Natural Mortality Questioned

One day I listened to a conversation between my mother and a sister, in reference to a discourse which they had recently heard, to the effect that the soul had not natural immortality. Some of the minister's proof-texts were repeated. Among them I remember these impressed me very forcibly:LSMS 54.4

“The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”“The living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything.”“Which in His times He shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality.”“To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, and honor, and immortality, eternal life.”LSMS 55.1

“Why,” said my mother, after quoting the foregoing passage, “should they seek for what they already have?” I listened to these new ideas with an intense and painful interest. When alone with my mother, I inquired if she really believed that the soul was not immortal. Her reply was that she feared that we had been in error on the subject as well as upon some others.LSMS 55.2

“But Mother,” said I, “do you really believe that the soul sleeps in the grave until the resurrection? Do you think that the Christian, when he dies, does not go immediately to heaven, nor the sinner to hell?”LSMS 55.3

She answered, “The Bible gives us no proof that there is an eternally burning hell. If there is such a place, it should be mentioned in the Sacred Book.”LSMS 55.4

When my mother said to me, “Ellen, the minister says that we have been mistaken; there is no eternal hell,” I said to her, “O Mother, don't tell anybody; I am afraid that nobody would seek the Lord”LSMS 55.5

“If this is sound Bible truth,” she replied, “instead of preventing the salvation of sinners, it will be the means of winning them to Christ. If the love of God will not induce the rebel to yield, the terrors of an eternal hell will not drive him to repentance. Besides, it does not seem a proper way to win souls to Jesus by appealing to one of the lowest attributes of the mind—abject fear. The love of Jesus attracts; it will subdue the hardest heart.”LSMS 55.6

It was some months after this conversation before I heard anything further concerning this doctrine; but during this time my mind had been much exercised upon the subject. Then I heard it preached, and believed it to be the truth. From the time light in regard to the sleep of the dead dawned upon my mind, the mystery that had enshrouded the resurrection vanished, and the great event itself assumed new and sublime importance.LSMS 56.1

My mind had often been disturbed by its efforts to reconcile the immediate reward or punishment of the dead with the undoubted fact of a future resurrection and judgment. If at death the soul entered upon eternal happiness or misery, where was the need of a resurrection of the poor moldering body? But this new and beautiful faith taught me the reason why inspired writers had dwelt so much upon the resurrection of the body; it was because the entire being was slumbering in the grave.LSMS 56.2

I could now clearly perceive the fallacy of our former position on this question. The confusion and uselessness of a final judgment, after the souls of the departed had already been judged once and appointed to their lot, was very plain to me now. I saw that the hope of the bereaved lies in looking forward to the glorious day when the Lifegiver shall break the fetters of the tomb, and the righteous dead shall arise and leave their prison-house, to be clothed with glorious immortal life.LSMS 56.3