THE SECRET OF THE BURNING LAKE

In part one of this discourse I stated that the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to Him is a book of symbols -- a book of signs. A correct but awkward translation of the Greek in Revelation 1:1 would read, "a revelation of Jesus Christ, which gave to Him God, to show to the slaves of Him things which it behooves to occur with a speed, and He signified sending through the angel (messenger) of him to the slave of him, John." (See Zondervan's Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, with English translation by the Reverend Alfred Marshall, Doctor of Letters). The key words here are "a revelation of Jesus Christ" and "signified". I reiterate, to try to interpret this book literally, and without the express guidance of the Holy Spirit leads to fear and an ugly, confusing portrait of our Saviour, -- Jesus Christ, the Holy One of Israel.

The word "signified" is from a Greek word meaning "to indicate or communicate by signs and symbols", and the meanings of all the symbols in the book of Revelation are given either in the book itself or at other places in the sacred writings. We must always keep in mind that the true depth of meaning can only be revealed by the Holy Spirit, our guide into all truth.

John, when in the spirit, first saw "One like unto the Son of man, standing in the midst of seven golden candlesticks (lamps) holding seven stars in His right hand." The One like unto the Son of man identifies Himself as our resurrected and glorified Lord: "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last; I am He that liveth and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore" (Revelation 1:8,10-12,17-18,NIV). The other symbols in this first sighting, or vision, are interpreted as "The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels (messengers) of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches" (Revelation 1:20,NIV).

At school we learned "definitions" -- explanatory statements which identified certain things as exactly as possible; for instance, in mathematics we learned that a "line" is the path of a moving point, thought of as having length but not breadth, whether straight or curved; and in geography that an island is a tract of land, not as large as a continent, surrounded by water. God gives definitions in His written word and tells us what certain things are. In the scripture quoted above, He has told us just exactly what the seven stars and seven lampstands are. Since God can't be wrong then the definitions are right.

In Revelation 20:14 God tells us that "...death and hell (Hades) were cast into the lake of fire. THIS IS THE SECOND DEATH". (KJV, -- other translations read, "This is the second death, the lake of fire".) Turn this definition around and it says, "The second death is death and Hades cast into the lake of fire" just as the definition of "an island is a tract of land surrounded by water" is the same as "a tract of land surrounded by water is an island."

What is the second death? Is it eternal torment of mankind in a lake of fire? The Holy Spirit explains it simply -- the Second death is the First death and Hell (Hades) cast into the lake of fire. The Second death is, or takes place in, the lake of fire -- and the fire consumes, changes, purifies, those things cast into it. Death is cast into the lake of fire; Hell, the realm of darkness and death, is cast into the lake of fire, and those whose names are not written in the Book of Life, who are dead in trespasses and sins, who inhabit hell, those without light and understanding, are cast into the lake of fire.

And that's the end of death, the end of hell, the end of sin and sorrow -- for God shall destroy them in that fire. Sin, death, hell, rebellion and all the evils that subdue man and keep him captive to the carnal nature shall perish in that purifying, soul-changing fire which God has prepared from the beginning.

He is worthy of all praise, this God who shall be All in All, in whose kingdom there is neither sin, nor sinners, nor death, nor hell. Nowhere do the scriptures say that God destroys men in the lake of fire, -- because He doesn't contradict Himself. How can one destroy death by creating death? Can death be abolished by bringing men under the power of an endless death from which there is no release?

I say again -- it is SIN and DEATH and HELL that are burned in the lake of fire -- not men. Read 1 Corinthians 15:26, "and the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death ." The lake of fire, then, is the place where DEATH is DESTROYED.

I am sure Ray Prinzing, a brother in Christ and a called apostle, won't mind my citing some of his words concerning this truth:

"The offense of the first Adam brought all men under the sentence of death for sin. Hence presently our mortal bodies are in a state of dying, while our minds need to be freed from minding things of the flesh, to mind things of the Spirit. The act of disobedience of Adam brought forth death. Now, the obedience and work of righteousness of the last Adam also brings forth a death for every man. The question arises, Is the SECOND DEATH the same kind of death as the first? Many people think it is a repetition of the first, and that the results are the same, while its action is more severe and cruel, and destructive, being fire. And some Christians add very sorrowfully, 'and from this second death there is no resurrection, it is an endless torment in agony', BUT NOT SO! For God's seconds are never duplicates of the first; they are always better, higher, and more powerful than the first, and used to counter-balance all the action of the firsts, and MUCH MORE -- He always saves the best until last.

