The Immortality of the Soul—History of the Doctrine

AS SOON as Plato's doctrine of the soul's immortality was accepted by the church, its baleful fruits began to appear in the wildest forms of fanaticism. The body was held in the greatest contempt, and everything was done to weaken and emaciate it, that the immortal spirit, the spark of divinity within, might be exalted. A great crop of hermits, monks, anchorites, and the like, was the first evil resulting from this teaching. Says the historian: "This new species of philosophy . . . produced that gloomy set of men called mystics; whose system, if divested of its Platonic notions respecting the origen and nature of the soul, will be a lifeless and senseless corpse. It laid a foundation, too, for that indolent mode of life which was afterward adopted by many, and particularly by numerous tribes of monks." (Mosh. Eccl. Hist., vol. i. cent. ii. part ii p. 115.)

Enfield, in his "History of Philosophy," shows the same thing at some length. He says: "Another principal cause of the corruption of the Christian doctrine of morality was, that it was very early tinctured with the enthusiastic spirit of the Alexandrian philosophy. . . . This corruption chiefly discovered itself in a peculiar species of fanaticism, consisting in a certain mystical notion of perfection which originated from a principle common to Platonists, Orientalists, and Gnostics: that the soul of man is imprisoned and debased in its corporeal habitation, and in proportion as it becomes disengaged from the incumbrance, and purged from the dregs of matter, it is prepared for its return to the divine nature." (Page 453.)

Then he relates how this led them to retire into deserts and afflict their bodies, in order to purify the soul. "For it is well known," again writes Mosheim, "that the true and genuine mystics adopted, as the very basis and ground-work of their discipline, those principles respecting the Deity, the world, the moral, and the nature of man, which the Christians had borrowed from the Egyptian and modern Platonic philosophy, and were accustomed from this century downward to communicate merely to a select number of auditors. . . . Upon the introduction of the Egyptian and Platonic philosophy, this simple mode of life was reduced to the form of an art and interwoven with such maxims respecting the Deity, the human soul, and the nature of man, as were thought most consonant to reason.. . . . Hither, also, may we refer the origin of monks, hermits, and cenobites, whose rules arid institutions are uniformly grounded upon the principle of delivering THE IMMORTAL SPIRIT from the oppression under which it groans in being connected with the body, of purifying it from the corruptions of sense, and of rendering it fit to be admitted into the presence of the Deity in the realms of everlasting light and life." (Com., vol. i. cent. ii. sec. 35,. pp. 380, 381.)

Again, when Christians adopted "the philosophical doctrines respecting the nature of the soul, and of bodies, when Ascetics adopted the belief that every endeavor was to be used to set free the divine spark that lay imprisoned within the body, . . . it was but natural for them to renounce the society of men, and devote themselves to a life of seclusion and solitude." (Mosheim's Com., vol. i. p. 388.)

Hence, he says, originated monasteries, abbeys, hermits, and anchorites. Can anyone fail to see here from whence the Christians obtained the doctrine of an immortal spirit in man? The monks and hermits spoken of, were the most wild, fanatical, and miserable set of men that have ever disgraced humanity. They left the society of men; went into the mountains and deserts; lived on grass like beasts; stood on the tops of pillars for years; emaciated their bodies in all possible ways, by hunger, thirst, nakedness, and filthiness. They wore their clothes till they literally rotted off, and acted like wild beasts.

Milman, in his history of Christianity, says: "Human invention was exhausted in self-inflicted torments. The Indian faquir was rivaled in the variety of distorted postures and of agonizing exercises. Some lived in clefts and caves; some in huts into which the light of day could not penetrate; some hung huge weights to their arms, necks, or loins; some confined themselves in cages; some, on the tops of mountains, exposed to the sun and weather. The most celebrated hermit, at length, for life condemned himself to stand in a fiery climate, on the narrow top of a pillar." P. 426.

For further description of these miserable fanatics, see Gibbon, Bower, or any history of the church. All this was done to weaken and wear out the sinful body and free the immortal soul within!

CELIBACY.

The celibacy of the Romish priests, which has been such a scandal to Christianity, also grew out of the same idea. The most lewd and shameful practices sprang from this fanatical heathen notion that the immortal soul was everything and the material body nothing.

Of the celibacy, of the priests, which grew out of this idea, the historian says: "And this many of the clergy, especially in Africa, endeavored to accomplish with the least violence to their inclinations; for they received into their houses, and even to their beds, some of those females who had vowed perpetual chastity, affirming, however, most solemnly, that they had no criminal intercourse with them." "Such connections were considered as a marriage of souls without the marriage of bodies." (Moshiem's Eccl. Hist. vol. i. part. ii. chap. ii. p. 93, and note 2).

Such was the fruit which naturally grew out of this Platonic doctrine of the pure, immortal spirit within the prison of a corrupt material body. All this was but a repetition of what the same doctrine had previously produced among the pagans. Porphyry assures us that the "ancient Pythagoreans were distinguished for their attachment to this mode of life." (Moshiem's Eccl. Hist., p. 100, note 2.) Indeed, large numbers of the heathen Platonists had retired into deserts and solitary places, and there lived just as these hermits did after them. The latter only copied the former.

