Comment on What is Death

What is Death?

This is a general discussion of the issues surrounding the meaning of the word “death.” The reader should refer to Appendix 3 - Word Study on Death page 175 for a more in-depth discussion and the meaning of the various words for death.

What is death? The meaning of the word “death” is crucial, because every relevant scripture teaches that the final end of sin is death, including the words of Jesus Christ whose ministry was to save us from death,1 and Who, for that very purpose, tasted death for every man.2 Also, the words of Paul speak of death as the eternal effect of sin,3 and the description of what happens to the unredeemed in the Lake of Fire, is "the second death."4 The term "death" is used from Genesis to Revelation to describe the inevitable end of sin and there is no scripture nor any cogent argument to say that the words used for death in the Bible do not mean actual death, especially were the classic word for plain death is used on the very precipice of the lake of fire.5

The Separation from God Argument

If the word “death” means death as we know it, then the soul and resurrected body actually die in the lake of fire and the final state of the unredeemed is death rather than eternal torment. Therefore, in order to reconcile the doctrine of eternal torment to scripture, one must re-define death. The proponents of the doctrine have done exactly that; they have redefined death to mean "separation from God."

This re-definition effectively defines death out of existence and replaces it with an eternal state where one is eternally conscious of physical sensation, feeling, thought, emotion, reason, consciousness, self awareness and awareness of surroundings (vision), fear, anger and regret. This is essentially life-and precisely the opposite of death. The doctrine of eternal torment has effectively defined death out of existence in order to substantiate itself.

But redefining death is a difficult burden to carry because the classic Greek word for death ("thanatos") is quite common and none of the Greek dictionaries define it differently from what we commonly understand death to be. Greek dictionaries define death the same way we do; the word death means the same thing in biblical Greek as it means to us. Death is the total cessation of life, of sensation, of awareness and all else. There is simply no rational argument from scripture to support the belief that death in the Bible is not actual, classic, common death unless one is incorporating a doctrine that is foreign to scripture into the Bible. But death must be re-defined if the doctrine of eternal torment of the unredeemed is to have any credibility.

Those who seek to deny that death in the Bible is true death often point to the Parable of Lazarus6 as an example of death in the Bible not being true death. In that parable, Lazarus and the rich man die and go to their respective abodes in heaven and hell. There both Lazarus and the rich man are conversing, sentient people who think and feel, have emotions, memory and awareness. The rich man thirsts for water and he is tortured by the flames of hell. Neither one of them is dead as we understand death to be. This is said to illustrate the fact that death is not really death, but rather the alteration of a state of being with all the accoutrements of life surviving into the after-life.

It is certainly true that both Lazarus and the rich man were fully conscious and for all practical purposes alive after their death. However this does not mean that death is not real death, nor does it mean that their death was not as full and total as we understand death to be. They were "alive" after they died because the only thing that died was their bodies. Their bodies did not move, think, feel or talk. They were fully and completely dead, buried and decaying in the ground. What remained alive after the death of their bodies was their souls.

Their souls did not die with the bodies. The soul of Lazarus went to heaven and the soul of the rich man went to hell. That is why there are no bodies in hell; but hells's occupants are sentient and aware, tortured and emotional and wail and "gnash their teeth" in realization of what has just happened to them. They are living souls when they are thrown "into the firey furnace."7 Souls do not die in the fires of hell. They die in the second death in the lake of fire following the Great White Throne (final) judgment as described in Revelation 21:8.8

That is why the Bible describes two deaths. The first death being inevitable for everyone9 and the second being "optional," reserved for those who choose to bear their own sins rather than turn to Christ for forgiveness.

Thus, the fact that souls survive when the body does not mean that death is not death; it means that souls do not die when bodies die. But when the soul dies in the second death, it is just as dead as the body was in the first death. The same Greek word is used for both deaths.

There are, of course, different words with different nuances for death in Biblical Greek, just as there are for us today. For instance, in both Greek and in English the word “perish” means death with a certain tragic implication, but it means “death” nonetheless. Or, in English, the term “demise” generally means a peaceful death, but it means death nonetheless. In both instances, the reality of death is the same. The same is true in Greek.10 Scripture uses five different Greek words and five different Hebrew words for death. None of them ever mean torment and none of them ever mean separation from God. They all mean death. The purpose of their use in some 50 different scriptures is to herald the clarion warning of the Bible that sin causes death11 (with no mention of eternal torment).

