17

Man’s Last Day
in God’s Court

(Revelation 20:11–15)

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (20:11–15)

This passage describes the final sentencing of the lost and is the most serious, sobering, and tragic passage in the entire Bible. Commonly known as the Great White Throne judgment, it is the last courtroom scene that will ever take place. After this there will never again be a trial, and God will never again need to act as judge. The accused, all the unsaved who have ever lived, will be resurrected to experience a trial like no other that has ever been. There will be no debate over their guilt or innocence. There will be a prosecutor, but no defender; an accuser, but no advocate. There will be an indictment, but no defense mounted by the accused; the convicting evidence will be presented with no rebuttal or cross-examination. There will be an utterly unsympathetic Judge and no jury, and there will be no appeal of the sentence He pronounces. The guilty will be punished eternally with no possibility of parole in a prison from which there is no escape.

The language of this passage is plain, stark, and unembellished. Few details are given, and the description is utterly lacking in the vivid, eloquent modifiers that might be expected. But the scene is frightening enough in its own right that such language would be superfluous. The beloved apostle John, recording this vision in a cave or on a hillside on the island of Patmos, no doubt was shaken as he wrote of the eternal damnation of the wicked.

Ever since the Fall, Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44), has attempted to deceive people about the reality of the coming judgment. He has done his best to convince people that there will be no final tribunal. Satan has deceived sinners into believing that they can live as they please without fear of ultimate accountability or future punishment. Satan said to Eve, “You surely will not die!” (Gen. 3:4), thus voicing his denial of judgment on sin. The primary means the devil uses in his deception are atheism (particularly the godless theory of evolution) and false religion. Atheism’s denial of God’s existence means there is no moral Judge to whom people are accountable after they die. They wrongly believe that they are free to sin as they please and then simply pass out of existence. The gods of most false religions are not holy, requiring inward righteousness and heart obedience, and they are appeased by ritual and ceremony; thus these gods inspire no fear of accountability in their worshipers.

But despite the vain, foolish speculations of men, the true and living God is the Supreme Judge of the universe. His judgment of unbelievers will be just, because He is just. Deuteronomy 32:4 says of God, “His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He.” Job 37:23–24 declares, “The Almighty—we cannot find Him; He is exalted in power and He will not do violence to justice and abundant righteousness. Therefore men fear Him.” God cannot but be just, because the absolutely holy perfection of His nature will not allow Him to do anything but what is right. God’s will is the supreme standard of justice and equity, and He wills nothing but what is just, right, and true. Nothing outside of Himself compels God to act justly; justice is His very nature. Thus, all of God’s acts toward people are perfectly just; sinners have all wronged God’s justice, but God’s justice has not wronged them, nor could it ever.

No one at the Great White Throne judgment will have the slightest grounds for complaint about his or her sentence. Those who reject God’s grace and mercy in this life will inevitably face His justice in the life to come. God said of wayward Israel, “My people did not listen to My voice, and Israel did not obey Me” (Ps. 81:11). To their equally stiff-necked descendants Jesus declared, “You are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life” (John 5:40) and “You will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24). Unrepentant sinners will experience God’s justice at the Great White Throne judgment.

This simple, but powerful text describes the terrifying reality of the final verdict and sentence on sinners under four headings: the scene, the summons, the standard, and the sentence.

THE SCENE

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, (20:11–12 a)

In one brief, straightforward, unembellished statement, John describes the appalling, terrifying scene before him. The apostle is shown the Judge seated on His throne of judgment, and all the accused standing before Him. The familiar phrase kai eidon once again introduces a new vision in Revelation (cf. vv. 1, 4; 6:1; 7:2; 8:2; 10:1; 13:1, 11; 14:1, 6, 14; 15:1; 17:3; 19:11; 21:1). This vision of the Great White Throne judgment follows those of the Millennium (20:1–10), and the Second Coming (19:11–21), and immediately precedes that of the new heaven and the new earth (21:1ff.).

The first thing John saw was a great white throne. Nearly fifty times in Revelation there is the mention of a throne. In this case it is the seat of God’s sovereign rule (cf. 4:2–6, 9; 5:1–7, 13; 6:16; 7:10, 15; 19:4; 21:5). It is called great not only because of its size as greater than the thrones mentioned in 20:4, but also because of its significance, majesty, and authority. That it is white symbolizes its purity, holiness, and justice. The verdict handed down from this throne will be absolutely equitable, righteous, and just. “The Lord abides forever,” wrote David, “He has established His throne for judgment, and He will judge the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity” (Ps. 9:7–8). Daniel described this scene in Daniel 7:9–10:

Jesus described this scene as the “resurrection of judgment” (John 5:29). Of this judgment, the apostle Paul wrote, “Because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Rom. 2:5).

