Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
Immortality
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Deuteronomy 6:6-7
Homeschooling has become the most viable alternative to public education over the past several years. Concerned parents, watching standards—scholastic, moral, and cultural—tumble in their local schools, are turning to traditional curricula taught in the home by a parent to give their children a better education and environment. Whereas homeschooling used to be equated with liberal, hippie, granola-munching types, the movement is now predominantly conservative and Christian. Adding values education to a hemorrhaging public school system is a last-ditch tourniquet, a triage procedure to save a wounded and dying institution. It may staunch the flow, but it will not keep the patient from expiring. Why? The answer is simple: A person, group, or institution cannot teach what it does not possess. At best, the public schools should be reinforcing values that have already been taught. Character education must be taught in the home. If a child riding the bus on his first day of school does not already possess the basic values of right and wrong, he is already set up for failure. A five- or six-year-old child should already know and practice such fundamental values as respect for authority, courtesy, honesty, respect for property, respect for life, responsibility, etc. They are not difficult for a child to understand, especially if they are reinforced by their parents' examples. The Bible is full of exhortations and examples to parents to guide their children (see Deuteronomy 6:4-9; I Kings 1:1-6; Proverbs 22:6; Ephesians 6:1-4; etc.) The parents should be supported in their responsibilities by the churches. However, this is happening too infrequently in this country. American mainstream churches are so busy doing "outreach," "political action," and other time- and resource-wasting activities that they are neglecting to teach Bible-based character from their pulpits. In attempting to include groups the Bible wholeheartedly rejects unless repentant, they have watered down Christian virtue into one word: tolerance. I challenge pastors and preachers across America to find that word in the Bible. God is never happy when religious leaders shirk their duties (see Malachi 2:1-9; Jeremiah 2:8-13; 5:30-31; II Peter 2; etc.). As with all matters of morality and character, change must begin with the individual, and from there it spreads to the family and beyond. It cannot begin in a liberal public school system that will not recognize God, truth, biblical standards, or even this nation's founding virtues. As the song says, "Let it begin with me."
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Public Schools and Teaching Character
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Ecclesiastes 3:10-11
Ecclesiastes 2:26 says that God gives gifts. We need to consider another wonderful gift He has given, not to His children only, but to all mankind, named in Ecclesiastes 3:11: “He has put eternity in their hearts.” This wonderful gift contains an aspect that can work against us if we are not careful. Unlike animals, we have thoughts of immortality. We normally do not want to die; we want to live forever. Yet, we also know that we are caught between time as it is for us right now and eternity. As God reveals Himself to us, to live eternally with Him and to be like Him become major desires for us. The filmmaker Woody Allen, an atheist and without revelation from God, nonetheless makes an insightful observation about mankind, which he learned at least partly from his occupation as a writer and movie-maker: The universe is indifferent, so we create a fake world for ourselves, and we exist within that fake world, a world that, in fact means nothing at all, when you step back. It is meaningless. But it's important that we create some sense of meaning, because no perceptible meaning exists for anybody. Why is it "important that we create some sense of meaning”? Our thinking is what creates a sense of purpose for our existence and therefore gives direction for our use of life. Will our conclusions be true or false? Our minds can only work with what they already have, which accrues as we move through life's events. Allen observes that the universe tells us nothing about the purpose for life. While not entirely correct, it is close enough for the unconverted. How much spiritual truth does the unconverted mind really have to work with? Therefore, humanly, we attempt to create our own meaning and purpose, fitting ourselves into what we have imagined. What are the odds that a person will come up with exactly the same purpose and meaning that the Creator has planned for us? In addition—and this is essential—what are the chances that a person will fit himself into that divine plan on his own? The correct answer is zilch, nada, nothing. Therefore, since the universe tells us nothing, the true purpose of life must be revealed through God's calling. Of supreme importance to us, then, is whether our thinking creates a sense of meaning and purpose for our lives from what God has revealed in His Word. Ecclesiastes 3:11 reveals that God has given mankind thoughts of eternity, that is, of time both backward and forward endlessly. However, He has not yet given mankind His truth about eternity. Consequently, most of mankind believes that they already have immortality within them! In this way, their false thinking becomes their enemy! Understanding and fully accepting what He has given to us are not always easy because our former, carnal experiences make us susceptible to the pulls of the world. We become sluggish in living by faith because we allow our former education from the world to lure us into self-centeredness. Our challenge is to focus on the purpose of life that God has revealed to us, not on what we have imagined for ourselves. When we add other truths gleaned from other passages of God's Word, we realize that verse 11 implies that we are being created for another world, an entirely different one within the realm of eternity. God's gift of His Holy Spirit has given us an ability to transcend mankind's fixation on the present and the material. We are being created for the spirit world of the Father and the Son and of the angels (which were made to be ministering spirits for our benefit). We are being created for the Kingdom of God. To find satisfaction and fulfillment, Solomon attempted many different avenues and thought deeply about life as he saw it. However, we must come to understand that God has ordained that we must live by faith while awaiting our change. That time must be spent within a relationship with Him so that we come to know Him and His way ever more fully. Now is the testing time, the time for trials to prepare us. We must learn that our satisfaction in life must come from an “over the sun” spiritual relationship lived by faith. Those who pursue this relationship with God will be given eternal life because they know Him and He knows them. This is the task to which Ecclesiastes 3:10 alludes. God has given us this task to accomplish to be prepared for living in His Kingdom. To fulfill it, we must live by faith, trusting His sovereignty in every situation. That means being at peace, content, comforting ourselves with the truth that God is fully aware of what is happening in our lives and is in control of the big picture.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Ecclesiastes and Christian Living (Part Three): Time
