Transcript

An armed robber named Dennis Lee Curtis was arrested in 1992 in Rapid City, South Dakota. Curtis apparently had scruples about his thievery. In his wallet the police found a sheet of paper on which was written the following code:

1. I will not kill anyone unless I have to. 2. I will take cash and food stamps—no checks. 3. I will rob only at night. 4. I will not wear a mask. 5. I will not rob mini-marts or 7-Eleven stores. 6. If I get chased by cops on foot, I will get away. If chased by vehicle, I will not put the lives of innocent civilians on the line. 7. I will rob only seven months out of the year. 8. I will enjoy robbing from the rich to give to the poor.

This thief had a sense of morality, but it was flawed. When he stood before the court, he was not judged by the standards he had set for himself but by the higher law of the state.

Likewise when unbelievers stand before Christ at the Great White Throne, they will not be judged by the code of morality they have written for themselves but by God’s perfect standard. And because they died in their sins and unrighteousness, all who appear at this judgment will be eternally condemned to the Lake of Fire.

In this scene from the final act, we’ll be looking at the final judgment of the Great White Throne.

Revelation 20:11: “And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.”

The Great White Throne Judgment takes place around 1007 years after the Rapture of the Church. It takes place after the 7-year Tribulation Period, after the 1000-year kingdom and Satan’s captivity in the bottomless pit, after the final battle of Gog and Magog, and after Satan is cast into the Lake of Fire.

With the Great White Throne Judgment, God puts the last period on the last sentence of the last paragraph of the last page. This is the final event and judgment of human history, the last event that will take place before the eternal state is ushered in.

The next scene that is shown to John is a Great White Throne. There are 7 aspects of the Great White Throne Judgment: The Courtroom, The Judge, The Accused, The Evidence, The Defense, The Verdict, and The Sentence.

First, THE COURTROOM. John observes that the courtroom is made up of a great white throne. His observation of the throne being “great” has not so much to do with its size as to the extent of its jurisdiction.

All unbelievers, both small and great, throughout all time, will be summoned before God. The throne is also “great” because the throne exudes power and authority. It is “great” because of the great, eternal issues involved.

Hebrews 10:31 tells us that “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” The Great White Throne will be an intimidating and terrifying scene.

There will be no comfort for the unbeliever ever again, only a permanent, endless state of fear and terror.

The throne is a “white” throne. White signifies glory and purity and the perfect holiness of the One seated on the throne.

Being confronted with the perfect holiness and righteousness of God at that day, standing there in their sins and their own filthy self-righteousness, each unbeliever will be utterly ashamed.

The only way anyone can stand before God and be accepted by Him is to be washed in the blood of God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Savior “loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood” as Revelation 1:5 says.

In Christ, before God, we are “holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight” (Col. 1:22), and we are “made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5:21).

The whiteness of the throne also signifies that the judgment handed down from it will be perfect and pure. The Apostle Paul calls the Lord “the righteous Judge” (II Tim. 4:8).

Psalm 9:8 tells us that, when the Lord judges, “He shall judge the world in righteousness, He shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.”

In this life, corruption, social status, and wealth often influence the decision in a court of law. Because of dishonesty or lack of evidence, justice is not always served.

This will not be the case at the Great White Throne. Christ will judge the world in absolute, infallible righteousness.

In our Western judicial systems, a person convicted of a crime may be entitled to appeal the decision and be granted a retrial.

Many court decisions today are contested this way. This mechanism, which is built into the court system, is actually an admission of the fallible nature of our earthly judicial practices, an acknowledgement of the fact that a court can make an error.

God, in the Person of Jesus Christ, however, is an infallible Judge. He is incapable of error. There is no chance for, nor need of, any appeal by those sentenced at the Great White Throne Judgment. The sentence handed down is just, and it is final.

The Great White Throne is a day of no return. There will be no appeals. At the Great White Throne, there will be a Judge, but no jury; a prosecution, but no defense; a sentence, but no appeal. No one will be able to defend themselves or accuse God of corruption or unrighteousness.

