The Second Death

When described as an event, death is the cessation of life: the point at which a living thing ceases to live.  Only people who admit that conditional immortality and annihilationism are Biblically true can remain consistent in their definitions of life and death.  The destruction of the human mind and body is the second death described by Peter (2 Peter 2:6) and Jesus (Matthew 10:28).  This destruction, as can be established from comparing the two aforementioned verses, is the removal of a sinner's consciousness and body from existence.

However, some non-annihilationists, ignoring that one cannot have eternal life and be mentally dead (and therefore nonexistent) simultaneously, characterize conditional immortality and annihilationism as "weird."  According to their pathetic reasoning, the fact that God would allow unsaved humans to die only to resurrect and kill them again is absolutely bizarre.  Some go even further.  They treat their arbitrary sense of weirdness as if it somehow counts as evidence against annihilationism.

There is not a single claim, true or false, that is incapable of striking various people as "strange," regardless of its simplicity, importance, or (in very limited cases) self-evidence.  Judgments of alleged weirdness are nothing but meaningless, subjective perceptions.  If someone believes this is proof of anything except that they experience a sense of weirdness about an idea, they have retreated away from rationality and into utter folly.

When it comes to the justice of annihilationism, people must remember that their preferences have nothing to do with whether or not an outcome is just.  The second death is the plain Biblical description of ultimate justice for many beings [1].  That a person feels like eternal torture is just does not mean that it is, and the same is true of universal salvation.  Appeals to conscience are the last refuge of those devoid of ethical knowledge.

Conditional immortality and annihilationism are far too significant for those who have discovered them to avoid deconstructing contrary claims.  Understanding the second death is no trivial matter.  As it turns out, the claims for the alternatives to annihilationism are completely unsound and contra-Biblical.  Unintelligent people resort to unintelligent arguments, and they have no right to protection from the intellectual and verbal brutality of aggressive truth-seekers.  If people will not listen to reason, they forfeit any right to be treated as an intellectual equal.

Logic, people.  It is very fucking helpful.


[1].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/03/revelation-20-and-annihilationism-html