The Smyrna church, though faithful, still had members who were worried about the constant threat of death. Jesus told them not to fear the things to come. He reminded them that they need not fear death. He had conquered the grave and was in the position to keep His promise that those who remain faithful will receive the crown of life; that they wouldn’t be hurt by the second death (Rev. 2: 11). This is the first of four times that the second death is mentioned in the book of Revelation.

The Bible speaks of the first death as a kind of sleep. 1 Thessalonians 4: 13 says, “But I don’t want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.” And there are numerous other New and Old Testament verses that refer to the first death as sleep. Among them, for instance, are Dan. 12: 2; Job 14: 12; John 11: 11-14; 1 Thess. 4: 15; 2 Peter 3: 4.

The first death is also the death that afflicts everyone, and from it, both the righteous and the unrighteous will rise. John 5: 28, 29 says, “The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”

So then we have two resurrections that stem from the first death – one for the righteous when Jesus returns; one for the unrighteous, which takes place a thousand years later, at which time they’ll  receive their punishment – the second death.

It is the first and second death that Jesus tells the Smyrnans, and us as believers, not to fear. For believers will rise from the first death, and the second death is reserved for the wicked (Rev. 20: 14; 21: 8). And nowhere in the Bible does Jesus or anyone else refer to the second death as temporary like the sleep from which we awake. That’s because the second death is the eternal death from which no one awakes. For they are burned in the “lake of fire” out of existence.

For the life of me (pun intended), I don’t understand why the second death is so misunderstood. Jesus says the overcoming faithful will not be hurt by the second death. Believers will receive the crown of life, meaning eternal life. The opposite of our first temporary life is temporary death. So the opposite of our eternal second life is eternal death.

Death in both cases mean no consciousness, no seeing, no hearing, no feelings, no seeing from heaven or a hell; nor is there any participating on earth as spirits, as Satan would have us believe. For the dead no nothing, the Bible says (Ecclesiastes 9: 5, 6). The difference, though, in the two deaths is that the wicked, devoured by the second death, will never wake up again. They are just gone. Kaput! Extinguished! The second death will cause the wicked to not exist anywhere, anymore.*

How sweet it is that the faithful in Symrna and throughout the ages will get to mock death. We will sing “O death where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?

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*There are more details about death in my long-form articles Hell-Fire and Dead-On Truth About Death.