The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

II. Drew’s Craig-Immortality Not Inherent but “Put On”

The distinguished Methodist scholar Dr. CLARENCE T. CRAIG, ²⁰ of Drew Theological Seminary, likewise stresses the point that “immortality is not something which belongs to man by nature,” as the Platonic “fantasy” contends. Immortality is “put on” when he is raised from the dead. ²¹ Immortal-Soulism was adopted by the Hellenistic Jews in the Inter-Testament period. It is not man’s “by nature“:
“In our letter (1 Corinthians 15:52, 53) the trumpet seems to be the signal for the twin events of the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the transformation of the living members of the church. But the relation of this to the period of messianic rule assumed in vss. 24-27 is not at all clear. CFF2 870.7

“Paul repeats again in other language the necessity for the coming change. He reiterates the distinction between the perishable and the imperishable and then adds another word which occurs in Paul only here and in the next verse. In contrast to the mortal are those who have put on immortality. The term “athanasia” was a key word in Hellenic thought. The gods were believed to be immortal (cf. 1 Timothy 6:16), and, according to the Platonic school, so was the soul of man.” ²² CFF2 871.1

1. PLATONIC IMMORTALITY INVOLVED “DIVINIZATION.”

The basic clash between Platonists and Biblical teaching is next portrayed:
“Though the craving for immortality was widespread in the ancient world, the assurance of it was not. Satisfaction was sought in the mysteries and in other forms of religion. Immortality meant not simply a continuation of life but the divinization of man. Belief in the existence of an elixir of immortality played a role in fantasy. CFF2 871.2

The O.T. contains no equivalent for the word immortality, for Jewish thought conceived of man as essentially mortal. But in the Hellenistic-Jewish literature “athanasia” is found (Wisd. Sol. 3:4; 15:3; 4 Macc. 14:5; and often in Philo). There we see the adoption of the Greek idea of immortality. But even when Paul uses the word here it is in a quite different sense: immortality is not something which belongs to man by nature: it is put on when God raises him from the dead.” ²³ CFF2 872.1