We conclude Chapter 20 today with what is known as the Great White Throne Judgment.
"Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it." (Revelation 20:11a) Scholars are divided in their opinion on the identity of the One on the throne. Many feel this is Christ, for in John 5:22-23 Christ said, "Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent Him."
Other scholars think the One seated on the throne is God the Father or all three persons of the Holy Trinity combined, but personally I lean quite heavily toward believing this person is the Lord Jesus Christ because when we move on into Chapter 21 we will find the One seated on the throne saying, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End." (Revelation 21:6) Where have we seen this before? In Revelation 1:8 when the glorified Christ appeared to John on the Isle of Patmos to give him the message of Revelation. On that day the Lord said in reference to Himself, "I am the Alpha and the Omega...who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." In Revelation 2:8 the Lord Jesus called Himself "the First and the Last, who died and came to life again". In Revelation 22:13 He is going to say of Himself, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End." The only place in the Scriptures where we find these titles used is in the book of Revelation when Christ is speaking of Himself. Since the One seated on the throne uses these titles in the next chapter, I feel it's reasonably safe to assume that the Judge on the Great White Throne is the Lord Jesus Christ.
When an earthly judge enters a courtroom, everyone in the courtroom is ordered to rise to their feet in respect for the authority given to the judge by the government of the United States. The long robes of our judges mark them as people who handle the law and who judge according to the law. The Lord Jesus Christ is going to enter the courtroom and be seated on the Great White Throne. The entire creation will be awestruck by His appearance, so awestruck that the heavens and the earth flee in order to reveal to Him everything that has taken place in the entire creation. I don't know how the Lord will be dressed physically, but at the sight of the awesome power and glory emanating from Him, John says: "The earth and the heavens fled from His presence, and there was no place for them." (Revelation 20:11b)
The fleeing of the heavens and the earth from the presence of the Lord is likely a reference to the fact that nothing is hidden from the Lord, so that when He sits down to judge, all the necessary information and evidence are at His disposal so He can judge righteously. "For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open." (Matthew 10:26, Luke 8:17, Luke 12:2) "Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God." (1 Corinthians 4:5) "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." (Hebrews 4:13)
John continues: "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books." (Revelation 20:12) You will recall from our passage yesterday that a large number of people followed Satan when he was released from prison. These were people who were still living on the earth in their natural bodies. When they gathered to attack Jerusalem and to attempt to remove the King of kings from the throne of David, fire came down from heaven and destroyed them all. The only people still alive on the earth now are those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. The population is made up of people who have already been given eternal bodies like Christ's (the church and the Tribulation martyrs) and people who still exist in natural bodies (those who came to faith in Christ during the Great Tribulation and survived the Great Tribulation, along with those who came to faith in Christ during the millennium). It is at this point that the dead of all the ages, except for those who died in Christ (because they have already been resurrected), are brought to stand before the Lord.
It doesn't matter that the bodies of these dead may have crumbled to dust in the grave long ago, or that some of them had themselves cremated, or that they drowned in the ocean and nothing visible remains of any part of their former bodies. The One who spoke the entire universe into existence, the One who created man from the dust of the earth, the One who breathed life into man and made him into a living soul, is able to call back together every cell of every person's body. "The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done." (Revelation 20:13)
The holy Judge has books before Him. There are books that contain a list of the deeds of these people, and there is a book that contains the names of those who have obtained forgiveness for their deeds because of their faith. Every human being who has ever lived is a sinner. The book that contains the deeds of man contains a list of each person's sins. The Lord can easily see that each person who stands before Him at the Great White Throne has violated His laws.
The Lord then checks for their names in the book of life. Even in Old Testament times, when Christ had not yet come in the flesh to offer Himself for man's sins, men and women obtained forgiveness for their sins by their faith in God. Men and women prayed for the Lord to show them mercy. Men and women brought the appropriate sacrifices of atonement, thereby acknowledging that they were sinners for whom blood must be shed, and thereby giving thanks to the God of mercy that He was willing to accept the blood of a substitute instead of their own blood. These people were justified by their faith, just as the Lord said Abraham was justified by faith. (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3) How was Abraham justified by faith? Because He believed in the Lord and because he believed the Lord would do what He said. In the same way, men and women have been justified by their faith since long before Christ came in the flesh because they believed in the Lord and they believed the Lord would do what He said. So even though many of these who stand before the Judge lived long before the first advent of Christ, many of their names will be found in the book of life because of their faith. The presence of their names in the book of life cancels out the list of offenses contained in the other book.
Those whose names are not in the book of life are condemned to an eternity separated from the Lord, separated from the people of the Lord, and separated from all that is holy and righteous and true. They join Satan, the Antichrist, and the False prophet in the lake of fire. Death itself and the realm of the dead (the Greek Hades) are also cast into the lake of fire because from now on there will be no more death. "Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:14-15)
Today's passage is very solemn. It should serve as a warning to anyone who continues to reject the Lord Jesus Christ. But at the same time there is something for believers to rejoice about: death is destroyed! All our other enemies have already been destroyed by this point in Revelation and now, as promised in 1 Corinthians 15:26, our last enemy is destroyed. In our next chapter we will be told that the Lord Himself will wipe every tear from the eye of every person who belongs to Him because there will never again be anything to cry about. "There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21:4)
There will be no more doctor's offices or hospitals or nursing homes. There will be no more drugstores. There will be no more funeral homes. There will be no more cemeteries. Now that the final judgment is over here in Revelation 20, all the graves are empty. No one will ever dig another grave because no one will ever die. There's an old song called "Gloryland" that was written by Ralph Stanley, and a quartet used to sing it at a church I attended when I lived in Virginia. A line in the song goes perfectly with our passage today because it says there will be "no graves on that bright shore". Amen! Imagine a world without cemeteries, where no gently rolling hill and where no flowered field contains a grave and where no body lies crumbling to dust under the ground. From one end of the earth to the other, everything will be beautiful with no hint of sadness or pain.
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