Beacon-Ministries

 

Destroy

    Strong's Concordance # 622-Apollumi (look familiar?)-perish 33, destroy 26, lose 22, be lost 5, lost 4, miscellaneous 2  

Because this word is from the same Greek word as perish, and lost, I will only list one scripture that uses the word as
destroy. And, this is because it is one of the scriptures used to support the teaching of endless hell.

Matthew 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.

As usual, when He talked about hell,(Gehenna) Jesus was not talking to sinners, He was talking to His disciples.  
Neither did Jesus say "hell" in this verse, He said "Gehenna" which is what it really was, a valley outside of
Jerusalem....don't know which translator decided to plug hell in there instead of what it really said??? (Details about
Gehenna are on the "hell" page.)

Jesus was making the point to His disciples that they would be persecuted horribly for taking the His message of
repentance to the people of Israel. That they were not to fear what man could do to them but to fear what He could
do if they let the fear of man deter them. Some teachers say "destroy" here means to annihilate completely but I
disagree.

Gehenna was a shameful place for the Jews. If the soul is the mind, will, and emotions, it is easy to see how ending
up in Gehenna (slaughtered in AD 70 or thrown there as a worthless, dead body) would be the utter humiliation for
God's chosen people. Another reason I disagree that destroy means annihilation in Gehenna is because Jesus told
the Pharisees in Matthew 23 that they were children of hell (Gehenna). He asked them, "how shall you escape the
damnation of Gehenna?" Then tells them, "you won't see me again UNTIL you say, blessed is He that comes in the
name of the Lord."  Whatever Gehenna meant to them or even if it  means hell  to us, those Pharisee will walk right
out of it with a brand new attitude and praise for the Messiah. And we have to remember that Paul told the Romans
that ALL of Israel would be saved. Shameful, regretful? Yes. Endless? No!

The Greek word for soul in this passage of scripture is psuche. Strongs's # 5590.  Here are a few verses that use
that word:

Mt 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Mt 16:26  For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a  man
give in exchange for his soul?  

Mt 20:28  Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for
many.  

Mt 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind.

Mt 26:38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with
me.  

An excerpt from "Bible Threatenings Explained"

Dr. W. E. Manley observes that the condition threatened "is one wherein the body can be killed. And no one has
imagined any such place, outside the present state of being. Nor can there be the least doubt about the nature of
this killing of the body; for the passage is so constructed as to settle this question beyond all controversy. It is taking
away the natural life, as was done by the persecutors of the apostles. The Jews were in a condition of depravity
properly represented by Gehenna. The apostles had been in that condition, but had been delivered from it. By
supposing the word Hell to denote a condition now and in the present life, there is no absurdity involved. Sinful men
may here suffer both natural death and moral death; but in the future life, natural death cannot be suffered; whatever
may be said of moral death. Fear not men, your persecutors, who can inflict on you only bodily suffering. But rather
fear him who is able to inflict both bodily suffering, and what is worse, mental and moral suffering, in that condition of
depravity represented by the foulest and most revolting locality known to the Jewish people."

"Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when
he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of Hell than yourselves." Matt. xxiii:15.

Looking upon the smoking valley, and thinking of its corruptions and abominations, to call a man a "child of
Gehenna" was to say that his heart was corrupt and his character vile, but it no more indicated a place of woe after
death, than a resident of New York would imply such a place by calling a bad man a child of Five Points.