p. 18 | Question Answered by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 12, 1882

Question Answered.

By Editor

If there is no life or consciousness from the death of the body till the resurrection, why does Jesus say in Matt. 10:28, "Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the life" (psuchee). For on that supposition are we not equally deprived of one as the other until the resurrection, when we shall not only have the life restored but the body also? And wherein have men failed to destroy the one and not the other, seeing both are alike affected? J. B. T.

It would afford us pleasure to give at some length the Scripture evidences on the subjects of the soul and immortality. In the question the sentence is given—"are not able to kill [or destroy] the life." This is suggestive. Where consistent, it is our practice to refer to our publications for answers to questions. We should refer this to Elder Smith's work, "Man's Nature and Destiny." But for the sake of the many of our readers who have not this book, we will copy from it, only regretting that our limited space will not permit us to give in full his remarks on this point. We invite the questioner, and all others interested, to procure the book and read it with care. We heartily indorse the following extracts:—

"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, 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 appolluo, and is defined by Greenfield, "to destroy, to kill, to put to death," etc.

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 hades, ge-enna, and tartaro-o, a verb signifying to thrust down to tartarus. These all designate different places. . . .

Now the punishment 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 there 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 cannot 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 psuchee, 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 psuchee 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 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 res

urrection. 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.