You asked for my thoughts on "the second death," which the book of Revelations also calls "the lake of fire." I have written somewhat on this subject in the book "God's Plan of the Ages." There is a chapter titled "Hell, and the Lake of Fire." You can find it at the following link.

http://www.heart4god.ws/id317.htm

If you have further questions, or comments on this subject, please contact me via e-mail. I try to use the comment feature of the blog sparingly for a number of reasons.

The comment feature is not ideally suited for lengthy discussions.

Also, I have concerns about public discussion forums, and I continue to seek to keep the comment field from evolving into a such a forum.

I appreciate your understanding of these concerns.

May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days.

I agree with your statements about the need to die to the soulish life resident within us. My objection to your statements in the first post were merely those of terminology. The Bible never calls this death to the soul "the second death" as this is a term reserved for the Lake of Fire in the book of Revelation.

I always desire to avoid confusion in my teaching, and to use language that is consistent with that found in the Bible. When Christ spoke of "hating our soul" and bringing it to a state of death where it is not ruling our being, He referred to this process as "taking up your cross." Paul further taught on this principle when he said, "present yourselves a living sacrifice."

These are images and expressions I use very often in my teachings when speaking of the call of all Christians "to die before you die." I believe calling this experience "the second death" to differentiate it from the death of the natural body can lead to confusion. I expressed this in my previous reply to you as I cited Scriptures that made reference to "the second death" inferring that it is something one should desire to avoid.

May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days.

I appreciate your well wishes for a speedy recovery. The Father is showing me much grace throughout the healing process.

Regarding the "second death." I believe I understand in principle what you are seeking to convey with your statement that all men must undergo the second death. It is true that we must all die to the Adamic life if we are to enter into resurrection life in Christ.

However, this dying to our natural life is not what the Bible refers to when it uses the term "second death" in the book of Revelation. We are also told that it is desirable to NOT be cast into the Lake of Fire which is the second death.

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

Revelation 20:6
Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.

Revelation 20:14-15
And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death , the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Employing the expression "second death" as John did in these verses, we see that it is NOT Yahweh's will that His sons experience the second death. Those who walk as overcomers will be spared (delivered from) the second death.

In the book Christ in You – The Hope of Glory I have made reference to the fact that those who attain to the first resurrection are the equivalent of Firstborn sons. These sons are preeminent, excelling all others. These sons will not have to experience the Lake of Fire because they have offered themselves up as a living sacrifice during their time on earth. These ones have embraced the cross and followed the Lamb wherever He leads.

The first resurrection corresponds to the first feast which is Passover. The parallel is seen in that even as those who put the blood of a lamb on their doors during the first Passover were "passed over" by the death angel, so too those sons who attain to the first resurrection will be "passed over" by death as they are spared the "second death" which is the Lake of Fire.

I found it very interesting that you should mention the "inverse square law of gravity." Physics was not a major study of mine in school, and I am not an engineer or scientist, but this week I have been reading the book "The Scientists" by John Gribbin. It is a fascinating history of the development of Western science from the time of Copernicus to the present.

The past couple days I have been reading about Hooke, Newton, Wren and Halley, among others who are credited with setting forth this Law of attraction of bodies.

I do enjoy reading about science and technology, and currently I have a lot of time on my hands. This book is over 600 pages, and has been an intriguing read.

I had not connected this inverse square law to the subject of this post until you mentioned it. Thanks for pointing out the application.

What you are describing is the "inverse square law of gravity" whereby an object twice as far away needs to be four times as massive to exert the same gravitational effect, one three times as far away nine times as massive, four times as far away sixteen times as massive, etc.

The simple fact that Mars does not exert any discernible tidal influence on the earth should be sufficient to allay any concerns in this regard.

The stuff about electromagnetism is a case of a small piece of truth being blown into a grand delusion. The sun does indeed behave according to principles of electromagnetism in plasmas (super-heated gasses) — a set of physical laws unfamiliar to us on the earth where it is far, far cooler.

Nonetheless, the relationship of earthquakes to this or anything else as far away as Comet Elenin will get even at its closest is beyond the realm of wild conjecture, grading over, as you say, into pure Hollywood fantasy. The spirit of fear is the common denominator… a sure clue to the absence of the Holy Spirit of God which casts it out.

Blessings for a speedy recovery. May God continue to bless all that you do.