THE GREAT WHITE THRONE OF JUDGEMENT - WHAT IS IT? – PART 2 of 4
The unsaved and the wicked will all make an appearance before the great white throne where the books are opened and their lives are judged there. Sadly no one present at that judgement will escape the lake of fire. This message will look at the deeds for judgement. I include the verses from the last message - {{Revelation 20:11-12 “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.”}}
[E]. CHRIST’S BRIDE MUST BE WITH HIM AT THIS JUDGEMENT –
We (the Bride) come from heaven after the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and must remember that in union with Christ, we will never be separated from Him. Once we became Christians here on earth we were never separated from the presence of our Saviour and even in death we are not separated. We live in heaven with the Lord for 7 years and come back with Him at the Second Coming for we are never absent from the Lord.
We live and reign with Him for 1 000 years and then the great white throne happens. We continue to be with the Lord. We will be there with the Lord Jesus Christ in this judgement.
We may be behind the throne as His Bride, (we will always be with the Lord, never apart after the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in Revelation 20), for we will be with our Lord and sharing the judgment He makes. The following verses could indicate that – {{1 Corinthians 6:2-3 “or do you not know that THE SAINTS WILL JUDGE THE WORLD? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT WE SHALL JUDGE ANGELS? How much more, matters of this life?”}}
Christ comes for the judgment of the nations at the Second Coming of the Lord, at Armageddon as explained here, and His Church comes with Him, for His Bride will be with Him forever –
{{Matthew 25:31-33 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then HE WILL SIT ON HIS GLORIOUS THRONE and all THE NATIONS WILL BE GATHERED BEFORE HIM, and He will separate them from one another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on the left.”}}
This is the judgement of the nations straight after the Second Coming and these nations will be judged according to their attitude – support or condemnation of Israel and of the Jewish Tribulation saints – but it is not the great white throne judgement. The verse in 1 Corinthians 6:2-3 where it speaks about the saints judging angels, I do not know when or how this happens or if it will be part of the great white throne judgement.
[F]. THE THRONES –
There are three thrones that will operate after the Rapture of the Church. The FIRST of these is the judgment seat of Christ. Technically a seat is not a throne but I think we can say Christ’s seat is a throne, for the King occupies it. It is the Bema I will do later. The SECOND throne is the one on which the Lord sits to judge the nations (above) after the Second Coming at the end of the Great Tribulation which is the end of the age the disciples asked about in Matthew 24:3, and the THIRD is the great white throne of Revelation 20. I think it is very, very probable the Church will have association with all three of those thrones.
[G]. THOSE WHO STAND BEFORE THE GREAT WHITE THRONE –
An interesting expression used in verse 12 of Revelation 20 is “THE DEAD, THE GREAT AND THE SMALL”. In the use of language we normally say, “the small and the great” working upwards. God chooses the other way, “the great and the small”. Why, I wonder? Well in this world the “great” are often those with power and influence who have risen over others and dictate what they want for themselves. It includes those who think they are important, imposters in this world and in the church.
We have judges, presidents, prime ministers, rulers, dictators, professors, CEOs, world sports heroes, celebrities, politicians, especially film stars, models, critics and broadcast presenters, even famous composers, etc. – the list is endless. Most live privileged lives and glory often in their high and proud position. They think they are so important. Now they all stand at the great white throne along with the peasants, the poor, the criminals, the bikies, the drug dealers, and the underprivileged, and the Mr and Mrs Ordinary Person, along with those these rich and privileged lorded it over.
Here they will have no position of privilege, but rather, will have the greater judgment. This throne is so fearful and awesome, and so dreadful, that human discriminations, class, status, position and power and authority will be levelled under the immense weight of sin, and the fear that hangs over the heads of the billions who are there. It will be a levelled playing field then. We can not describe the misery and the horror and the hopelessness of that situation and all there will have no affinity with each other, for all will be isolated because of their open sins, and detached from “friends” of common destiny.
The notion of the evil ones in hell having companions there, and living it up in sin with the devil in control, is totally erroneous, and has been developed through the distortion and excesses of the Middle Ages. And so they stood before the throne, lost and despairing. A revealing situation happened in Judah when overthrown by the Babylonians in God’s judgement. Look at these verses –
{{Lamentations 2:9-10 “Her gates have sunk into the ground. He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her KING AND HER PRINCES are among the nations. The law is no more. Also, her PROPHETS FIND NO VISION from the LORD. THE ELDERS of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground, and are silent. They have thrown dust on their heads. They have girded themselves with sackcloth. THE VIRGINS of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.”}}
In the judgement that befell Judah it levelled everyone. All became desperate survivors, and rank did not count any longer. At the great white throne, rank will count for nothing. The great and the small are destitute in equality. This is not some allegory as Augustine tried to say who distorted, even to destroy prophetic scripture. This is reality and is on God’s agenda. It will happen.
