CAN THE SOUL BE KILLED?
Matt. 10:28: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to
kill the soul; but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and
body in hell.”
Luke records the same sentiment in these words:--
“And I say unto you, my friends. Be not afraid of them that kill the
body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I forewarn you
whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which, after he hath killed, hath power to
cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.” Luke 12:4, 5.
The estimate which immaterialists put upon these texts is thus expressed
by Mr. Landis, p. 181: “This text [Matt, 10:28] therefore must continue
to stand as the testimony of the Son of God in favor of the soul’s
immortality, and his solemn condemnation of the soul-ruining errors of
the annihilation and Sadducean doctrine.”
We reply: Mr. L. evidently applies the argument to a wrong issue; for
whatever it may teach concerning the intermediate state, it is most
positively against the doctrine of eternal misery, and the consequent
immortality of the soul. It teaches that God can destroy the soul in
hell; and there is no force in our Lord’s warning unless we understand
it to affirm that he will thus destroy the souls of the wicked. We never
could with any propriety be warned to fear a person because he could do
that which he never designed to do, and never would do. We are to fear
the civil magistrate to such a degree, at least, as not to offend
against the laws, because he has power to put those laws into execution,
and visit upon us merited punishment; but our fear is to rest not simply
upon the fact that he has power to do this, but upon the certainty that
he will do it if we are guilty of crime. Otherwise there could be no
cause of fear, and no ground for any exhortation to fear.
Now we are to fear God, that is, fear to disobey him, because he is able
to destroy body and soul in hell; and what is necessarily implied in
this? It is implied that he certainly _will_ do this in the cases of all
those who do not fear him enough to comply with his requirements. So the
text is a direct affirmation that the wicked will be destroyed, both
soul and body in hell.
The next inquiry is, What is the meaning of the word, destroy? We answer
that, take the word, soul, to mean what we will, the word, destroy, here
has the same meaning and the same force as applied to the soul, that the
word kill has as applied to the body in the sentence before. Whatever
killing does to the body, destroying does to the soul. Don’t fear men
because they cannot kill the soul as they kill the body; but fear God
because he can and will kill the soul (if wicked) just as men kill the
body. This is the only consistent interpretation of the language. But
all well understand what it does to the body to kill it. It deprives it
of all its functions and powers of life and activity. It does the same
to the soul to destroy it, supposing the soul to be what is popularly
supposed. The word here rendered destroy is ἀπολλύω (_appolluo_), and is
defined by Greenfield, “to destroy, to kill, to put to death,” &c.
Having seen that the text affirms in the most positive manner the
destruction of soul and body, or the complete cessation of existence,
for all the wicked, in hell, we now inquire whether it teaches a
conscious existence for the soul in the intermediate state? This must
be, it is claimed, because man cannot kill it. But the killing which God
inflicts, according to the popular view, is torment in the flames of
hell, and that commences immediately upon the death of the body. Let us
then see what the Scriptures testify concerning the receptacle of the
dead and the place of punishment.
The word, hell, in our English version is from three different Greek
words. These words are ἅδης (_hades_), γεέννα (_ge-enna_), and ταρταρόω
(_tartaro-o_, a verb signifying to thrust down to tartarus). These all
designate different places; and the following full list of the instances
of their occurrence in the New Testament, will show their use.
_Hades_ occurs in the following passages:--
Matt. 11:23. Shalt be brought down to _hell_.
16:18. The gates of _hell_ shall not prevail.
Luke 10:15. Shalt be thrust down to _hell_.
16:23. In _hell_ he lifted up his eyes.
Acts 2:27. Wilt not leave my soul in _hell_.
2:31. His soul was not left in _hell_.
1 Cor. 15:55. O _Grave_, where is thy victory?
Rev. 1:18. Have the keys of _hell_ and death.
6:8. Was death, and _hell_ followed.
Rev. 20:13. Death and _hell_ delivered up the dead which were
in them.
20:14. Death and _hell_ were cast into the lake of fire.
_Ge-enna_ signifies Gehenna, the valley of Hinnom, near Jerusalem, in
which fires were kept constantly burning to consume the bodies of
malefactors and the rubbish which was brought from the city and cast
therein. It is found in the following places:--
Matt. 5:22. Shall be in danger of _hell_ fire.
5:29. Whole body should be cast into _hell_.
5:30. Whole body should be cast into _hell_.
10:28. Destroy both soul and body in _hell_.
18:9. Having two eyes to be cast into _hell_ fire.
23:15. More the child of _hell_ than yourselves.
23:33. How can ye escape the damnation of _hell_?
Mark 9:43. Having two hands to go into _hell_.
9:45. Having two feet to be cast into _hell_.
9:47. Having two eyes to be cast into _hell_.
Luke 12:5. Hath power to cast into _hell_.
James 3:6. It is set on fire of _hell_.
