2 Timothy 1:9-10, “who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”

Conditionalists appeal to 2 Timothy 1:9-10, among other verses, to show that believers alone possess immortality. They reason that if immortality is never said to be applied to unbelievers, then they argue that unbelievers will become extinct because they don’t have immortality granted to them.

• “While “those who belong to Christ” at the resurrection of the dead will “put on immortality,” immortality is never promised to those who reject God.”¹Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 510-511). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition, underline added.
• “…the Bible always speaks of human immortality as God’s gift to the saved, never as an inherent quality or birthright of every person born into the world.”²Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 24). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition, underline added.

But there is a problem. First of all, just because the word ‘immortality’ is never applied to an unbeliever does not mean that the unbeliever is not going to live forever in eternal conscious torment. There are other ways to teach their dire and eternal punishment besides using a particular word. Second, some conditionalists assume that the word ‘immortality can only refer to a glorified, resurrected body. They then say that unbelievers don’t have it, so they will be annihilated. But this is problematic since immortality is spoken of in combination with the glorified resurrected body of the believer, not unbelievers so, of course, it would not be applied to them. Third, God uses patterns in Scripture to teach biblical truths. For example, God only “knows” believers. He never says that he “knows” unbelievers. But what is meant by the term “know” in the context of God knowing people or not knowing people? The former means they are saved, the latter mean’s they are not. Please consider the following verses.

• Matthew 7:23, “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”
• John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;”
• Galatians 4:9, “9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?”

Being known by God

God never says he knows an unbeliever. He only knows believers. But we know that He knows who the wicked are because God knows all things (1 John 3:20). So the word “know” is used in a different sense than we might initially think, but it does not mean that those who are believers are not known by God regarding his omniscience. The same principle can apply to this issue of immortality in that the unbelievers will be resurrected to a judgment that is ongoing but without the phraseology of immortality and glorification being applied to them.

Angels and immortality

Angels live forever but the word immortality is never applied to them.

“for they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection,” (Luke 20:36).

Jesus clearly teaches that angels don’t die. Yet, the word immortality is never applied to the Angels.  To be clear, there are three Greek words used for the english “immortal/immortality”:  aphthartos, athanasia, and aphtharsia.  Immortality is spoken of God (1 Timothy 1:17 aphthartos; 6:16 athanasia) and of our glorified bodies (1 Cor. 15:53-54 athanasia), in reference to eternal life (Rom. 2:7 aphtharsia), and where God brought immortality to light through the gospel (2 Timothy 1:10 aphtharsia).  But, it is never spoken of unbelievers or angels, including good angels who live forever. So, we can see that in the context of the believer having immortality it must be in association with his glorified body to the unbelievers.

Conclusion

The believer’s immortality is in a glorified, resurrected body (Phil. 3:21); they go hand in hand. But, since unbelievers are not glorified, their eternal consciousness is without a glorified body and without the immortality associated with that glorification. Instead, the wicked are resurrected in a different kind of body and will live forever in condemnation.

Many conditionalists affirm that the unbeliever is resurrected in a physical body, only to be annihilated after judgment. So, the conditionalist acknowledges that there is a different kind of resurrected body for the unbeliever that is different than the believer. The glorified body of the believer will be like Christ, who is the firstfruits of the resurrection (Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5). The resurrection of the wicked is not so. They endure eternal conscious torment as is taught in Matthew 25:46; Luke 16:19-31;  Jude 6-7, Revelation 14:9-11, and Revelation 20:10.  Furthermore, angels live forever as Jesus taught (Luke 20:36), but the word immortality is never applied to them, either. So, by the logic of the conditionalists, all angels must be annihilated since the word immortality is never applied to them either. But of course, this makes no sense, and neither does the conditionalist position that immortality, as they define it, only applies to believers and then say unbelievers are annihilated. It doesn’t work.