Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":
The fact that we mentioned “the second death” has stirred up some interest on the Internet.
The Bible is clear that man is by nature mortal; the doctrine of the immortality of the soul has been adopted from Roman paganism; the Bible teaches a more comforting truth: death is a sleep in which we rest until the resurrection morning. When Lazarus died, the Lord Jesus said, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth” (John 11:11), “but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said His disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that He had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead” (vss. 12-14).
This comforting truth is taught throughout the Bible. The “sleep” of death is awakened by the coming of Jesus in the resurrection: “We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:15-18).
Those who have trained themselves to be unhappy in the Lord’s holy kingdom will sleep on until at the end of the 1000 years of Revelation 20. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power” (vs. 6). The fact that “God IS love [agape]” is taught throughout Scripture; He will never force people who have spent their lifetime seeking the sinful pleasures of the fallen, evil world, would be miserable to live in the New Jerusalem: the Lord will simply give them what they want—to be eternally separated from the “face” of the One who is their Savior who loved them so much that He died the second death so that they might share eternity with Him. The doctrine of the “second death” is a part of the doctrine that God IS love [agape]. Everywhere we look, that is the theme of the Bible.
When our eyes are opened and we finally comprehend this truth, His love [agape] “constrains us” to live “henceforth” unto Him who so “loved us and gave Himself for us” (2 Cor. 5:14, 15).
Maybe more tomorrow, the Lord willing.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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