gift of eternal life could not be at stake, then a prize, crown or reward

must be in view.

The word translated 'second' in Revelation 2:11 and 20:6,14 is the

Greek word deuteros, familiar to English readers in the word Deuteronomy,

'The Second law', derived from the LXX translation of Deuteronomy 17:18, 'a

repetition of the law', deuteronomion.  Now a 'second death' implies a first,

and orthodox teaching is fairly unanimous that the first death implied by the

term, is the natural death of all men.  If, however, both the terms 'second'

and the associated word 'hurt' have particular reference to overcoming or

failing so to do, a fresh investigation is called for.  Where there is

suffering for Christ's sake, where one 'loves not his life unto the death',

there will be a 'tasting of death' long before natural demise, even as there

will be a 'hurting' of the second death, after natural decease, for some who

evaded the suffering.  Paul would have no difficulty here for he himself

said, many years before his end came, 'I die daily', which he immediately

connects with fighting with beasts at Ephesus (1 Cor. 15:31,32).  He spoke of

his own experiences as being 'in deaths oft' (2 Cor. 11:23), and summed these

expressions up in 2 Corinthians 4:10 -12:

'Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus ... we

... are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake ... death worketh in

The epistle of Jude uses the word deuteros in a suggestive way:

'The Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, Afterward

(deuteros) destroyed them that believed not' (Jude 5).

We find this word adikeo (hurt) also is translated, 'do wrong', 'suffer

wrong', 'take wrong' and in this rendering lies the answer to the difficulty:

'Servants obey ... knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the Reward

of the inheritance ... .

But he that doeth Wrong shall receive for the Wrong which he hath done:

And there is no respect of persons' (Col. 3:22 -25).

Reward or Wrong!

Reward or Hurt!

The inheritance itself is blessedly and eternally secure (Col. 1:12 -

14), the presentation 'holy, unblameable and unreproveable' is likewise

unalterable, but when we come to 'service' and 'rewards' we are on other

grounds.  Here is assessment of 'works', with the reminder that there is no

respect of persons.  The Great White Throne is one of the sessions of 'The

judgment seat of Christ' where every man's 'work' shall be tried by fire,

where he will receive either a 'reward' or 'suffer loss' (1 Cor. 3:13 -15),

where every one shall receive the things done in the body, whether it be good

or bad (2 Cor. 5:10).  In the special case of these believers who succumb to

the pressure of antichristian tyranny, to be 'hurt' of the second death will

be to receive for the 'wrong' they have done, and to miss the reward.