is it true ? Is there a sense in which it is not; and if so, in what sense ? Does the Old Testament give us any light on these questions; and how much does it afford us?

The questions thus raised indicate the necessity of taking into consideration man's complex nature or being. Man has an inward and an outward nature-a higher and a lower, a spiritual and a corporeal, nature. He is a being, constituted not of a single element, but of three-spirit, soul and body (i Thess. 5:23).

It is not necessary to discuss at any length the issues between Trichotomy and Dichotomy. There is truth in both these views of man's constitution. For if we consider the immaterial side of man's nature as a unity, which we may rightly do, then we are in sympathy with the latter theory, 1:e., we are viewing man's constitution as a duality. On the other hand, if we think of the elements forming the immaterial side, or the parts combining in it, then we are viewing man as a constituted trinity, 1:e., as a being possessing three parts, or elements. To press the dualistic view to the extreme of denying in man's immaterial side of his being either the sentient, or soul-element or the spirit-element, would be to go beyond the truth into serious error. To press the trinity conception so far as to deny the unity of the soul and spirit elements would also be serious error in another way. We must avoid both errors, yet firmly maintain the truth that is in both views. It is of very great importance.

I repeat then that man has spirit, soul and body. He is not all spirit, or all soul, or all body. Three distinct elements belong to him. If any part were lacking, then he would not properly be a man. The body without the soul or the spirit (whichever term we employ to express the immaterial part of man) is not the man. It is simply his body, just one of his constituent parts, the corporeal part, which, without the other, is lifeless, dead, corrupting, or gone to corruption. It is not the living man.

Again, the separated soul or spirit is not the man. It is a human soul or spirit, but yet it is not the man. A lifeless body is not what man is. Nor is the disembodied soul or spirit what man is. Man is a being of a complex nature; each element being a constituent part of his person. As a person, he can say, my spirit, my soul, my body; each one belongs to him-is a part of himself.

Now death is the dissolution of the man, a separation of these parts, at least so far as the inner and outer parts are concerned. The immaterial part of man becomes separated from the material part in death. The separated spirit or soul of the man is not the man-only a part of him. So with the body; the corporeal part is not the man, but a part of him-the part which goes to corruption-returns to dust.

It is because man is subject to death, to dissolution, that we speak of him as being mortal. But when we say man is mortal, do we mean that mortality applies to all of his parts ? We certainly apply mortality to the body. We speak of it as disintegrating; and rightly say, it perishes. But this cannot be said of man's immaterial and imperishable parts. Hence while we use the expression, Mortal body, we cannot say, Mortal spirit or soul.

By human immortality then we do not mean the immortality that belongs, is inherent, to the human spirit, whether we think of it as in or out of the body. The term human immortality is likewise inapplicable to the imperishable human soul, whether connected with the body or separated from it. Mortality applies only to the body. Mortal, indeed it is, subject to death, as we full well know. The question, Was man's body, as originally formed and in breathed of God, subject to mortality or death ? will be discussed later. I do not here anticipate the answer of Scripture to this.

But it may be asked, Does not Scripture speak of mortal man ? It does. Man as now constituted (one of his essential parts, the body, being subject to death, doomed to corruption and to return to dust) has a temporary existence as a man. The existence beyond death, 1:e., in the separate state, is another form of existence-a temporary one- but it is not the form of the human existence. The spirits of men subsisting simply as spirits are not thus properly men, but only spirits of men.

I have said the separate state is but a temporary form of existence. This means that there will be a return to the human form, in its final and permanent form, in which the body, as well as the spirit or soul, will share in immortality. It is this final and permanent state of human existence which is meant when speaking of the hope of immortality- of human immortality.

It is not the place here to speak of the blessedness of the saved and the misery of the lost in the final form of human existence. Nor do I need to discuss here whether the wicked's final state of existence as men (which is evidently a permanent and eternal state) is included in the scripture conception of future human immortality. This question is better left for later consideration.

Our present task is an examination of the Old Testament Scriptures to see what light they shed on the great question of future human immortality. Is it taught there at all ? If so, to what extent ? Did God there reveal to men a future life of immortality, not only a separate state of existence for the spirit or soul after death, but a life beyond the grave, a life in which the body as well as the soul would share ? Is the resurrection of the body an Old Testament revelation ? Is life and incorruptibility at all declared in it ? Did the Old Testament saints have distinctly before them the hope of a human immortal life ? Were they, by means of the light which God gave them, able to look beyond the life of the separate existence of the soul to a life in which both soul and body would participate ? Was it revealed to them that they would exist as complete men in a state of permanent and eternal duration? C. Crain

(To be continued.)