All Bible statements prove that the two deaths are absolutely UNLIKE, and that the two are opposite and antagonistic. The second death undoes all the work of the first Adam, NOT to nullify the purpose being wrought out by the plan of God in the firsts, but to bring a release from the firsts in a MUCH-MORE manner of majesty and glory and power and scope of coverage, into the greater and glorious things of God. Creation was made subject to vanity for a purpose! Sin was allowed for wise ends, but when those ends have been secured it will have to cease to exist. The purpose is not nullified, but the means whereby the purpose has been executed shall be done away. Discipline is a means to an end, but not an end in itself; it leads up to the "AFTERWARDS YIELDING THE PEACEABLE FRUIT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS."

The first Adam died to God and righteousness, and became alive unto sin. The last Adam died unto sin (Romans 6:10), and liveth unto God, and so fulfilleth all righteousness. The first made all men sinners, the last made all men righteous. The lives and deaths of the two Adams are thus greatly contrasting the one to the other. The FIRST DEATH was a transition from life to death, the SECOND DEATH is a transition from corruption to incorruption, from mortality to immortality. Transformed from the carnal mind, to the spiritual mind, which is life and peace, which transformation is wrought by a dying out to the one realm, to come alive to the higher realm. Because -- the second death is prepared to purge out and burn away sin and its results, and so doing cleanse all of God's universe.

Death came as an enemy, the fruitage of an act of disobedience that turned man away from God and into the realm of carnality, minding self and flesh. Now God makes death overcome itself. It is by death that death is rendered powerless, and there arises an upspringing, a new life. It takes death to destroy death and thus Christ "did taste death for every man" -- "that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Hebrews 2:9,14-15). Since we are all under the effects of the first death, it is appointed unto us to die once more -- not physical death, we are already in a state of mortality -- but now a dying out to this present death state. We conquer this death of the carnal mind by dying to it -- only God could use such a process bringing victory, but praise God, he is destroying the first death with the second death!

All the crucifixion, our identification with the cross of Christ, must be accepted by faith as a fact, and then the working of it in and through us is a process. If it is done now, through our yieldedness to the call and the claims upon us, we won't have to face it later in what is called "the lake of fire", which is the second death. The passing through that lake of devine purification will thoroughly purge out the last remaining fragments of the rebellion and waywardness of man, till the mystery of iniquity is no more, and then the carnal mind being abolished, death is no more."

Besides death and hades, let's note what of mankind is processed in this purifying lake. The unsavory list is a shameful roll call of the wickedness that besmirched the earth when the book was written, and today pollutes it even more! "...the fearful, the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death". The NIV translation says, "...the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars -- their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur".

No matter which way you read it, that list comprises the sin that completely impregnates mankind with the brutish power of the first death. These are DEAD in their trespasses and in sins, (Ephesians 2:1,5.14; Colossians 2:13; et al ), sold under sin (Romans 7:14), bond-slaves of carnality's meanest and most "devilish" passions, corrupt and perverse in nature, obsessed with sexual depravity and every evil invention of mind or body that their self-will is able to devise. Not only are such driven by the unrelenting spirit of the world and the flesh, but they rejoice in their chains and their filth, blatantly proclaiming their "freedom", their "liberty", -- coaxing and beguiling the weak to wallow with them!

Nothing God has done has yet broken these stubborn, rebellious wills and they remain unrepentant. The wages of sin hasn't, not hell, nor the harvest of evil -- not even the tender mercies and loving kindness of the LORD has broken them. The Holy Spirit has told us of a second death into which these incorrigibly wicked men shall surely be placed, and they are placed there by our Lord, along with death and hell.

