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Satan's two lies.
pertaining to (1:) The first death (Gen. 3: 4),
and (2:) The second death (Rev. 20: 15).
pp. 153, 154
Every student of the Scriptures who has the smallest acquaintance with their structure
and plan, knows how fully Genesis finds its complement in Revelation. We will not take
up space in setting out what is generally accepted, but pass on to its application in one
important feature. When we read Gen. 3: we have revealed to us the liar and his
methods. Satan meddled with the word of God relative to death:--
"Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" (Gen. 3: 1).
"Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then
your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods (or God), knowing good and evil"
(Gen. 3: 4, 5).
What Satan has done with regard to the first death he has also done regarding the
second. God has said:--
"And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of
fire. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth . . . . . Behold, I make all things new"
(Rev. 20: 15 - 21: 5).
This lake of fire is called "the second death" (Rev. 20: 14), and so complete is its
destructive power that when death and hades are cast into it they shall be no more
(21: 4). No other part of Scripture describes the judgment of the great white throne; all
we know about it is revealed here. We are solemnly warned in Rev. 22: 18, 19 against
either adding to or taking away from the words of this book. Inferences and deductions
from other Scriptures may be true or false. We cannot build up an elaborate and
far-reaching doctrine upon the sandy foundation of mere inference.
Had it not been for the fact of resurrection, the first death would have been total and
complete destruction, for, says the apostle, if the dead rise not, "then they also which are
fallen asleep in Christ are perished" (I Cor. 15: 18). What is true of the first death is true
also of the second. Apart from resurrection the second death, with its brimstone and its
fire, must be utter destruction.
Whence, in spite of all the positive testimony to the contrary, comes the teaching that
those whose names are not found written in the book of life, who are cast into the lake of
fire, the second death, will ultimately emerge, the redeemed of the Lord? From none
other than the liar, who is again employing methods once so terribly effective in the
garden of Eden.
First he says: "Yea, hath God said?" He uses specious arguments about the love of
God, the nature of sin, the sovereignty of God, the idea that unless all are saved God has