Chapter Six — The Second Death
Preface
Chapter 1 — 3 Realms of Existence
Chapter 2 — DNA (The Depraved Nature of Adam)
Chapter 3 — BPM (The Broken Planet Model)
Chapter 4 — End Times Made Easy (ETME)
Chapter 5 — Sheep To Nations (STN)
Chapter 6 — The Second Death
It’s time to turn up the volume on the hope I offer to you, as given in the Word of God. This chapter addresses what is likely the greatest complaint against God — His judgment, and an eternal state of punishment for many.
And I know who may be reading this chapter. Maybe you’ve sat in a pew at a funeral for someone you loved who, as far as you know, never came to Christ — and somewhere in the back of your mind was the teaching you’d absorbed all your life: that the one in the casket is in torment at that very moment, and will be forever and ever, without end, and that this is somehow part of the good news. Maybe you walked away from God over it. I have written this chapter for you. Stay with me to the end of it.
I’ll try to keep this as brief as I can without losing the meat of the message. But honestly, this is growing into its own book by the title, Their Worm Does Not Die.
“Eternal Punishment”
I was raised in the Church from infancy — probably being nursed in one of those special rooms for only mothers with babies while the sermon was ongoing. The church was as fundamental as they come, where the binary idea of two fates for mankind was offered often, if not weekly.
The idea was you get either heaven or hell, and they are forever and ever. It’s like good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell. Sound familiar? It should. That’s about as standard as it gets from Christianity (or was, anyway). Maybe it’s been softened up a bit since then — not sure. Well, I have already shown you in the last chapter how there are two options for folks to live on with Jesus in His kingdom (read Sheep To Nations).
This is going to keep going from there and discuss the Lake of Fire. The goats.
As you know from that earlier chapter, hell itself goes into the Lake of Fire. John wrote that “the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared” (Revelation 21:1, NLT). He also wrote, “Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death.” (Revelation 20:14, NLT)
And so, what I am going to do here is present the idea that something about the Lake of Fire may not be as permanent as we have been led to believe. Hold on! Don’t throw the book away just yet. Hear me out first.
I am not in the camp called “universalism”, where they say that anyone and everyone can and will be saved and that faith in Jesus is not needed. I’ve already shared that I believe whole-heartedly in salvation and punishment. I’m just going to show you something that I think has been glossed over. And I promised you at the end of the last chapter that “forever” was going to get a hard look. Here it is.
Forever Does Not Necessarily Mean Eternally
When we read verses that use the words for “forever” (either Hebrew or Greek), we should pay attention to their context and grammar. Do they really mean forever as we use the word today? Or could it be something else — something with a limit on it?
Start with the word’s ordinary range. In Exodus 21:6, a person can enter into service with a master for life. (This is not like the slavery of Africans in America in the 18th and 19th centuries — it’s an arrangement that is voluntary for the “servant”.) The verse says he “shall serve him forever.” The Hebrew word for forever is olam. It means for life, or permanently, or words to that effect. “Eternal” is not the word used in English — or it shouldn’t it be. We serve God eternally, not each other. So right away, olam can mean “as long as the arrangement lasts.”
And here is one you can check with your own eyes. Isaiah 34:9-10:
“The streams of Edom will be filled with burning pitch, and the ground will be covered with fire. This judgment on Edom will never end; the smoke of its burning will rise forever.”
Same word: olam. But you can go to that spot today — the region of Edom is in modern Jordan — and see that the smoke is gone. The judgment stands permanently; Edom never rose again. But the burning ended. Permanence of result — not endless duration.
