What is the second death?

The Lake of Fire is called the Second Death (Rev. 20:14; 21:8). The first death is separation of the body from the soul and spirit which never die (James 2:26). The second death is the eternal separation of the entire person from God (2 Thess. 1:8-10) in hell (Gk: Gehenna) (Matt. 5:21-30; Mark 9:43-49) where the fire of judgment is not quenched and the worm of conscience does not die. There are no friends there: each person is isolated as wandering stars (comets) in the blackness of darkness forever (Jude 13), under God's eternal wrath (John 3:36; Rev. 20:10). It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:31).

The terrible import of verse 8 is apparent. It stands in contrast to the victors in verse 7, and in both verses we are carried outside the bounds of time and into the endless expanse of eternity. There is that confined region, burning with the holy judgment of God, which will be the second death to those that are cast there. The first death is not annihilation. If it were, there could be no second. It is dissolution of soul and body. The second death will be the complete and absolute dissolution of every link that connects with God; complete severance from all that is summed up in the words, life and light and love. There will be existence but not life in the full and proper sense of the word.

The list of those on whom this doom falls is sadly instructive. It begins with the fearful and unbelieving. Being without faith, they feared man and did not confess Jesus as their Lord. Those who bore the character of the devil, who is a murderer, and were marked by lust and traffic with the powers of darkness, come next. The list finishes with "all liars," for lying is another characteristic of the devil, and deceit takes a variety of subtle forms. The overcomers of verse 7 are sons of God. The damned of verse 8 proclaim themselves as sons of the evil one. They share his doom.

The nature of this judicial doom is explained to be the second death. The first death pronounced, as the penalty on Adam's transgression, meant far more than the death of the body. The moral use of the word in the phrase "dead in sins" proves beyond a doubt that it signifies, in its essence, the separation of the soul from God, together with the state of the soul as being without a single movement of life towards God. This interpretation is confirmed by the statement in Romans, that "by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin" for it is clearly the state of man which is thus indicated. (See also 2 Cor. 5:14.) This, rightly understood, throws great light upon the term here employed — "the second death." "Death," then, will keep its meaning — the absolute separation of the soul from God, its total exclusion from the source of all light and life, and its confinement for ever in the region of darkness; for as light and life, so darkness and death are in their very nature indissolubly connected. Then we have the additional element, "the lake of fire." "Fire" in Scripture is the symbol of the holiness of God as applied in judgment. This may be easily traced through the various books of the Bible, as, for example, in the fire that consumed the sacrifices, and, as again, in the statement that "our God is a consuming fire." (Heb. 12:29.) The second death therefore is the moral exclusion of the soul for ever from God, or rather, it should be said, the separation of the whole man (body, soul, and spirit) from God, under the infliction of His judicial wrath. This is the lake of fire, God's eternal judgment, according to the standard of His own immutable holiness, as visited upon those who refused His grace, rebelled against His authority, and chose death rather than life. It is into this "lake of fire" that every unconverted one, as this scripture plainly teaches, will be, if dying impenitent, finally cast; for it is there that all this multitude find their doom.

The “lake” burneth. Its fire is never exhausted. “Fire and brimstone” symbolise torment and agony of a fearful character (Isa. 30:33). The expression “the lake of fire” occurs five times in the Apocalypse. It is remarkable that when the devil and the awful sinners mentioned in our text are in question “fire and brimstone” are added. “Which is the second death.” The first death is the separation of soul and body, but not cessation of existence, nor unconsciousness, as many dream. Luke 16:19-31, which is not said to be a parable, and Revelation 6:9-11 shows consciousness and activity of spirit in the separate state. The lake of fire in its never-ending agony is the second death. There are three lists of sinners which it would be profitable to compare: 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Revelation 21:8, 22:15. In the third list the last five named answer to the last five in the passage we have been considering.

This word occurs first in Genesis 2:17, and Genesis 3 is the record of how the death sentence fell on our first parents. Its use in the Bible is constant until we reach the last chapter but one of the New Testament, where we find "a new heaven and a new earth" where "there shall be no more death," and yet at the same time "the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." Now, right through, we affirm that death NEVER means "ceasing to exist," but always has the force of separation: either, the separation of the creature spiritually and morally from God, in which sense men are "dead in trespasses and sins;" or the separation of soul and spirit from the body, which is death physically; or yet again the final separation of the whole man, if unrepentant and unsaved, from God and all that is good and bright and worth possessing, in the lake of fire, and that is the second death.

