HBS: The Second Death

[bcbsr]

The Second Death

Rev 21:8 "their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."

In their first death such people are sent to hell, as the rich man in Luke 16. "In hell, where he was in torment ... I am in agony in this fire." Luke 16:23,24 But hell is only a jail in comparison to the lake of fire which is a prison. For "the Lord knows how to ... hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment." 2Peter 2:9 After the final judgement, "Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death." Rev 20:14 And not only they, but "the devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." Rev 20:10

 

[BobRyan]

Luke 16 is a parable having prayers to the dead and Abraham as sovereign of all heaven -- to whom the departed spirits in hell pray. (As R.C. Sproul, Matthew Henry and many others have pointed out).

IN the parable the spirits of the saints sit in Abraham's lap and there is no appeal to God at all. (Christ tells this parable since the Jews had just rejected a string of parables he had just told - so now he gives them one they cannot resist).

Even so the parable teaches that the only way to reach the living is for the dead to first be resurrected - and it concludes with "if they do not listen to Moses - neither will they listen if one rises from the dead" and of course - Jesus would in fact rise from the dead, and still many of them would not listen.

2 Peter 2 does not say "The lord knows how to punish the wicked until the day of punishment/judgment" -- rather it says they are being held in reserve - in store, in a place of holding until the time to punish them comes.

2 Pet 2:

6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; 7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)—

9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: (KJV)

10 and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries
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Which according to Jude 1 - give us good information about eternal fire
Jude 1:

6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; 7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
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Rev 20:14 NLT - New Living Translation

14 Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death.​