All 10 of the words for death are used in various places to describe the eternal fate of the unredeemed.12 Therefore all 10 of these words must be re-defined in order for the doctrine of eternal torment to show that “death” in Revelation 21:8 is not really death but in fact precisely the opposite: eternal conscious sentient existence after "death." Although it is true that there is such existence after death, that fact does not change what death is. All it means is that the body has died but not the soul. Scripture recounts nothing occurring to the unredeemed after their souls die in the second death.

The re-definition of death into separation from God" or other circumventions alters every one of the words for death to mean eternal conscious sentient existence in order to accommodate the doctrine of eternal torment. However, these alterations occur only where the accurate definition would discredit the doctrine. These alterations cannot be done without significantly altering the Biblical text.

For instance one would have to argue that when Christ tells us that if anyone keeps His word he will never “see death,”13 He was not actually saying that if anyone keeps His word he will never see death. He was saying that if anyone keeps His word he will never see continued eternal sentient existence. There is no scriptural basis whatever to change the meaning of the words of Christ to anything different from their plain meaning. Christ tells us that He saves us from death and we should take Him at His word.

Or when John tells us that God “gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish…”,14 John did not mean that only those who believe in Him should not perish, because no one really perishes whether they believe in Christ or not. Those who believe in Him do not perish because they believe in the only begotten Son of God. And those who do not believe in Him do not perish either because "perish" does not really mean perish. For them, perish means that they will not perish, but instead remain effectively alive forever so that God may resurrect their bodies from the dead and burn them alive for the rest of eternity-for any sin. This is the concealed meaning of the "immortal soul." It is difficult to conceive of a more convoluted and tragic distortion of Truth. It is nothing less than a direct assault on the very character of the Creator Himself. It is a lie that has been perpetrated by the Father of Lies and it is a false doctrine that has compromised the truth and power of scripture and eviscerated inerrant doctrines such as the doctrine of substitutionary atonement.15

The Word for Death with a Nuance of Separation

One basis for the separation argument comes from the Greek word άποθνησκω (“apothnaisko”). This word is comprised of two Greek words. The word άπο (“apo”), meaning “away from” or “separation”16 and the word θνησκω (“thnaceko”) meaning death or dead.17† When placed together, the combined word apothnaceko can mean a “separating death” when used with the dative case:

For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.18

But even here, the meaning is a death that causes a separation not that death is a separation. Again, only sin can separate man from God; death cannot. No scripture says that death separates man from God; the entire Bible says that sin separates man from God.19 Death itself is nothing but the cessation of the life and redeemed men and sinless infants die just like unredeemed men. The soul of man becomes separated from God as soon as it commits a willful sin. Sin separates the soul from God, not death. This separation is called spiritual death.20

In John 6:51 Christ addresses believers. He tells them that He is the bread of heaven and those who eat of this bread will not die [άποθνησκω (apothnaisko)]. Christ was saying that those who trust in Him will not die spiritually.21 They will not die spiritually during this life and they will not die eternally in the second death.

Another use of άποθνησκω (“apothnaisko”) is found in John 4:47 where a nobleman came to Christ and asked Him to heal his son. This scripture relates that the boy was about to die [άποθνησκω (“apothnaisko”)]. That is, the father was about to “lose him.” Death was about to separate him from his father.22 But the nobleman was not asking Christ to save his son from separation; he was asking Christ to save his son from death, a death that would separate his son from him.

In John 8:51, Christ uses a different word for death. He uses θάνατος ("thanatos"), which means plain and simple death with no connotation of causing a separation. He says, "Those who keep my word will never see death." He was not referring to the first death because we all must die the death of the body, He was referring to the second death (the death of the soul), which only the unredeemed will die. There is no other death in scripture from which Christ's sacrifice delivers us. He was saying that whoever keeps His word (believes, trusts in Him) will never see the second death. And the word that He uses to describe the second death is thanatos, which is plain and ordinary death.23

Thus, the word άποθνησκω (apothnaisco) does not mean a death that is a separation; it means a death that causes a separation, and the separation that it causes is not and cannot be the separation between man and God, because death does not separate man from God (this is clear from the Parable of Lazarus). Only sin can separate man from God and only Christ can mend it.

To further clarify this truth, the Holy Spirit did not chose άποθνησκω (apothnaisco) to refer to the second death; He chose θανατος (thanatos) which means simple classic death, with no implication of separation.24 He chose θανατος (thanatos) to describe the death in the lake of fire to underscore that the second death is an actual death. It is the eternal and irreversible death of the soul.

The parable of Lazarus and the rich man uses the term άποθνησκω (“apothnaceko”) and θανατος (“thanatos”) precisely the opposite from the way the separation-from-God argument would require. This occurs in Luke 16:22.

