The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created directly by God — it is not “produced” by the parents — and is immortal: that is, it does not perish when it separates from the body in death, and it will be united once more with the body at the final resurrection.

Although the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is clearly revealed in the Scriptures, there exist sects and Protestant denominations (Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists, etc.) which, clinging to a mistaken interpretation of the Bible, stubbornly refuse to accept it.

What arguments do the sects use to deny the immortality of the soul?

In the case of Jehovah’s Witnesses, I have taken a summary from their magazine Awake!, of October 22, 1982, in which they set forth the arguments they use to deny the immortality of the soul.

“Jehovah’s Witnesses… believe that the human soul is mortal, that the dead are completely unconscious. Why do they believe this? …The writers of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) never, not even once, added to the words “néphesh” (Hebrew word for “soul”) or “rúahh” (Hebrew word for “spirit”) the qualification of “immortal.” Rather, they taught that the human soul dies: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:4, 20, Versión Moderna; see also Psalm 22:29; 78:50.) The dead are said to be unconscious: “For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all, nor do they have any more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten… Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.” — Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10, Jerusalem Bible. The Greek Scriptures (New Testament) give the same viewpoint concerning the soul and death. Jesus said that God “can destroy both soul and body.” So if the soul can be destroyed, it cannot be immortal. (Matthew 10:28) Regarding Jesus, the Apostle Peter declared: “Every soul that does not listen to that Prophet will be completely destroyed.” (Acts 3:23) Jesus also showed that the dead are unconscious, for he likened death to ‘a refreshing sleep.’ (John 11:11-14) This is in harmony with what any person can readily discern who attends a funeral where the body of the deceased is on view.

According to the account of creation recorded in Genesis 2:7, Adam was formed from the dust of the ground and “the man became a living soul.” Therefore, the Bible often uses the expression “his soul” to refer to the person “himself”.”[1]

Starting from this brief summary, we can break down their arguments and examine them one by one.

Argument 1: The dead have no consciousness of anything

“For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.”[2]

Jehovah’s Witnesses have taken this biblical text literally and out of context in order to affirm that when a person dies he has no consciousness of anything whatsoever; therefore, there is no immortal soul that survives him. From their point of view, when a person dies he ceases to exist and only remains “in Jehovah’s memory.” But to understand how Jehovah’s Witnesses have reached this conclusion, one must understand their method of interpreting the Scriptures. Their principal difficulty probably lies in their failure to understand that Divine Revelation has been progressive. It should not surprise us to find no reference to the resurrection throughout the Pentateuch (the first mentions appear in Isaiah 26:19 and Daniel 12, and even in the time of Jesus the Sadducees rejected it), since it had not yet been revealed at that point. The very revelation of the Messiah as Son of God and God incarnate is not equally clear in the Old Testament as in the New. Many examples could be cited, but surely any careful reader will notice without much difficulty this development of Revelation as he advances through the pages of the Bible — which implies that there were moments in history when knowledge of certain truths was partial and limited, and grew progressively.

The same occurred in God’s people’s understanding of the afterlife, and especially regarding the reward or punishment of each person. Thus for the author of Ecclesiastes, as for the authors of the earlier sacred books, there is no clear knowledge of reward or punishment except for the goods and evils of the present life. He seems, indeed, to glimpse that God will judge the actions of the righteous and the wicked[3] but without knowing the nature of the recompense.

It is thus easy to understand that the author is not calling the immortality of the soul and future retribution into question, but is simply ignorant of them; and for this reason he compares the condition of the living with that of the dead according to his conceptions of Sheol (the place where souls rested before the Resurrection of Christ, in which they took no further part in the world of the living).

Texts confirming this can be found throughout the entire book: “Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?”[4] The author himself acknowledges here that he does not know what happens to the breath of life in humans and whether it differs from that of the beasts.

Elsewhere he writes: “For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts…”[5] — texts which make clear that the author speaks from what he knows and from what had been revealed up to that point. Yet Jehovah’s Witnesses base their entire doctrine on texts from the Old Testament when Revelation was still in full progress, and are obliged to twist all the clear New Testament texts that oppose their interpretation.

