Immortality

Immortality — the perpetuity of personal existence beyond death — is a doctrine developed progressively across both Testaments. The Old Testament does not systematically expound a doctrine of the afterlife, though it assumes the continuation of the person after death in Sheol, the realm of the departed. The patriarchs are "gathered to their people" at death (Genesis 25:8; 49:33), and Enoch's translation without dying (Genesis 5:24) and Elijah's ascent in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11) are presented as exceptional divine acts that bear witness to a life beyond the grave. The Psalms occasionally express hope for divine presence beyond death (Psalms 16:10–11; 49:15; 73:24).

The clearest Old Testament statement of bodily resurrection and immortality is Daniel 12:2–3: "many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." In the New Testament, immortality is firmly grounded in the resurrection of Christ: "our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Timothy 1:10). Paul distinguishes the mortal body that is sown in corruption from the immortal, incorruptible body that is raised (1 Corinthians 15:42–54), making the resurrection the basis for the believer's hope of immortality.