The immortality of the soul is the doctrine that the human soul, once created, does not perish with the body but continues in conscious existence forever—by the will and gift of God, not by any inherent independence of its own. It must be carefully distinguished from the immortality of God, who alone hath immortality in the absolute sense, being self-existent and the source of all life; the soul’s immortality is derived and dependent, a deathlessness God has freely given to His creature. Scripture affirms it throughout. Those who kill the body cannot kill the soul; at death the soul does not lapse into nothing or sleep, but the believer departs to be with Christ and the wicked enter conscious woe, both awaiting the resurrection. The dead are not extinguished but live unto God, for He is not the God of the dead but of the living. The rich man and Lazarus are vividly conscious beyond death; the souls of the martyrs cry out beneath the altar; the spirits of just men are made perfect. This immortality is the necessary ground of eternal destiny, whether of bliss or woe, for a soul that perished at death could neither enjoy heaven nor suffer hell. The doctrine stands against soul sleep, which would have the soul unconscious between death and resurrection, and against annihilationism, which would have the wicked finally extinguished rather than suffering everlasting punishment—for the same immortality that secures the believer’s eternal joy secures the impenitent’s eternal misery. Yet the doctrine must not be confused with the Greek notion of an inherently divine and eternal soul; the Christian soul is immortal not as God is, of itself, but because God, who gave it being, has willed that it shall never cease to be. Its immortality is therefore a solemn truth: every man is an immortal soul, destined for an eternal existence, and must be prepared to meet his God.