February 1, 2009, 1:01 pm by dc-agape.

The second death is not truly a part of hell, but that is more due to the fact that hell has been taken out of context by todays Christian (possibly from very early times).  As it turns out some of Christendom have forsaken the fiery hell for something “much more compassionate”.  But when John of Patmos wrote the Book of Revelation he used some of the common concepts (lake of fire and Hades) and he added a new one “the second death”.  It is certainly John of Patmos and not the Apostle John that wrote this Book.  It was certainly written in 95AD nearly 62 years after Jesus had died.  But what does John of Patmos mean when he speaks of the “second death”.  I will use the only four verse that use this phrase to help “flesh” out this topic.

In a letter to the Church in Smyrna, John of Patmos tells the Christians there:

Rev 2:11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.

All he does in this verse is “encourage” the Christians at Smyrna to overcome, with the fear of the “second death”.  We are never directly told what these church goers must “overcome”.  In later times it is assumed that this is overcoming of human’s (YHWH created) sinful nature.  We are also not told what the “second death” is…and it is not of Gospel tradition.  In less than 70 years the Traditions of Man have added something to the Scriptures.  Worse is that this Tradition of Man is not well documented, but must be assumed.  I guess that is why John of Patmos uses the phrase “He who has an ear”.  We must hear what the Spirit has to say.  But what happens when the Spirit does not say anything to you?

The next time John uses the phrase “second death” is after the 1000 years of peace, but before the Day of Judgment.  For more understanding of this you must read the entire 20^th chapter of Revelation.  He promises those who are:

Rev 20:4-6 I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge.  And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the Word of God.  They had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands.  They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.  (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.)  This is the first resurrection. Blesses and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection.  The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

Notice here that we will not be judged by God alone, he will have help from those who have overcome the beast.  The whole concept of Rapture is false.  If I were a Christian I would want to be the ones here on earth to be tortured by Satan.  Being one of the “left behind” would guarantee me a place in heaven, life for a thousand years, and being “priests of God and Christ”.  But anyway, these are the people who are immune to the second death.  Again, we have a promise of safety, but no actually Biblical explaination for the “second death”.

Let’s keep going maybe John of Patmos will reveal what the second death is, we still have two more verses:

Rev 20:14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.  The lake of fire is the second death.

Ah, here we have the answer the second death is being thrown into the lake of fire.  But if you have just read the entire 20^th chapter of Revelation (good for you!) you will know that this only occurs after the Day of Judgment and after the thousand years of peace!  YHWH is taking his time to get around to this prophecy, isn’t he?  Even if all the things in the Book of Revelation were to start today…we must still go through the opening of the seven Seals (Rev 6 and 8), the seven Trumpets (Rev 8 and 11), the Sun wearing Woman (Rev 12:1-6), the war in heaven (Rev 12:7-9), the Beast out of the Sea and the Beast out of the Earth (Rev 13), the Harvest, possibly the Rapture (Rev 14:14-20), the Seven Plagues (Rev 15), the Seven Bowls (Rev 16), the Whore of Babylon (Rev 17-18), and the return of Jesus to earth (Rev 19).  After all this, the first resurrection will occur.  And it is those people who are saved from the second death, the people who were alive during those events.  Everyone else is about to be judged on the Day of Judgment and risk being thrown to the second death, even those that were Harvested in Rev 14! 

We finally get to the last mention of the second death here:

Rev 21:8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.  This is the second death.

Now that’s a list of Sinners!  Cowards will experience the second death!  Anyone who is sexually immoral will experience the second death!  All liars will experience the second death!  Idolaters, like the ones who pray to the saints, will be thrown into the second death!  All the Wiccans out there will be thrown into the second death!  Boy is that “fiery lake of burning sulfur” going to be full.  Can you imagine how many souls will be there?  When you add the unbelieving, everyone that never got to hear about Jesus, everyone born in a “non-Christian” society, most of YHWH creation will be thrown into the second death.  What a loving YHWH, what a just YHWH, can you imagine a more worthy being to worship?

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February 1, 2009, 11:17 am by dc-agape.

I have included an update on my research of the topic Hell (Fiery).  This is a better explanation of the story of Lazarus and the rich man.  It was nagging at me as I went through Biblical Topic of hell, but only today did I finally realize, as I finished the Topic, what was different about this story and the rest of the Word of God.

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