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Switch on the news and all we hear about lately is the “second wave”. The second wave is coming, exactly when we do not know but it is definitely coming, so they say. People seem to be living in unhealthy fear of this second wave expecting many more deaths, perhaps even more than the initial wave of deaths from the Coronavirus. What a way to live — in daily fear of what is to come. It is sad, even tragic to be like this and my heart goes out to all those who feel and think this way as it is certainly counterproductive to one’s health. Unhealthy fear brings incredible stress and is the opposite of peace — this is no way to live life.
Should we be afraid, fearful of the unknown, of what may or may not come to pass, or should we place our concern where it needs to be? That is, within our prayers to our Father. Remember what we are told from the words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 11:28 “Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Yes, that’s right...take it all to God in prayer. He is waiting to hear from us at any time about the specific details of everything that concerns us. There simply needs to be no fear for perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). God’s love for us is perfect and we have this already as spoken of by Paul in Hebrews 8:35, 38-39 so we need to show God our belief in living faith. God will NEVER let us down nor will He leave us (Deuteronomy 31:6). We have these promises from our Father who is full of Truth and cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18, Titus 1:2, Numbers 23:19). How good is that! This is truly evidence of Perfection in perfect love.
From all this talk of the second wave I am quietly reminded of something else which is referred to as the second death. You may not have heard about the second death. Just what is this? Most of us know it is true that we [physically] die only once as scripture points out in Hebrews 9:27. But is this all there is? One life as we know of it now and nothing more? Hardly! One can read the Bible from cover to cover and plainly see that there is definitely no support for the concept related to false teachings of reincarnation. But there is more! The truth is that when we die we are asleep and the dead know nothing (Ecclesiastes 9:5) but this is not the end of the matter, for instead there is a time of resurrection. A great mystery to be shared is that of the second resurrection which is spoken of at length in 1 Corinthians 15. If you read chapter 15 in its entirety, you will begin to understand that God has a great plan in place for the whole of humanity, His creation — that’s us — and told by the apostle Paul, as he was inspired through God’s Spirit to write 1 Corinthians. Just as Christ was resurrected, we will be too. We will all have the choice to live forever spiritually. In the future some people, hopefully not many, will be subject to the second death, while most will not. The major difference is that all those who resist sin and faithfully overcome sin now in this physical life, will escape the second death.
You most likely have heard about the popular mantra “You only live once” — YOLO — a widely known and accepted acronym amongst the masses, which goes on to say “so eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you will die”. But is this true? Scripture found in Isaiah 22:13 talks about this very concept from God’s prophet Isaiah who remonstrated with God’s people not to act like this day after day due to the futility of their ways without the resurrection from God in mind. By extension, Isaiah warns us not to repeatedly engage in all these meaningless pursuits (time wasters) that will not help us in our journey through life. Rather than living for the day in activities that do not benefit others, or line up with what we know is beneficial such as keeping the 10 commandments, we should certainly be mindfully redeeming the time by preparing for God’s Kingdom right now.
The fact remains that there is a second death which is spoken of in the Bible and only found within the pages of the book of Revelation which brings us to the conclusion of the New Testament. Revelation 2:11 and 20:6 mentions that those who escape the second death must be overcomers and faithful overcomers of sin now — not just a few times or half heartedly, but with much practice and success. The next and final time we see mention made of the second death is in Revelation 20:12-15 “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire”.
The apostle John wrote the book of Revelation under divine inspiration (Revelation 1:1-2) and equates the second death with the Lake of Fire, the final judgment of the incorrigibly wicked, those whose names are not found in the Book of Life because they do not resist sin and have no intention of overcoming carnal human nature, nor obeying God. They want to be wicked like the devil, wanting to have their lustful desires pridefully filled by placing themselves first above everyone else including God.
So, for all those who have been called out of the world in this physical life, who listen to God and follow Christ in righteous living, giving heed to resisting and overcoming sin as they are led by the Holy Spirit, also known as The Helper — they will one day be resurrected after their death and escape the second death in order to live eternally as part of the God family! This mystery is only part of the greatest news to share with the world as we wait eagerly and earnestly for Jesus Christ to return soon in order to usher in the Kingdom of God.
There is no need to fear the second wave of the Coronavirus, or the second coming of Christ, or the second resurrection, or the second death if we are close to God and do what He says. Instead, we are to develop and have healthy fear of God which equates to the utmost respect for His awesome glory and mighty power (Proverbs 19:23, Psalms 111:10, 112:1, 33:8). If you have become fearful while watching the news about this second wave, you need to swap this unhealthy fear of the unknown for healthy fear of what God tells us is in our future — the coming of His Son, Jesus the Christ. Will you be one of those? You can be!