Most people believe that the Bible speaks of only two deaths, physical death and that death the Bible mysteriously calls “the second death.” Many people believe that this is “eternal punishment in Hell,” but it isn’t. Physical death is that death which every person will experience except for Enoch and Elijah and, of course, those “raptured” when Jesus returns again. (I believe that only God’s overcomers take part in this event which most of the Church calls the secret rapture and that it will not include the vast majority of professing Christians. Many of my posts deal with this idea, particularly a recent series called The Mountains of Israel)
But there is a third death that most Christians do not now about. The third death is the death of the spirit. This is the death that Adam and Eve suffered on the day they ate the forbidden fruit. Remember God specifically told them, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) Clearly Adam and Eve did not physically die the day they ate this fruit. Also, their mind, will, and emotion (their soul) did not die that day either. Bible scholars fail to realize, though, that man’s soul and man’s spirit are two separate components of his being. Thus they fabricate doctrines like, “We know that `with God a day is as a thousand years.’ We also know that Adam died when he was was 930 years old. So, since he died within the first thousand-year day of creation, he thus died on the “day” he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
This failure to differentiate between man’s soul and his spirit has caused Christian scholars to misinterpret God’s plan for mankind. One wonders how generations could fail to understand this distinction when Hebrews so clearly speaks of the actual work of God’s Word.
11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.– Heb 4:11-13
This passage states that the Word of God divides the soul and the spirit. This is exactly what it says, is it not? Why then do Christians still tenaciously hold to the mistaken belief that a man’s soul and a mans’ spirit are the same thing? Because, quite simply, to believe otherwise, to believe the truth, would force men to change their behavior. Christians would have to take Christ’s words to heart, words which tell us to forsake the ways of this world. Most people, even most Christians, do not want to forsake the ways of the world.
Does this grave mistake in belief among almost all Christians then render Jesus Christ’s work on the cross ineffective? No, emphatically not, and the reason is because Jesus died to primarily deal with man’s first death, his spiritual death! Most Christians fail to realize that Jesus died for all men. Many Scriptures proclaim this, but Bible teachers routinely add words based upon their own preconceptions in order to change the written word of God. They thus make the Scriptures say something it does not say, like, for example, that all children who do not believe in Jesus before they die will burn eternally in Hell.
The primary purpose of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross was the reconcile all men to God. John says,
16 “For God so loved the world,[i] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17)
And Paul says, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22) All people died spiritually through Adam’s sin. Likewise all people shall be made alive spiritually through Christ’s work. The definition of “all” did not change in the midst of verse 22 did it? The why do you add the words “who believe in Christ” after the second occurrence of the word “all” there?
Concerning Jesus Paul also says, “He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven,making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Colossians 1:18-19) According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary the word “reconcile” means “to restore to friendship or harmony.” Do you really think that Christ is going to cast people into eternal torment to effect this reconciliation of which Paul speaks? Will eternal hell-fire bring a sinner into harmony with God?
Paul makes it abundantly clear just who God reconciled. He says, “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard….” (Colossians 1:21-23) Christians tend to put the cart before the horse. They teach that one only becomes reconciled when he repents or when he believes in Jesus. No, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) Then Paul says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:10)
So, you see, the death of Jesus Christ for our sins deals with our first death, our spiritual death. His great sacrifice reconciled us to God which restored life to our dead spirits. Most of us spirits, however, remain in our prison cell. The door is open, but we don’t believe it. We don’t believe we can now “be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:10) It is this salvation, this second salvation, that the Bible primarily speaks of. The Scriptures call this “the salvation of the soul.” As we just saw, this salvation differs from the salvation of our spirits which Christ effected by his death on the cross. Jesus brings about the salvation of our souls, however, by his life and by our obedience to the type of life he demonstrates. Many of us who once believed do not “continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that we heard.” (Colossians 1:23) It is for us who have not so continued and it is for those who never believed that the second death awaits. (to be continued)
