The last paragraph of Book 19 of St. Augustine’s "City of God", struck me as it summed-up the need to belong to the City of God. “But, on the other hand, they who do not belong to this city of God shall inherit eternal misery, which is also called the second death, because the soul shall then be separated from God its life, and therefore cannot be said to live, and the body shall be subjected to eternal pains. And consequently this second death shall be the more severe, because no death shall terminate it.”
The analogy of my soul leaving my body at natural death, to this second death, where the soul then pulls-away from God, as if, He is my soul’s true body: “Wow!” I have presumed to take comfort, that when the pains of our first death cease, we will have “passed-over”, like they read at funerals, “where there are no more tears... “ But Augustine says the second death will be more severe. I need to nurture and appreciate this sympatico existence between God and my soul, before I experience natural death. I have to come to terms with; God needs to be my soul’s body.
I had heard the term, “second death”, but I was not really familiar with the concept. So, I searched its source in Revelations. Rev 20 12-15 “... and the dead were judged by those things which were written in the books, according to their works. [13] And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and hell gave up their dead that were in them; and they were judged every one according to their works. [14] And hell and death were cast into the pool of fire. This is the second death. [15] And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the pool of fire.”
