What did our Lord Jesus mean in Matthew 10:28?

In 1983 I was asked by a friend in Oregon── a friend that was dragged to a Baptist church every Sunday── what our Lord Jesus meant in Matthew 10:28. And I was excited that I actually knew the true answer to this question.

Our Lord Jesus Christ says, “’ And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell’” – Matthew 10:28.

Sadly, multiple billions of people who believe in the false concept of the immortality of the soul base their false ideology on this very verse. God’s living word – the Holy Bible – clearly reveals to us that man is a living soul:

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul [a living being]” – Genesis 2:7.

So man (meaning mankind) became a “living soul.” Nowhere in all of God’s living word does it say that man has a soul inside of him. It says that man is a soul. And I immediately took my friend to this very passage to explain. His living word also says that a soul can die!

“’ Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father As well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall die” – Ezekiel 18:4, 20.

So, man is a soul. And, man sins. So, therefore, a living soul dies. The actual idea of an “immortal soul” did not come from God’s living immutable word. It came out of ancient Egypt, and Babylonia, and was enshrined by philosophers such as Plato. Notice what the Jewish Encyclopedia reads:

“The belief that the soul continues its existence after the dissolution of the body is a matter of philosophical or theological speculation … and is accordingly nowhere expressly taught in Holy Scripture. … The belief in the immortality of the soul came to the Jews from contact with Greek thought and chiefly through the philosophy of Plato, its principal exponent, who was led to it through Orphic and Eleusinian mysteries in which Babylonian and Egyptian views were strangely blended”

(Jewish Encyclopedia Online, 1906, “Immortality of the soul”).

And then I said something to my friend that was certainly sacrilegious in his young eyes── I said, God’s living word plainly reveals that when you die – you are dead. But, that goes on into The Confusion About Death!

Now, there is a verse in the Book of 1st Timothy 6 that surely the majority of those who believe in an immortality of the soul will not quote when they are talking about this false concept. It’s verse 16. But let’s get the full picture and begin in verse 13 –

“I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus …” – the very focus of this Scripture! “ … who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14) that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, 15) which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate [RULER], the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16) who ONLY has immortality, …” They never seem to quote this passage when talking about the immortality of the soul. Here it says that ‘ONLY GOD IS IMMORTAL.’ “ … dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen OR CAN SEE, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.” – 1 Timothy 6:13-16.

The very personality of Jesus Christ – in the God Family – appeared unto Adam, Noah, Moses, and Abraham – and said, ‘I AM WHO I AM!’ And, Jesus said, ‘Before Abraham was, I AM!’

Now, the very word “soul” is translated from the Greek word psuché (pronounced psoo-khay') and has the exact same meaning as the word in Hebrew, nephesh (pronounced neh'-fesh). The word truly means a living, breathing creature, and also an animal life. SOULS can never mean any “immortal” part of a man or animal── but always the living, breathing animal or man, also the life of a breathing being which is in the blood. Notice Leviticus 17:11 – “’ For the LIFE of the flesh is in the blood, …’” And this word “life” comes from the very same Hebrew word for “soul” – So, this verse could easily read, “’ For the SOUL of the flesh is in the blood, …’”

Also, and I want to briefly cover this grave misconception – what many believe in ‘an afterlife’── like they say “you don’t really die, you fly off to heaven! Well, your body dies, but your “soul” lives on.” A short answer to this –

Mankind was indeed created with a spirit (Job 32:8; Proverbs 20:27). And, as we’ve said so many times (which is why abortion IS MURDER), animals do not have a spirit. Man needed this spirit to empower his brain with mind power - see 1 Corinthians 2:11. This human spirit enters the human embryo at conception. The spirit is like the “hard drive on a computer” – it stores information. The spirit essence is NOT an immortal soul or an eternal spirit. The spirit in man is NOT the man. It is something in the man. It has no life of itself. At death, it has no consciousness of itself, for it sleeps (1 Corinthians 11:30; 1 Corinthians 15:51; 1 Thessalonians 4:14). Like a tape recorder, it forms a permanent record of the qualities of mind and character built by a man during his lifetime. And much like a used tape is stored lifelessly on a shelf till activated in a recorder, so also does the spirit of man “return to GOD who gave it” after death, until the resurrection when life is again given to a person (Ecclesiastes 12:7). This was the way that our Lord Jesus Christ – through His servant Herbert W Armstrong – explained it to me and I hold fast to this that is good.

ALWAYS KEEP IN MIND, that the LORD God ── the God Family ── can destroy! “There is One Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy” – James 4:12. So, the LORD God can destroy a physical body and a life (a “soul”) – “’ But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into [gehenna fire]; yes, I say to you, fear Him!’” – Luke 12:5.

We should always reverently fear Him who can take our physical life ── but also has the power to kill our very life in a “second death” For “anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15), “which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:7-8).

A person can only take our physical life, but the LORD God can take our life away from us for all eternity! Let us reverently fear Him! □