Now the third witness, and read this one carefully, because it teaches something the other two don’t. Jonah, praying from inside the fish:
“I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever. But you, O LORD my God, snatched me from the jaws of death!” (Jonah 2:6, NLT)
Be careful what you take from this — it is easy to misread. Jonah is not saying he passed through those gates and came back out. He was sinking toward them, and God snatched him before he went all the way in; the fish was the rescue, not the prison. So this verse is not about anyone’s escape. It is about the gates themselves — and Jonah calls them gates that “lock shut forever.” That is permanence-of-place language: gates that, once shut on a man, do not reopen. And yet those gates belong to this earth — and you already know from Chapters One and Five what happens to this earth and its unseen realm: they flee from the face of Jesus and are found no more. The sea gives up its dead. So even the most absolute “forever” in the Old Testament — gates that never unlock — is bounded by the lifespan of the thing it describes. The gates are forever. The earth that holds them is not.
The Greek has the same issue. That same idiom (figure of speech) from Isaiah 34:10 is used by John in Revelation 14:11:
“The smoke of their torment will rise forever and ever, and they will have no relief day or night, for they have worshiped the beast and his statue and have accepted the mark of his name.”
That one uses what seems to be emphatic language: forever and ever. But it’s a figure of speech — the very one Isaiah used of Edom, where the smoke has demonstrably stopped. And John uses it again in Revelation 19:3: “And again their voices rang out: ‘Praise the LORD! The smoke from that city ascends forever and ever!'” (NLT)
Notice what that last verse attaches the “forever and ever” to. The smoke from that city. And that is where I’m going with this.
When God makes the Lake of Fire, it is a place where smoke rises forever. The place has smoke forever and ever. This does not automatically mean that the torment of each individual is everlasting. It means that the place is everlasting.
Why Is It Called The Second Death?
I used to think that “second death” meant a continuation of the “first death” — like the next level of the person’s condition. But we need to unpack this part too.
What is the first death anyway? That’s the one we have now in this creation. When the physical body here dies, the eternal soul separates from it and goes someplace else — the Spirit Realm. There, the soul and spirit (the spirit goes wherever the soul goes) are what we call “disembodied” — without a physical body. That’s pretty straightforward, isn’t it?
But look at what we already covered when we saw the Physical Realm and the Spirit Realm flee from the presence of Jesus on the Great White Throne (Revelation 20:11; 21:1). The first death goes away with them. Death and the grave are themselves thrown into the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:14). So the first death is just as temporary as this physical and spirit realm are.
The second death is not like that. It is permanent. The PLACE, the CONDITION, is permanent. It will never be abolished the way the first death is abolished.
So when we see a second death mentioned, we see that it is permanent and does not go away. Now, does this mean that the person in that permanent place is there permanently? Mmm, maybe. But maybe not. We are discussing the condition of the second death — the place of it. What the second death itself is.
And why is it called “second”? I think it is merely that it is the new kind — permanent, not fleeting — and comes after the first one. It is a new kind of death, different from the first. The name distinguishes the two. Make sense?
Notice that this does not agree with what is called “annihilationism”, which says a person in the second death simply ceases to exist. This is not that. So I am not being a universalist (that everyone is saved, no matter what), and I’m not being an annihilationist (who says the second death is non-existence). I’m just going with the Bible, not necessarily what others have said or taught about it. I take the Word as it comes. I’m not adding to or taking away from it.
Who Goes In — and How
You already know from Chapters Four and Five what glorification is and when it happens, so I won’t run that whole lap again. Here is the one piece of it this chapter needs.
There are two resurrections. The first is Paul’s — “Christ the firstfruits; then at His coming, those who belong to Him” (1 Corinthians 15:23, BSB) — the resurrection to glorification, where the perishable is clothed with the imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:53). That’s the saints: immortal, like the angels, neither marrying nor given in marriage (Matthew 22:30, BSB).
The second resurrection is for judgment: “The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years had ended” (Revelation 20:5). These stand before the Great White Throne, the books are opened, and anyone whose name is not found in the Book of Life is thrown into the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:12, 15).
Now here is the detail that matters for the second death. The people of the second resurrection are raised mortal — Humanity 1.0, not 2.0. We know this because the New Earth is populated by mortals: Isaiah shows them having children, building houses, growing old, and — for the cursed — dying (Isaiah 65:20-23). And what is death for a mortal on the New Earth, where the first death has been abolished? It is the second death: being cast into the Lake of Fire. And this time there is no separation. The body and the soul and spirit do not part ways like they do in the first death. The person goes in whole.
That is the second death, mechanically: whole persons, in a permanent place.
Where Is the Lake of Fire?
Now, keep your bearings, because at the judgment the scenery does something strange: it disappears. When the Great White Throne convenes, the earth and sky flee from His presence and no place is found for them (Revelation 20:11). And the New Creation has not been shown yet. We are all in limbo, including the Lake of Fire. So where is the judgment itself held? We are not told. There is no habitat left to point to. The throne, the resurrected dead of both kinds, the angels condemned and unfallen, the books, the Lake of Fire — all present, all real, and all in a setting the Word simply does not describe. Nor does scripture narrate the handoff from the old order to the new. I won’t invent a scene to fill that silence; the venue of the final judgment is a mystery, and I am content to leave it that way.
Here is what we are told. After the judgment there is a new heavens and a new earth (Revelation 21:1). And on that New Earth, the Lake of Fire turns up again — with at least a neighbor, if not an address.
Isaiah is the one who gives us the neighbor. The landmark is the New Jerusalem — the city where Jesus reigns, and where all humanity now comes to worship Him. And in describing that worship traffic, Isaiah drops a little hint that you might miss if you are not reading carefully:
“From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come to worship before Me,” says the LORD.
“As they go forth, they will see the corpses of the men who have rebelled against Me; for their worm will never die, their fire will never be quenched, and they will be a horror to all mankind.” (Isaiah 66:23-24, BSB)
Folks, this is not the heaven you have heard about — vapid, without detail, sitting on a cloud with a harp in hand. This is the New Earth, where the throne of God is located. And right outside the gates of His city, where people are coming and going, they can SEE the place of torment. Since His city is a huge cube — just like the Holy of Holies — with three gates on each side. I see the Lake of Fire as a kind of moat of lava around it. I mean, what else could it be, if everyone sees it on their way out? This is how I see it, anyway.
Is that just macabre, or is it a deterrent for mortals not to sin? I say it’s there as a deterrent. And while life on the New Earth is wonderful and great, punishment still exists for those who do wrong. It has to be that way. No one wants to live in a world where evil goes unpunished.
But how long does any one person stay in that moat? We’ve already loosened the word “forever.” Now let me tell you what I hope.
Another Hope — Similar to Chapter Five’s
In the last chapter I gave you a hope I labeled clearly: hope, not dogma — that some at the final judgment may yet repent at the very threshold of the Lake. This is that hope’s sibling, and I’ll label it the same way. I will not build dogma on it, and neither should you. But I do name it. I call it Second Death Mercy (SDM).
The hope: that for some who go into the Lake of Fire, the stay may not be endless. That it may function as a kind of prison — a terrible one — where a person learns, at last, what the alternative to their God actually is. And that maybe (just maybe), after a time known only to God (a thousand years? a million?), some will have learned it, and be restored to the society of the Nations on the New Earth.
Why do I allow myself this hope? Three reasons, all of them already on the table. First, the word: you have now seen that olam and “forever and ever” describe permanence of place — a servant’s lifetime, Edom’s ended smoke, gates whose “forever” is bounded by the earth that holds them — not necessarily endless duration for every soul. The permanence of the Lake is dogma; the endlessness of every sentence in it is interpretation. Second, the placement: God set the Lake within sight of the city gates, as a deterrent — and a deterrent teaches, and teaching implies someone who might yet learn. Third, the Judge: His judgments are always fair (Revelation 16:7). He gives people a very long time to turn — on the New Earth, only the cursed die as young as a hundred. A God that patient before the sentence is not a God I can imagine being wasteful after it.
Now see the siderails, because they matter as much as the hope. This is not universalism — faith in Jesus is the only door to sainthood, and nothing here changes that; the saints’ number was sealed before the Millennium began. This is not annihilationism — no one ceases to exist. And this is not a promise — Scripture does not state it, so neither will I. It is one man trusting that Jesus is fair, and refusing to claim more than the text gives me in either direction: neither an endlessness the words don’t require, nor a release the words don’t promise.
Two doors of the same mercy, then, from the same fair Judge: Chapter Five’s hope at the edge of the Lake, and this one beyond it. Hold both loosely. But hold them.
Is there horror? Yes. Is there still hope? Yes.
And on the New Earth itself, the life waiting on the other side of that fairness is quite nice and wonderful. I say that all people are good to each other — that the prevailing attitude of all humanity is loving and kind. There are no invisible demons making people do things they don’t want to; Satan is put away in the Lake of Fire too. And all people know their God personally. He is with them at all times and answers their prayers as they make them. Read this:
“Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth, and no one will even think about the old ones anymore. Be glad; rejoice forever in my creation! And look! I will create Jerusalem as a place of happiness. Her people will be a source of joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and delight in my people. And the sound of weeping and crying will be heard in [New Jerusalem] no more.
“No longer will babies die when only a few days old. No longer will adults die before they have lived a full life. No longer will people be considered old at one hundred! Only the cursed will die that young! In those days people will live in the houses they build and eat the fruit of their own vineyards. Unlike the past, invaders will not take their houses and confiscate their vineyards. For my people will live as long as trees, and my chosen ones will have time to enjoy their hard-won gains. They will not work in vain, and their children will not be doomed to misfortune. For they are people blessed by the Lord, and their children, too, will be blessed. I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers! The wolf and the lamb will feed together. The lion will eat hay like a cow. But the snakes will eat dust. In those days no one will be hurt or destroyed on my holy mountain [New Jerusalem]. I, the Lord, have spoken!” (Isaiah 65:17-25, NLT)
No death? In New Jerusalem. No tears or pain or worry or any of that? New Jerusalem. The guarantee of perfection is for the saints — the immortals in the New Jerusalem. The others — the Nations — still have these things. BUT at least they live on in a utopian world. No more mystery about Who God is, or what His will is, or what happens when you “die” (the second death). It is all out in the open for all to see.
The Warning
One big taunt that is used against God by mankind is this: how does a good God create or allow suffering?
That’s a valid question to ask. But it is answered in God’s Word. The truth is that He is not responsible for our suffering; we are. How can this be? It’s actually pretty simple. Read this in the Proverbs:
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12, BSB)
What is this saying? Two things, actually. It’s like a pitchfork, or a double-edged sword.
As people learn about justice and being nice to each other, they think they’ve got it all figured out. Then they learn that God has a hell and a Lake of Fire for people who do bad things. This violates their sensitivities, and they lurch and push back on it. So the first prong of the pitchfork is that those who judge the Judge by what they think is right are in for a shock. The way seems right to them to judge Him for what they don’t fully understand.
The second prong is just as devastating. It is for another group, who react differently. They say they can do all the “good” stuff and be a great person, worthy of God’s favor and grace — not realizing what grace or mercy actually are. To really grasp this, we go again to Isaiah 64:6:
“We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.” (NLT)
Did you get that? “Righteous deeds” are the very best performance, works, or goodness you have to offer — and in the eyes of the perfect God, your best is a rag fit only for discarding. You met this verse back in the DNA chapter. It has not softened since.
And so, no matter which way you go — judging God to be evil, or yourself to be good — you have missed the plot. The “right way” of either way will get you into trouble with Him Who knows your innermost thoughts, feelings, and secret sins.
Like Jesus said, it’s better not to judge at all. Because when you do, your own measure of judgment will be used on YOU. Matthew 7:1-2: “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.”
What does this mean? That you are the one who condemns yourself. And it comes through your own judging of others.
So we cannot blame God for our fate. It is all on us. How did we get into trouble in the first place? Why do sin and suffering exist? Because God is so permissive. He always (always) lets us do whatever we want. That does not mean there will be no reckoning. There will be. It will come in the time after your life is over — unless you come to Him in faith through Jesus before you die, that is. That is what the judgment is all about. But there is no judgment for those who believe and follow Christ (John 3:18).
