Conditional immortality

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Conditional immortality, or conditionalism, is the Christian doctrine that the human soul is naturally mortal, and that immortality is granted by God as a gift. Immortality, therefore, is conditional; this viewpoint stands in contrast to the more popular doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul.

Proponents of conditional immortality ("conditionalists") point to Genesis chapter 2 and Revelation chapter 22, where the Tree of Life is mentioned. It is argued that these passages, along with Genesis 3:22-24 teach that human beings will naturally die without continued access to God's life-giving power.

As a general rule, conditionalism goes hand in hand with annihilationism; that is, the belief that the souls of the wicked will be destroyed in hell rather than suffering eternal torment. The two ideas are not exactly equivalent, however, because in principle God may annihilate a soul which was previously created immortal. While annihilationism places emphasis on the active destruction of a person, conditionalism places emphasis on a person's dependence upon God for life; the extinction of the person is thus a passive consequence of seperation from God.