“But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.” (Prov. 8:36)
“And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” (John 10:28)
We know that every soul that has ever been created will exist forever, but there is a distinction made in not only these two verses but also in many others that speak of the quality, if you will, of that eternal existence.
Those who will reside in the Kingdom of the Most High throughout all of eternity are given eternal life, those in hell and eventually the Lake of Fire, eternal death, yet those in hell in the best terminology that our finite minds can manufacture are still alive, just as we in heaven will be. They will know eternal torment while we will experience eternal rest, they will have pain, we will have pleasures forevermore.
As I have stated in the past, I believe there is a semblance of hope within those in hell, false hope, but hope nonetheless, for the Scriptures are clear in this matter. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.” (Rev. 2:11) They died in the flesh and opened their eyes a few moments later in hell.
But they must die again.
What type of body they have is clearly seen in the account of the rich man and Lazarus, they thirst, they feel heat, they have emotions, needs and wants, and so they must possess some type of physical form. But they also still have desires, although unmet. The second death may not remove those desires, but may in fact intensify them, and with it give them the unmitigated knowledge that all hope is gone.
As we will exist throughout all eternity, so shall they.
This short letter is meant to help us understand the difference between those two states, eternal life and eternal death. Much conjecture has been attempted over the course of mankind’s existence here on this planet of both heaven and hell, few about the Lake of Fire though. Perhaps because it infers just that, the sure knowledge that all hope is gone forever, and mankind cannot fathom that thought, the pain of its truth is unbearable. The closest we can come to it is in the mind of the one who commits suicide, nothing whatsoever left to live for, but those in the Lake of fire will know that emptiness of hope that we dare not contemplate for all of time.
I do not know how to phrase this properly, and I do not want it to be misinterpreted, but hell may be in some sort the final blessing upon the lost souls who would not repent, for what awaits them after the Great White Throne of Judgment is beyond our imagination to understand. Complete and total hopelessness, the knowledge, the fact that the Almighty will never hear one word they say, that not one plea will be listened to, that the pain they are in will be with them throughout all of time, it will never abate, it will never stop.
There may be hope in the minds of those in hell, there will be none for them in the Lake of Fire.
The second death is eternal death.
Those who have been born-again will never know the wrath of God, but the Lord Jesus Christ did, and He did so for you. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34) That was His moment of hopelessness, that was His moment of the knowledge that because of our sins, God had forsaken Him.
“But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:” (2 Tim. 1:10)
You will never know that hopelessness, give God the glory for that, but I ask that you would occasionally attempt to contemplate it deeply, and when you come back from that deep contemplation, when you wipe the tears from your face and take a deep breath, you will understand a little better that price that was paid for you, and your fear of witnessing to others about the One who paid that price for you will lesson just a little more.
