The doctrine of immortality of the soul, not being in the Bible, the question is, Where has it come from? For an answer to this question, we direct attention to the following facts which reveal that it has been derived from paganism, and falsely superimposed upon the teaching of the Bible:

Herodotus, the oldest historian, writes as follows: "The Egyptians say that Ceres (the goddess of corn), and Bacchus (the god of wine), hold the chief sway in the infernal regions; and the Egyptians also were the first who asserted the doctrine that the soul of man is immortal" (Herod. Book 2;Sec123).

Mosheim says, "Its first promoters argued from that known doctrine of the Platonic School, which was also adopted by Origen and his disciples, that the divine nature was diffused through all human souls; or in other words, that the faculty of reason, from which proceed the health and vigour of the mind, was an emanation from God into the human soul, and comprehended it in the principles and elements of all truth, human and divine" (Ecclesiastical History, vol 1, page 86; Plato page 169).

Justin Martyr (A.D. 150) said, "For if you have conversed with some that are indeed called Christians, and do not maintain these opinions, but even dare to blaspheme the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and say that there is no resurrection of the dead, but that the souls, as soon as they leave the body are received up into heaven, take care that you do not look upon these. But I, and all those Christians that are really orthodox in every respect, do know that there will be a resurrection of the body and a thousand years in Jerusalem, when it is built again, and adorned, as Ezekiel, and Esaias, and the rest of the prophets declare (Dialogue with Trypho, the Jew, section 80).

An extract from the canon which was passed under Leo X, by the Council of Lateran, shows that the doctrine of an "immortal soul" that lives when the man is dead was supported in those days, as it generally has been since, by the authority of creeds, rather than the Word of God: "Some have dared to assert, concerning the nature of the reasonable soul, that it is mortal; we, with the approbation of the sacred council, do condemn and reprobate all such, seeing according to the canon of Pope Clement the Fifth, the soul is immortal; and we strictly inhibit all from dogmatising otherwise; and we decree that all who adhere to the like erroneous assertions, shall be shunned and punished as heretics" (Caranza, page 412, 1681).

Martin Luther ironically responded to the decrees of the Council of the Lateran held during the pontificate of Pope Leo: "I permit the Pope to make articles of faith for himself and his faithful - such as the soul is the substantial form of the human body - the soul is immortal - with all those monstrous opinions to be found in the Roman dunghill of decretals; that such as his faith is, such may be his gospel, such his disciples, and such his church, that the mouth may have meat suitable for it, and the dish a cover worthy of it" (Luther's Works, vol. II, Folio 107, Wittemburg, 1562).

In an old work printed in 1772, entitled Historical View of the Intermediate State, on page 348, when speaking of Martin Luther's belief in the relation to the state of the dead between death and resurrection, it is said to be held "that they lie in a profound sleep, in which opinion he followed many of the fathers of the ancient church."

William Tyndale declares that "In putting departed souls in heaven, hell, and purgatory, you destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resurrection. What God doth with them, that we shall know when we come to them. The true faith putteth the resurrection, which we be warned to look for every hour. The heathen philosophers denying that, did put that the souls did ever live. And the Pope joineth the spiritual doctrine of Christ, and the fleshly doctrine of philosophers together - things so contrary that they cannot agree... And because the flesh-minded Pope consenteth unto the heathen doctrine, therefore he corrupteth the Scriptures to establish it... If the souls be in heaven, tell me why they be not in as good case as the angels be? And then what cause is there of the resurrection?" This translator of the Scriptures into English suffered martyrdom in 1536.

Gibbon declares that "The doctrine of the immortality of the soul is omitted in the Law of Moses" (Gibbon, chapter 15).

Richard Watson remarks, "That the soul is naturally immortal, is contradicted by Scripture, which makes our immortality a gift, dependent on the will of the Giver" (Institutes, vol ii, page 250).

George Combe says, "No idea can be more erroneous, than to suppose that man is an immortal being, on account of the substance of which he is composed" (System of Phrenology, pp. 595-7).

The Hebrew word "nephesh" is found in the original about 750 times, but in the common version, nephesh is translated in 45 different ways; soul 475 times; life, lives, living 120 times; persons 3 times; fish 1 time; and applied indiscriminately to man and beast 9 times, etc, etc.

Parkhurst says, "As a noun, nephesh hath been supposed to signify the spiritual part of a man, or, what we commonly call his soul; I must, for myself, confess that I can find no passage where it hath undoubtedly this meaning." (Hebrew Lexicon).

The Greek work "psuche," synonymous with nephesh, used in the New Testament, has 7 different renderings, soul, life, lives, mind, heart, you, etc., etc.

The word "soul" though frequently occurring in the Bible, is not found in one instance as indicating it being immortal, immaterial, indestructible, or "never-dying."

The word "immortal" is found but once in the Scriptures (See 1 Timothy 1:17).