Even more awe inspiring than the throne was the vision of Him who sat upon it. The judge on the throne is none other than the eternal, almighty God, described in the throne scene of 4:8–11:

Earlier in Revelation the Tribulation martyrs cried out, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (7:10). In 19:4 “The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, Amen. Hallelujah!” (cf. 1:4; 4: 9–10; 5:6–7, 13; 6:16). Sharing the throne with the Father is the Lord Jesus Christ. In 3:21 Jesus promised, “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” In John’s vision of the new heaven and the new earth, he saw “the throne of God and of the Lamb” (22:1,3).

Though the Father and the Son share the throne, it is the Son who is uniquely in view here, since Scripture teaches that He will judge sinners. In John 5:22 Jesus said, “Not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son,” while in verses 26–27 He added, “Just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.” In Acts 10:42 Peter declared that Jesus “is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead.” The apostle Paul warned the pagan philosophers of Athens that God “has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). In Romans he wrote of “the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus” (Rom. 2:16), while to Timothy he noted that “Christ Jesus … is to judge the living and the dead” (2 Tim. 4:1). It is God in the Person of the glorified Lord Jesus Christ who will sit in final judgment on unbelievers.

After describing the vision of the Judge on His throne, John noted the startling reality that from His presence earth and heaven fled away. That amazing, incredible statement describes the “uncreation” of the universe. The earth will have been reshaped by the devastating judgments of the Tribulation and restored during the millennial kingdom. Yet it will still be tainted with sin and subject to the effects of the Fall—decay and death; hence it must be destroyed, since nothing corrupted by sin will be permitted to exist in the eternal state (2 Pet. 3:13). God will in its place create “a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away” (21:1; cf. 21:5; Isa. 65:17; 66:22; 2 Pet. 3:13). The present earth and heaven will not merely be moved or reshaped, since John saw in his vision that no place was found for them. They will be uncreated and go totally out of existence. This is nothing less than the sudden, violent termination of the universe (cf. Ps. 102:25–26; Isa. 51:6; Matt. 5:18; 24:35; Luke 16:17; 21:33; Heb. 1:10–12; 12:26–27). Barnhouse wrote, “There is to be an end of the material heavens and earth which we know. It is not that they are to be purified and rehabilitated, but that the reverse of creation is to take place. They are to be uncreated. As they came from nothing at the word of God, they are to be sucked back into nothingness by this same word of God” (Revelation: An Expository Commentary [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1971], 391).

The details of God’s uncreation of the universe are given by Peter in 2 Peter 3:10–13, which describes the final expression of the Day of the Lord:

The Day of the Lord will come suddenly, unexpectedly, and with disastrous consequences for the unprepared—just like the coming of a thief. When that Day comes, several things will happen. First, “the heavens will pass away with a roar.” Rhoizedon (“roar”) is an onomatopoetic word; that is, a word that sounds like what it means. It describes the loud whistling, crackling, rushing sound that will result when “the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up … [when] the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat.” Stoicheion (“elements”) refers to the basic building blocks of matter, such as atomic and subatomic particles. “Destroyed” is from the verb lu?, and could be translated “dissolved.” The present universe will explode like a gigantic nuclear bomb, and the resulting “intense heat” will literally dissolve all the matter in it. The present laws of thermodynamics, which state that matter can neither be created nor destroyed, will no longer be in effect. As a result, the universe “will be burned up”; it will be totally consumed. The absolute reverse of creation will occur. It didn’t take eons of evolution to create the universe, nor will it take eons to uncreate it. The uncreation of the universe, like its creation, will take place by the word of God.

Introducing the final element in this fearful scene, John writes that he saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. The setting is the indescribable void, the inconceivable nothingness between the end of the present universe and the creation of the new heaven and the new earth. The prisoners before the bar are all physically dead, since there are no longer any living people—none could possibly have survived the destruction of the present universe. The last living unbelievers will perish when God crushes the rebellion at the end of the Millennium (20:8–9). The last living believers will be translated and transformed into their eternal bodies, like Enoch (Gen. 5:24), Elijah (2 Kings 2:11), and the raptured church (1 Thess. 4:13–18).

