We have got to get our teaching right. There is no substitute. Everyone getting along is no substitute. Sparing feelings is no substitute. The teaching that the second death is a place of purification for human beings is wrong. Grievously wrong. It’s wrong because it glorifies death. Rather than declaring death to be what it is, an enemy, it declares death to be a friend that ushers the “dead” into a greater understanding of God.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14:8-9, “If a trumpet should be giving a dubious sound, who will be preparing for battle? Thus, you also, if you should not be giving an intelligible expression through the language, how will it be known what is being spoken? For you will be speaking into the air.”

We are engaged in battle every day. The battle is for our peace. The battle is for our understanding of God. The battle is for our realization of the truth. If we speak indistincly, vaguely, pattering around in circles and speaking into the air hoping to avoid offense, how will we ever come to a true realization of God?

No one ought to care what we teachers think about something, or how we feel about a Scriptural matter. No one ought to care about our surmisings, our questions, our airy wonderings. Forget all that. What we need from teachers is truth. If truth offends the sensibilities, then so be it. We must adjust our sensibilities to the truth. It is truth and truth alone that will adjust our sensibilities to a declaration of God.

No one is suggesting that the second death is not a part of God’s grand eonian plan that will eventually see all of humanity gathered into the “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28). It IS a part of God’s plan, but it belongs to the judgments of God, all of which are difficult, yes, but righteousness necessities en route to God’s goals. So let’s not water down the judgements of God. For in doing so, we inadvertently water down the glories for which these judgments prepare us.