The most contradictory aspect of their theology is that if they interpret Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 as they do, they ought also to conclude that there is no future reward either, since the text states that for the dead “there is no more reward” — although we know that “the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done”[6].

Argument 2: The soul that sins shall die

“Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.”[7]

In some fashion, Jehovah’s Witnesses have chosen to interpret this text as referring to the annihilation or destruction of the soul. The principal difficulty here may be their lack of understanding of the meaning of the word “death” in the Bible, which in some cases refers to the separation of soul and body (physical death), but in other cases to the separation of man from God on account of sin (spiritual death).

Some texts where death refers to the separation of soul and body:

“And as her soul was departing — for she was dying — she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.”[8]

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If it is to be life in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell… I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.”[9]

In the above text, Saint Paul is conscious that upon dying he will depart from his body to be with Christ; yet he prefers to remain in the flesh, for the sake of evangelization. The following text is even more explicit:

“So we are always of good courage; we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight… We are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.”[10]

This text alone suffices to dismantle the entire theology of Jehovah’s Witnesses and Adventists, for it speaks explicitly of how one can live “in the body” and “away from the body,” and that in both states we may strive to please God.

Some texts where death refers to the separation of man from God through sin:

“And you he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins.”[11]

“…even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved.”[12]

“And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.”[13]

This is why it is inconsistent to interpret Ezekiel 18:4 as an annihilation of the soul’s existence; rather, it signifies precisely what it truly means: a state in which the soul is separated from God for all eternity.

“…since indeed God deems it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant rest with us to you who are afflicted, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance upon those who do not know God and upon those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.”[14]

“There men will weep and gnash their teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.”[15]

Further references to the death of the soul — not as a final annihilation but as a separation of man from God — are found in the Apocalypse, where the second death is spoken of:

“I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.”[16]

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who conquers shall not be hurt by the second death.”[17]

“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”[18]

“…and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”[19]

Reading these texts carefully, it becomes clear that the second death (so called precisely because it is the death of the soul) which the damned will suffer together with the Devil, the Beast, and the false prophet, will entail not only being separated from God for all eternity (the pain of loss) but also a kind of eternal torment (the pain of sense).

“And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”[20]

In absolutely every text that speaks of the final destiny of the damned[21] we find the same thing: the death of the soul is a state of definitive separation from God, and there is never any mention of a destruction or cessation of existence.

Note: Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that there will be a resurrection of “the just and the unjust” (Acts 24:15), but in their doctrine no one rises to condemnation: the resurrected “unjust” would receive a second chance, while the irredeemably wicked would never rise at all, since they would have been annihilated for ever. To their way of thinking it is logical: it would make no sense for them to rise only to be destroyed again. But observe that this contradicts what the prophet Daniel had already prophesied in the text just cited: some awake “to everlasting life” and others “to shame and everlasting contempt.”[22]

Argument 3: Jesus said that God “can destroy both soul and body.” Therefore, if the soul can be destroyed, it cannot be immortal[23].

Here the error of Jehovah’s Witnesses is once again to interpret this death of the soul as an annihilation. Their argument is that the Greek text uses ἀπόλλυμι (apollymi), which they translate and interpret literally as “destroy.” The Strong’s Greek dictionary gives the following meaning:

G622ἀπόλλυμι (apollymi)

from G575 and the base of G3639; to destroy fully (reflexively to perish, or lose), literally or figuratively: — destroy, die, lose, mar, perish.

There is no reason whatsoever to interpret the word apollymi in that text as an annihilation or literal destruction of the soul. The context of the text itself not only rejects this idea but serves to refute it.

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”[24]

Since Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in the immortality of the soul, how could anything kill only the body without killing the soul? Remember that they claim there is no soul that survives the body, and that when the body dies, the soul dies. Yet that is not what Jesus says here — quite the contrary. An accident or any natural event can kill the body without killing the soul; this is why Jesus exhorts us not to fear that, but rather to fear what can kill both. Thus, the context of the death or destruction of the soul spoken of there is not an annihilation, but a state of definitive spiritual death.

