Daily Bible Nugget #767, Matthew 10:28

The Nugget:

Mat 10:28  And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

My Comment:

Continuing my refutation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, and others who teach theological materialism–that when the body dies, the soul dies with it–I present the notes and cross references I have supplied in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and more completely in The Ultimate Cross Reference Treasury for Matthew 10:28, where the words of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself directly refute this mistaken doctrine:

Matthew 10:28
And fear not. +Mat 10:26, Mat 26:74, Gen 15:1, Exo 5:1; Exo 20:20, Deut 1:29; Deut 5:5; Deut 20:3, Jos 9:24, 1Ki 20:31, 2Ki 1:15, 2Ch 26:18, Neh 4:14; Neh 6:13, +*Est 1:12; Est 5:9, Psa 3:6; Psa 27:1; Psa 56:4; +Psa 118:6, Pro 29:25, Isa 7:4; **Isa 8:12, 13, 14; *Isa 51:7; *Isa 51:12; *Isa 51:13, *Jer 1:8; *Jer 1:17; Jer 26:21; Jer 36:14; Jer 42:11, Eze 2:6; Eze 3:9; Eze 32:25, *Dan 3:10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18; *Dan 6:10, Mar 14:68, **Luk 12:4; **Luk 12:5, Joh 9:22; *Joh 14:27, Act 5:20; Act 8:1; *Act 20:23; *Act 20:24; *Act 21:13; Act 27:24, *Rom 8:35, 36, 37, 38, 39, Eph 6:20, *Php 1:28, *2Ti 4:6, 7, 8, Heb 7:25; Heb 11:23; Heb 11:35; Heb 13:6, 1Pe 3:14, *Rev 2:10; +*Rev 21:8.

which kill. Gen 12:12; Gen 26:7; Gen 37:21, 1Ki 18:14, Job 3:17, +*Psa 119:87, Joh 16:2.

body. +Mat 6:25, 2Co 4:16; **2Co 12:2 note.

not able. *Mat 22:31; *Mat 22:32, Mar 12:26, 27, *Luk 12:4; *Luk 12:5, Act 7:59, 2Co 4:18.

kill. +*Mat 22:32, %*Gen 37:21, +Lev 19:27 note. Jos 10:28 note. Job 33:18.

soul. Gr. psychē, +Mat 2:20. The immaterial, invisible, eternally conscious part of man, as in Act 2:27; Act 2:31, *1Th 5:23, *Heb 4:12. For the other uses of psychē, see +Mat 2:20 note. It is evident that soul cannot mean here the “future life” or “opportunity for future life” (+Luk 21:19 note, T985x: the claim of the Jehovah’s Witnesses). The word psychē is never used when the future, eternal life is spoken of. Rather, a different word, zōē (+Luk 10:25 g), is used. Likewise, bios (S# G979, Mar 12:44) is never used of eternal life. It is equally clear that the soul here can not mean the physical life in the body or the body itself, for that can be killed by man, whereas here the soul cannot be killed. Neither can soul have reference here to mere character, for surely God is not bent on destroying the character of man in hell! It is of no use to argue that in other passages the soul can be killed, for in such passages soul is used to mean person, without specific reference to the immaterial, invisible, eternally conscious part of man, which is what is in view here. +Mat 6:25 note. +Gen 1:20; +Gen 2:7 note. Gen 25:8 note. Gen 35:18; Gen 37:35 note. +Gen 41:8 note. 1Ki 17:21, 22, 2Ki 4:27, +*Job 14:22, +*Psa 16:10; Psa 22:26; Psa 30:3; Psa 49:15; Psa 88:3; +Psa 146:4 note. +*Ecc 3:19; +*Ecc 12:7, +*Isa 38:16, %*Dan 7:15, %+Zec 12:1 note. Act 2:27; Act 2:31; **Act 7:59 note. **1Co 2:11 note. Php 1:23 note. **1Th 5:23 note. **Heb 4:12 note. Rev 14:13.

fear him. Exo 1:17; +*Exo 18:21, Deut 28:58, 1Ki 18:3, 2Ki 17:36; 2Ki 17:39, 2Ch 20:3, Job 13:11; Job 37:24, *Psa 34:7; Psa 76:7; +*Psa 89:7; Psa 96:4; Psa 119:120, *Pro 14:26; *Pro 14:27; Pro 28:1; Pro 29:25, Ecc 5:7; Ecc 7:18; *Ecc 8:12; *Ecc 8:13; +Ecc 12:13, Isa 2:21; Isa 8:13; *Isa 41:10; *Isa 66:2, +Jer 5:22, *Act 4:19, Rom 3:18, *2Co 5:11, *Heb 10:31; *Heb 12:28; *Heb 12:29, *1Pe 1:17.

