THE SECOND DEATH
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B. -- I think I can explain. `The consummation of the ages' is what your friends read into the words, `then cometh
the end'.
The meaning of `The End'
There is no word for `cometh' in the original of verse 24. It simply reads `Then the end'. Some understand the
words to mean `Then the end rank', but we can find no justification for such a rendering. Cremer, in his note on to
telos, says that this word does not primarily denote the end, termination, with reference to time, but the goal
reached, the completion or conclusion at which anything arrives, either as issue or ending; or as a result, acme,
consummation, e.g., polemon telos, `victory' (literally `the end of war', end, not measuring time but object); telos
andros, `the full age of man' (not the end of man -- death), also of `the ripening of seed'. In Luke 1:33 and Mark
3:26 the idea of termination seems uppermost. The idea of issue, end, conclusion, is seen in Matthew 26:58, `To see
the end'; James 5:11, `Ye have seen the end of the Lord'; 1 Peter 4:17, `What shall the end be of them that obey not
the gospel?'
The idea of a goal reached is seen in Romans 6:21, `The end of those things is death'; Philippians 3:19, `Whose
end is destruction'. So also 2 Corinthians 11:15; Hebrew 6:8. When the apostle wrote the words of 1 Corinthians
15:24, `Then the end', what goal had he in view? What is the object of resurrection? Does it not take man back into
the place intended for him in the Divine purpose, for which sin and death had for a while rendered him unfit? The
goal, this end in view, is contained in the words of 1 Corinthians 15:28, `That God may be all in all'. Although `the
end' is mentioned immediately after the resurrection of those that are Christ's at His parousia, it is not attained
without a reign of righteousness and a rule of iron. The uninterrupted statement of the end is as follows:
`Then the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father -- (with the object) that
God may be all in all' (1 Cor. 15:24-28 author's translation).
This is `the end'. The `consummation of the ages' is an invention, a false peg upon which to hang a false theory.
Just notice how the destruction of death is one of a series of steps toward the goal.
1 Corinthians 15:24-28
A 15:24-. The end.
B a 15:-24-. WHEN He delivers up the kingdom.
b 15:-24. WHEN He abolishes all rule.
c 15:25-. FOR He must reign.
d 15:-25. Till all enemies under foot.
d 15:26-. The last enemy; death abolished.
c 15:-26. FOR He hath put all things under His feet.
b 15:27.
WHEN. The one exception.
a 15:28-. WHEN. The Son Himself subjected.
A 15:-28. That God may be all in all.
A. -- My position I feel is untenable, and I am informed that there is no other passage of Scripture, except
1 Corinthians 15:26, that teaches a resurrection from the second death, so I fear my theories have proved false. I
should like to finish the matter though, and see what is said by way of amplifying the time period.
`When . . . . . . . Then'
B. -- You will notice in each section the words `when' and `then'.
The end is attained `when He shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father', and this is not done until all
enemies are abolished, and all the redeemed are placed in their proper rank under Christ. The abolishing of death is
timed for us in 1 Corinthians 15:54 by the words, `When -- then'. Isaiah 25: 8 contains the verse quoted in
1 Corinthians 15:54. It is in a context of Millennial administration:
`Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion,
and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously' (Isa. 24:23).