The dead pictured here standing before the throne of divine judgment are not just from the millennial rebellion, but include all the unbelievers who ever lived. This is the “resurrection of judgment” (John 5:29), the resurrection “to disgrace and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2), the “resurrection of … the wicked” (Acts 24:15). The Bible teaches that no believer will ever face God’s judgment, because “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). Everyone “who believes in Him is not judged” (John 3:18); they have “eternal life, and [do] not come into judgment, but [have] passed out of death into life” (John 5:24). Far from being judged, all the godly participants in the first resurrection (20:6) will have already received their rewards (cf. v. 4; 19:7–9; 1 Cor. 3:12–15; 2 Cor. 5:10).

To emphasize the all-encompassing scope of the judgment, John notes that the sweeping mass of unbelievers before God’s throne includes both the great and the small. All will face judgment, the somebodies and the nobodies, “for there is no partiality with God” (Rom. 2:11; cf. Deut. 10:17; Job 34:19; Eph. 6:9; Col. 3:25; 1 Pet. 1:17). John Phillips provocatively wrote:

THE SUMMONS

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; (20:13a)

As the next scene in this ultimate courtroom drama unfolds, the prisoners are summoned from their cells to appear before the Judge. Since their deaths, their souls have been tormented in a place of punishment; now the time has come for them to be sentenced to the final, eternal hell. Before the sea was uncreated and went out of existence (cf. 21:1), it gave up the dead which were in it. The sea may be singled out because it is seemingly the most difficult place from which bodies could be resurrected. But God will summon from its depths new bodies for all who perished in the sea throughout human history, including those who drowned in the Flood, those who went down with the Titanic, the Lusitania, the Arizona, and the countless other ships that have sunk, as well as all the millions of other people who met their end at sea. Death symbolizes all the places on land from which God will resurrect new bodies for the unrighteous dead. The sea and death are pictured as voracious monsters that have swallowed those bodies and will be forced to disgorge them before their uncreation.

Hades is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word sheol. Both words describe the realm of the dead. Sheol, used sixty-seven times in the Old Testament, describes the realm of the dead in general. Hades is used ten times in the New Testament, always in reference to the place of punishment (cf. Luke 16:23) where the unrighteous dead are kept pending their sentencing to hell. In this incredible scene, Hades is emptied of its captive spirits, who are reunited with resurrection bodies before the bar of God’s justice. Unbelievers, fitted with resurrection bodies suited for hell, will then be ready for their sentencing to the lake of fire where their punishment, unlike that in Hades, will last forever.

THE STANDARD

and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds…. and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. (20:126, 136)

As the judgment commences, the Judge opens the books. The scene is reminiscent of the one described by Daniel:

The books contain the record of every thought, word, and deed of every unsaved person who ever lived. God has kept perfect, accurate, and comprehensive records of every person’s life, and the dead will be judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. Sinners’ deeds will be measured against God’s perfect, holy standard, which Jesus defined in Matthew 5:48: “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” In his first epistle Peter wrote, “Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Pet. 1:15–16). To the Galatians Paul wrote, “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them’” (Gal. 3:10)—a truth also taught by James: “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” (James 2:10). No prisoner before the bar of divine justice will be able to claim the perfect obedience to God’s holy standards that He requires. They “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), and are “dead in [their] trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1).

God’s justice demands payment for every person’s sins. Christ paid that penalty for believers: “He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him” (Isa. 53:5–6). “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’” (Gal. 3:13). God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). “[Christ] Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Pet. 2:24). But unbelievers, not having Christ’s righteousness imputed to them (Phil. 3:9), will themselves pay the penalty for violating God’s law—eternal destruction in hell (2 Thess. 1:9).

God’s judgment of impenitent, unbelieving sinners’ evil deeds will include their thoughts. “God … knows the secrets of the heart” (Ps. 44:21), and He “will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus” (Rom. 2:16), “For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light” (Luke 8:17). Sinners will also be judged for their words. Jesus said in Matthew 12:37, “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Finally, unbelievers will be judged for their actions: “God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil” (Eccl. 12:14); “The Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds” (Matt. 16:27). Nor will anyone be able to claim ignorance of God’s standards, because both creation (Rom. 1:20) and the conscience (Rom. 2:14–15) reveal God’s righteousness. Those without knowledge of God’s law will be judged on the basis of the knowledge they did have (Rom. 2:12).

The absolute, unerring accuracy of God’s judgment will ensure that unbelievers’ punishment in hell fits their iniquity. Each person’s life will be individually evaluated, and each person’s punishment will be consistent with that evaluation. Thus, Scripture teaches that there will be varying degrees of punishment in hell. When He sent the twelve out on a preaching tour Jesus told them, “Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city” (Matt. 10:14–15). Rebuking several cities for their unbelief, Jesus declared:

The hypocritical scribes “who like to walk around in long robes, and like respectful greetings in the market places, and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets, who devour widows’ houses, and for appearance’s sake offer long prayers; these will receive greater condemnation” (Mark 12:38–40). Describing the final judgment in the parable of the faithful steward, Jesus taught that “[the] slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few” (Luke 12:47–48). The writer of Hebrews asks, “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Heb. 10:29).

