The Immortal Soul and Christianity: A Metaphysical Error

This is Article 1 of a Six-Part series on Christian Eschatology: The Immortal Soul, Dualism, Post-Death State, and Eternal Consequences

Article 1: The Immortal Soul

Article 2: Dualism

Article 3: Sleep, not Death

Article 4: The Fate of the Unrighteous

Article 5: The Fate of the Righteous 

Article 6: The Culminated Hope

Greek Metaphysics in the Church

Many Christians carry, often without realizing it, a quiet anxiety about death, judgment, and the fate of the soul. These questions linger beneath the surface of faith—rarely spoken aloud, yet deeply felt. What happens when we die? Where do we go? What of those we love? For centuries, these questions have been answered for us through inherited tradition, repeated so often that they feel self-evident. Yet familiarity is not the same as truth. In far too many examples, familiarity through repetition actually obscures the meaning. This series is not written to unsettle faith. It is my belief that clarity strengthens faith, and that clarity comes from fidelity to Scripture and Christ Himself. The erroneous traditions we are going to go through together cause confusion and sow chaos and should be eliminated from Christian thought. What we will find here together is the restoration of Christian eschatology—the sequence of events and nature of the end of the age understood through Scripture.

What follows is a careful, Scripture-centered re-examination of beliefs many Christians assume to be biblical: the notion of an immortal soul, the influence of Greek dualism, the idea of immediate heaven or hell at death, and the fate of both the unrighteous and the faithful at the final judgment. These topics are weighty, and they deserve patience rather than haste. What we are going to explore here is a rediscovery of hope, a recapturing of Christian eschatology from errors that occurred more than 1,500 years ago. What we will find is a pure Christianity unburdened by metaphysical speculation and pagan tradition. Instead, we find belief grounded in the Gospel’s central promise: resurrection, restoration, and the renewal of all things. Unlike other religions, Christianity does not offer escape from creation by imagining humans as disembodied spirits drifting about in some abstract, speculative realm. Instead, the Christian promise is one of redemption. And it is precisely here, at the end of the story, that the Christian hope shines with a clarity unmatched by any other worldview.

Let us begin with the first error: assumptions that humans possess an eternal soul.

The Immortal Soul

For centuries, Christians have spoken of the “immortal soul” as though it were a foundational truth of the faith. It appears in funeral sermons, popular theology, and casual Christian speech. Yet when we turn to Scripture itself—when we peel away tradition and listen without inherited assumptions—we find something surprising: The Bible never teaches that humans possess an immortal soul. The concept is foreign to Hebrew thought, alien to Apostolic teaching, and deeply at odds with the anthropology of Jesus. Instead, the doctrine of the immortal soul comes from Greek philosophy and Hellenistic speculation, not from the Gospel and not from the teaching of Christ. The very concept of an immortal human soul is not a Christian doctrine. Like body-soul dualism (covered in Article 2), the now-universal doctrine of an immortal, eternal soul is the product of Greek metaphysics, not Scripture, the teaching of Christ, or the ministry of His Apostles.

Together, let us examine why the “immortal soul” is unbiblical, how it entered Christian theology, how Scripture actually describes the human person, and why reclaiming a Biblical anthropology clears away centuries of confusion about death, resurrection, salvation, and the gospel itself.

Despite its pagan roots, nearly all Christian traditions—including Protestantism—inherit the assumption of an immortal soul. In fact, the single biggest obstacle people face when approaching Biblical anthropology is that they unknowingly import pagan Greek metaphysics into the text. This creates myriad theological conflicts that simply do not exist in pure Christian eschatology. These assumptions have spawned confusing and even fatal theological problems. These include the inventions of the Roman Church: Purgatory, the Limbos (Fathers and Infants), and praying to the dead. Protestants have also created errors of their own: Paradise as an intermediate consciousness, the Rapture, dispensationalism generally. Both share the common misconception of immediate, post-death consequence: righteous to Heaven, unrighteous to Hell.

Let us begin by asking a simple question: Does Scripture teach us that the soul is inherently immortal?

What Does Scripture Say?

Let us start with the Hebrew Scriptures. To be brief, no conception of an immortal soul exists anywhere in the Old Testament. Hebrew anthropology is holistic. It views body and soul as a single entity, not a dual vessel where the soul is trapped within corrupted flesh. The Hebrew word nephesh (“soul”) means living being, creature, and life. It has no possible interpretation as an immortal ghost inside the physical body. Soul, therefore, never means, “immortal spirit trapped in a body.” In this understanding, the soul cannot be immortal, since the body is not immortal.

