Auxano Ministry
By the grace of God I am what I am:
1 Cor. 15:10a
Immortality
Christian Theology declared in the 5th century that all souls are immortal. This is a Greek philosophical concept adopted by Christian theologians. Why this is important to Christian doctrine is this; if all souls are not immortal than the Christian doctrine concerning hell must change. You cannot have an eternal hell if you do not have eternal or immortal souls.
Our goal, when we do a word study, is to see how God uses a Greek word in order to learn its spiritual or Biblical definition.
Immortality is the Greek word athanasia which is defined as:
Blue Letter Bible says, “undying, immortal, everlasting.”
Bible Hub says, “immortality, imperishability, freedom from death.”
Helps Word-studies says, “literally without death, deathless.”
Athanasia is used three times. Twice in 1 Corinthians 15:53 and 54, speaking of those believers who will be living when Jesus Christ returns to gather the Body of Christ. The third time is in First Timothy.
1 Timothy 6:16
Who [Jesus Christ] only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
Jesus did die and spend seventy-two hours in the grave, that was the sign of Jonah that Jesus gave to the Pharisees. How then, since Jesus died, can he be counted as immortal?
Acts 2:31
He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell [hades = the grave], neither his flesh did see corruption.
Since his flesh did not see corruption God gave to Jesus immortality. So, applying this Greek word to Jesus means the spiritual definition needs to change and the statements about undying, imperishable, or deathless need to be amended to reflect that you can die and still have immortality if you are raised to eternal life before corruption of the body begins to occur. The immortality of Jesus is tied to the flesh corrupting.
What standard has God set for corruption of a body once it has died?
In the example of Jonah, Jesus was in the grave three days and three nights and then God raised him to eternal life. God gives us His answer about a dead body entering a state of corruption with the resurrection of Lazarus.
John 11:38-39
Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
The Greek word ozo translated “stinketh” in John is only used here and in the Septuagint in Exodus 8:14 the land “stank,” from dead frogs. God sets the time of corruption by these examples; on the fourth day after death corruption begins.
So, what is our broader answer concerning the immortality of all human souls? There is no immortality for those who reject Christ. Therefore, there can be no hell as described by Christian theologians.
God's Gospel Series
