---
title: Revelation 20:14
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-20-14/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-20-14.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Revelation 20:14
testament: NT
section: Prophecy
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Revelation 20:14

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "death and the Grave were hurled into the lake of fire. This means the second death, the lake of fire"

## JW Usage

Watchtower commentary reads Revelation 20:14 as confirming that "the lake of fire" symbolises the "second death" — total, permanent annihilation. The "Grave" is destroyed because no one will ever again be unconscious in death; Hades and death themselves are abolished forever. The verse is taken as decisive proof against any doctrine of eternal conscious torment for humans.

## Protestant Usage

Press the verse on its own logic. Death is "hurled into the lake of fire." Death cannot be annihilated — death is itself the absence of life, and the lake of fire is described as destroying it. So whatever the lake of fire is, it is not cessation of existence. Whatever it does to those thrown into it is more enduring and more decisive than mere death. Pair v14 with Revelation 20:10 (the Devil "tormented day and night forever and ever") and v15 (whoever's name is not in the book of life is "hurled into the lake of fire"). The same destination receives the Devil and unredeemed humanity — the same enduring conscious affliction.

## NWT Issue

Two NWT shifts converge here. First, "the Grave" for Hadēs — the soul-sleep softener consistent with Rev 1:18 and 20:13. Second, "this means" for estin ("is") — the same is-to-means shift seen at Rev 17:9 and 17:18. Consensus reads "this is the second death" (ESV/NASB/NIV/KJV); the NWT's "means" weakens identification into symbolic equivalence.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Hell Is Real](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/hell-annihilationism.md) — Jesus on Eternal Punishment [Eschatology]
- [Hadēs Is Not the Grave](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/hades-the-grave-rendering.md) — Luke 16:23 / Revelation 1:18 — The NWT Collapses Two Greek Words Into One [NWT Translation]
- [The Last Enemy Is Death — and It's Last for a Reason](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/last-enemy-death-subjection-chain.md) — 1 Corinthians 15:24-28 / Revelation 20:7-15 — the chain Paul will not let break [Eschatology]