Biblical evidence in favor of the immortality of the soul

Evidence 1: The promise made to the good thief

Surely we all remember what happened with the good thief when Jesus was crucified:

“One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’ And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingly power.’ And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’”[25]

What is interesting about this event is that Jesus promises the good thief to be with him in Paradise that very day — but how could this happen if the soul does not survive the body? Since this simple text would instantly demolish the entire theology of Witnesses and Adventists, they have devised a rather original argument to justify themselves: they allege that since in that era punctuation marks did not exist, what Jesus meant to say was: “Truly I say to you today, you will be with me in Paradise” (note where they place the comma) — or equivalently, “I assure you today that someday you will be with me in Paradise” (the position of a comma can change the entire meaning of a sentence).

The problem with this argument is that such a manner of expression was completely foreign to the way Jesus spoke as recorded throughout the New Testament. When Jesus used the expression “Truly I say to you” (other translations render it “Verily I say to you,” “Amen I say to you,” etc.) he never used it in that way. Dozens of examples could be cited; among them:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go.”[26]

“Truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny.”[27]

“Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’”[28]

“Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’”[29]

“Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen; but you do not receive our testimony.”[30]

“Jesus answered, ‘Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the cock will not crow, till you have denied me three times.’”[31]

On all these occasions Jesus never says “Truly I say to you TODAY” — only and with great solemnity “Truly I say to you.”

The only occasions on which Jesus used the word “today” in expressions of this type were when he was affirming that the event would take place that very day.

“And Jesus said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.’”[32]

Here no Adventist or Jehovah’s Witness would ever suggest that Christ was saying “TODAY” that Peter would someday deny him — for we know that Christ was referring to Peter’s denial on THAT VERY DAY.

Further examples where Jesus used this type of expression without ever adding “TODAY” to reinforce his promise or teaching can be found throughout the entire Gospel[33].

Jehovah’s Witnesses and Adventists also maintain that the good thief could not have been with Jesus in Paradise that day, because Jesus ascended to the Father only after the Resurrection:

“Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”[34]

On this apparent contradiction, Saint Thomas Aquinas comments in the Summa Theologiae, Part III, q. 52, a. 4:

“Christ, in order to take our penalties upon himself, willed that his body should be placed in the tomb; so likewise he willed that his soul should descend into hell. But his body remained in the tomb for an entire day and two nights, so that the truth of his death might be established. Therefore it is to be believed that his soul likewise remained that long in hell, so that his soul might come forth from hell and his body from the tomb at the same time.”

He continues further on:

“Christ, by descending into hell, delivered the saints who were there, not by immediately taking them out of the place of hell, but by enlightening them with the light of his glory while they were still in hell. And yet it was fitting that his soul should remain in hell all the time that his body was in the tomb.”

“These words of the Lord are to be understood not of the earthly, corporeal paradise, but of the spiritual paradise, in which those are said to live who enjoy the divine life. Therefore the thief descended locally with Christ into hell, to be with him — for Christ had said to him: you will be with me in paradise; but as regards his reward, he was in paradise because there he enjoyed the divinity, as do the other saints.”

Evidence 2: The parable of Lazarus and the rich man

“There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy upon 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.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 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.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.’”[35]

Here we have, from the lips of Jesus Himself, a parable in which, starting from fictional characters, he explains a real situation applicable to each one of us: the reward or punishment we will receive according to our works.

One should not think, as the sects do, that because it is a parable no real teaching is contained therein. It would be quite remarkable if Jesus used a parable alluding to the immortality of the soul if this were truly a pagan doctrine. For if the soul were mortal, nothing would be more inappropriate than employing a parable whose interpretation reinforces the Jewish conception of the immortality of the soul, when Jesus could perfectly well have slightly altered the parable, indicating that the rich man would simply cease to exist after his death, while Lazarus would be rewarded by resurrection on the last day.

