The Immortality of the Soul: A Protest

The Real Significance Of The Doctrine Of The Immortality Of The Soul Is Its Bearing On The Ultimate Destiny Of The Wicked. This Teaching Has, In Ancient And Modern Times, Been Supplemented Or Limited In Three Directions By Other Teaching About The Ultimate Destiny Of The Wicked. 1. To The Pictures Of Actual Suffering Found In The New Testament, The Traditional Teaching Of The Church Has Added The Assertion That This Suffering Will Be Endless. 2. Others, Especially In Recent Times, Have Added To, And Limited The Teaching Of The New Testament By Endeavoring To Prove That The Suffering Therein Depicted Will Ultimately, After Different Degrees Of Suffering In Proportion To Different Degrees Of Guilt, Be Lost In Unconsciousness. 3. Others Have Not Only Gone Beyond The New Testament, But Have As I Think Contradicted It, By Asserting With More Or Less Confidence That All Men Will Ultimately Be Saved.‘ (P. 111-14) But To Every Careful Student Of The New Testament Two Doctrines Stand Out As Clearly And Frequently Taught There: (1) That Eternal Life In Infinite Blessing Awaits All Who Put Trust In Christ And Walk In His Steps; (2) That Ruin, Complete And Final, Awaits Those Who Reject The Salvation He Offers And Persist In What They Know To Be Sin. We Have No Right To Assert In God’s Name Anything More Than We Can Trace By Abundant And Decisive Evidence To The Lips Of Christ And The Pen Of The Apostles And Evangelists. And The Teaching Which Can Be So Traced Is All We Need.