Next, John observes THE JUDGE. And the One John sees sitting on the throne is the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father has delivered all judgment into the hands of His dear Son. The Judge of all the earth is not some far-away deity who is unable to relate to the human plight.

Revelation 1:5 teaches that “Jesus Christ is the faithful Witness, and the first begotten of the dead” (Rev. 1:5). Christ’s witness is faithful and trustworthy. He knows and has observed all that has happened in the life of every single person:

“For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He pondereth all his goings” says Proverbs 5:21. He not only knows what was done, but why it was done and what prompted it all.

In John’s description of Christ in Revelation 1:14, he wrote that “His eyes were as a flame of fire.” His eyes pierce the heart of man. And at the Great White Throne, He will expose the evil deeds, thoughts, and heart of each person.

The infallible, all-knowing, sovereign God sits on this throne in the Person of Jesus Christ.

The One who has been sinned against is the Judge.

The Creator Who allowed them every breath they ever took will judge them. The Savior, with marks of His love still visible in His hands and feet, will hand down the sentence of the second death and hell because they did not believe.

John states about Christ at this Judgment that “the earth and the heaven fled away” from His face. This speaks of His almighty power as God and Creator.

It is to remind us of the majesty and glory of the One before Whom all the unbelieving must stand to be judged for their sins.

This clause of verse 11 also points to the contaminated universe going out of existence. Heaven and earth both have been permeated with sin. They flee away from His face as He purges them with fire at this time.

The Great White Throne Judgment will likely take place during the time the heavens and earth are being purged of sin by fire.

Because the next thing the Apostle John sees after this judgment is, “a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away” (Rev. 21:1).

Thus, sin is purged from the earth and heaven. At the Great White Throne Judgment, sinful human beings are judged and sentenced, and they will carry their sins with them into the Lake of Fire forever. In these two events, sin will be eliminated and removed in all God’s creation, and there will be no sin whatsoever in the eternal state.

Heaven and earth having “fled away,” the last part of Revelation 20:11 tells us, “there was found no place for them.” This literally means that there will be no place for them to run or hide.

In the garden of Eden, Adam sinned and tried to hide among the trees in the garden. But there will be no trees on that day. When the prodigal ran away from his father, he ran to a far country, but there will be no far country to run to on this day.

When Jonah rebelled against God’s will, he tried to take a boat to run away and hide from the Lord. But there will be no transportation to carry a person away on that day.

There will be nowhere to run, and every excuse will be stripped away. It’ll be 1 on 1, the sinner and the Judge at the Great White Throne. Each unsaved person must face the Judge, Who is Almighty God, individually, and each person must face Him alone.

Revelation 20:12: “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”

Next, John observes the THE ACCUSED. The Great White Throne is a judgment of those called “the dead.” After the battle with Gog and Magog, all unbelievers will have died and their souls will be in hades in the center of the earth.

“The dead” here are the unsaved dead of all the ages of history. All those who are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1) are the subjects of this judgment.

While the unbelieving are raised from the dead as a group, they will be judged individually. Their judgment is not to determine whether those who stand before Christ are going to heaven or hell.

All who stand at the Great White Throne are going to hell; they are not going to heaven. Those that appear at this judgment have died in their sins; consequently they are already condemned.

The unbelieving “small and great,” and everyone in between, will stand before Christ at the Great White Throne. There will be no favoritism at this judgment.

“For there is no respect of persons with God” Romans 2:11 teaches. No one standing before this throne can claim to have any privilege or advantage. It will not matter who you are.

The “small”: the down-and-out, drunkards, prostitutes, drug users, criminals, the common man, the little known, the poor; and the “great”: the rich, the famous, the leaders of the world, the CEO’s, even the brilliant minds such as inventors, professors, doctors, engineers, scientists—all unbelieving humanity will be judged at the Great White Throne.

Both small and great, rich and poor, bond and free will “stand before God” (20:12). When a judge is preparing to pass a final sentence, he has the offender stand before him. So it will be at that day.

Next, John sees the THE EVIDENCE brought against the accused. “…and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”

I believe the Apostle John is referring to three sets of books here. “The books were opened” refers to the 66 books of the Bible and the books that record the sinful works of the unsaved. The third, “another” book that “was opened” “is the book of life.”