In that verse, the word that scripture uses to describe both of their deaths is άποθνησκω (apothnaceko) and it refers to the first death. When this word is applied to Lazarus, it obviously does not mean that Lazarus was separated from God. It means that the death of Lazarus has a nuance of separation-when his body died (apothnaceko) his soul separated from his body and went to Abraham's bosom (heaven). The same word is used to describe the death of the rich man, but the rich man's soul went to hell instead. The death of the rich man did not separate his soul from God, it separated his soul from his body, just like Lazarus. The rich man had been separated from God long before he died because he was dead in his sins before he died. That is why he went to hell.

If the separation from God argument were valid, then we would have seen θανατos (thanatos) (ordinary death) used to describe the death of the rich man's body and άποθνησκω (apothnaceko) (death that causes a separation) used to describe the death of the rich man's soul. But the two words for death are reversed. Apothnaisko is used to describe the rich man's first death and thanatos (ordinary death) is used to describe the rich man's second death (Revelation 21:8).

The Unbelievers' Part in the Lake of Fire is Their Second Death

The…unbelieving…and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death25

In English the phrase "which is the second death"26 appears to be ambiguous because it can 1) refer to the "lake of fire" or 2) refer to "their part." If it refers to "lake of fire," it is saying that the lake of fire is itself the second death or the name of the lake of fire is the "second death." But if it refers to "part" then it is saying that the second death is the part that the unredeemed will have in the lake of fire.

In the original Greek, however, there is no ambiguity because in Greek, relative pronouns, such as "which," are matched with their antecedents according to gender of the antecedent noun.

In Greek, the pronoun "which" comes in three different genders (masculine, feminine and neuter). The writer chooses which one to use according to the gender of the antecedent to which the pronoun refers. That is one use of genders in Greek; so, the meaning will be clear no matter where the pronoun happens to be. It is different in English because in English the antecedent of the pronoun is determined by its proximity of the pronoun, so the pronoun or the pronoun phrase can be just anywhere.

In this passage (Revelation 21:8), the gender of the pronoun ("which") is neuter. This indicates that "which" refers to a neuter noun. That is, the author wrote "which" in the neuter form because he is indicating that "which" refers to a neuter noun. There are only two nouns to which "which" could refer. One noun is "part" and the other is "lake." "Lake" is a feminine noun, so "which" written in the neuter form does not refer to lake. However, "part" is neuter, so "which" refers to "part." We therefore read the sentence to say that the part that the unredeemed have in the lake of fire is the second death.27

But why is it necessary to say that the part of the unredeemed in the lake of fire is the second death? Is there more than one part of the lake of fire? Yes. There is Satan's part, which is eternal torment, and there is the unbelievers' part, which is the second death.

The second death is the final judgment, the conclusion of all the Biblical warnings that have echoed repeatedly through the centuries: sin kills. It is the culmination and the end of the sin of man. But Satan, the Antichrist and the false prophet have no part in it. They die neither the first death nor the second. And they are never judged. They are thrown summarily into the lake of fire without judgment and will remain there alive for the rest of time. Such is the depth of their sin.

Thus, by saying that the part of the unbelievers in the lake of fire is the second death, scripture is differentiating between Satan's part and the unbelievers' part.

Satan's part is to be tormented forever:

And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.28

The unbelievers' part is death:

But for the…unbelieving…their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

This understanding coincides perfectly with the words of Christ when He tells us that he saves us from death:

…if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.29

And with John when he tells us that Christ saves us from perishing (a violent death):

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.30

All of the scriptures that specifically refer to the final end of unredeemed souls say that their end is death. Perhaps the most direct of them all are the words of the prophet Ezekiel:

Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.31

There are simply no clearer words that the prophet could have spoken to better convey that the soul that sins will die. And what clearer words could Christ have used than to say "those who keep my saying will never see death"?32 His reference to actual death, the second death, is obvious.

Since none of the eternal torment scriptures even mention eternal torment (although some are broad enough to include it), the entire eternal torment argument rests upon a re-definition of death. This is especially true for Revelation 21:8 because in this verse, the unredeemed have already been judged and are about to be cast into the lake of fire where their part will be ό θάνατος ό δεύτερος, literally "death, the second."

