Terminology Tuesday: Immortality

Immortality: Most simply, the inability to cease to exist or the ability to exist eternally. In this sense God is the only being who is truly immortal, because God has always existed and will not cease to exist. Some theologians argue, however, that human souls are created by God as intrinsically immortal, whereas others argue that the soul only becomes extrinsically immortal upon the reception of “eternal life” through salvation. Either way, it is commonly agreed that all humans, whether righteous or wicked, are subject to physical death as a consequence of sin and thus are universally mortal as to their earthly life. Whatever immortality humans possess is due to the will and power of God.1

1. Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki & Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), p. 64.

Written by

Brian Auten is the founder emeritus of Apologetics315. He is also director of Reasonable Faith Belfast. Brian holds a Masters degree in Christian Apologetics and has interviewed over 150 Christian apologists. His background is in missions, media direction, graphic design, and administration. Brian started Apologetics315 in 2007 to be an apologetics hub to equip Christians to defend the faith.

Type at least 1 character to search
Catch the AP315 Team Online:

The mission of Apologetics 315 is to provide educational resources for the defense of the Christian faith, with the goal of strengthening the faith of believers and engaging the questions and challenges of other worldviews.

Defenders Media provides media solutions to an alliance of evangelistic ministries that defend the Christian worldview. We do this by elevating the quality of our members’ branding to match the excellence of the content being delivered.