Matthew 10:28

“And do not be afraid of those who 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.”

For they are to face up to final consequences, and therefore not be afraid. What does it matter if the body is killed off? What they should remember is that anyone who touches them cannot touch their inner life within them. Thus if they are martyred they will simply go on to be with Him. So they need not fear those who have the authority of life and death, because that is all that they can do. Marcus Aurelius would later try to go one further. He ordered that the bodies of Christians martyred in Lyons should be ground to powder and thrown into the river with the intent of preventing their resurrection. But he failed to achieve his aim, for all God requires for resurrection is their ‘dust' as found in the dust of the ground (Isaiah 26:19, compare Genesis 3:19). The One Whom they therefore need to be in awe of is the One Who has the power of eternal life and eternal death. Let them therefore be in awe of Him, the One Who can destroy both body and inner being in Gehenna.

We are reminded here of the Old Testament wisdom teaching, ‘the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil that is understanding' (Job 28:28; see also Psalms 111:10; Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 9:10; Proverbs 15:33; compare Isaiah 33:6), by which of course is meant the same reverent awe as we have here.

Note on Being ‘Destroyed' in Gehenna.

With regard to those who will be ‘destroyed in Gehenna' there are conflicting views. In his book on Immortality Plato regularly used this verb ‘to destroy' in order to signify final death resulting in total lack of consciousness and being (he clearly did not feel that any other Greek verb quite conveyed this idea). If we accept his use of the term, ‘destroy' here would signify what we call final annihilation after judgment. But the judgment cannot be made simply on the basis of Greek terms alone.

In Jewish tradition, as in other Greek works (not all followed Plato), there were suggestions of eternal (or ‘age long') punishment (e.g. Jdt 16:17; 2Es 7:36; Assumption of Moses Matthew 10:10). And some Greeks spoke of Tartarus as the place of eternal conscious punishment, at least for some. In 2 Peter 2:4, however, that term is used of the intermediate state of the fallen angels. But none of these speak of that punishment as ‘destruction' when spoken of in these terms, and such ideas are not found in the Old Testament.

There are only two places in the Old Testament where the fate of the wicked after resurrection is described, and those are Isaiah 66:24 and Daniel 12:2. In Isaiah 66:24 the wicked are cast bodily into the valley of Hinnom where they are consumed by eternal maggots and eternal fire. But it is the maggots and the fire that are eternal, not the consciousness of the dead. In the case of the dead it is their carcases which will be abhorred by all flesh. And it is their carcases that the righteous will come to look on as a reminder of God's judgment. The valley of Hinnom was the place where the dead bodies of criminals were thrown to be burned and eaten by maggots, and where the fires were continually burning in order to dispose of the rubbish of Jerusalem, so the point here is that the unrighteous dead are classed with the criminal fraternity and have become so much rubbish. But the everlastingness depends on the everlastingness of the lives of the righteous. While there is clearly the intention of indicating something rather more than the old Valley of Hinnom, it has not become what we think of as Ge-henna, ‘the ‘Valley (ge) of Hinnom'.

The same is true in Daniel 12:2. It is the shame and everlasting contempt which is everlasting, as in Isaiah 66:24. But it is only the righteous who are seen as having a conscious future.

Interestingly when we come to the New Testament Paul actually says nothing clear about the destiny of the wicked apart from to call it ‘death' (e.g. Romans 6:23), although he does speak of their being ‘eternally destroyed from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power' (2 Thessalonians 1:9). Jesus on the other hand certainly speaks of conscious punishment beyond the grave, but He nowhere says that the consciousness will be everlasting (Mark 9:43; Mark 9:48 merely applies the concepts of Isaiah 66:24 to Gehenna). It says nothing about the consciousness of those who are being punished). Indeed some argue that the whole point of ‘destruction' is that after their punishment all the unrighteous are destroyed. It could for example be argued that such verses as Luke 12:47 must be seen as pointing to the opposite of eternal conscious punishment. Furthermore while Matthew 25:46 speaks of ‘eternal punishment' that is in contrast to ‘eternal life' and could thus tie in with Plato's concept. There is no suggestion of it being conscious, except in the giving of the sentence. Nothing is more eternal than destruction and annihilation. Besides the main use of ‘eternal' in Scripture is in order to indicate quality, not duration, compare eternal judgment (Hebrews 6:2) which cannot mean an eternal judging.

The only place where more detail is given in is Revelation. There we read of the Lake of Fire. But we must beware of reading this too literally, for Satan is thrown in there and Satan is a spirit being. Real fire would not worry him at all. The point of it for Satan, and for the wild beast and the false prophet, is that they are thrown alive into it. Thus they are punished for ever and ever (Revelation 20:10). But that is apparently in contrast with the unrighteous who are thrown into it dead (compare the similar contrast in Revelation 19:20), and are not said to be punished for ever and ever. They are not in the book of the living (Revelation 20:15). And it should be noted in this regard that Death and Hades are thrown in with them at the same time, and the only point behind that must be that they might be destroyed (Isaiah 25:8). Death and Hades have no consciousness so they cannot be consciously punished.

Some have pointed to Revelation 14:9 to support their position. But that in fact supports Isaiah 66:24 as indicating that it is the means of punishment that are eternal. It is the smoke of their torment that arises for ever and ever, a reminder of the trial by torture that they have faced. ‘And they have no rest day or night' (or more strictly ‘they are unceasing ones day and night') is a translation that assumes what it wants to prove. Exactly the same Greek words are used in Revelation 4:8 where they cannot possibly indicate anything but continuing joy. So the real point is the comparison between the two. Both those who worship God and those who worship the Wild Beast do so continually. But clearly the worship of the Wild Beast ceases after the events in Revelation 19:20.

This all suggests that we must be very careful before we claim that Scripture teaches eternal conscious punishment. While the fate of the unrighteous is clearly intended to be seen as horrific, it is nowhere spelled out that it is a matter of eternal consciousness. Many would feel that ‘destruction' must be given its obvious meaning as in the end resulting in the removal from God's fullness, when God will be all in all, of all that offends. Perhaps we should consider that the wisest course is to teach what the Scriptures positively say and leave such matters to Him.

(Of course those who believe in an ‘eternal soul' that  even God cannot destroy  will already have made up their minds. They are bound by their doctrine (which is nowhere taught in Scripture). But such a concept may seem blasphemous to many. Can there really be anything that God cannot destroy? If it were so then it would seem (and I say it reverently) that God has then surely ceased to be God).

End of note.