---
title: Revelation 21:8
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-21-8/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-21-8.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Revelation 21:8
testament: NT
section: Prophecy
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Revelation 21:8

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "those practicing spiritism and idolaters and all the liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This means the second death."

## JW Usage

Watchtower commentary uses Revelation 21:8 as a list of categories excluded from the new earth. "Spiritism" — the NWT's preferred rendering of pharmakois — is a Watchtower- characteristic concern, mapped onto everything from communicating with the dead to medical practices the organisation flags as occult. "Cowards and those without faith" is sometimes applied to those who fail under persecution, including Witnesses who would yield to a blood transfusion or military service rather than face death. The verse functions in JW preaching as a warning against compromise.

## Protestant Usage

The category list is solemn but the basis of the verse is the same as Revelation 20:15: those whose lives demonstrate they do not belong to Christ are excluded. Pair with v7: "the one who conquers will inherit these things" — the conquering ones are those in the Lamb's book of life. Christians do not stay out of the lake of fire by avoiding the sins listed but by being washed in the Lamb's blood. The list is a description of unredeemed humanity, not a checklist of forbidden behaviours that earn paradise. Treat it as Jesus's urgent pastoral warning: take sin seriously precisely because the Cross took it seriously.

## NWT Issue

The NWT renders pharmakois ("sorcerers, those practising pharmakeia") as "those practicing spiritism"; consensus reads "sorcerers" (ESV/NASB/NIV/KJV). "Spiritism" is a Watchtower-specific term that narrows the Greek's broader semantic field (sorcery, drug-use, magical practices) toward the JW polemic against communicating with the dead. Also "This means the second death" repeats the is-to-means shift seen at Rev 17:9, 17:18, and 20:14.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Hell Is Real](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/hell-annihilationism.md) — Jesus on Eternal Punishment [Eschatology]