Evidence 3: The Transfiguration

“Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and he was transfigured before them, and his garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses; and they were talking to Jesus.”[36]

Here we find another event that demolishes the theology of the sects, for if the soul does not survive the body, there is no explanation for how Moses and Elijah could have conversed with Jesus. It is worth recalling that the death of Moses is clearly recorded in the Scriptures[37]. In addition to the Transfiguration, we have the fact that Samuel was summoned by the witch of Endor (Samuel, after his death, is evoked by Saul’s command)[38]. In the case of both Samuel and of Elijah and Moses, it cannot be alleged that these are parables, nor hallucinations, nor — as someone with Adventist beliefs once told me — that Samuel was a demon and that Moses had been resurrected. In the case of Samuel, it is the Scripture itself that clearly identifies him[39]:

“The woman said, ‘Whom shall I bring up for you?’ He said, ‘Bring up Samuel for me.’ When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice; and the woman said to Saul, ‘Why have you deceived me? You are Saul.’ The king said to her, ‘Have no fear; what do you see?’ And the woman said to Saul, ‘I see a god coming up out of the earth.’ He said to her, ‘What is his appearance?’ And she said, ‘An old man is coming up; and he is wrapped in a robe.’ And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance. Then Samuel said to Saul, ‘Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?’ Saul answered, ‘I am in great distress; for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams; therefore I have summoned you to tell me what I shall do.’ And Samuel said, ‘Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy? The Lord has done to you as he spoke by me; for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand, and given it to your neighbor, to David.’”[40]

Note that in this text it is the Scripture itself that repeatedly identifies the apparition as Samuel, saying: “Saul knew that it was Samuel,” “Samuel said to Saul,” “And Samuel said.” At no point does the text indicate that the apparition was not who he claimed to be; rather, in narrating the event, he is identified as Samuel. Attributing to this apparition the identity of a demon goes no further than a supposition beyond the text, one accepted by Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses on the basis of theological prejudices. Nor is there in Scripture any allusion to the resurrection of Moses. The Adventists cite the following biblical text in their favor:

“But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, disputed about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a reviling judgment upon him, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you.’”[41]

From this text they conclude that Saint Michael was disputing with Satan over the body of Moses because he wished to resurrect him; however, here again we are faced with a speculation that goes beyond what the text says, for nowhere is the reason for the dispute mentioned. There are various traditions offering multiple explanations for this event. One tradition reported by Oecumenius[42] tells that the devil opposed an honorable burial for Moses on the grounds that he was a murderer, since he had killed an Egyptian. Another possible explanation is that Satan wished to use the body of Moses to lead the people into idolatry. In any case, there is no mention that Saint Michael disputed the body of Moses with the intention of resurrecting him, and there is no precedent in Scripture for any angel having the power to raise people from the dead.

Evidence 4: Christ Preaches to the Spirits in Prison

“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.”[43]

This text alludes to Christ’s descent into hell (the Sheol of the Hebrews) after his death on the cross, where he preaches to all those just souls who were held there awaiting the moment when Christ, through his death and resurrection, would open the way to enter Heaven[44]. Needless to say, in this event there is yet another palpable proof of the immortality of the soul, given that Christ’s preaching is directed to the deceased.

Some Protestants see in this event a simple act of presence before the demons or an act of condemnation. However, the meaning of the Greek verb κηρύσσειν (to preach) is indicated by the general context, which deals with the mercy of God and the effects of redemption. The preaching must therefore have been the announcement of good news, which would be in harmony with the words of Peter almost immediately afterward:

“For this is why the gospel was preached even to the dead, that though judged in the flesh like men, they might live in the spirit like God.”[45]

The hypothesis of a condemning proclamation would be contrary to the spirit of the passage. Additionally, it should be noted that κηρύσσειν, in the New Testament, is always used to designate the proclamation of good news.

There is likewise no room for the supposition that they were demons, because reference is made to unbelieving persons who lived in the time of Noah. It must be noted, however, that while the Apostle singles out especially the contemporaries of Noah, this does not mean he excludes the rest of the righteous; rather, he emphasizes the redemptive efficacy of Christ, which reached even those who at another time were considered great sinners and provoked God’s greatest punishment upon the world. These would be those who in the time of Noah had been unbelieving toward his exhortations to repentance, but who, when the flood was unleashed, repented, and before dying sought mercy from God.