able. *Mat 25:46, *Mar 9:43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, *Luk 16:22, 23, 24, 25, 26, *Joh 5:29, **2Th 1:8, 9, 10, *Heb 10:31, Jas 4:12, *Rev 20:10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.

destroy. Gr. apollumi, +Mat 2:13. This Greek word never means annihilate, but rather means to render unsuitable for the use originally intended. A “lost” coin is not annihilated; neither are the “lost sheep of the house of Israel,” nor those Jesus came to seek and to save (Mat 18:11).

In this very chapter (Mat 10:39), the loss or gain of psychē is spoken of as occurring in this present life, an impossibility if apollumi means annihilation.

Note the order of statement in Luk 12:5.

Follow carefully Paul’s logic in 1Co 15:16, 17, 18, and note that “perished” in verse 18 (1Co 15:18) is apollumi, the same word as here. Paul argues that if Christ has not truly been raised from the dead, then those that are asleep in Christ are perished; since Christ is raised from the dead, the dead in Christ are not perished. Nor are the dead who are not in Christ annihilated, for they shall yet be resurrected and judged (Joh 5:28, 29).

To suggest that all persons who have died are non-existent until the resurrection, but are kept “alive” in God’s memory (+*Job 14:13 x), has not a shred of Biblical evidence to support it, and is contrary to Biblical teaching, for then upon resurrection it would not be the same person (note Christ’s own emphatic statement of his personal bodily resurrection identity, Luk 24:39), but a reconstituted copy of the person. Since only bodies are resurrected, not spirits or souls, the whole materialist viewpoint is fallacious in positing a break in the continuity of conscious existence of the person. The materialist viewpoint was held even more consistently by the Sadducees, a viewpoint utterly demolished by our Lord’s answer to them in Mat 22:23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32. Mat 10:6 g, Mat 10:39, Mat 9:17; Mat 18:11, Job 19:10, Ecc 5:6, +*Isa 26:14; +*Isa 38:18; *Isa 47:14, Jer 4:20, +*Eze 18:4 note, **Eze 18:20 note. Hos 13:9, 10, +Luk 9:24; Luk 10:15; Luk 19:10 g. %1Co 5:5; 1Co 15:16, 17, 18; **1Co 15:54 note. 1Th 4:16 note. Jas 4:12, Rev 19:20.

both. +*Isa 10:18, Luk 12:5.

body. +*Mat 5:29, **Joh 5:29, Act 2:34 note. 1Co 15:44, Rev 19:20.

soul. Gr. psychē, +Mat 2:20. Man has spirit as well as soul, but the Lord speaks of soul here, doubtless, because it is in closest connection with the body,—which is therefore called the “psychical” (not “natural”) body” (1Co 15:44),—of which it is the “life.” Psychē, like nephesh in the Old Testament, is thus used for “life” and “soul.” Of “spirit” there is not in Scripture a possible question; of soul there might be; but the Lord affirms here its survival also. The common thought of body and soul being the whole man has clouded the truth of immortality, as if it had to be proved from a solitary text or so, as here; and also from its making man only what the beast is, in which there is also a “living soul” (Gen 1:30). Spirit is what is distinctive of man (1Co 2:11). Again, when the Lord speaks of body and soul in hell, He does not speak of “killing” anymore, but “destroying,”—a word used as to “ruin” of any kind (F. W. Grant, Numerical Bible, The Gospels, p. 119).

in. +Luk 9:25.

hell. Gr. gehenna, +Mat 5:22 note. +Mat 5:29, +*Mat 3:12; +Mat 5:29; **Mat 18:8; **Mat 18:9; **Mat 25:41; **Mat 25:46, +Gen 37:35 note. Deut 32:22, 1Sa 28:19, Psa 139:8, +**Isa 66:24, Eze 32:25; Eze 32:27 note. **Amos 9:2 note. Luk 10:15, **Jud 1:7, Rev 19:20; **Rev 20:9; **Rev 20:10; **Rev 20:14; **Rev 20:15; +*Rev 21:8.