It is this term, nephesh, that we see used throughout the Old Testament. We see that animals are nephesh (Genesis 1:20–24), and that Adam became a living soul (Genesis 2:7), he did not receive one. This language is crucial; if Adam had received a living soul, it would support at least the concept of soul immortality. However, he did not; he became a single, unified being. In Ezekiel, we are told that the “soul” can die. God says, “Behold, all souls are mine; the soul (nephesh—that is, the living person) of the father as well as the soul (nephesh) of the son is mine: the soul (nephesh) who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4, 20). Critically, “the nephesh who sins shall die” refers only to the person himself, not an immortal component within him. That which can die cannot be immortal. Keep this concept fresh in mind, as we will see parallel language in the New Testament and words of Christ.

The Septuagint (LXX), the Greek Old Testament used by early Christians, preserves Hebraic anthropology by translating נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh) primarily with ψυχή (psychē) in a way that does not mean an immaterial soul, but rather a living, embodied being. When read carefully, the Greek of the LXX retains the unified body–life–self concept of the Hebrew Bible. Far from meaning an immaterial, separable entity, psychē in the LXX functions exactly like nephesh, describing the living being as a whole. Where Genesis describes man becoming a living nephesh in Hebrew, it describes him as becoming a living psychē in the LXX.

Critically, both verses read that man did not gain life, but became life (nephesh/psyche). Importantly, the same phrase (psychē zōsa) is used of animals in Genesis 1:20, 24 in the LXX, exactly as nephesh chayyah is used in Hebrew. This means that man and animals belong to the same ontological category: living beings. Where man is unique is not in our possession of a separate, immortal spirit, but in being made in the image of God, sometimes called the Imago Dei. Thus, in its native Hebrew and in the Greek translation used by the earliest Christians, mankind is described as a whole, integral entity without any assumption of immortality.

In Hebraic anthropology, death is the cessation of life, not disembodied continuation. The dead “know nothing” (Eccl. 9:5), their thoughts perish (Ps. 146:4), they do not praise Yahweh (Ps. 115:17). Sheol, an intermediate location in Hebrew theology, was always described as a place of silence, sleep, and rest—not bliss or torment (Psalm 6:5; 115:17; Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10). Hades, referred to in the New Testament, was often used interchangeably with Sheol, especially in regions where Hellenistic Jews settled or held influence. It, too, was described as a place of rest and waiting, though also one where the sleeping dead were unaware of earthly matters. It is used metaphorically to refer to death and complete downfall (Matt. 11:23; Luke 10:15), and most often as a metaphoric or symbolic reference to death itself (Matthew 16:18; Acts 2:27, 31), and is likewise often paired alongside death (1 Cor. 15:55; Rev. 1:18). Critically, Sheol and Hades—fungible in purpose and category—do not function as metaphysical afterlife destinations. As representations of death, their very existence affirms the description of death common throughout Scripture, none of which propose an indestructible soul.

Perhaps most critical is understanding that immortality belongs to God alone. The soul, however defined, cannot be eternal, and thus cannot be indestructible. God is the only place where eternity lies; our “putting on” of immortality at the final judgment is a gift from Him, not something inherent in the human creature.

Hebrew theology is consistent: no creature inherently possesses immortality. In the divine words of Scripture, we are taught that humans do not have souls, but are souls. We are embodied beings whose life comes from God’s Spirit. When God withdraws His Spirit, we die. There is no immortal essence inside the human that survives beyond God’s allowance. Our unique identity, our consciousness, that which forms the crucial “I think, therefore I am” is the product of God’s spirit within us, not some quality inherent in humanity. It is this self that is preserved and then resurrected when Christ returns. The New Testament teaches us that immortality is a future gift given to the righteous at the end of the age. Put simply, it is not an inherent reality. “Immortality” (Greek: athanasia) is something believers put on as a reward-gift from God at the end of the age.