Evidence 5: The Bible Shows the Saved in the Presence of God

In chapter 11 of Hebrews, all the patriarchs and saints of antiquity are mentioned as witnesses surrounding us.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.”[46]

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews thus employs a metaphor drawn from the public games of which Greco-Roman society was fond. He imagines that just as in those games there is a whole cloud of witnesses watching, so too Christians are surrounded by a whole “cloud of witnesses” contemplating our effort. These witnesses, of course, are the forebears he has just mentioned, who are in the city of the living God, in the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in the Kingdom of Heaven, being the spirits of the righteous made perfect.

“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, and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.”[47]

Here the spirits of the just are spoken of. These just have not yet been resurrected, which is clear first because they are called spirits, and second because the resurrection will be on the last day[48].

Another text where we can clearly see the souls of the just, conscious and in the presence of God before the resurrection, is found in the Book of Revelation:

“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; they cried out with a loud voice, ‘O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before thou wilt judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?’”[49]

When Stephen (the first Christian martyr) is martyred, before dying he sees the heavens open to receive his spirit:

“But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.’ But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together upon him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ And he knelt down and cried with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”[50]

The evidence in favor of the immortality of the soul is abundant. And in fact, not only Christians but also Jews — who recognize only the Old Testament — believe in it. It is only the sects that lead the way in failed prophecies (Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses) that stubbornly deny it and prefer to twist every biblical text that rebukes them for their error.

Notes

  1. Awake! 1982 (g82 22/10, pp. 25–27). ↩
  2. Ecclesiastes 9:5-6. ↩
  3. Ecclesiastes 3:17; 11:9; 12:14 ↩
  4. Ecclesiastes 3:21 ↩
  5. Ecclesiastes 3:19 ↩
  6. Matthew 16:27 ↩
  7. Ezekiel 18:4 ↩
  8. Genesis 35:18 ↩
  9. Philippians 1:21-24 ↩
  10. 2 Corinthians 5:6-9 ↩
  11. Ephesians 2:1 ↩
  12. Ephesians 2:5 ↩
  13. Colossians 2:13 ↩
  14. 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9 ↩
  15. Luke 13:28 ↩
  16. Matthew 8:11-12 ↩
  17. Revelation 2:11 ↩
  18. Revelation 21:8 ↩
  19. Revelation 20:10 ↩
  20. Daniel 12:2 ↩
  21. Matthew 8:12; 13:42; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28 ↩
  22. Daniel 12:2 ↩
  23. Matthew 10:28 ↩
  24. Matthew 10:28 ↩
  25. Luke 23:39-43 ↩
  26. John 21:18 ↩
  27. Matthew 5:26 ↩
  28. John 3:3 ↩
  29. John 3:5 ↩
  30. John 3:11 ↩
  31. John 13:38 ↩
  32. Mark 14:30 ↩
  33. Matthew 3:9; 5:22.28.32.34.39.44; 12:36; 19:9; 21:27; Luke 4:25; 9:27; 11:9; 12:44; 16:9; 19:26; John 16:7 ↩
  34. John 20:17 ↩
  35. Luke 16:19-31 ↩
  36. Mark 9:2-4 ↩
  37. Deuteronomy 34:5-6 ↩
  38. 1 Samuel 28:6-20 ↩
  39. Editor’s note: the Hebrew text of 1 Samuel 28:13 reads elohim (literally “a divine being”), which this version renders as “a god.” Far from implying a pagan deity, the term here designates a preternatural being coming from beyond, and the text itself identifies him as Samuel (vv. 14–16). This reading is confirmed by Sirach 46:20, where we read that Samuel, after his death, “lifted up his voice out of the earth in prophecy.” ↩
  40. 1 Samuel 28:11-17 ↩
  41. Jude 1:9 ↩
  42. In epist. Iudae: PG 119,713 ↩
  43. 1 Peter 3:18-20 ↩
  44. Hebrews 2:10; 9:8.15; 10:19-20; 1 Peter 3:19 ↩
  45. 1 Peter 4:6 ↩
  46. Hebrews 12:1 ↩
  47. Hebrews 12:22-23 ↩
  48. John 6:39 ↩
  49. Revelation 6:9-10 ↩
  50. Acts 7:55-60 ↩