One thing must be said to end this section. Because a person goes to church does not make him or her a Christian. I don’t want to sound the judgemental bell here, but it is a fact that some churches and denominations rely on ritual and church attendance and hype and not on the preaching of the gospel for salvation. If you have not responded to the gospel of salvation, you are not saved. That gospel is a personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, a life-changing faith that makes you a child of God. Please examine yourself to see that you are in the faith and if not, then repent of sin and accept the Lord Jesus as your Saviour.
[H]. THE BOOKS –
The books were opened we are told. What are these books? Frankly we do not know, but they have to do with the judgment, so I believe them to be a record of every individual life of every individual who is unsaved. It would seem that the deeds of every one is on account, and all the sins will be on record, all sins great and small. This will be awful, for the whole life of open and hidden sins will be openly declared to each one, one by one.
God’s computer system is far more advanced than any human being could imagine. Not one thing will be missed, nothing deleted. This is so that God may be declared fair and righteous. They will stand condemned, for there is no remedy, no possibility of forgiveness; they will be as guilty as Adam who hid himself from the presence of God, only that these people will not be able to hide from the presence of God. The earth and heavens may try fleeing away, but no individual can. The verse mentioned earlier will apply – It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Just one sin will condemn them, for the sin stands in stark contrast to the righteousness and holiness of God who is the Judge on this throne. These books will contain it all. There is a television show called “This is Your Life” which is positive highlighting of good things in someone’s life. The great white throne will highlight everything and all will stand fearful and undone and ashamed. However here there is no hope for any of the multitude assembled. That is the part so sad. God is judge, impartial and fair. The Lord will do what is right. Mass condemnation will be a terrible thing.
[I]. THE JUDGEMENT DEEDS –
When I was in Prep 3 or something like that at school (in those days we had the Preparatory years before the Grades) I can clearly remember one teacher telling us at school a story that for every bad thing we did a nail would be hit into a board (God’s doing) and for every good thing, a nail was removed. At the end God would put us in heaven if there were no nails in the board, in other words, if the account was on the good side. I went home that day as a 5 or 6 year old and tried to do good things! What this teacher was ascribing to, was good works and the good outweighing the bad. This is not God’s way.
There is no other way of salvation except through the shed blood of Christ, through repentance and acceptance of His personal redeeming sacrifice. The dead, those not in Christ, will stand before the throne and they will be judged according to the things written in the books. It is interesting that the expression “books” (plural) is used, and there must be lots of them. I do not know what is on record, except the account of sins will be the Prosecutor’s brief and will form the evidence of condemnation. They will be judged from what is written in the books.
[J]. THE BOOK OF LIFE –
We are told another book was opened, the Book of Life, and this will be used also in the judgment of these lost souls, but what is the book of life? And why might this book be used for this group which is already condemned? To answer these questions we must first try to determine what is the Book of Life, and I think it is fair to say that we can not be sure of this one. As far as I can ascertain there are two main views on this book, which are these –
(1). It is a book kept in the heavens where the names of all the redeemed are entered when they come into faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, or when declared righteous through faith and obedience as with the Old Testament saints. This would then make the book, a book of redemption or eternal life, and I think this has been the more common view.
(2). The Book of Life contains the names (or identities) of all ever born on the face of the earth which makes it a book of the living, or even, a book of the conceived, even though the problem arises with the stillborn and even the aborted ones after conception, but this is a whole new and ethically complex subject raising the question of when conception might lead to the soul and spirit making up a triune person. In this second view it is thought that, for the unsaved, upon death or rejection of eternal life through unrepentance or disbelief, a person’s name is removed from that book leaving only the redeemed on the pages.
Whatever the correct answer is, (and God might have another aspect of it, for He is sovereign), this book is used as a final proof for these unsaved and condemned, to show that they have no claim to God’s presence and that The Lord upon the throne is just and righteous. There is no record of their names being there.
I ask again, “Have you given your life to Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour? This is so critical for it determines your personal destiny. Confess your sin and bow at the feet of Jesus who died on the cross for your sins. Rejection means the great white throne and you do not want that.