We see the rich man in his luxury and the beggar in his misery on earth, and then we see both in another sphere. The grave had not ended the history of either of them. Death is not cessation of being. There are three kinds of death connected with man as a sinner — spiritual death, physical death, and the second death. The first represents man's moral condition of alienation from God, as we read in Ephesians 2:1, "dead in trespasses and sins"; the second is the dissolution of the body; and the third is the lake of fire. But none of these means ceasing to exist. The man spiritually dead is full enough of energy in evil, "fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind." The man physically dead still lives to God, as was shown at the burning bush when Jehovah spoke of the long departed Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the present tense (Luke 20:37-38). Even the lake of fire does not mean ceasing to exist, for when the Devil is cast in there a thousand years after the Beast and the False Prophet he finds these transgressors in that place still (Rev. 19:20; Rev. 20:10). Death is separation. The man spiritually dead is morally separated from God, not a motion of his being going out towards him; the man physically dead is separated from his body, and from all the associations connected therewith; and he who experiences the second death finds himself separated from God and all that is blessed for evermore.

You are quite right as to "destruction," but some of the annihilationists here do not admit the Lord's coming. If it be admitted, then 2 Thessalonians 1:9 shews clearly that their use of it is false. But you have only to substitute "annihilated" for the word translated "destroyed," and the absurdity is evident. He came "to seek and to save those who were annihilated!" "O Israel, thou hast annihilated thyself, but I am thy help!" and the like. Secondly, I believe death and hades (Rev. 20:13) are personified. and that there is no more death or state of separate spirits - that is, in their separate subsisting condition of power. The power of death which Satan has is finally put an end to. But I have very little doubt that the contents of death and hell are included in them, in contrast with those in the book of life. But do not entangle yourself in volunteering explanations of difficult passages, when plain answers to error are there. The "second death" is explained in the word itself. It is the lake of fire: and in that torment is said to subsist, (not Rev. 20:14) Rev. 21:8. It is - not causes - the second death; they have their part in it. If you ask me what I think of the second death, I believe it is the judicial separation of man from God, in the lake of fire, as death was the separation of soul and body. I had to meet one of these men lately, but I find that they quail before the word if it is known. It involves the immortality of the soul, and there can be no guilt or atonement for a mere beast's soul.

The non-subsequent existence of death and hades is merely a consequence drawn from general truth. They merge in the lake of fire. In the language they are personified and nothing is said of their destruction or non-existence there. I add this because they may use it as a plea that it means ceasing to exist. It does not. We find those who are looked at as living beings tormented there. It is therefore not ceasing to exist. When I interpret the passage, their power is absorbed in the lake of fire, as the kingdom in eternal glory in which it ceases to exist; and from that and other sources I see that they cease to exist, but not by the lake of fire as they pretend the wicked do. They could not say death and hades were tormented. I have no doubt at all of the meaning. But it is no proof at all that anything ceases to exist by the lake of fire as a punishment. Such a sense would not be applied to death and hell: nor in any case does torment mean ceasing to exist, for it ceases when the person tormented ceases to exist; that is, the second death is not ceasing to exist, for that is the lake of fire.

But we are told it is in the second death they are extinct. But this destroys itself, for then death does not mean ceasing to exist; for if death meant ceasing to exist, there could be no second death, for the being would have ceased to exist in the first. It is all a fable, so using death. Christ has died. The saints have died, just as truly as the wicked. They may have a life the wicked have not, but they have as truly died, and they have not become extinct nor ceased to exist. And if the wicked undergo a second death, death does not mean ceasing to exist; for they died the first death, and did not cease to exist, for they have to undergo the second. But then, we are told, the second will be — not because it is death, we have seen. And we must look to scripture to see if that is meant by the second death (i.e., if ceasing to exist is what is meant). It teaches the contrary. Men at the final judgment are cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death. The second death is the punishment of the lake of fire — not that punishment's ceasing by the punished ones ceasing to exist. The punishment destroys them, we are told, as the Clementine Gnostics had told us before. But then, the lake of fire, the punishment, is the second death, not their ceasing to exist so that the punishment ceases. "They have their part in the lake of fire, which is the second death," existing there in it, having their part in it, is the time they are in the second death. Their part is not said to be punishment's ending by death, but the actual punishment of the lake of fire. So the devil that deceived the nations was cast into the lake of fire, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. There is no word of the close of their existence and of torment being the second death. It is the punishment itself, of the lake of fire, which is so called — the outer darkness, where are weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The second death is not annihilation. Death never means annihilation. The first death does not mean annihilation—the soul survives and the body will be raised. The second death does not mean annihilation, but an eternal living death. In short, eternal punishment means eternal punishing. Solemn thought, yet Scripture clearly teaches it, and it is our wisdom to bow to Scripture and not raise in question God's justice. His ways are perfect and right.

The dreadful contrast to all this is seen in verse 8. Who can estimate the awful horror of the end of those who choose to reject the faithful, gracious Lord of glory? Solemnly, “the cowardly” are mentioned first — those whose fear of human disapproval causes them to refuse the Son of God! “The unbelieving” are those who refuse God's testimony, the only means by which they could be preserved from the company of “the abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters and all liars.” Every unbeliever chooses such company, and he or she will have part with them in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. This is the second death, not annihilation, but separation (the basic meaning of death) — separation from God in eternal torment. If the symbol of fire is dreadful, what must the reality be?