This second death is similar to the first death in that "time" and "experience" are integral parts of it, but it shall surely be more severe in process than what we are now experiencing. The penalty for sin is harsh and terrible. Whether "many stripes" or "few stripes", God's processing is suited to breaking the resistance of the willfully wicked, and some rebellion requires more severity than others to subdue it.

The death of the lake of fire is reserved for those who have not profited from the judgments of their first death and need further correction to subdue them to God's will.

When the last sinner has emerged from the discipline of the lake with a broken and contrite spirit; when the process is complete and that last sinner has learned the lesson of the corrupt harvest of man's own way, when he fully yields to the LORDSHIP OF THE SAVIOR -- THEN shall be fulfilled the wonderful promise: "And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of GOD is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be NO MORE DEATH, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make ALL THINGS new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful (Revelations 21:3-5; emphasis mine).

No matter what we believe concerning the nature of the state of death, let this truth take tenacious hold in our hearts: DEATH WILL BE ABOLISHED and we can rejoice with Paul, who by the Holy Spirit declared; "The LAST enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (1 Corinthians 15:26).

That clarion declaration of the Holy Spirit brings to nought the whole structure of accepted, but unproven, theology -- a theology straight from the death-ridden minds of word-weasling wastrels who appoint themselves shepherds and then prey on their flock through fear and superstition. The teaching of these pie-in-the-sky prophets of doom imprison the mass of humanity in "eternal death" -- a phrase that seems to be a catchword necessary for acceptance as a pastor or teacher in the present apostate church. (These also have their part in the burning lake if they remain unresponsive to God's patient processing).

It's plain that when the last enemy is abolished, no enemy remains. The contemptible religionists who demand eternal torment, who advocate an endless death which they name the second death in the burning lake are in error, and they don't know the Sacred Scriptures nor the power of Almighty God. That lake of fire MUST end because death and hell are cast into it (which is the second death) and in the end THERE SHALL BE NO MORE DEATH! NO MORE DEATH!! NO MORE FIRST DEATH! NO MORE SECOND DEATH! NOT ANY KIND OF DEATH!

So -- to say that there is no more death means there aren't any sinners because sinners are dead, dead in trespasses and sins.

To say there is no more death is to say that God has not "burned up" all the wicked and left them dead, or in hell -- because as long as any creature of our God is in a state of death, death isn't abolished. By this same process of spirit-led logic, to say that there is no more death is the same as saying there is no more hell, for hell is the realm of the dead. Further, to say there is no more death is to say there is no more lake of fire for the lake IS the second death, and since there is no more death there is no more sin because the wages of sin is death. Just three words: NO MORE DEATH -- but what great truth they embody!!

But this grand and glorious truth seems to be almost unknown to the present church system, and although it is the climax and fulfillment of all revelation, humanity's perversion has shrouded it in superstition and outright lies. This has resulted in a God of the popular church who has been stripped of his essential attributes and made to be like a foolish man who began to build something but had not the strength or wisdom to finish. According to the theology of man God brings nothing to conclusion and never attains a definite goal; sin and suffering are never overcome and death remains all-powerful, consuming or frittering away God's handiwork.

The despicable death-and-doom dealers will have us believe that redemption was only partly secured, that God is compelled to work an eternal miracle in order to maintain a never ending, always infectious, eyesore in His creation (eternal torment/death) which was once sinless, good, and subject. The semi-savants of the quasi-christian "church" will tell us that God must keep one of His feet on the lid of hell, because if even one of the devils gets out hell would conquer all!

But Jesus Christ is Conqueror! Death and all its forms shall be destroyed and there shall be NO MORE DEATH .

"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is they victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be unto God, which giveth us the victory through our LORD Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).

Read the wonderful promise in Revelation 2:11: "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death". This great statement, strange to those who don't hear, says overcomers will not be hurt of or by the second death; it doesn't say overcomers will not experience the second death. It is very possible to pass through terrible experiences and not be adversely affected, or hurt, by them. Many believers in this day are subjected to excruciating processing and scourging but are not "hurt". Read! "And these three men Shadrach, Messhach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the King was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counselors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the King, True, O King. He answered the said, Lo I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have NO HURT; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God" (Daniel 3:23-25).

