John 8:32,
The human being can only die once physically. We are born dead, a mortal nature, we live a biological existance in a state of death.
The only death we can die at present due to sin is a spiritual death. A relational separation from God. This can become an eternity of separation as well.
we also know that man will never perish, that is no longer exist since Christ redeemed the world. The purpose of our existance is to be united with God in a relationship of love. Anything outside of that perfect relationship would be perishing, or loss. Hell is the death or perishing of any relationship with God.
Again, what is being destroyed. OUr existance as human beings will never be destroyed. so the destruction is a relationship. And God is the only one that will judge man, thus be able to place people in heaven or hell.
ONce again, no man will be destroyed as a human being. All men will be raised in the last day and will be immortal and incorruptible. I Cor 15:53.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Notice, this is called the second death for an important reason...
Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
Mat 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
The ONLY death we can have is spiritual, since Christ was victorious over physical death and was raised to life as well as all mankind. The eternal life being spoken of is with Christ, all other will have eternal life in hell which is a spiritual death, not a physical death.
No, the wicked will be burned up, death by fire. Death is the result of sin, not life in some other place.
The whole idea of the immortality of the soul comes from the Nachash, the whispering enchanter...
Gen 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
God looked Adam squarely in the eye and said...
Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
He did not say, your body will return to dust, but your soul will go somewhere else. A little study on what a soul is would help at this point.
Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
The word for soul here is nephesh. Let's look at some other beings that are nephesh...
Gen 1:21 And God created great whales, and every living
creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
creatures that the waters bring forth abundantly, crabs, shrimp, lobsters, sponges are nephesh.
Gen 1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living
creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Hmmm, creeping things, lizards, snakes, slugs, worms and gila monsters are nephesh.
Gen 1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is
life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
Everything on earth that has life is a nephesh and
Lev 19:28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the
dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.
Num 5:2 Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead:
Here, in these two verses, the word for dead is nephesh. Nephesh can die.
These contrasts are used often in scripture where the purpose of Christ's redeeming work was to enable God/Christ to have an eternal relationship with man.
John 6;39 is referencing Christ's redemption or reconcilation of the world which aligns with Col 1:20 and II Cor 5:18-19. In other words everything given to Him will be raised on the last day and will have eternal life.
However, the next verse, of all those raised to eternal life, those that see and believe will have everlasting life with HIm. A huge difference.
Acts 24:15 also makes the comparision. All will be raised but where you spend your eternity is based on whether you accepted God's call to repentance and union with Him.
On the other hand to make this death physical, you would have died a long time ago with your first sin. Unless you think you have yet to sin once, thus have not died.
The reward of the incorrigibly wicked is death, death for all eternity. Not conscious life in another place, that doctrine was popularized by Dante Alighieri.
