Revelation 20:14
Revelation 20:1414Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire.
Watchtower commentary reads 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.
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 (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.
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.