Home | Letters | THE SECOND DEATH

THE SECOND DEATH

10/07/2017 09:31:00 The Editor

Font size:

The concept of ‘death’, or the state of being ‘dead’, is a prevailing theme and the term is found more than 200 times in the Bible.

It is crystal clear from the pages of the Bible that the dead do not know anything and it is a known fact of life that we will all die at some time. The Bible tells us that in the grave there is no thought and no consciousness (Ecclesiastes 3:19-20; 9:2-5, 10; Psalm 146:4).
At the point of death, the body returns to the dust, but the spirit returns to the giver. (Eccl. 12:6-7). However, the book of Revelation speaks of another death; that is known as the second death. The phrase ‘second death’ is found four times in the book of Revelation (Rev. 2:11; 20:6, 14; 21:8). In these four verses we have sufficient information that we need to understand the term.
In the four times that the second death is mentioned in Revelation it is synonymous with the lake of fire.

It is called the ‘second’ one because it follows after the physical death.
The first time we meet the phrase ‘second death’ is in the letter to the church at Smyrna: “He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death,” (Revelation 2:11). The second death is God’s instrument in the eradication of sin and is characterised by pain. It harms those who experience it.

“Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years,” (Revelation 20:6).
A third reference to the second death appears in Revelation 20:12-15; “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened.
And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.
The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.

Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.” This is the second death and anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
Finally, Revelation 21:8 explains the second death in the most detail: “The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”