According to the Apostle Paul, “God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel” (Rom. 2:16). The written Word of God will play a prominent role in the sentencing phase of those who reject the gospel. It will be the evidence to show how they “have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

By Paul’s gospel they will see what a perfect plan God had for them and how He provided a way of escape from the penalty of their sins through the substitutionary work of Christ at the Cross, which Paul’s gospel so clearly reveals.

The Cross is the foundation of all of God’s good news through the ages past, time present, and the ages to come and is the basis for why and how anyone is saved from their sins.

But because they rejected God’s provision of salvation within their dispensation, and died in their sins, they must face the penalty and eternal punishment for their sins themselves.

At the Great White Throne, the unsaved shall be “judged…according to their works” verse 13 says. These works are sinful works: works of iniquity, wicked works, and works of the flesh.

Nothing has escaped the all-seeing eye of Almighty God. In Luke 12:2 the Lord said, “For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known” (Luke 12:2).

All will be revealed at the Great White Throne. In preparation for that day, a meticulous record is being kept of the unrighteous acts of the unsaved.

Every evil, wicked, and impure word, thought, and deed; every sin ever done by the unsaved, are being recorded in books.

God knows what all are doing, and His books, recorded by divine omniscience, and perhaps by angelic service to God, will reveal the truth at that day.

Every act that condemned men’s souls to perdition shall be exposed. Every hidden sin shall be brought out into the open. The book of works will demonstrate the absence of spiritual life, their utter depravity, and that they deserve the Lake of Fire.

The books will show them all how infinitely short they fall of God’s holiness, perfection, and glory.

Seeing that unbelievers are judged by Christ according to their works, some evil deeds will carry a greater penalty than others.

The same is true in the affairs of men. A man who steals from his employer is likely to be placed on probation and have to pay restitution, while a man who commits an armed robbery at a bank will serve prison time.

The penalty always matches the violation, or at least this is the intent of the law. In God’s court of justice, PERFECT retribution will be paid. Scripture says, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Rom. 12:19).

There will be degrees of damnation and punishment within hell. The atrocities of evil people and the corrupt influences that remained after their death will be carefully weighed out on the scales of God’s justice and such people will suffer a degree of punishment that is commensurate with their sins. Nothing will escape the justice of God!

Christ is a righteous Judge and He will assign each unbeliever the place in the lake of fire and the degree of eternal punishment that they deserve.

John records “and another book was opened, which is the book of life” (Rev. 20:12).

I believe the Scriptures teach that every name has been recorded in the book of life. God has made reservations for all! When the enemies of David sought to trouble him, he lifted his voice to God with these words in Psalm 69:

“Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into Thy righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.”

David was so perplexed over the actions of the unrighteous who were hindering the plans and purposes of God that he prayed God would blot them out of the book of life and not allow their names to remain written alongside those of the righteous.

Obviously, the names of the unrighteous must appear in the book for there to be the possibility to blot them out.

Those who receive God’s salvation during their lifetimes will never have their names blotted out of the book of life (Phil. 4:3).

However, if a sinner dies in his sins, his name is immediately blotted out of the book of the living. This will serve as a testimony against the unsaved at that day.

At the time of the Great White Throne, all the unsaved will be dead, and only the names of the righteous and those with eternal life will be left written in the book. This book will be opened and shown to the unbeliever.

Based on Revelation 20:15, “whosoever was not FOUND written in the book of life,” it seems that Christ will open the page to find where the name should be, and He will show where the name was recorded in the book of life, but all there will be is a blank space.

The name was blotted out. These people don’t have spiritual life. They are dead in their sins. Those who are cast into the Lake of Fire will be haunted for eternity by the blank space where their name once appeared.

These 3 books tell a story. Book 1 (the Bible) says, “This was God’s perfect plan to save you from your sins and give you eternal life.” Book 2 says, “This was your life.” Book 3 says, “You never responded to God’s provision of salvation and you don’t have eternal life.”

