In Did I Really Hear You Say That? we were looking at the basis for our belief that the soul is immortal and I was suggesting that it might not be a biblical doctrine after all. I was also saying that our preconceptions about these kinds of things have a bizarre ability to stop us seeing the words before our eyes. 

In the beginning 

At the very beginning, Genesis tells us about the two trees in the garden of Eden. Yes, two: 'In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil' (Genesis 2:9). The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the one hung with the hand grenades and so we tend to focus on that and miss the implications of the other tree. (I don’t want to worry here about whether we are talking myth or history; the truths are still contained in the vessel, whatever kind of vessel it is.)

Now, God’s warning to Adam and Eve was that if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil then they would surely die. Interestingly they were not forbidden, at this stage, to eat of the tree of life. We can only speculate but maybe they were allowed to eat from it and therefore maintaining their ongoing life. Or perhaps they would go on to eat from it in the future and ‘inherit eternal life’ in the same way that a child might inherit goods or certain privileges when they ‘come of age’. You decide.

After the business with the fruit, however, things look different:

And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." (Genesis 3:22).

Blindingly obvious 

This appears very straightforward and, in fact, blindingly obvious but we miss it because of our assumptions. If humankind were to become immortal at this stage then Evil would live forever; it would be frozen in immortality and be a part of God’s creation for all time. It could never be destroyed. That is why death came to Adam and Eve and that is why they were banished from the garden; it wasn’t the petulant punishment of an offended father, it was a protective measure to ensure that the infection of sin and evil did not spread to eternity.

This means that humans are mortal. All of them, not just their bodies. The gift of eternal life, whether eternal bliss or eternal hell, has not been given to them at this point, in fact it has been specifically withheld.

Death, perish, destroy 

The wages of sin are death but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus (Romans 6:23).

God so loved the world … that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). 

Don’t fear man who can only destroy the body but rather fear God who can destroy both the body and the soul in hell (Matthew 10:28).

So why would we take the words ‘death’, ‘perish’ and ‘destroy’ to imply ongoing existence?

- Do you think the bible teaches an eternal hell for unbelievers?

- Or do you think we have misunderstood because of our assumptions?