The Age of Accountability: Conditional Immortality: Old Testament Thoughts; Degrees of Punishment

8/8/2010Immortality

Immortality is not an inherent element of human life. Rather, immortality is something God gives to those who are faithful –

(1 Tim 6:15-16) which God will bring about in his own time — God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.

And Paul certainly says that only God is immortal. The Greek word is athanasia, meaning deathless.

(Rom 2:7) To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

“Immortality” translates aphtharsia, meaning incorruptibility. It’s the same word translated “imperishable” in 1 Cor 15 –

(1 Cor 15:42-44) So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

(1 Cor 15:53-54) For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

Eternal life is a gift that not all receive. We aren’t born immortal. We are born perishable and mortal. But some are given immortality and imperishability. The rest die — twice.

Mortal

When we look at the verses dealing with mortality, we see the same lesson — immortality is gift given to some but not all.

(Rom 8:11) And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

(2 Cor 5:4) For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

Both passages say much the same thing. We are by nature mortal, but God will give his children immortality.

The later Christians who argued for everlasting torment did so based on the theory that humans are, by nature, immortal. But these verses plainly teach that we are mortal by nature, but have eternal life as a gift.

The Old Testament

Therefore, we see that the Old Testament and New Testament teach the same doctrine. Both teach that God will purge the world of his enemies by fire. And both teach that God’s people will live with God forever in a new heavens and new earth. It all fits. It’s all consistent. And it’s all utterly contrary to the Greek thought of the day.

People are made of flesh and blood, and God gives some immortality. Those without immortality die twice — once in this life and again as a consequence of God’s wrath, and the second death will involve pain proportional to the sinfulness of those who die.

Degrees of punishment

(Luk 12:47-48 NIV) 47 “That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows.  48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

Jesus plainly teaches degrees of punishment. The measure of punishment depends on one’s opportunities (“who has been given much”) and degrees of knowledge (“who does not know”). Therefore, Hitler will suffer much, much more than a 12-year old girl who dies one day after her “age of accountability.”

So what is the fate of those who died before the crucifixion? At Mars Hill, Paul said,

(Act 17:29-30 NIV)  29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone–an image made by man’s design and skill.  30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.”

Did God save those who worshiped idols — or just refuse to punish them because of their ignorance? Did Antiochus Ephiphanes, who burned pork on the altar of the temple and place prostitutes in the temple courts, go to heaven? Or did God simply let his death be death — so that he suffered no painful destruction? To “overlook such ignorance” means that God didn’t punish their sins, but will he resurrect them to live in the new heavens and new earth with Jesus forever?

(Rom 3:25b ESV) 25 This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

This seems to be much the same thought. But to pass over these sins is not the same as rewarding the wicked men of old with immortality. You see, to the Greek thinker, immortality is a necessary part of being human. Therefore, the wicked man will live forever. The only question is whether he’ll live a blessed or cursed existence. But when we understand that immortality is conditional, we realize that there are two other possibilities: death without resurrection and death with resurrection but with a painless or less painful destruction.

I mean, God will resurrect the damned to face their accuser and suffer their fate, but for those whose sins God overlooks, there’s the possibility that they die, receive no immortality, receive no resurrection, and suffer no judgment. In fact, that seems a much more likely fate for those who died before the crucifixion than eternity with God. So far as I can tell, the new heavens and new earth is promised only to the saved — not to those who are spared punishment solely out of ignorance.

You see, it’s our inclusion into Christ that brings us into the presence of God. The ancient wicked may not be damned, but they won’t be with Jesus either. They are just dead.

(Rom 6:5 ESV) 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

A preliminary thought

Now, I admit I’m moving into very unfamiliar territory, and so what I suggest is a bit speculative, but it fits — it makes better sense than any alternative I’ve heard.

So let’s consider the case of a child who dies before the age of accountability. There are these possibilies —

1. The child could be treated a Christian. He could be considered to be in Christ and to be resurrected like Christ. Upon attaining the age of accountability, the child would be treated as having effectively fallen away when he commits his first sin. When he is later saved, he is restored. This is another way of describing the traditional view. Sinlessness is assumed to be sufficient to save.

