Repent Or Perish

Upon hearing of how Pilate mixed the blood of Galileans with local Jewish sacrifices, Jesus clarifies that the people treated in this way did not deserve this fate simply because it happened to them (Luke 13:1-2).  What he does say is that everyone who does not repent will perish in the same way that these people perished--they will die, not necessarily by the same means, not that Pilate was in the right in any way (13:3).  Right after this, Jesus mentions how 18 people were separately killed when a tower in Siloam collapsed onto them.  He asks if they were any worse than others in Jerusalem because of their manner of death, again telling his audience that "unless you repent, you too will all perish" (13:4-5).

While the first death must by logical necessity occur before the second death, the earthly death of sinners is used here to directly suggest what awaits all the unrepentant.  Since the righteous also die, in an ultimate sense, this warning about repenting from sin to not perish could not literally be about the fate of every person in this life.  Biological death is already a perishing of sorts, even moreso because of the fact that the Bible also teaches that the first death brings a state of intermediate unconsciousness until the resurrection (Ecclesiastes 9:5-10, Daniel 12:2).  There is no afterlife before this according to the Bible.

After the second death, the wicked human dead return to unconsciousness, this time not because they are possibly suspended in a state of existence as a mind but with no perception of anything at all, but because there is no longer a consciousness for them to experience anything with, peace or torment.  Like Jesus and other Biblical figures clarify over and over, this perishing is the just consequence for betraying reality and never repenting.  Those who sin will die (Ezekiel 18:4), as the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).  Unlike the people crushed by the tower at Siloam, after the resurrection, anyone killed in hell will never again be awakened to life.

Repent or perish is what Jesus says to those who hear about the tower incident, and aside from the precise circumstances that led to the deaths of those 18 people, the sudden destruction that befell them does indeed parallel what will happen to the wicked and unsaved according to Matthew 10:28.  Other humans like Pilate and chance accidents like the Siloam collapsed can kill the body but do not kill the soul forever, though they do bring people to Sheol, where there is no emotion or thought or praise or any other activity (Ecclesiastes 9:5-10, Psalm 88:10-12).  God, having a greater metaphysical status than human killers or natural phenomena, can damn people to a destruction of both body and soul in hell, Jesus says in the aforementioned Matthew verse (see also 2 Peter 2:6).

Repent or perish, Jesus says, echoing the statements in Deuteronomy 30 about choosing life over death.  From the outcome of eating the forbidden fruit of Eden to the grand penalty for disobeying Mosaic Law to the fate of those at Siloam and more, the Bible presents death as the final punishment for sin, an exclusion from life and all of the many nonsinful pleasures and delights that it allows for.  Nothing could exceed the boundaries of Yahweh's justice more than endless torment as is commonly mistaken for what he will leave sinners to in hell.  No, repent or perish (John 3:16): the Biblical God is so clearly said to reduce his enemies to nonexistence and this is justice rather than any kind of mercy.