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Amos 8:9-10
These are subtle signs of a "ripe" society. When an earthquake strikes, one feels very unstable because he is not sure if the building will collapse and kill him. A similar type of instability occurs when society is rocked by crime, violence, immorality, and injustice. Amos describes the insecurity, bitterness, and death that result from failing to hold to the absolute standards of God. One of the first signs of ripeness that society shows is instability. Just a few decades ago, most of us could leave our houses unlocked, but when society began to become unstable, we had to start locking our doors. In the recent past, we did not read a great deal about violence on the streets. Now society is so unstable that violence fills our news reports, and this constant source of worry produces more instability. Within such a nation, all kinds of unstable factors constantly increase because everyone is running here and there in confusion. The confusion results from the lack of absolute standards of what is right and wrong, moral and immoral, ethical and unethical. Thus, everybody does his own thing. Violence, divorce, suicide, and mental illness increase. We see this in our societies every day.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Prepare to Meet Your God! (The Book of Amos) (Part Two)
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Luke 16:26
Abraham and Lazarus were separated from the rich man suffering for his sins. The latter had received his reward in the material things he had sought, craved, and acquired during his mortal lifetime. The gulf Abraham mentions that prevents the wicked from escaping death in the Lake of Fire—and that also keeps the righteous from being burned—is immortality. Those who are immortal will never die because they are composed of spirit like God (Revelation 20:6). Only the saved possess immortality as the gift of God (Romans 2:7). Conversely, human beings who have not been resurrected or changed to spirit are still physical and subject to corruption and death. They can be consumed by fire because they are composed of flesh and blood. The wicked will reap anguish and wrath, the fiery indignation that will devour the adversary (Hebrews 10:27). For such people, there will be a time of anguish before they die when the fire consumes their bodies. The parable ends with Abraham's words ringing in the rich man's mind and flames of judgment engulfing his body.
Martin G. Collins
Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Part Two)
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Romans 2:5-7
Notice that Paul separates "immortality" from "eternal life" as though they are different. The words assuredly share a common idea, that is, both indicate a long, enduring period. Immortality simply means "unending existence" because the being does not corrupt, decay, and die. However, "eternal life," as used by the Bible's writers, includes something "immortality" does not, introducing a shade of difference between the two words. Unfortunately, in many minds, "immortality" corresponds exactly with "eternal life." They are not the same. Perhaps a good way to illustrate this is to refer to the Greek myths with their pantheon of gods. In these myths, the gods had immortality but—by biblical definition—not eternal life. This is because immortality speaks only of endless life, not its quality. The Greek gods acted, reacted, and had passions and attitudes just like human beings, mere mortals, whereas eternal life in the biblical sense is life lived the way the true God lives it. It indicates the totality of life, which, as we will see, we already possess in principle. To put it into a more human setting, eternal life is to live life endlessly according to the will of God. John 5:24 helps us to begin to understand when Jesus says, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life." Notice that he who believes has already passed from death to everlasting life. We can connect this to Ephesians 2:1: "And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins." Before repentance and conversion, God views us as dead even though we are physically alive. Though we possess animal life, before God's calling we are totally unaware of the spiritual life of God, even as those who are physically dead are unaware of the pleasures, cares, and amusements of the living. They hear no music, enjoy no food, can see neither beauty nor ugliness—they are unaware even of people trampling on their graves! Before conversion, we are likewise unaware of the spiritual life of God, the beauty of holiness, and the joy, power, abundance, peace, honor, and glory of that life. Conversion is a life slowly expanding into a new dimension that we never knew existed before—everlasting or eternal life.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Elements of Motivation (Part Six): Eternal Life
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2 Timothy 1:10
What powerful words! He brought life and immortality. We have life—mortal life—but not immortality. Could "life," in context with the word "immortality," be a different kind of life than we are now living? We should be on the way to living this new life brought by the gospel. But it is not the kind of life human beings ordinarily live. What kind of gift would immortality be to give eternal life to those who murder, rape, pillage, plunder, abuse children, or live in any other sin? If they were given immortality, would they not continue to do the things they had been trained from a child to do? Without a doubt, they would. The life Paul writes about is the kind of life that came through the message of Jesus Christ. Contained within the gospel is God's life, a quality of life that God lives to which He is willing to add immortality. It is a powerful part of the good news of the Kingdom of God. Paul stated in an earlier epistle, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation" (Romans 1:16). And the gift of the Spirit God has given is one of power (II Timothy 1:7). What is the gospel? It is just words, ideas. But those words impart power! They motivate our lives. They give us the will to do things in righteousness. They give us drive, endurance, perseverance, patience, hope, faith, understanding, gentleness, goodness, kindness, vision, direction. They give us a path for our lives, a way of living that produces a quality of life to which God will add immortality. God is training us in His way of life.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Guard the Truth!
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Find more Bible verses about Immortality:
Immortality {Nave's}
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