2. The child could be treated as damned. There are those who, because of original sin, who do consider the child damned until he is baptized — even if faith only comes later. But the default position for this school of thought, with roots in Augustine, is damnation because the child doesn’t have the grace necessary for salvation.

3. The child could be treated as neither saved nor damned, like I believe was true of the Gentiles before Jesus, whose sins were overlooked because of ignorance. And if such a child were to die, he would not be resurrected. He’d just die one death. Or perhaps he’d be resurrected with the rest and die a painless second death, having no sins to be punished for.

4. For a child growing up in a Christian home, the child could be considered saved until the child is both old enough to be accountable. He would only fall away the way any Christian falls away: out of rebellion or abandonment of the faith.

Those are all the possibilities I can imagine, and you can see, most take us well outside the usual age-of-accountability Arminian/Orthodox/post-2007 Catholic orthodoxy. It’s not that the new possibilities have to be true. It’s just that they have to be considered.

You see, when we assume with Plato that we all have immortal souls that even God himself cannot destroy, we greatly limit the salvation possibilities to consider. But when we discover that the soul to a Jew is simply the self and that immortality is a gift of God (Each bullet is the group who receives immortality according to the passages quoted above that describe God’s gift of immortality) —

* to those who persist in doing good (Rom 2:7)

* to those who are in Christ (1 Cor 15:22)

* to those who have the Spirit (Rom 8:11)

* to those who are being transformed into the image of the Lord from one degree of glory to another by the Spirit (2Co 3:18)

— then we have to consider other possibilities. And so I think the whole age of accountability question is a little more complicated that we often make out. We aren’t forced by the necessary immortality of the soul to imagine that infants are either burning in hell or else living with Jesus forever in heaven.

That’s doesn’t mean those possibilities are wrong. But it does mean that we can’t just assume. Rather, we need to keep on digging into the scriptures.

About Jay F Guin

My name is Jay Guin, and I’m a retired elder. I wrote The Holy Spirit and Revolutionary Grace about 18 years ago. I’ve spoken at the Pepperdine, Lipscomb, ACU, Harding, and Tulsa lectureships and at ElderLink. My wife’s name is Denise, and I have four sons, Chris, Jonathan, Tyler, and Philip. I have two grandchildren. And I practice law.
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4 Responses to The Age of Accountability: Conditional Immortality: Old Testament Thoughts; Degrees of Punishment

  1. konastephen says:

    In part, I’m not always convinced that the so-called Jewish mindset is always right over and against the so-called Greek mindset. I’m just not sure things are so simple. However, I will acknowledge that your view, Jay, regarding ‘conditional immortality’, is consistent and worth considering.

    My main complaint here, though, is that all this still seems more about us than about God. It all seems more about asking the question of how the particulars make up the whole, from the standpoint of the particulars. But in my view, this is God’s story. And hell is what happens when one cannot see His story, or if one did that they’d reject it.

    Though ‘Original Sin taints’ us all—in some sense uniting you and I to the same plane as both a 12-year old girl and a Hitler—God has grace and mercy, and is not a God of technicalities. It is grace that seems to be lacking in your various other possibilities…grace to heal a murderous sinner that repents and worships Christ, grace to heal a child that lies to save her hide. It is how we respond to the truth of God’s sovereignty that will make all the difference.

    Again, with immortality, it is one thing to say that all life is derived from God, since only God is ‘deathless’; it is quite another to say that God hasn’t bestowed upon us, as with free-will, an eternal ‘soul’ (for lack of a better word). Put differently, why shouldn’t we read the promises for 'immortality' as a shorthand for ‘eternity with God’? Likewise, we could read this against the binary of the 'eternally incorruptible' versus the 'eternally corrupted'. Again, what comfort do we gain if your view is right? What could we lose if you are wrong?

