Revelation 20:14 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

NIV: Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.

NASB: Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

CSB: Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

NLT: Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death.

KJV: And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

NKJV: Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

What's described in verses 14 and 15 is nothing less than the final, complete accomplishment of total victory over sin. The judgment is complete. Now Death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire. Unbelievers spend their lives following the will of the Devil. Ephesians 2:1–3 reminds Christians that prior to salvation they were dead in trespasses and sins. Sins characterized their lives, and they followed Satan, the prince of the power of the air. Also, they lived in the passions of the sin nature and were the children of wrath. However, in a remarkable act of love, God showed mercy and saved by grace, turning their wicked lifestyle into a beautiful life style (Ephesians 2:4–10).

This verse in Revelation calls the lake of fire "the second death." The first death is physical. Upon death, the soul is separated from the body, and the unbeliever continues to be separated from God. At the second death, the resurrected body is joined to the soul and both are separated from God for all eternity. At this point in time, all sin and evil has been judged and punished: either in hell or by the sacrificial blood of Christ (John 3:16–18).

Revelation 20:11–15 occurs just after the end of the kingdom reign of Christ on earth, when Satan was released for a brief time. He gathered rebel forces together to battle God and His saints, but lost and was cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:7–10). The next event described by John is the judgment at the great white throne. This is the point where unbelievers are judged according to their actions—a death sentence for everyone not saved through Christ (Romans 6:23). Chapter 21 describes the descent of the New Jerusalem from heaven and the beginning of the eternal age.

Revelation chapter 20 represents the final lesson, final judgment, and final victory of the end times. Satan is bound, but not destroyed, and released after a thousand years of peace and righteousness. Proving that no evidence or reason to believe in and follow Jesus is enough for those determined to rebel, some follow Satan and are destroyed in a rebellion. Those who died without faith in Christ, through all of history, are resurrected to face the great white throne judgment. There, they are sentenced for sin and consigned eternally to the lake of fire.

This chapter comes between the account of our Lord's decisive victory at Armageddon and the descent of the New Jerusalem from heaven to earth. It focuses on the beginning of Jesus' reign on the earth and the great white throne judgment when unbelievers from all periods of history are judged and sentenced to eternal suffering in the lake of fire. Daniel 7:18, Isaiah 11, Joel 3:16–21, Obadiah 1:21, and Micah 4:2 are just a few of the Old Testament references to the reign of Jesus on the earth. After this point in the end times, evil has been entirely and completely defeated.

The word ''revelation'' means ''an unveiling or disclosure.'' This writing unveils future events such as the rapture, three series of judgments that will fall on the earth during the tribulation, the emergence of the Antichrist, the persecution of Israel and her amazing revival, as well as Jesus' second coming with His saints to the earth, the judgment of Satan and his followers, and finally, the eternal state. This content, combined with the original Greek term apokalypsis, is why we now refer to an end-of-the-world scenario as ''an apocalypse.''