How Can The Second Death Be Called A “Chastening” (Matt. 25:46)?

The last section of Matthew 25 speaks of the judgment over the nations, the criterion being what they have done with the least of the brothers of the King. Matthew 25:46 then concludes with:

And these shall be coming away into chastening eonian, yet the just into life eonian.

The eonian life is the life of the coming age or aeon (Luke 18:30). The “goats” will not experience that Kingdom but will perish in the vicinity of “the lake of fire,” where the fate will also be sealed of the diabolos and his messengers (= the Beast and the False Prophet; Rev. 19:20; 20:10, cf. Matt. 25:41). Perishing in this fire, and thereby not experiencing the coming aeon, is the eonian punishment or chastening. It is not the state of death itself that is the chastening, but the manner in which they end up in it.

Incidentally, the judgment of Matt. 25:46 precedes the thousand years. Those who perish on that occasion die for a first time. At the Great White Throne after the thousand years, people die “the second death.”

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