CONFUSING CONCEPTS
The following four scriptures are confusing because they refer to a second death but do not explain the first death.

STUDY TIP: See Death, Resurrection and New Life for understanding of the first death.

Here are scriptures that introduce the concept of a second death:

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

COMMENTARY: Looking at the meaning of hurt in the original Greek, we see that it does not correlate well with our common understanding of death. Rather, hurt could also translated as wronged, injured, or treated unjustly. These interpretations are not as serious as actions such as “killed” or “murdered” which we might more logically connect with death of the physical body. Thus we conclude that “death” here does not refer to physical death.

The reason for this disconnect is that death in the Bible is not about termination of the physical life of the body. Rather, Biblical references to death are to loss of spiritual life — not physical life. Death, therefore, is the word that God uses to symbolically represent the condition of people who do not have spiritual life.

Spiritual life is the kind of life that is available only to people who eat good spiritual food. They are spiritually alive. This condition describes New Covenant disciples who have God’s laws written on their hearts because they listen to God’s voice.

People who eat only evil spiritual food are spiritually dead. This condition describes Old/First Covenant religionists. They are spiritually dead because they do not eat good spiritual food. They obey religious laws instead of God’s spiritual laws. Instead of listening to God’s voice which gives them spiritual life, they eat the food of idols (i.e. false prophets), which is evil, soulish food, and die spiritually.

In summary, spiritual life exists in people who listen to God’s voice and spiritual death exists in people who listen to the voices of idols and false prophets (i.e. religious leaders).

Revelation 20:6: Blessed and holy are those who share 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.

COMMENTARY: “Blessed” is a code word that describes the condition of New Covenant disciples. They are blessed because they were resurrected from the virtual death they experienced while in bondage to religion (i.e. the first death.)

STUDY TIP: See Death to Religion and Resurrection to New Life.

They are also blessed because they will escape the  virtual death and persecution (i.e. second death) they will experience as warrior/messiahs engaged in the power struggle with religious kingdoms that resist their efforts to set people free from religion.

STUDY TIP: See Religion is the Enemy and Gods at War for more about the struggle that New Covenant disciples will have with religious institutions.

Revelation 20:14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

COMMENTARY: Death and hades are symbolic terms for religious kingdoms. The lake of fire is symbolic language for the destruction that God will impose on religious kingdoms when he tears them down to make way for advancement of the Kingdom of God (i.e. New Covenant.)

Warrior/messiahs are the messengers through whom God rains refining fire (i.e. God’s word) on religious people. Fire is an appropriate symbolism for God’s word because God’s spoken word has the power to burn up (i.e. destroy, consume) religion. We conclude, therefore, that the second death is the ministry of warrior/messiahs who are symbolically represented as the lake of fire that consumes religion. This imagery is reflected in tongues of fire and lightning.

Revelation 21:8 “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

COMMENTARY: See commentary above.

Thinking in literal terms, it is impossible to make any sense out of these verses about death because we cannot comprehend dying more than once. They are especially troubling for religions that embrace a doctrine of “eternal life“. Therefore, to make any sense of these scriptures, they must be interpreted symbolically — not literally. God’s focus is always on spiritual life and death and not on physical life and death.

Spiritual death has two meanings:

These two kinds of death are the “first death.” God also uses  tribulation to describe this kind of death. It is what some religious people call the pre-rapture tribulation. It is not an easy decision to die to (i.e. give up, sacrifice) these elemental features of life, but it a decision that must be made in order to find spiritual life in God’s spoken word.

Making the decision to terminate our religious life in all of its aspects is the essence of dying to self. But, making this choice is also absolutely necessary to having eternal life. It is impossible to have a religious life and eternal life. No man can serve two masters. Either you serve yourself as the master of your religious life, or you serve God as the master of your spiritual life. You can’t have it both ways.

STUDY TIP: See End Times, Rapture and Tribulation.

The active agent that brings death to the practice of religion is God’s voice.

STUDY TIP: See GOD’S SPOKEN WORD HAS POWER.