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Comment on the Death of Death and the Death of Hell

Scripture describes two places for unredeemed souls whose bodies have died. One is hell1 and the other is the lake of fire.2 Hell is where the souls of the dead are held and punished3 until they are judged.4

Both the souls of the saved and the souls of the unsaved will be resurrected. The first resurrection will be that of the redeemed.5 The second resurrection will be that of the unredeemed and that resurrection will be for the purpose of judgment6 and it will be followed by the second death, which is the death-penalty for sin.7† The first resurrection occurs after a 1000 year period.8† The second resurrection some time after. Therefore, the final judgment will occur after the millennium.

Following the final judgment of the unredeemed both hell and death are cast into the lake of fire.9 After death is cast into the lake of fire, it is effectively annihilated. We know this because afterwards it no longer exists.10 God annihilates death because He is creating new heavens and a new earth where there is no more death.11

Scripture does not say what happens to hell when hell is cast into the lake of fire. It would have to be either annihilated or remain. But all of the human occupants of hell will have been cast out of hell and into the lake of fire which is the second death.12

Another reading is that the unredeemed occupants of hell and hell itself are cast into the lake of fire together, but hell is never annihilated. If that occurs, then hell would be preserved, but it would remain filled with the corpses of the unredeemed who died in the second death. This would be the literal fulfillment of Isaiah 66:23,24:

All mankind will come to bow down before Me, says the Lord. Then they shall go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm shall not die, and the fire shall not be quenched; and they shall be an abhorrence to all mankind.13

This concept is indicated in Matthew 10:28:

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.

This scripture tells us that it is in hell that God kills the soul. But Revelation 21:8 tells us that the part that the unredeemed will have in the lake of fire is the second death. Both are true. Hell itself is cast into the lake of fire with all of its occupants who then die in the second death. If this is the case, then death, hell and the occupants of hell will be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death.14

With either reading, death is the ultimate end for the unredeemed, not eternal torment.

The Greek word that is translated "death" in all translations of this passage is the same word that is used to describe the second death in Revelation 21:815 and it is the same word that means death plain and simple throughout the Bible. There is no reason to re-define it to mean separation from God.

"And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death…"16

"…they shall condemn Him to death…"17

"Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death."18

"I have found no cause of death in Him…"19

"…signifying what death he should die…"20

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor power , nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."21†

"O, death, where is thy sting?"22

"No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. I will therefore chastise him and release him."23

"…the second death…"24

All of the above translations of death are the same word, θάνατοϛ ("thanatos") which means death plain and simple.25 The prophecy of the death of death is an echo of Isaiah's prophecy some 800 years before:

He will destroy death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face and remove His people's disgrace from the whole earth, for the LORD has spoken.26

The entire argument for the eternal torment of the unredeemed rests upon the belief that death does not actually mean death. Instead, the death of the unredeemed is said to mean either separation from God or some other eternal state of existence that will enable the unredeemed to be eternally conscious and able to feel pain forever.

But in Revelation 21:4 we have the very clear statement that "there shall be no more death." If death is indeed a state of existence where the unredeemed are tortured forever and there is no more death,27 then the theoretical eternal state of non-death proposed by the doctrine of eternal torment will cease as well.

So where is the argument for eternal torment when the eternal state of non-death no longer exists? The answer is that there is no eternal state of non-death in the first place. Death is not a state of existence. Death is the end of a state of existence; it is the cessation of life and therefore the cessation of existence. The meaning of the word death does not change simply because it is used in scripture.

The same concept applies to the un-holy trinity because 1) they never die the first death28† and 2) they are not part of the second death.29† Thanatos is used to describe the eternal state of the unredeemed; it is never used to describe the eternal state of Satan and the un-holy trinity. There is no state of un-dead for the un-holy trinity. They are alive in the lake of fire forever.

In summation, the souls of the unredeemed in hell are not dead before the final judgment. They are souls whose bodies have died and are just as alive as they ever were. That is the reason that they can experience hell. But that does not mean that they cannot die. It is certainly true that they live after the body dies, but the souls of the unredeemed have not been given eternal life, so they have to die and they die in the second death. That is the reason why the second death is called the second death. And that is the reason why every scripture in the Bible that refers to the consequence of sin calls that consequence "death" in one manner or another.30

Scripture tells us that there is a first thanatos (plain death) and a second thanatos (plain death)31, and that the second thanatos is the consequence of sin.32 Christ tells us that it is thanatos (plain death) from which He saves us.33 He therefore saves our souls from thanatos (plain death)-the second thanatos (plain death). He never mentions eternal torment.

One of the primary goals of Satan is to assault the integrity and the inerrency of scripture. The teaching that God will burn everyone alive for the rest of eternity except for Christians is one of the most effective weapons that Satan ever devised. It contradicts all the scriptures that tell of God's justice; it renders the doctrine of predestination to be irreconcilable34 and it eviscerates the doctrine of substitutionary atonement.35

It compromises the authority and inerrency of scripture and launches a direct assault upon the cross itself. Rarely, in the history of the church, has a more pernicious tool ever been so effectively employed.

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