The Resurrection to Judgment

God will resurrect all of the dead, some to a resurrection of life and some to a resurrection for judgment.33 The souls of all the departed continue to exist after the death of the body prior to the judgment,34 so when the bodies of the unredeemed are resurrected for the purpose of judgment, their souls will be united with their bodies once more for the purpose of judgment. Scripture does not state what occurs between the resurrection of judgment and the judgment itself. We know only that all of those whose names were not written in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire,35 which is the second time that they will have died, hence the "second death."36

Thus, there are two resurrections. One is for the redeemed in Christ and the other for the unredeemed. First Corinthians 15:52-54 teaches that when the bodies of the redeemed are resurrected, their mortal bodies will "put on immortality.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory.'37

It is, of course necessary that the resurrected bodies of the redeemed "put on immortality" because if they did not then their resurrected body would be mortal and subject to decay and death. However, only the redeemed are given immortal bodies and "the dead will be raised imperishable."38†. They are given a resurrection of life but the unredeemed will have a resurrection for judgment.39 The unredeemed are not given immortal bodies because they have not been given eternal life. Hence, they will die. When will they die? They will die in the second death. That is the reason it is called the second death.

Death is what happens to the unredeemed soul and resurrected body of every one of the unredeemed; death is the ultimate wage, of sin.40 All of the scriptures that warn that sin causes death41 are inextricably bound to the classic words for death, which are θανατος (thanatos) in the New Testament and חומ in the Old Testament. The same words are used to describe both the death of the body and the death of the soul and thanatos (θανατος) is same word used to describe the death of the body in the first death and the death of the soul and resurrected body in the second death. There is simply no reason why it should mean ordinary death in the first instance but eternal conscious sentient existence in the second instance.

Other Arguments to Redefine "Death"

The Partition Argument

One argument for eternal torment relates to that portion of Revelation 21:842 which states that the unredeemed will have their “part” in the lake of fire, “which is the second death.” This argument attempts to circumvent the death problem by arguing that the "part" of the unredeemed in the lake of fire refers to a geographical region of the lake of fire where the unredeemed will confined for eternity. This is somewhat like a survey of a plot of land in the County Deed Records. This argument is not cogent because there is absolutely no scriptural basis for geographical divisions in the lake of fire. The argument is made for the sole purpose of making the doctrine of eternal torment fit with scripture at the expense of the scriptural doctrine of the second death.

Insufficient Punishment

Some argue that the death of the unredeemed is not a punishment but a release. On closer look, however, it would appear that being thrown into a lake of fire to one's eternal death would certainly be something more than a "release."

First of all, death is unquestionably a punishment. Scripture after scripture states and restates again and again that death is not only a punishment but the ultimate punishment for sin. The fact sin causes death is perhaps the most consistently reiterated doctrine in all of scripture.43 To name but a few:

Therefore just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned44

For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.45

… sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.46

The wages of sin is death.47

He who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death.48

The Lord…is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.49†

... they which commit such things are worthy of death.50

The soul that sinneth, it shall die.51†

Death is certainly a punishment and the argument that death is not a punishment is not scriptural.

Secondly, the second death is preceded by lengthy suffering in hell, which includes, but is not limited to, torment,52 being confined to outer darkness53 or weeping and gnashing of teeth for the pain of knowing what one will have missed.54 So there is definitely punishment in hell preceding the final judgment that will be different for each life. This punishment is in addition to the eternal death in the lake of fire that follows the final judgment. There is an entire millennium between the second coming of Christ and the final judgment-plenty of time for justice to be done.55

And thirdly, the argument that eternal death is not a sufficient punishment is an argument based upon the subjective human opinion of how much punishment is appropriate. What punishment is sufficient and what punishment is not sufficient is a judgment call for God alone, not us.

Loss of Meaning by Analogy

Another form of the separation-from-God argument is this: Since the word for life never means mere existence, then death, being the opposite of life, cannot mean non-existence. Death in the Bible must therefore mean separation from God and be an eternal state of "un-dead" as advocated by the doctrine of eternal torment. This argument is meritless because one cannot show that the word for death does not really mean death simply because life means something other than mere existence.

The parable of Lazarus describes the torment of the rich man’s soul in hell. Scripture uses the Greek word for torment: βασάνοις (“basinois”) to say that he was tormented. This is the same word that is used to describe the torment of Satan, except it is not matched with the word for "eternally."56 Sinners are tormented in hell but they are not tormented eternally. The word "torment " in any of its forms is never used to describe what happens to the unredeemed in the lake of fire. Scripture uses a different word to describe what happens to the unredeemed in the lake of fire and that word is ordinary death: θανατος (“thanatos”).57 On the other hand, scripture uses βασάνοις ("torment") to describe what happens to the un-holy trinity in the lake of fire, not θανατος (“thanatos”). The part that Satan will have in the lake of fire is eternal torment. Whereas the part that the unredeemed in the lake of fire is the second death:

"[The] unbelieving…their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."58

Summation

If scripture had intended to say that the unredeemed would be tormented in the lake of fire after the final judgment, it would have used the word for torment rather than the word for ordinary death. As mentioned repeatedly, scripture invariably uses a word for death to define the final state of the unredeemed. And there is no scripture that teaches that when the soul dies in the second death it is not just as dead as the body was after the first death. The only time the soul is tormented is after the first death and before the second death.