The darkest night, the hottest trial will not harm us in our walk with Christ in us, the hope of glory!! Read this promise: "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee" (Isaiah 43:2).

The word translated "hurt" in Revelation 2:11 is the Greek word "adikethe", the subjunctive, aorist, passive form of the word "adikeo", which means do injustice, to offend, to do wrong, to injure, to treat someone unjustly. The word is used twenty-nine times in the New Testament in its various voices, tenses and moods, eleven of the twenty-nine in Revelation. Of those eleven appearances it is translated "hurt" nine times, "unjust" twice. Of the remaining eighteen instances in the New Testament only once is it translated "hurt". No where and in no way is the word indicative of a physical infliction of suffering. Note just a few places in the New Testament; 2 Corinthians 7:12, "...he who has done wrong"; Acts 25:11, "I am in the wrong; Colossians 3:25, "The one doing wrong will receive what he did wrong..." 2 Corinthians 7:17, "...the one who has suffered injustice".

Revelation 2:11 could easily, and surely should, be read, "He that overcometh shall not be done an injustice, wronged, injured or offended by the second death".

One way or another ALL MEN MUST DIE TO SIN -- and whether as an unbeliever, man is "cast" into the lake of fire, or as a believer he willingly and obediently wades into the fiery processing, hand in hand with the indwelling Spirit, the blessed Christ, and dies to sin for all the ages.

John 5:29, Romans 6:11, and 8:10 and many other scriptures all witness that when natural man becomes spiritual man a tremendous change takes place -- that man passes from DEATH unto LIFE . Before the transition occurs the difficulty is: how to get into harmony with God's kingdom? No sooner is the transition made than the problem is reversed: how does one kick loose the old environment of the flesh and its subjection to the world and the devil?

Think about your own walk with the redeemer.

The moment the Christ Life begins a great anxiety arises -- a great desire to break with the old fetters of the flesh, because the new regenerated spirit finds the old man odious. The old way of life (which was actually death) becomes embarassing and torments our thoughts because we often fail to realize the absolute plenitude of our deliverance in Christ Jesus. Yet sin still dwells in our members and refuses to be dismissed from our consciousness.

This "competition" with the new nature of Christ-in-us is tenacious and in hundreds of ways the traditions, the memories and reminders of our past unholy existence surface in our conscience to harry and harangue -- even in our sleep. We are, in fact, confronted with two distinctly different entities, flesh and spirit, and each of these make importunate and opposed claims on us. It's rather like striving to live in a state of duality, engaged in constant battle against a world of deadly enemies. No man can successfully live two lives, no more than he can walk down two roads at the same time; flesh and spirit can't coexist as equals -- one must triumph and control! One must die, the other live.

The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write: "For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. I have the intention and urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out. For I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am [ever] doing. Now if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it -- it is not myself that acts -- but the sin [principle] which dwells within me [fixed and operating in my soul]. So I find it to be a law [of my being] that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present within me and I am subject to its insistent demands. For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self with my new nature. [Psalms 1:2] But I discern in my bodily members -- in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh -- a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind (my reason) and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs -- in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh. O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from [the shackles of] this body of death?" (Romans 7:18-24, Amplified).

It is absolutely morally impossible to walk after both spirit and flesh! Jesus emphasizes that no man can serve two masters. (See Matthew 6:24 and Luke 16:13). Yet in fact the new-born child of God is related to both worlds -- sin and purity, darkness and light, God and anti-god. No wonder the newly born is confused and undecided!

What's to be done in this terrifying emergency? How can the NEW life deliver itself from the ever-present siren call of the flesh?

The solution is obvious and at hand: DEATH! No, not the death of the "old man", for that one is already crucified with our Savior, but we must PUT SIN TO DEATH BY KILLING THE EVIL RAMPANT IN OUR BODILY MEMBERS.

