What is the meaning of Revelation 20:14? Then • The word “Then” places this scene after the great white throne judgment (Revelation 20:11-13). • Scripture unfolds God’s plan in careful order: Christ’s return, His thousand-year reign, the release of Satan, final rebellion, and ultimate judgment (1 Corinthians 15:24-26; Revelation 20:7-10). • Every event is moving toward the moment when all enemies are finally subdued, fulfilling, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26). Death and Hades • “Death” personifies the power that seizes the body; “Hades” speaks of the intermediate realm that holds the soul (Revelation 6:8; Luke 16:23). • Both have dominated human experience since the fall (Genesis 2:17; Romans 5:12). • Christ already holds “the keys of Death and Hades” (Revelation 1:18), proving His authority to cast them away forever. • Hosea 13:14 promised, “I will redeem them from Death… O Death, where are your plagues? O Grave, where is your sting?”—a promise now completed. Were thrown • This passive-voice statement signals God’s direct action; Death and Hades offer no resistance. • Similar wording describes Satan, the beast, and the false prophet earlier: all are “thrown” (Revelation 19:20; 20:10). • The act is final, irreversible, and emphasizes divine sovereignty (Daniel 7:11). Into the lake of fire • The lake of fire is the ultimate place of conscious, eternal punishment, “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). • Unlike Hades—which is temporary and gives up its dead for judgment (Revelation 20:13)—the lake of fire is permanent (Revelation 14:11). • Its existence underscores both God’s holiness and His justice: sin and its consequences cannot coexist with the new creation (Revelation 21:4, 27). This is the second death—the lake of fire • Physical death is the first death; separation from God forever is the second (John 5:29). • Believers escape the second death because their names are in the Lamb’s book of life (Revelation 20:6; 21:8, 27). • The verse equates the second death with the lake of fire, leaving no room for annihilation or post-mortem repentance (Hebrews 9:27). • Eternal punishment for Death and Hades means every trace of the curse is gone, paving the way for “no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4). summary Revelation 20:14 shows God’s climactic victory: the very realities that have haunted humanity—Death and Hades—are themselves judged and eternally confined. Their casting into the lake of fire proves that Christ’s redemptive work is complete, every enemy is defeated, and everlasting life in the new heaven and new earth can proceed unhindered by the curse. |
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