    It still seems to me that the ‘other views’ have not really been listened to, or thought through with any real precision (for instance Tim Keller’s view) http://download.redeemer.com/sermons/Hell_Isnt_th

    Or give this a quick listen—and try to hear it through the lens of Wright’s understanding of justification and imputation…

  2. abasnar says:

    How do you understand this, Jay:

    Luk 16:19 "There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.
    Luk 16:20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
    Luk 16:21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.
    Luk 16:22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried,
    Luk 16:23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.
    Luk 16:24 And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.'
    Luk 16:25 But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.
    Luk 16:26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.'
    Luk 16:27 And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house–
    Luk 16:28 for I have five brothers–so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.'

    A few remarks:

    a) this is describing the situaion of the dead between their death and resurrection in Hades
    b) the are two areas: Abrahams bosom, a place of comfort, and a place of torment
    c) This is a concious state, but before the bodily resurrection, where people feel pain or joy and still can be concerned about those still living on earth
    d) The rich man was not remotely as "bad" as Hitler … (although I agree that each one will receive according to what he or she has done – but even the punsihment for this "ordinary rich man" is severe.)

    Anyway: We see a place of torment, where the person being tormented is not being destroyed.

    I have actually two questions:

    What do you think about the "intermediate state" of the dead as described by the Lord in this text?

    How does this match with the idea that there are no immortal souls, or – that the soul cannot exist without the body?

    Alexander

  3. Jay Guin says:

    Alexander,

    I've got two posts coming — the next two days. It's a serious question that I've thought seriously about.

  4. abasnar says:

    OK, I'm looking forward to a well thought and presented answer. Maybe you could also include this passage from Revelation, which is also quite important:

    Rev 6:9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.
    Rev 6:10 They cried out with a loud voice, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"
    Rev 6:11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

    Here the souls of martyrs become increasingly impatient, which means they have been waiting for a long time already, and they are waiting for the Day of the Lord and their resurrection.

    The answer they receive is, they still have to wait a little longer untill their brothers have finsished their race (in martyrdom).

    There will be only one resurrection of the just (the first resurrection – before the millenium), and these souls (!) are therefore "disembodied" living persons, who await their reward. They get these white robes as a confirmation of their justice, but they still don't rise bodily.

    It is interesting that the place where they are is called "under the altar" – according to Luke 16 this place should be "Abraham's bosom" or according to Luke 23:43 "Paradise". But we see this place in a direct connection with the Altar, which means with the original temple in Heaven.

    Also to be taken into consideration:

    Heb 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,
    Heb 12:23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,

    Our worship here on earth is also connected to the one festal gathering in Heaven. There is only one assembly and we all should worship in unsion with one another, with all the angels and with the spirits of the righteous made perfect.

    Again this points to a reality, which is tremendous: Our bfrothers and sisters of old, Peter, James, Paul, Priska, Phoebe, Ignatius, Justin, Thekla, Origen, Peter Waldo, Menno Simons, Alexander Campbell, Don Hayes (Father of one of our preachers who passed away last July) … all of God's people are still alive even though their bodies rot away and awit their resurrection.

    We join their worship in Zion, not vice versa! This is by the way a strong NO to any unscriptural forms of worship, because the tabernacle had to be patterned according to this Heavenly temple, and the church is built according to the same pattern. Our worship is patterned after the Heavenly one. We learn the New song that is being sung by the Angels and the 24 Elders (Rev 14:3). We should not make strange noises in the "Upper room", we should not be a disturbance in the festal gathering, but blend in harmoniously.

    At the very same time, the rich man is in the "lower parts of Hades" (as the Early Christians put it), there all the unrighteous from the beginning await their day of resurrection and judgement (2nd resurrection – after the millenium). Some for almost 6000 years, others only since a few minutes.

    This "How long" in the question of the martyrs shows that they do have a sense of time. And if some are suffering for their misdeeds for 6000 years and others only for a day, and tomorrow the Lord would return and raise them and destroy them in the flames, then the time of suffering would be in no way according to the number and gravity of their sins, but only depending on when in time a person was born.

    These side remarks are also quite important to this subject.

    Alexander

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