Question: Did Judas go into the Second Death?

Answer: According to our understanding of the Bible testimony he did. He and the rest of the original Twelve Apostles and the Seventy Secondarily Prophets in the Church (1 Corinthians 12: 28), were given special powers by our Lord Jesus which constituted the pre-anointing (Matthew 10: 1). Consequently, those 82 individuals were put on trial for life before Pentecost; for their names were inscribed in the Lamb’s Book of Life as prospective new creatures before Pentecost (Luke 10: 20). Thus, for any of these pre-anointed ones to make shipwreck of his calling would mean the Second Death.

Jesus tells us Judas was “lost” and calls him the “son of perdition,” the same title as is bestowed upon the Papacy, for the same reason (John 17: 12) (2 Thessalonians 3: 8). This shows that Jesus expected that Judas (like the great Antichrist, Papacy) would be eternally annihilated.

The Greek word translated “perdition” is apoleia, from apollumi, which means “to destroy fully” (Strong), “to be lost, ruined, destroyed” (Thayer). Among the Jews, one who had a special good or bad quality was called the “son of” it. For example, one who was peaceable was called “a son of peace” (Luke 10: 6). Judas was obviously called “the son of perdition” by Jesus because when he would die, he would end up in perdition because of his bad character, which was manifested by his betraying treachery. In Psalm 41: 9 (compare John 13: 18) it was prophesied of Jesus’ betrayer, “Mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.”

Jesus’ statement concerning Judas, “good were it for that man if he had never been born” (Mark 4: 21), shows that our Lord did not see any chance for Judas’ recovery. If there were an opportunity for Judas’ recovery – however much contempt his treachery brought upon him – if he could yet reform (as all having a Millennial opportunity will have the possibility of doing), it certainly would not have been better for him not to have been born. Therefore, we understand that there will be no recovery for Judas, but that “as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed” (2 Peter 2: 12), he is dead forever.