The Ministry of the Apostle Paul

Paul’s teaching is definitely Jewish, not Greek. Nowhere in his apostolic teaching do we find Platonic categories or metaphysics. He repeatedly emphasized the resurrection, notably as the moment where the righteous are given immortality: “This mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53–54). If humans already possessed immortal souls, this verse is nonsensical. He further describes immortality as something that believers seek, alongside glory and honor (Romans 2:7). You do not seek what you inherently possess. We do not have immortality—in any form—any more than we can claim to possess heavenly glory.

Paul, too, carries the knowledge of the Old Testament into the New: God alone possesses immortality (1 Timothy 6:16). It cannot be overstated just how devastating this fact is to any assertion of human immortality: if God alone inherently has immortality, humans absolutely do not. Paul also defines death as the last enemy to be destroyed (1 Cor. 15:26), a rather beautiful way to describe immortality. Yet, if death is the enemy, not the friend who liberates the soul, Platonism collapses (as does Gnostic belief and virtually every pagan religion that viewed death as liberation with immediate, conscious consequence). Where paganism and heretical strands hated the flesh and derided life as a tomb or prison, and where modern Christians repeat their eagerness for the so-called Rapture or apocalypse ad nauseam, Paul described those redeemed by Christ as “waiting eagerly for the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23). Note it is “redemption of our body” not “waiting eagerly to ascend to Heaven.”

And What of Jesus?

Nothing can expose how deeply Western Christian thought drifted from Scripture than by reviewing what Christ and His Apostles actually teach about body and soul. In Jesus’ teaching, soul does not mean “immortal essence” but life itself, the self, and one’s unique identity. He repeatedly uses the same word, psychē, to refer to human beings, establishing unbroken continuity to the instructions of the Old Testament.

In His ministry, Jesus never teaches an immortal soul, but always emphasizes bodily resurrection when He returns. His teaching is consistently Hebraic without even an inkling of Platonic metaphysics. He teaches us that psyche can be lost (Mark 8:35–36) and can die (Matthew 10:28). Jesus never once describes the soul as inherently immortal. He does not speak of Heavenly ascension, but promises to “raise up” the righteous “on the last day” (John 6). Death is not an immediate, eternal end, either, but is sleep. Jesus refers to Lazarus as having fallen asleep (John 11:11–14) and describes the dead girl as “sleeping” (Luke 8:52). Sleep is not an image of disembodied immortal consciousness, but one that aligns with traditional Sheol: an image of rest prior to awakening—the awakening being the resurrection.

Jesus' Resurrection Foreshadows our Own

Repeatedly, the promise of Christ is bodily resurrection. “I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:40, 44, 54). Eternal life is the result of resurrection, not the natural state of an immortal soul. In direct contradiction to the error of soul immortality, Christ Himself tells us to fear God, “Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna” (Matthew 10:28). Whatever “soul” means here, it is not something indestructible. Jesus does not say, “Your body can die, but your soul is immortal” or “Your soul cannot be destroyed.” He explicitly says the opposite.

As we explore in Article 3, the hope of Christians is resurrection, not the perpetual survival of a spiritual self. Recall John 6, John 11, 1 Thess. 4, and 1 Cor. 15. Nowhere is hope characterized as immediate eternity. Throughout the New and Old Testament, the consistent hope of Christians rests in future resurrection when Christ returns on the final day. For Christians, there is no hope in the ongoing, perpetual nature of our immortal souls. We must also recall that souls—that is, human beings—do not persist forever outside the mercy and gift of God. The unrighteous do not persist forever in a state of eternal conscious torment, but are annihilated (Article 4).

Contrary to pagan beliefs and Platonic metaphysics, the body is not something to escape; it is something God will redeem. Our bodies bear His fingerprints, knit together by Him in the womb of our mother (Ps. 139:13). He knew us before we were made flesh (Jer. 1:5). The human body is gift, designed by God and animated with soul—that is, life given to us through His Spirit. Despite this, many Christian sects become pseudo-death cults, hoping for death and destruction, hating the flesh. This is not a Christian worldview, but one that Christianity should resist.

How Metaphysics Infected Christian Thought

Inquiring minds will reasonably ask: since soul immortality exists nowhere in Scripture, why does nearly every Christian sect accept it as a foundational truth? We find our answer in Plato and the Greek philosophical world. As we discussed earlier, Plato argued that the soul is immortal, that it pre-exists the body, that the soul is thus imprisoned in the body (an idea that Gnostic Christians internalized), and he further argued that death liberates the soul. In Platonic doctrine, disembodied survival was natural, not supernatural, and was arguably even more natural than life itself (see Plato’s Phaedo and Phaedrus).