That’s the evidence. Then comes the DEFENSE. But there is none. There will be no adequate defense. There will be no excuses. There will be no alibis. The unbelieving will be utterly speechless. Because you can’t argue against omniscience. God knows all.

And the things written in the books in black and white that unbelievers have done will betray them and will be overwhelming evidence against them.

And thus comes THE VERDICT: Guilty! All will be shown to be guilty and that they have come short of the glory of God, and thus are deserving of God’s just judgment.

Revelation 20:13-15: And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

“And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

Finally, we come to the THE SENTENCE.

Death and Hell, or literally hades, both describe the state of death prior to the eternal state. “Death” refers to the grave and the TEMPORARY holding place of unsaved people’s bodies. “Hades” refers to the TEMPORARY holding place of unsaved people’s souls in the center of the earth, where they are held in a conscious state of punishment.

Earlier in Revelation we learn how the fourth horseman of the apocalypse is death, with hades following close behind (Rev. 6:8).

Death and Hades will wreak havoc throughout the Tribulation—one claiming its victims physical life and the other holding their soul captive in the infernal region in the center of the earth. But the day is coming when “death” will be required to release the bodies of all the unsaved from the grave. Simultaneously “hades” will empty itself as well.

Then the souls and spirits of the unsaved will be reunited with their bodies in the resurrection of the unjust. And no unsaved person will escape. They will ALL be raised for this judgment at the Great White Throne.

The resurrected bodies then given to the unsaved by God will be indestructible and able to exist and suffer forever in the torments of the Lake of Fire.

Once the final judgment takes place, both death and hades are cast into the Lake of Fire. Because, in the eternal state, there will no longer be physical death, and there will be no need for hades since all unbelievers will be in the Lake of Fire.

The Apostle Paul wrote that “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (I Cor. 15:26). Physical death is done away with forever at this time.

Speaking of the lake of fire, John wrote that “This is the second death.” The first death is physical death. The second death is spiritual, eternal death in the lake of fire. It is the continuation of separation from God for all eternity in the Lake of Fire.

And the sentence of “second death” will be handed down to each and every person who stands before God at the Great White Throne, because their names will not be found to be written in the book of life. They are not in the book of “life,” because they do not have life in Christ. Instead, they are spiritually dead in their sins.

At the Great White Throne, each unbeliever is raised, stands before God, and is judged according to their works. The sentence will be “second death,” and the whole person, body, soul and spirit, will be cast into the Lake of Fire to remain and suffer there forever.

Not long ago, I spoke at a youth camp, and I was demonstrating to them how the Bible is true, by the places and locations in the Bible being real places you can see and visit, such as Athens, Mars Hill, Rome, Jerusalem, Mount Carmel, Nazareth, Bethlehem, Mount of Olives, Sea of Galilee, Jordan River, etc.

And many places have also been unearthed by archaelogists: the Pool of Bethesda, Pool of Siloam, Megiddo, Philippi, Corinth, Caesarea, Ephesus, Capernaum, Chorazin, etc.

And just like all these places are real places, the Bible also teaches of a real place called the lake of fire. It is just as real as all the other real locations the Bible mentions, and just as true, because everything the Bible reveals is true.

The Lake of Fire is the final destination of the unsaved. It is a literal place where the unbelieving suffer under the wrath of God for all eternity.

It is a place that it is a relentless, suffocating “furnace of fire” (Matt. 13:42). It is a place where the fire “never shall be quenched” (Mark 9:45). It is a place of “everlasting punishment” (Matt. 25:46). It is a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 22:13).

It is a place of “torment” (Rev. 14:11). It is a place of “no rest” (Rev. 14:11). It is a place of “blackness of darkness for ever” (Jude 13). And the people there will spend eternity in the midst of undiluted evil forever and ever, never to experience anything good again.

As the Apostle Paul wrote, they “shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power” (2 Thes. 1:9).

May these sobering truths about the Great White Throne and the Lake of Fire drive us toward fulfilling our commission to beg people to be reconciled to God before it’s too late.

There are many roads to hell, but there is only one way to avoid it. Just by believing that Christ died for your sins personally and rose again, you are saved from the second death in the Lake of Fire.