The number "two" has two different meanings in the Bible. In most cases "two" indicates a joining together or unification. This is easy to see if we consider the conflicts we tend to have between our "hearts" and our "heads" -- between what we want and what we know. Our "hearts" tell us that we want pie with ice cream for dinner; our "heads" tell us we should have grilled chicken and salad. If we can bring those two together and actually want what's good for us, we'll be pretty happy. We're built that way -- with our emotions balanced against our intellect -- because the Lord is built that way. His essence is love itself, or Divine Love, the source of all caring, emotion and energy. It is expressed as Divine Wisdom, which gives form to that love and puts it to work, and is the source of all knowledge and reasoning. In His case the two aspects are always in conjunction, always in harmony. It's easy also to see how that duality is reflected throughout creation: plants and animals, food and drink, silver and gold. Most importantly, it's reflected in the two genders, with women representing love and men representing wisdom. That's the underlying reason why conjunction in marriage is such a holy thing. So when "two" is used in the Bible to indicate some sort of pairing or unity, it means a joining together. In rare cases, however, "two" is used more purely as a number. In these cases it stands for a profane or unholy state that comes before a holy one. This is because "three" represents a state of holiness and completion (Jesus, for instance, rose from the tomb on the third day), and "two" represents the state just before it.

128. He that overcometh shall not be hurt by the second death, signifies that he who is steadfast in the genuine affection of truth to the end of his life in the world, shall come into the new heaven. This is evident from the signification of "overcoming," as being in reference to those who long for the knowledges of truth and good from the Word, to be steadfast in the genuine affection of truth, even to the end of life in the world. It is said "he that overcometh," because those are meant who endure spiritual temptation, which is from evils and falsities, and who fight; and "to overcome" is to resist evils and falsities, and to tame and subdue them as one's enemies. But no one overcomes unless he is steadfast in the spiritual affection of truth, even to the end of his life in the world; then the work is finished; for man remains to eternity such as he then is, namely, such as his life has been up to that point; death is what completes it. But no one is able to overcome except the Lord only. The man who supposes that he overcomes of himself, and not that it is the Lord with him that overcomes, does not overcome but succumbs; for it is spiritual faith that overcomes, and there is nothing of spiritual faith from man, but the whole of it is from the Lord. (What spiritual faith is, see in the small work on The Last Judgment 33-39; and in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 108-120; and what spiritual temptation is, n. 187-201.) That "not to be hurt by the second death" is to come into the new heaven, cannot be known unless it is known what the former heaven is, and what the new heaven, which are treated of in chapter 21 of Revelation. (Something of what the "former heaven" is can be seen in The small work on The Last Judgment 65-72; and what the "new heaven" is, in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 1-7.) But what is meant by the "first death" and by the "second death," also by the "first resurrection" and "second resurrection," will be told in the explanation of chapters 20 and 21, where it is said:

The rest of the dead shall not live again until the thousand years be finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the second ¹ resurrection; over these the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ (Revelation 20:5-6).

Their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death (Revelation 21:8).

From this it is clear that the "second death" is damnation; to be hurt by it, therefore, is to be damned, and on the other hand, not to be hurt by it is to be saved; and as all that are saved come into the new heaven, to come into the new heaven is signified by "not being hurt by the second death" (of which heaven, and of whom it consists, see in the small work on The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 2-6).

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