p. 216 | Logical? Hardly by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 10, 1883

Logical? Hardly.

By Editor

The Christian Herald, a paper which dispenses the truth to the inhabitants of Oregon, in the course of an editorial on the immortality of the soul, says:—

“We mean by immortal principle the never dying principle of man called the soul or spirit. That principle which cannot be killed. In Matt. 10:28, Jesus says to his disciples, ‘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.’ This shows, . . . (2) That the body can be killed, but no man can kill the soul. We can kill that which is mortal. The body is mortal as admitted by all; therefore it can be killed, or it may and does die a natural death. But we cannot kill that which is immortal or ever living. Jesus says we cannot kill the soul; therefore it is immortal, or never dying.”

It needs no argument to show the fallacy of such reasoning. But we are a little surprised at the editor's assurance. He frankly admits that “we” cannot kill the soul; and it may not be too much for him to claim that what “we” cannot do, cannot be done by human power; but we really think he ought not to say that because “man cannot kill the soul” therefore it cannot be killed at all, or that God cannot do it. At any rate he ought to have made such an assertion so soon after quoting the words of our Saviour in Matt. 10:28.