You might be a little in shock right now to learn that hell fire is not what you expected. The Second death is an eternal event. It’s just that the 14th century view thinks the punishing goes on forever. No, it’s not the punishing, it’s the punishment. God is the source of all life, even of the life the wicked currently have. One the final day, He will remove that life.

Here are a few of many Bible texts that prove this. Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” How can someone depart from the all-seeing, all-knowing God except to cease to exist?

Psalm 37:10, 11 “For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; Indeed, you will look carefully for his place, But it shall be no more. But the meek shall inherit the earth, And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” Once again we see the earth reserved for His people, this time they’re referred to as ‘meek’. Good will triumph eventually, that’s the point of this Psalm. Notice as well that word ‘inherit’. It doesn’t happen in this life, which is the central focus of all false interpretations of prophecy.

Isaiah 28:21 and Ezekiel 18:32 show us how God feels about destroying the wicked. He truly is a God of love after all. Hellfire is like a mercy killing, one great act of euthanasia. “For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim, He will be angry as in the Valley of Gibeon — That He may do His work, His awesome work, And bring to pass His act, His unusual act.” “’For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,’ says the Lord GOD. ‘Therefore turn and live!’”

This brings us back to John 3:16 again. Key in on that word ‘perish’. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” THE PENALTY OF COMPLETE REMOVAL OF LIFE ITSELF IS WHAT JESUS SUFFERED WHEN HE ‘DIED’ FOR US ON THE CROSS! Since the first death is simply falling asleep, Jesus didn’t die the first death, He died the second death. After a life of complete unbroken connection with the Father through the fact that He never sinned, God broke that connection to the same depth He will with the wicked on that day. That’s why Jesus said in Matthew 27:46 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

As we’ve already briefly discussed, from the story of Adam and Eve and the references in Job Satan still represented the earth up until the time of Jesus. Now that Christ had come and shown by a living example that all of Satan’s charges against God are false, no one in the universe would have felt sorry for the devil from that point on. Whatever questions there were that may still have been lingering in the minds of the angels and those living on the other planets as to whether or not God really is fair would have been answered. This is what Luke 10:18 meant when Jesus said “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” Now if there had been any other ‘heavenly conventions’ like the ones in Job, Jesus would be the earth’s representative. Luke 18:19 and 20 continue with “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”

Here’s another overview of the subjects we’ve been discussing from Hebrews 2:7-11, 14,15:
"You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, And set him over the works of Your hands .You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.

"For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."