The Great White Thrown Judgment

Introduction

Last week we talked about the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ. So today we are going to talk about the next major event in the end times calendar, the GWTJ.

The GWTJ is also know as:

the end of the world

the end of time

the last day

judgment day

the day or reckoning

It will be a day of final justice for God against all the unforgiven sins against Him. For all the wicked will be judged for the deeds they did while on earth.

Who will be there?

Well folks, believe it or not I have some good news for you about the GWTJ. You and I will not be there. And that is something that I learned during my research.

You see, by the time the GWTJ happens, you and I as believers have already been judged by God.

So the GWTJ is not intended for believers. So who is it for you may ask. Well, let’s let the Bible answer that question:

Rev. 20:12-13

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.

13 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.

Now when John uses the word dead, (greek NECK-ROS) he may be speaking of the spiritually dead and the physically dead.

In v. 12 it seems that he is talking about the spiritually dead. However, in V. 13 it is more likely that he is speaking of the physically dead.

Either way, all non-believers are raised up out of their graves and brought to the GWTJ. Somebody in the back is saying, well what if they are cremated?

Or a shark eats me? Whatever the case, the Bible says that ALL were delivered up. I mean, if you believe that God created the world, planets etc.

Surely you believe that he can reconstitute the elements of your cremated body and deliver it up? Right?

And so this brings up a very interesting point that we may as well cover right here. What happens to you when you die? Again, let’s let the Bible answer it:

2 Corinthians 5:8

8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

So to take this verse in its correct context, it is obviously talking about believers only. IOW as a believer in JC, when you die, you go to be with the Lord, just like that.

And where is the Lord, in Heaven! Right! But what if you are not a believer?

Rev. 20:13

13 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.

When an unbeliever dies, they go to hades. That word hell can also be translated hades. Hades is a temporary holding place for the unredeemed, the unsaved.

The phrase death and hell, really refers to the same thing. So when you die without the Lord JC in your heart you go to hades. More on this later.

Great and small

Look back at V. 12, where it says great and small. That means that all kinds of people will be there.

It won’t just be the so called bad boys and girls that we think of in today’s society NO! There will be:

Politicians

Doctors

Lawyers

Police officers

judges

military people

And there will also be religious people:

Baptists

Methodists

Prebysterians

Jews

Gentiles

Buddhists

Muslims

Hindu’s

Protestants

Catholics

There will be those who believed in many gods

and there will be those who believed in one God.

and those who don’t believe in God at all

those who believed in meditation as a way of salvation

or those who believed in doing good deeds as a way of salvation

the moral, the immoral

nuns and missionaries

priests and preachers

All who did not intimately know the Lord JC as king, and Savior will be there.

Where will the GWTJ be

So where will all of this take place. Well, the Bible does not tell us where the GWTJ will take place. But it does tell where it will NOT take place:

Revelations 20:11

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.

You see that phrase: from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, that means that it will NOT be in heaven or on earth.