Lake Of Fire. The Spiritual Death

Q

In the ‘Born Again before they Die’ answer, you responded once children intellectually mature enough to understand the consequences of sin, the commandments apply to them. At that point they die spiritually and have to be born again to be saved. What did you mean by spiritually dying? Isn’t spiritual death another term for lake of fire?

 

A

Rev. 20:14-15 says, “The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Spiritual death is the second death (the first is physical) and is another term for the eternal punishment all unbelievers will suffer. The only escape is to be born again.

In Romans 7:9 Paul wrote, “Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.” Since Paul was physically alive when he wrote that, he had to be talking about spiritual life and death. He meant that he had eternal life until he was old enough to be accountable for his sins under the Law. As soon as that happened his sins required that he be scheduled for eternal punishment. When he was born again his sins were washed away, his punishment was cancelled (Colossians 2:13-14) and he had eternal life again.