M
Mailman
Guest
I think you’re not getting my point. A man who commits murder takes away life – yes, but that is only temporary. His victim will live again because of the resurrection. So, in a way, he has not really killed him. What the scripture is saying is that man cannot claim to kill the soul because God will bring all the dead souls back to life.
To illustrate, suppose an assassin shoots his target “dead.” However, 30 minutes later in the hospital, the doctors were able to revive him. He recovered from his wounds and lived a normal, healthy life again. Has the assassin in this case killed his target? Of course, not. Although his victim was dead for 30 minutes, we still say he never killed the man.
Here, death lasted only for a few minutes. But the soul can be dead for thousands of years and still be revived in a resurrection. Had the assassin in our example successfully killed his victim, he would have killed his soul for a much longer period of time, even thousands of years. But when the resurrection happens, we can say that he wasn’t really successful in killing him.
The point made is that man does not possess the power to kill permanently; only God does.
Hell [as in hellfire, Gehenna in the Greek] and death cannot be used interchangeably. They are connected, yes, but they’re not the same. Death is the absence of life while hell [Gehenna] is the fire that will burn the wicked. They are connected in the sense that God will use hellfire to burn the wicked to death. But they are not the same.
Look at Romans 6:23 again. It says: “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
This teaching is plain and clear. We do not have to look for any hidden meaning to understand it. Notice it speaks of two contrasting extremes: Death and life – death as the penalty for sin and life as a gift of God. If you say death here means eternal torment in hell, then the penalty for sin is not death, but eternal life. But it says eternal life is given only as a gift through Christ. It is not given to all, specifically not to those who commit sin. If the penalty for sin is also eternal life, then this passage would not make any sense.
Look at that passage again. Does it say, “eternal life in torment,” or “eternal life in hell?” It does not. It says, “eternal punishment” – punishment that will last forever.
Now, is the punishment of death for all eternity an eternal punishment? God says the wages of sin is death – death for all eternity. If the wicked will remain dead forever, will not their punishment be eternal?
This passage in Matthew is again speaking of two extremes – death and life – specifically, eternal death and eternal life. It complements the passage in Romans in that it makes clear what kind of death awaits the wicked as God’s punishment for sin.
Daniel 12:2: “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.”
Being thrown into a lake of fire and burned into a crisp would be a disgraceful exit indeed. And being “tread down” as “ashes under the soles of [people’s] feet” (Mal. 4:3) for all eternity would be subjecting oneself to everlasting humiliation and contempt, would it not?
God bless.