Compare this to the Hebrew view where there is no pre-existence, no inherent immortality, and no soul-body prison. Death is sleep, not transfiguration. Definitively, the immortal soul does not have its roots in pre-Christ Hebrew theology, nor does it find any support in the New Testament. The overwhelming message is just the opposite.

Nonetheless, the early Church was very heavily influenced by Greek anthropology as well as Roman paganism. Prior to Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism was a dominant form of Hebrew thought, already blending Greek philosophy with Jewish theology. The early Christian church continued this pattern. Greco-Roman paganism infected Christian doctrine as early as the time of Clement (c. 88-101AD). Within years following the death of the last Apostle, John, the Christian church began to absorb Platonism into its own doctrine. Origen, an influential church founder, continued this pattern. It passed to Augustine, where it was hardened further, and was massively developed under Medieval scholasticism, led largely by Thomas Aquinas. By the Medieval Era, the Catholic church dogmatized all manner of metaphysical beliefs: immortal souls, body-soul duality, intermediate locations after death, eternal conscious torment, and others. You will recognize many of these as the subjects of these articles.

The Fruits of Platonic Metaphysics

This error has proven itself to be theologically dangerous and destructive. All those who claim to follow Christ, from the Catholic Church to Protestants and everything in between, have accepted these errors into their own doctrine and declare it Scripture. If one accepts Platonic metaphysics, as the Roman Church did, then one also has to accept these errors as the logical fruits. Once you assume that every soul is naturally immortal and conscious after death, you must answer:

• Where do souls go after the body dies?

• What happens before resurrection?

• How can souls be purified before entering Heaven?

• What about the righteous who lived before Christ?

• What about unbaptized infants?

• What about believers who die in sin?

Rome, inheriting this philosophical assumption and choosing to internalize and dogmatize it, was forced to create metaphysical “destinations” to handle the problem:

• Purgatory (for purification)

• Limbo of the Fathers (for pre-Christ righteous)

• Limbo of Infants (for unbaptized babies)

• Immediate Heaven (for saints)

• Immediate Hell (for the wicked)

None of these inventions are found in Scripture. Protestantism, which prides and largely defines itself as being that which is not Catholic, nonetheless imported the foundational beliefs that undergird Roman eschatology. They imported many of the same errors along with the invented, non-biblical answers to those errors which, unsurprisingly, never actually provide a solution that can withstand skepticism. The Eastern Church, which likewise defines itself as being apart from Rome, accepted these foundational errors and likewise claim that they represent the authentic, unbroken legacy of Jesus Christ and His Apostles.

But all of these errors exist because the Greek theory of an immortal human soul requires them. Unsurprisingly, a return to actual Scripture, Jesus’ teaching, and pure Christian eschatology erases these errors. If we accept the truth, that the soul is not immortal, then there is no need to purify conscious souls, no need to invent limbo, no need for immediate heaven or hell, and no need for an elaborate metaphysical afterlife bureaucracy. There, too, is no rationale for many other errors common throughout modern Christian doctrine.

But Scripture tells us differently. There is no immortal soul that floats upward upon our death, nor is there any form of innate human immortality. Instead, liberation from death, true immortality, is God’s gift in Christ given to the redeemed only when the Son returns. We are a soul, a mortal one, and remain so until the end of the age.

If we abandon inherited assumptions and let Scripture speak, the picture becomes beautifully clear: We do not possess souls—we are souls. Our life depends entirely on God’s animating Spirit. Immortality is not our nature; it is God’s gift. Once we set aside Greek metaphysics, the entire Scriptural narrative—creation, the fall, redemption, resurrection, judgment, new creation—snaps into coherent focus.

This is the story of Scripture and of Christ, and it is the doctrine we will be exploring together. But before we can talk meaningfully about what happens after we die, or whether the dead are conscious, we must first dismantle this pagan scaffolding. Only after clearing the ground of immortal-soulism can we see the biblical teaching plainly.

The conclusion is simple: The immortal soul is a Platonic illusion with no grounding in Scripture or apostolic ministry.  Christ offers something far better: resurrection, embodied eternal life, and new creation.

Next, we will explore dualism—the belief that the body and soul are distinct from one another, and that the soul is held prisoner within our bodies until freed by physical death.

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