_Tartaro-o_ is used only in the following text:
“God spared not the angels that sinned, but _cast them down to hell_.” 2
Pet. 2:4.
From these references it will be seen that _hades_ is the place of the
dead whether righteous or wicked, from which they are brought only by a
resurrection. Rev. 20:13. On the contrary, Gehenna is the place into
which the wicked are to be cast alive with all their members, to be
destroyed soul and body. These places, therefore, are not to be
confounded together.
Now the punishment against which the text warns us, is not a punishment
in _hades_, the state or place of the dead, but in _Gehenna_, which is
not inflicted till after the resurrection. Therefore we affirm that the
text contains no evidence whatever of the condition of man in death, but
passes over the entire period from the death of the body to the
resurrection. And this is further evident from the record in Luke: “Be
not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that, have no more that
they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which
after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell.”
Luke does not use the term, soul, at all; yet he expresses the same
sentiment as Matthew. Man can kill the body or destroy this present
life; but he can accomplish no destruction beyond that. But God can not
only kill the body, or destroy the present life, but he can cast into
Gehenna, or destroy the life that we have beyond the resurrection. These
two things alone the text has in view. And now when we remember that
_psuche_, the word here rendered, soul, often means life, either the
present or future, and is forty times in the New Testament so rendered,
the text is freed from all difficulty. The word, kill, to be sure is not
such as would naturally be used in connection with life; but the word,
destroy, which is among the definitions of the original word,
_apokteino_, can be appropriately used with life. Thus, fear not them
which kill the body, but are not able to destroy the future life; but
rather fear him who is able to destroy the body and put an end to all
future life in hell. And it is worthy of notice that the destruction in
hell here threatened is not inflicted upon a person without his body.
Nothing is said about God’s destroying the soul alone; but it is at some
point beyond this life, when the person again has a body: which is not
till after the resurrection.
Another declaration from the lips of our Lord, found in Matt. 16:25, 26,
will throw some light on our present subject: “For whosoever will save
his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake
shall find it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole
world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for
his soul?” The word soul should here be rendered life. Dr. Clarke, on
verse 26, says: “On what authority many here translate the word _psuche_
in the 25th verse, _life_, and in this verse, _soul_, I know not, but am
certain it means life in both places.”
But let us take the expressions, “soul” and “to lose the soul,” in the
popular sense, and what should we have? Whosoever will save his soul (to
save the soul meaning to save it from hell) shall lose it (that is shall
go into hell torments): but whosoever will lose his soul (suffer eternal
misery) for my sake, shall find it (shall be saved in Heaven). This
makes utter nonsense of the passage, and so is a sufficient condemnation
of the view which makes such an interpretation necessary.
The passage simply refers to the present and future life. Thus,
whosoever will save his life, that is, will deny Christ and his gospel
for the sake of avoiding persecution, or of preserving his present life,
he shall lose it in the world to come, when God shall destroy both soul
and body in Gehenna; but he who shall lose his present life if need be,
for the sake of Christ and his cause, shall find it in the world to
come, when eternal life is given to all the overcomers.
Here the life is spoken of as something which can be lost and found
again. Between the losing and finding no one can claim that it maintains
a conscious existence. And what is meant by finding it? Simply that God
will bestow it upon us in the future beyond the resurrection. So what is
meant by the expression that man cannot kill it? Simply the same thing,
that God will, in the resurrection, endow us with life again, a life
which is beyond the power of man.
The life of all men is in the hands of God. The body was formed of the
dust, but the life was imparted by God. Man, by sin, has made this
present life a temporary one. But through the plan of salvation, by
which the human race was placed upon a second probation, after Adam’s
fall, with the privilege of still gaining eternal life, a future life is
decreed for all; for there shall be a resurrection of the just and
unjust. With the righteous, this life will be eternal; for they have
secured the forgiveness of all their sins through Jesus Christ; but with
the wicked, it will soon end in the second death; for they have thrown
away their golden privilege, and clung to their sins, the wages of which
is death. Man may hasten the close of this present temporary life, may
cut it short by killing the body, for some years before it would close
in the natural course of events; but that future life, which in the
purpose of God is as sure as his own throne, they cannot touch.
The exhortation is to those who are striving to serve God, and who
thereby are liable to lose their present lives at the hands of wicked
men for the truth’s sake. Fear them not, though with the bloody arm of
persecution they may deprive you of the present life; for the life which
is to come they cannot reach.
And the warning is to the wicked that unless they fear God more than
men, and are governed by his glory more than by worldly considerations,
he will bring their existence to an utter end in the fire Gehenna.
The text, therefore, so far from proving the existence in man of an
independent, death-surviving, conscious entity called the immortal soul,
speaks only of the present and future life, and, passing over the entire
period between death and the resurrection, then promises the righteous a
life which man cannot destroy, and affirms that the wicked shall utterly
cease to be in the second death.