It should be noted that while there are varying degrees of punishment in hell, everyone there will suffer intolerable, indescribable misery and torment. All sinners in hell will be utterly separated from God and all that comes from His goodness. Thus, they will be miserable, but not equally miserable.

After the books containing the prisoners’ evil deeds were opened, another book was opened, which is the book of life. This book’s imagery corresponds to the registry of citizens kept by ancient cities; it contains the names of all those whose “citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). It is referred to several times in Revelation (v. 15; 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 21:27). The book of life is the record of God’s elect (cf. Dan. 12:1; Mal. 3:16; Luke 10:20; Phil. 4:3; Heb. 12:23), and all whose names are not recorded in it will be eternally damned.

Since their names were not in the book of life, the prisoners before the Great White Throne were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Some, in shock and horror, will protest, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” (Matt. 7:22). But they will hear in reply the most chilling, terrifying words that any human will ever hear: “I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matt. 7:23). Those who refuse to plead guilty to their sins in this world, repent, and ask God for a pardon based on the substitutionary work of Christ will face trial after they die. And on that day, they will be pronounced guilty.

THE SENTENCE

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (20:14–15)

The evidence is irrefutable, the verdict rendered; judgment will be swiftly carried out. As the sentence is passed, death and Hades (the grave, and the temporary place of punishment for everyone whose name was not found written in the book of life) were thrown into the lake of fire, meaning that they will go out of existence, swallowed up by the final hell. Their inmates, currently suffering in their spirits only, will be united with specially designed resurrection bodies and cast into eternal hell (cf. Matt. 10:28). That final hell, described as the lake of fire, may already exist (cf. Matt. 25:41), but if so, it is currently unoccupied. Its first two occupants, the beast and the false prophet, will not arrive until the end of the Tribulation (19:20).

The clearest and most vivid of the New Testament terms used to describe the final hell, the lake of fire, is geenna (Gehenna). Gehenna is the New Testament word for the valley of Ben-Hinnom (also called Topheth; 2 Kings 23:10; Isa. 30:33; Jer. 7:31–32; 19:6), located southwest of Jerusalem. In Old Testament times, idolatrous Israelites burned their children in the fire there as sacrifices to false gods (Jer. 19:2–6). In Jesus’ day, it was the site of Jerusalem’s garbage dump. The fires kept constantly burning there gave off foul-smelling smoke, and the dump was infested with maggots. Sometimes the bodies of criminals were dumped there. The valley of Ben-Hinnom was thus an apt picture of eternal hell, one used repeatedly by Jesus (Matt. 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5). Hell will be God’s eternal cosmic dump; its inmates will be burning as garbage forever.

The blessed and holy participants in the first resurrection will not experience the second death (20:6). But the rest of the dead, who did not participate in the first resurrection (20:5), will face the second death, which is defined here as the lake of fire. Those who die in their sins in this present world of time and space will die a second death in eternity—they will be sentenced to the lake of fire forever.

Scripture vividly portrays the various aspects of the final, fiery hell. Fire is used more than twenty times in the New Testament to depict the torment of hell (cf. vv. 10, 15; 14:10; 19:20; 21:8; Matt. 3:10–12; 5:22; 7:19; 13:40, 42, 50; 18:8–9; 25:41; Mark 9:44; Luke 3:9, 16–17; John 15:6; Heb. 10:27; Jude 7). Whether the fire of hell is literal, physical fire is unknown, since the lake of fire exists outside the created universe as we know it. If the fire here is symbolic, the reality it represents will be even more horrifying and painful. The Bible also depicts hell as a place of total darkness, which will isolate its inmates from each other (Matt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30; 2 Pet. 2:17; Jude 13); as a place where the worm (possibly emblematic of an accusing conscience) devouring the wicked will never die (Isa. 66:24; Mark 9:48); as a place of banishment from God’s kingdom (Matt. 8:12; 22:13); and as a place of unending sorrow, where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28).

There is only one way to avoid the terrifying reality of hell. Those who confess their sins and ask God to forgive them on the basis of Christ’s substitutionary death on their behalf will be delivered from God’s eternal wrath (Rom. 5:9; 1 Thess. 1:10; 5:9). For those who refuse to repent, the somber warning expressed by the writer of Hebrews will apply: