What does The Second Death mean?

Neonap

Well-Known Member
I am intrigued to hear your answers on this because many annihilations use this term to imply permanent death or annihilation. They also love to use Matthew 10:28 as evidence that God will destroy those who end up in Hell AKA The Lake Of Fire. The Word destroy in that verse seems to mean "ruin" not ceasing to exist.

My personal opinion is that the second death which is the Lake Of Fire is not being destroyed forever but being separated from God for all Eternity. When you look and study the Scriptures carefully, you come to find out that those who have not believed and not placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ are referred to as "Dead" though they are alive.
Check these verses out.

Matthew 8: 21-22

21 Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”

22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

Ephesians 2: 1-2

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience

Colossians 2:13
13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,

Ephesians 2:5
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),


It appears as though these verses are implying that even though a person may be alive, if they do not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior they are spiritually dead. Disconnected from God.

If they die in this state then they will not only die once but twice when the unbelieving dead will be resurrected with their indestructible bodies to spend eternity separated from God forever in the Lake of Fire. The damned are alive but they have died a second time, spiritually and physically lost in Hell for all Eternity.

John 17:3

3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

What do you guys think?
 

Chris

Administrator
Staff member
I think Jack Kelley summed it up nicely here:

Our first birth made us a child of our earthly parents, but our second birth makes us a child of God. It’s our second birth that qualifies us for entry into the Kingdom of God, for without it no one can enter therein (John 3:3). In John 3:6 Jesus said flesh gives birth to flesh (first birth) but the Spirit gives birth to spirit (second birth).

These verses tell us our second birth takes place when we receive Jesus and believe in His name. Receiving Him means taking Him to ourselves or making Him our own, and believing in His name means believing Jesus is the one through whom God brought our salvation. In Hebrew, the name of Jesus is Yeshua, a contraction of the phrase that means “God is salvation”. His name explains what He has done, so by believing in His name we are believing in what He has done for us.

To summarize, if we’re only born once we’ll die twice, but if we’re born twice we’ll only die once. (Some of us won’t die at all, but that’s a topic for another discussion.)


and...

The point of this introduction is is to show that we all sin (Romans 3:23), sin brings death (Romans 6:23), and the only remedy for our sins is the shedding of innocent blood (Hebrews 9:22).

Well, you say, I’m going to die anyway so what’s the big deal? The big deal is that it’s not our physical death we’re talking about. It’s our spiritual death. Each of us is made up of three parts; body, soul and spirit. Physical death is the death of our body and happens to everyone. But that’s not the end of us, because our spirit and soul exist forever. Spiritual death is the penalty we all have to pay for our sins. This penalty comes due and has to be paid when our body dies.


and...

The Bible speaks of two deaths where humanity is concerned. The first is the physical death, which is the death of our body, and the second is the spiritual death, which is eternal separation from God. Becoming born again does not protect us from physical death, but does protect us from spiritual death.

In Romans 8:5 Paul said those who live according to the sin nature (flesh) have their minds set on what the sin nature desires, while those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. Notice it doesn’t say those who live according to the Spirit no longer sin. It says our intention is to do what the Spirit desires. That means even though we often fail, our intention is to please Him.

James 1:15 says when sin is matured it brings forth death. Since we all have a sin nature, we all sin. Unbelievers have no choice but to go the way of their sin nature, and their sins will mature to bring forth death. But believers have the Holy Spirit who was given to us as a deposit guaranteeing our salvation (Ephes. 1:13-14). Our sins cannot mature to bring forth death because we’ve been forgiven for all of them and have eternal life.


and...

The Bible says we are all sinners (Romans 3:23). This means we’ve repeatedly violated God’s Law. How we got into this situation is a long story but the end result is that our sins have gotten us into big trouble with God. In fact the Bible says our sins are punishable by death (Romans 6:23). Being saved means to be rescued from the death penalty due us for the sins we’ve committed.

The Bible mentions two births and two deaths. The first birth and the first death are physical and relate to our physical body, which usually wears out and ceases to work after 70 or 80 years. The second birth and the second death are spiritual, and relate to our soul and spirit, which live forever.

Salvation was not intended to save people from their physical death, but from their spiritual death, which the Bible defines as being consigned to a lake of fire to be tormented forever. In Rev. 20:14 and Rev. 21:8 this lake of fire is called the second death. So in the most literal sense being saved means escaping the second death.


https://gracethrufaith.com/topical-...ity/what-does-the-bible-say-part-2-salvation/

https://gracethrufaith.com/ask-a-bible-teacher/spiritual-death/
 

Tall Timbers

Imperfect but forgiven
My personal opinion is that the second death which is the Lake Of Fire is not being destroyed forever but being separated from God for all Eternity. When you look and study the Scriptures carefully, you come to find out that those who have not believed and not placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ are referred to as "Dead" though they are alive.

I agree with the quoted.
 
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