This week in the small rural county that I live and teach in we had one high school student die from injuries sustained in a car accident and another commit suicide in our high school. As I was praying for this situation today it came to me that Death was their last enemy. Not saying this was from God, but it did make me wonder if there could be anything to this. I haven’t even gotten my Bible out to read it in context. Anyway, be in prayer for our community and if you have any thoughts on Death being our last enemy please post.
I’m so sorry – that is a MAJOR hit for any community. I’ll be praying for you.
My thoughts on death as the last enemy pretty much concur with Hope Beyond Hell. The final enemy has to be the second (not the first) death. Because in the scriptures, “death” is not qualified – so all death is an enemy, and the second death must be the LAST enemy as it is the last death.
Once death is destroyed, there is only LIFE. If death retains a hold on the dead, that it has not been destroyed; it is still in effect. ALL the dead will eventually rise, or else Jesus’ victory will be incomplete. If they rise to a resurrection of condemnation (judgment), then so it must be, but eventually the judgment is finished and the prisoners are set free and not only is death no more, but all are reconciled to our Father.
cindy says: The final enemy has to be the second (not the first) death. Because in the scriptures, “death” is not qualified – so all death is an enemy, and the second death must be the LAST enemy as it is the last death.
thank you cindy it is the first time that i read (maybe i was not ready before) something which makes so much sense, about this passage
i should read topics which are not mine more often
I’m so glad it was helpful, Erwan. 
I have been writing in another forum against the idea that some have that God sometimes protects people and sometimes kills people.It’s His choice and He has the right to do so, they say. He has the power over life and death. But the writer to the Hebrews affirms that it is the devil who has the power of death. (Hebrews 2:14).
But certainly not the ability of overpower and circumvent God’s ultimate desire?
It looks like to me that this is saying that through His death he destroyed the devil?
Of course, God will be the ultimate victor!
But meanwhile there is a spiritual war with the principalities and powers, with the spiritual forces of darkness in high places, with Satan himself who holds the power of death. To say that God kills people (or to use the modern euphemism “takes people”) when it is Satan who is doing it, sounds like blasphemy to me.
We can say that it is “natural” to die, that everyone is going to die. We now call death “natural”, but it wasn’t part of the original creation. It came about through the fall. When God created everything, He “saw that it was good.” (Gen 1) Death is** not** good. Death is called “the enemy” and some day God will destroy it. (I Cor 15:26)
That’s a very interesting perspective, Paidion. I hadn’t thought of it, but it certainly presents possibilities. What about the bit in one of the pre-exilic prophets (sorry – I can’t remember which one) where God asks whether the hearer (who, if I remember right, is complaining that the good die young) has considered that perhaps it is to save them from a worse fate. He suggests that some are being taken before the judgments to spare them that experience. I’m sure someone will know the reference – I don’t remember it well enough to even make a credible attempt at searching it. I’m guessing Jeremiah.