‘Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.’
- Revelation 20:14-15 -
There is a preacher of old who speaks as boldly as ever. He is not popular, though the world is his parish. He travels the globe and talks in every tongue. He visits the poor and the rich; preaches to those of every faith and no faith. The subject of his sermon is always the same, and yet it brings tears to eyes that rarely weep. None can refute the preacher’s case, nor is any heart unmoved by the force of his appeals. Most people hate him. Everyone fears him. His name is Death. Every tombstone is his pulpit. Every newspaper prints his text. And some day we will all be his sermon.
Physical death awaits us all but the Bible is painfully clear that an unbridgeable void will one day separate those who love Christ from those who do not. Jesus boldly and compassionately warns how all who sneer at His sacrifice for sin “will be cast into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:12). He announces coming judgment so that all might claim Christ while there is time. The Savior’s warning is meant inspire us to preach the gospel in the hope of ‘snatching [the lost] out of the fire’ (Jude 23). Proclaiming Christ is the foremost way in which we model the grace of God to an unbelieving world, knowing He is always eager to save.
Two roads came into focus after mankind’s fall in Genesis 3. One trusts God and leads to life. The other calls God a liar and leads to death. Moses lays these two paths before rebellious Israelites set to enter Canaan, saying: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your seed” (Deut. 30:19). While Moses’ sermon offers earthly promises waiting in Canaan, he and his hearers know that God’s eternality applies His blessing and cursing to the life after this one, and the rest of Scripture agrees.
As God’s image-bearers, our souls are eternal embers that either pass into eternal life or eternal death once our flesh fails. After death, we either join the glorious source of life (God) or are necessarily cast out of His presence due to unforgiven sin. Stirred by this eternal matter, John the Baptist warns how Christ’s judgment “axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire…His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Luke 3:9,17). Therefore the clock is ticking and Scripture has given fair warning!
The term ‘unquenchable fire’ implies a constant source of fuel and an inextinguishable (eternal) pyre. This, then, is the fearsome second death that Christ and the apostles beg men to flee by repentance and faith in the only Savior. Annihilationists are appalled by this. They argue for a more ‘compassionate’ hell; one where unsaved souls are simply burned out of existence rather than condemned to eternal suffering. They support their case as Jesus Himself says: “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28). They argue ‘destroy’ means that after a vague period of time, God will say sinners have suffered long enough and wipe them from reality. But is that accurate?
Taken alone, Matthew 10:28 is a tricky verse, but true Bereans don’t let unclear passages trump the overwhelming truth of Scripture. Good theologians read Matthew 10:28 in light of 2 Thessalonians 1:9, in which Paul says: ‘These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might.’ The ‘these’ that Paul mentions are unbelievers at Christ’s second coming who immediately enter the second death in the lake of fire. Therefore Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, clarifies that Matthew 10:28 does not mean erasure from reality but endless destruction in hell, where sinners receive eternal bodies fit for eternal agony.
God’s redeemed have always clung to two truths; one in either hand. We know and trust in God’s gracious love while fearing His hatred of sin. Job lost everything and felt abandoned by the God he served. Yet in his darkest hour, Job still trusts his God enough to say: “Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall behold God, whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes will see and not another” (19:26-27). Job knows that God rules the universe in righteousness, so he trusts that the injustices of this life will be wiped out and turned to perfection by his Redeemer in heaven. The struggle of this life is real, but the prize of unshakeable faith is worth the battle.
The writer of Hebrews brings God’s wrath against sin into fearsome focus. He warns us not to harden our hearts after confessing Christ; to not forsake His grace and ‘fall into the hands of the living God’ (10:31). He reminds us that ‘it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment’ (9:27). He puts one vital question on our lips: ‘How much worse punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as defiled the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?’ (10:29). Don’t let this warning against the second death fall on dull hearts and deaf ears!
In Mark 3:28-29, Christ explains that the one unforgivable sin leading to eternal death is rejecting the Messiah by cursing the Holy Spirit who empowers Him. These blaspheme the very member of the Trinity who points sinners to their Savior (John 16:13-14). So, if we accept the second death as biblical and true, what is the flip side of the coin? Christ says this: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). False gods and false teachers offer shallow, fleeting relief to our natural concerns about life after death. Only Christ possesses the everlasting life and spiritual abundance that Moses told Israel to pursue in Canaan.
Christ’s abundant life is found in His Word, whereby you gain a heavenly perspective not ‘conformed to this world, but…transformed by the renewing of your mind’ (Rom. 12:2). This new life sets us free from ‘the error of unprincipled men’ to grow ‘in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’ (2 Pet. 3:18). All roads lead to Christ. He is the source of eternal life and the path away from eternal death. Praise be that Christ and the Father are one in nature and power, so that “just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes” (John 5:21).
This promise must never cease to amaze! Christ’s eternal power fashioned the heavens and will translate us to glory if we confess Him as Lord. Remember His promise: “He who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24). Heaven and hell, eternal life and the second death, are two sides of the same coin, but God takes no pleasure in damnation. So heed His warning to Ezekiel to “turn back and live” (18:32) that you might abide on the side that leads to life, both now and forever.
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