This is significant. It means that it is not God Who puts us in chains, fire, or misery. It is us, working on our own volition and free will. WE put ourselves into hell and/or the Lake of Fire, not God. He is only doing what is good and right. And it means that sins and suffering are due to our depravity — in one way or another.
Satan put himself there. Antichrist put himself there. And YOU will put yourself there by the judging that you do (either of God or others). And you know that you judge. God knows too. He never misses a thing.
The Hope
So, my hope for you is that you will accept the sacrifice of Christ to count for you, while depending completely on that and not trying to add to or take away from it. And that all of your judging, which you do, will not count against you either. But this is not a free pass to act however you want all the time. It is just the way that you can be freed from your sin. And know that if you do not completely give yourself over to Jesus and His will for you, through having sorrow for your evil nature and deeds (by turning away from them), you have not learned a thing. You must pay attention to Him and follow His lead.
God wants a relationship with you, not your religion. He doesn’t care for religion. The only religion He instituted was the Law of Moses, which was to show us that it doesn’t work — just read Paul on that. And the only religion He accepts is caring for widows and orphans (James 1:27). If you want to approach Him with religion, He will allow it, but the payoff is far less than through faith. And you’ll be married to acting it out forever. Humanity 2.0 is going to be a lot better than Humanity 1.0.
And if you are the reader I named at the start of this chapter — the one who buried someone and was told to make peace with their endless torment — here is what I can honestly offer you. Not a promise; I don’t make promises God didn’t make. But this: the words of Scripture do not require the endlessness you were taught to picture, the Judge is fair beyond anything we can conceive, and the God who waited so patiently for you is not less patient than you are with the ones you love. Grieve with hope. It’s allowed.
So, I hope that my hope has inspired you to look more deeply into the Book of God — His written Word. And that you will give yourself over to Jesus, His Living Word.
And I highly encourage you to read the other books mentioned here. They go deeper into these things than this quick primer does. The New Earth and New Jerusalem are far more beautiful and full than what you are likely aware of. Only through my gift of knowledge have I been able to pick up on some details that are just mind-blowing.
God has a plan for us, and for you personally. Ask Him about it and He’ll lead you into it. His New Earth will be nothing short of amazing. And the New Jerusalem (heaven) is far more than anyone really knows.
Your servant in Christ,
Gary
Group Discussion and/or Personal Reflection
Questions
- In the Bible, does “forever” (olam in Hebrew) always mean eternal as we use the word today? Give an example.
- What exactly is permanent about the Lake of Fire — the place, or the length of each person’s stay in it?
- How is the second death different from the first death?
- Where is the Lake of Fire located, and who can see it?
- What is the author’s hope about the second death?
Answers
- No. Exodus 21:6 has a servant serving his master “forever” — meaning for life, not eternally. Isaiah 34:10 says Edom’s smoke rises “forever,” yet that smoke has ended. Context decides.
- The place. The Lake of Fire itself is permanent and its smoke rises forever and ever. How long any individual remains in it is up to God (after they repent).
- In the first death, the soul and spirit separate from the body and go to the Spirit Realm. In the second death there is no separation — the person goes in whole. The first death is temporary and ends with this creation; the second is the new, permanent kind.
- On the New Earth, just outside the New Jerusalem — visible to all humanity coming and going from the city (Isaiah 66:23-24). It stands as a deterrent.
- That it may not be endless for every soul. This is not universalism nor annihilationism, and it isn’t eternal conscious torment — it is trusting that Jesus is fair. That makes it a new category in theology. A fourth option.
Ponder this: God is fair. He doesn’t want anyone to suffer but we bring it on ourselves by pushing away from Him and His ways and Will. Do you think that He will really leave people to suffer torment for all eternity? I do not. And that is the greatest hope that is in me. I hope you will share it.