Now, to die to any reality is to withdraw all correspondence with it, to cut ourselves off from all communication with it. The spiritual man, having passed from death unto life , the solution to the problem is to reverse the process of the fleshly life, thus insuring that the fleshly man passes from life unto death . Regeneration of the spirit must be accomplished by degeneration of the flesh, the carnal mind. And this DEATH PROCESS is the SECOND DEATH. It should be no surprise to find that this process is described and recommended by the Holy Spirit. In the last verse of the above cited Scripture, (Romans 7:18-24), Paul asks, "Who will deliver me from this body of death?" And the answer came quickly and explicitly in verse 25: O thank God! HE WILL! through Jesus Christ our Lord!!

Now read these beautiful words of truth in Paul's letter to the Colossians: "If then you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. And set your minds and keep them set on what is above -- the higher things -- not on the things that are on earth. For [as far as the world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you will also appear with Him in (the splendor of His) glory. So kill (deaden, deprive of power) the evil desire lurking in your members -- those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin: sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, for that is idolatry [the deifying of self and other created things instead of God]. It is on account of these [very sins] that the [holy] anger of God is ever coming upon (those who are obstinately opposed to the divine will) the sons of disobedience, among whom you also once walked, when you were living in and addicted to [such practices]. But now put away and RID YOURSELVES [COMPLETELY] OF ALL THESE THINGS: anger, rage, bad feelings toward others, curses and slander and foulmouthed abuse, and shameful utterances from your lips! Do not lie to one another, for you have stripped off the (unregenerate) self with its evil practices, and have clothed yourselves with the new [spiritual self], which is (ever in the process of being) renewed and remoulded into (fuller and more perfect knowledge upon) knowledge, after the image (likeness)of Him who created it" (Colossians 3:1-10, Amplified Bible).

I say again -- all men shall die to sin. Some lovingly submit to God's gracious dealings so that through His grace the dreadful death-mind, the carnal mind, may be "mortified" or put to death. Others must be subdued and broken with the severe beating of judgmental fire. The former, who submit to His loving kindness pass through death to self but are not "hurt" by it. They die by living an active faith, -- die to everything of the flesh, and they live by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit -- in which everything that is in any way opposed to God is slain, brought to nought, done away.

In the measure that we are identified with the cross of Christ and made conformable to His death, in which it is no longer our will, but His, in that measure we are "dying out" to the first death, by the process of the second death, that is, the death of DEATH. In so doing -- dying to death and sin, our being is changed into the likeness of His resurrection.

That second death, (the destruction of the carnal mind and its hostility to God), need not be feared by the overcoming, blood-redeemed saints of God -- for the second death is God's arrangement whereby all the effects of the first death are rendered null and void and all carnal-mindedness ceases. For we who willingly submit to this process "no man taketh our life from us, we lay it down" --, but for those who will not lay it down, it WILL BE TAKEN FROM THEM.

While we see ultimate victory, a complete triumph over death, first death, second death, ALL DEATH, there is a present tense application to consider. God has chosen, in THIS hour, as He has in all preceding generations, a remnant in whom HIS SPIRIT is working, and that remnant consists of those who are daily becoming experiential partakers of His death, overcoming all desires and lusts and hindrances of the carnal mind. Remember, to those who OVERCOME (not those who fly away) they shall not be "hurt" of the "second death", even when it is manifested in its more severe forms, as portrayed by the term of being "a lake of fire and brimstone".

With the inworking of the Holy Spirit, enabling us to overcome all the evil of this present age, and the carnal mind, we shall not be done an injustice by the second death. THE ENTIRE PROCESS IS UNTO VICTORY. Sure, there may be suffering involved, because the second death means death to our traditions, our superstitions, our preconceived ideas; death to our self-will and rebellion -- BUT, it also means we shall be loosed from the shackles that bind us, and with the inflow of His life we will walk in the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

There are multitudes who shall resist God until the extreme measures He must use to subdue them are beyond comprehension. For them the second death will no doubt be a terrifying and painful experience. But remember always -- HE THAT OVERCOMETH NOW SHALL NOT BE HURT BY THAT DIRE AND DREADFUL DEATH.

The burning lake is no longer a mystery or secret, is it? We have seen that it is God's instrument for destroying death in all its forms and for the completion of His eternal purpose. So we no longer need ask, "WHAT IS THE LAKE OF FIRE or WHERE IS THE LAKE OF FIRE, nor WHEN or WHY the lake of fire? Rather, let us ask