WORSHIP OF SAINTS AND RELICS.

Another appalling evil which immediately sprung up from the belief in the doctrine that death is only the freeing of the real man, the immortal soul, from its prison; that saints after the death of the body are more active and powerful than they were before; and that they have free access to Heaven and to the presence of God, was the worship of saints and their relics. Bower says that Tertullian was the first who spoke of praying for the dead. Says the historian: "The Roman Catholic ceremony of beatification and canonization of saints, offering them incense and prayers thereafter, means exactly what was meant by the ancient apotheosis; namely, that while the multitudes of the dead abide below, in the intermediate state, these favored souls have been advanced into Heaven. The papal functionaries borrowed this rite, with most of its details, from their immediate pagan predecessors." (Alger, Doctrine of Future Life, part v. cent 1. p. 471.)

These martyrs, hermits, and noted saints, who had gained a great reputation for sanctity by their austere lives, were supposed to go directly to Heaven and have great influence with the Lord. As these were their own relatives, special friends and brethren, it was a natural thought that they would intercede with God for their friends on earth, who were still in the flesh. What more reasonable than that a sainted mother should plead for her children who were still exposed to peril, or that a faithful pastor should pray for his beloved flock now left on earth without his aid? Hence offerings at the tombs of these dead saints began to be made. Immediately miracles were said to be wrought in answer to these, and this encouraged the pious thought. Next, churches were built in honor of these saints, and dedicated to them. Here their bones were sacredly deposited and rich offerings made to them, which went to the clergy. Now miracles and answers to these petitions became frequent.

The great question was settled; the dead were alive, and had power with God. It was better to pray to these than directly to God himself, or even to Christ, as they were more like us, and would sympathize with us more readily. Hence patron saints rapidly multiplied, till every town and almost every household had its special saint to whom all prayers were offered. God and Christ were left out, and the Virgin Mary, St. Peter, and a host of dead men, took their places. Images to these saints were erected everywhere, and their votaries bowed before them in supplication. Behold paganism re-established through the devil's lie of the soul's immortality!

PURGATORY INTRODUCED.

Another of the most baneful doctrines of the Roman church with which the world was ever cursed, grew directly out of the Platonic theory of the soul's immortality; viz., the popish doctrine of purgatory. The case is thus stated by Dr. Knapp in his excellent book on "Christian Theology:" "The foundation for the doctrine of purgatory is found even in the second and third centuries. Its origin may be traced back to the Pythagorean or Platonic philosophy. Souls, according to Plato, are a part of the divine nature, which, however, are confined in the body as in a prison. Now, even after the soul of man is disembodied, there still cleaves to it much sin and impurity acquired from its contact with the body; and this impurity is regarded by Plato as a natural sickness. It cannot, therefore, immediately on leaving the body, return again to its original source. With some the disorder is incurable, and these are the lost, who go at once to Tartarus; with others it is curable, and these are purged and purified in Hades. . . . This, with many other Platonic doctrines and fables, was early transferred to Christianity." (Sec. 150, p. 526.)

The cunning priests soon saw in this an opportunity to benefit themselves. So they diligently inculcated it as an undoubted fact, supported by the word of God, that while a few of the most holy went directly to Heaven at death, the large majority of Christians had to pass through purgatory, in order to be cleansed from sins committed since conversion or baptism. But their sufferings there could be shortened and greatly lessened by the prayers of saints on earth and in Heaven, especially by masses and prayers of the priest. But for every mass, so much money must be paid; for every prayer of the priest, so much more. If it was the case of a very wicked person, it would take a great deal of praying, and hence a great deal of money. But if only money enough were given, the hardest case could be freed from purgatory. Specially had the pope power to let them out; hence the notorious plan of indulgences. For such and such considerations the pope would pardon out offenders of different kinds.

Hence came the poor and the rich with their money, to buy their suffering friends out of purgatory! What untold millions have flowed into the popish coffers through this pagan lie! It was this wicked imposition on the credulity of the people that stirred the soul of Luther, and started the Reformation. The Catholic Tetzel came along with his indulgences from the pope, which he was selling at a rapid rate. For money he pardoned all sorts of sins, and relieved many souls from purgatory. He said that the moment the money touched the bottom of the box, the soul was let out of purgatory. The business becoming a little dull, he feigned to have heard terrible cries and groans one night near a graveyard. On inquiry he found that they came from a poor soul in purgatory, whose friends on earth were neglecting to buy it out. As soon as he told this to the people, large numbers more came with their money for their dead friends. (Hist. of the Reformation by D'Aubigne, vol. 1., pp. 260, 261.)

What was the foundation of all these terrible deceptions? It was the assumption that the dead are not really dead; that the soul can live separate from the body, and is immortal. Had they believed the Lord, that the dead are asleep and know nothing, (Eccl. 9:5, 6) it would have shielded them from all this delusion.