If God had intended to burn the major part of humanity alive for the rest of eternity as a result of their sin, why does He repeatedly warn us that sin causes death59 and never mentions eternal torment for the unredeemed? When will the condemned learn that they are facing an eternity alive in flames? When they are standing on the brink of the lake of fire will He inform them then? Will He say, "You know all those warnings in the Bible that sin causes death? They weren't really warnings of death. What I am really going to do is precisely the opposite. I am really going to make you live forever and then I am going to burn you alive for the rest of eternity."

Those are the words that the doctrine of eternal torment effectively places into the mouth of God. What imponderable blasphemy is this doctrine!

It is false doctrine. Scripture has been warning us of death and only death for millenniums. In the end the unredeemed will get exactly what most of them expect: eternal death.60

The argument that no one ever really dies is perhaps the most tragic part of the error of eternal torment because it deprives the dying Christian of one of the greatest comforts of scripture and does so at the time when he needs it most.

Instead of telling the dying Christian that there are two deaths but he will die only one of them, that pernicious doctrine comforts him with a myth by telling him that no one ever really dies because death in the Bible is only separation from God and believers will never be separated from God-when everybody knows (especially the dying) that people certainly do die.61

The doctrine of the second death, however, is significantly comforting because it is true. It says, "There are two actual deaths. The first death is when the body dies and the second death is when the soul dies. Christ has saved your soul from the second death and has given you (your soul) eternal life. Later He will give you a new body as well. So take comfort, you will die only one of these deaths. Your body will die as all bodies do, but you, the real you, will never die. That is what Christ meant when He said, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies."62

There is significant comfort in this truth because 1) it is scriptural and therefore inherently credible; 2) it echoes the words of Christ that we will never die (the second death); and 3) it squares with observable reality.

There is great comfort in scripture when it is permitted to speak its words without alterations by men.

Romans 6:23 does not say that “The wages of sin is separation" or "the wages of sin is eternal torment;” it says that the wages of sin is death and the word used means ordinary death. John 3:16 does not say that whoever believes in Him shall never be separated; it says that whosoever believes in Him shall never perish (die). The Greek phrase used in this verse may be translated literally as "…shall not perish forever [permanently]."63

It is impossible to transform the word “death” into “eternal torment” because eternal torment is precisely the opposite of death. One cannot die and remain in an eternal state of conscious sentient existence. That is simply not what death is. And there is no basis whatever to redefine thanatos to mean ordinary death in one place and eternal conscious existence in another.

Like the gears in a watch, scripture fits precisely. Except with scripture, one gear is in one century and its compliment may be a millennium later-and turning with a harmony resonates centuries later. This magnificent arrangement and order excludes the possibility that man has manufactured this masterpiece of interwoven Truth. It is inspired by the Creator to the very word. It needs no apology and it means exactly what it says and what it says in this instance is that "the soul that sins shall die."64 And if we do not read that scripture for exactly what it says, it is we who are unfaithful, not scripture.

Ultimately, both sides of the argument must look to the word used in Ezekiel and the word used when the unredeemed stand on the very precipice of the lake of fire in Revelation 21:8. Those words (Hebrew and Greek) both mean ordinary death. Unless the doctrine of eternal torment can somehow redefine these words-as well as all the other applicable Greek and Hebrew words for death-then the doctrine of eternal torment is clearly error. To read those words and then preach that there is, in fact, no actual second death is to add to the words of the book.65

The belief that death is not really death but separation from God is somewhat equivalent to the belief that communion wine is not really wine but blood, even though it tastes exactly like Cabernet.

Both of those beliefs were created for the purpose of harmonizing scripture with an erroneous doctrine. But they do not create harmony. They create disharmony.66 They compromise the integrity of scripture and destroy faith. In this instance, this error has the God all justice and all love resurrecting the dead for the sole purpose of burning them alive forever and inflicting on them the same punishment as Satan itself-the true origin of this abominable doctrine.

2