One Death Or Two?

One Death Or Two?
 

I have been conversing with an unusual Jehovah witness who doesn't act anything like the ones here in the U.S., and one thing unusual about him is that he doesn't go away like the others when you tell them what church you belong to. Even stranger, he made wrong assumptions what we talk about, and seemed very determined to control the conversation, and didn't want to talk about commonly known false doctrine of their church, and even when you talk to him pointedly about it, he refused to answer, but rather wanted to be accusatory of what I believed rather than face the facts of his church's doctrine. He was obsessed with talking about hell fire, which he thought we constantly talk about (which we don't), and he was also obsessed with talking about burning in hell, and burning in torment for all eternity, and apparently thinking his doctrine controls what our God does and will do. I have called this putting our God in a box, and it's not a new concept. There are many people who want to believe God works under the rules they give Him, not the rules He gives us. I also noted to myself he never once mentioned Jesus, although I often did. As a matter of fact, he would not touch it when I asked him if he knew that Jesus was the full embodiment of Jehovah, according to Col. 2:8 - 9, but he referred to what I was saying as a human philosophy! So much for Jehovah witnesses, who don't believe in the divinity of Jesus, apparently. In any case, he was quite insistant that I answer the question, "Will God give eternal life to sinners too for the pleasure of torturing them for eternity?" He wanted a yes or no answer, and the answer is actually yes and no.

There are two kinds of sinners, and all of mankind, save Jesus Christ, has been and still is a sinner, but some of us are saved by grace, and many are not We who have accepted Christ as our personal Savior and have repented our wicked ways and have taken on the yoke of Christ and are constantly reading the Bible to hone our Christian walk and ambassadorship, though we are sinners, we will have eternal life - "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Rom. 8:1-2) Herein is an answer regarding some sinners, those who have accepted Christ. They will not be condemned, therefore, they will have eternal life in heaven, and their judgment will be concerning their works in this way; "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." (1 Cor. 3:11 - 15)

Now everyone knowing true Christian doctrine knows that we will die and go to judgment one way or the other. "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:" (Heb. 9:27), but Jehovah witnesses think you just wait somewhere and know nothing until judgment day. In this scripture, it is explained that you are judged after you pass from this life! Jesus told the saved criminal, "And Jesus said unto him, 'Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.'" (Luke 23:43) So this sinner and criminal hanging on the cross next to Jesus on His cross was guaranteed eternal life in paradise, which we all know is heaven. The criminal died, and went to heaven. He did not wait, or Jesus would have said so. Since this was a criminal, and apparently sinned a lot, this also destroys the concept of a "purgatory", which appears nowhere in the Bible.

Okay, now one of the Jehovah witness' greatest concerns was about whether our God would be so cruel as to make someone burn in hell and the lake of fire for all eternity. This is where he wants desperately for God to fit into his box, his set of concepts concerning God. When we were young, we had to fit into our parents' set of rules. We couldn't make our parents' rules bend to our will, nor can we make our God's rules bend to what we want them to say or mean. Let's look into this great concern he had in the second death.

"Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev. 20:6 - 15) Sorry for the length, but this much Scripture was necessary for points to be made. The Bible makes it very clear; the lake of fire is for torment day and night forever and ever. The sinners who were saved by accepting Christ as their Savior, who resisted taking the mark of the beast, these who took part in the first resurrection will not see the second death, as it is written in Rev. 20:6; however, in the next chapter of Revelation it is written; "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." (Rev. 21:8)

Now he was really concerned about this second death, and denied that God would be so cruel as to torment anyone in hell and the lake of fire forever. Called our God insane because of it, even! And he kept asking if God would give eternal life to sinners for the pleasure of torturing them for all eternity. Our God did not want for us to be tortured for all eternity, that is why He sent Jesus to pay our sin debt, that we should not have to be in eternal punishment. God does not take pleasure in torturing us, our God is a loving God, who spared not His Son, that we should hope on Him for eternal life in heaven. Whoseover rejects Jesus as Savior and Redeemer, whosover will not repent and take up their cross and follow Christ, whosoever will not be His bondservant, these rebels put THEMSELVES into condemnation of hell and the lake of fire, not God. God put His rules in this Bible so that it would be plain to us how to receive eternal life in heaven after our first death on earth. If we reject it, by His rules, which we have, then He punishes us, and if we expire and with our last breath we have rejected Christ, then we have put ourselves in eternal punishment, not that God wanted us to be there, not that He likes that idea, else He would not have sent His Son to be sacrificed to pay our sin debt. We cannot put God in our box with a set of rules that appeal to us. It's the same as our parents; they gave us rules, and if we did not abide by them, we were punished according to their rules. God will punish us by His rules, and there is no Jehovah witness who can change the rules by twisting the Scriptures to mean what they want them to mean and have God go along with it. We couldn't make our parents change their disiplinary rulings, how can we fool ourselves to believe we can change what God has put forth?

"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matt. 10:28) Now here is a place where interpretation is very necessary. "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." (Matt. 25:46) Does not everlasting punishment mean punished forever? "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." (Dan. 12:2) "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." (John 5:28 - 29) I hope he reads this and understands, and that this answers what he thinks is a yes/no question.

Let me put this out there; I told him that Jesus was the full embodiment of Jehovah, so his church should be called Jesus witnesses, not Jehovah witnesses, because it is written, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." (Col. 2:8 - 9) If the Jehovah witness cannot accept Christ as Savior and Redeemer, and refuses to believe in the deity and divinity of Jesus, then his rejection of Christ will put him in that lake of fire where the second death is. Pray for all who reject Jesus to this end, they are blind to Christ's saving grace as their Savior!