Tom Lowe
12/9/17
Book of Revelation Commentary
Topic # V: VISIONS OF THE FUTURE AND BEYOND (20:1-22:5)
Lesson: V.C: THE FINAL JUDGMENT (20:11-15)
Scripture (Rev. 20:11-15, KJV)
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.
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.
14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Introduction
Satan has persuaded mankind for centuries that there is no future punishment, no final accounting before God. That lie is now fully exposed.
Commentary
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.
“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.”
“And I saw a great white throne”?This verse begins the description of the final judgment, which continues for the remainder of the chapter. With terrible strokes of the pen, John describes the scene and gives the background for what has come to be called “The Great White Throne Judgment.” We are struck by the severe, straightforward language, and the remarkable economy of words.
The first thing seen in the vision is the fascinating, awe-inspiring throne of the Judge. The things that are specified in regard to it, are that it was “great,” and that it was “white.” The former expression means that it was high or elevated. [“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1).] The latter expression?“white”?means that it was “magnificent or shining.” [“Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold. The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round behind: and there were stays on either side on the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the stays. And twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps: there was not the like made in any kingdom” (1 Kings 10:18-20). This is how King Solomon’s throne is described. If a man can make such a throne, can you imagine what the throne of God must look like?] The throne here is the same which is referred to in Matthew 25:31, and called there “the throne of his glory.” It is the throne of God, dazzling to the eye, reflecting purity so intense that before it the very seraphim shrink. Guilty men, summoned to that throne, have no place to hide, nothing behind which to cower. All the foolish little delusions behind which men hide today will be gone, and men will be confronted by a fact too terrible to comprehend—THE GREAT WHITE THRONE.
“And him that sat on it”?The reference here undoubtedly is to the Lord Jesus Christ, the final Judge of mankind [“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory” (Matthew 25:31).], and the scene described is what will occur at His second advent. John sees Him at once and knows Him as the Lord. The nail prints in His hands, the scars upon His back and brow, the spear wound in His side—the marks of what wicked men did to Him. There He is! Men have ignored Him, denied Him, cursed Him, disbelieved in Him, and sold him. Now He is their Judge.
“From whose face”?Or, from whose presence; though the word may be used here to denote more strictly His face?illuminated, and shining like the sun [“And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength” (Revelation 1:16).].
“The earth and the heaven fled away,”? that is, as the stars, at the rising of the sun, seem to flee to more remote regions, and vanish from human view, so when the Son of God shall descend in His glory to judge the world, the earth and all other worlds shall seem to vanish.
There is a terrible fear gripping each heart. To look upon the face of Jesus is bliss beyond words for the child of God, but for the ungodly, it will be the first agonizing stab of hell. The earth and the heavens have fled already from that face, for heaven and earth have been defiled by sin and need to be made anew.
O, what a face it is! The ungodly spat in it once and wrenched the beard from His cheeks, leaving it more marred than any man’s. Now they gaze on it in fear and torment. Everything stable, and familiar in the universe is gone—every landmark, every stone, every hiding place. There is nothing left but emptiness, a throne, a figure, a face, and a cramping fear.
Everyone must admire the sublimity of this image; no one can contemplate it without being awed by the majesty and glory of the final Judge of mankind. Similar expressions, where the natural creation shrinks back with awe at the presence of God, frequently occur in the Bible. [Compare Psalm 18:7-15; Psalm 77:16-19; Psalm 114:3-5{1]; Habakkuk 3:6, Habakkuk 3:10-11.]
“And there was found no place for them.”
They seemed to flee “entirely away,” as if there was “no” place where they could find a safe haven, or which would receive and shelter them in their flight. The image expresses, in the most emphatic manner, the idea that they entirely disappeared, and no language could more sublimely represent the majesty of the Judge.
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[1} “The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?” (Psalm 114:3-5) The key thought is that God went before His people, and everything in nature trembled at His presence and obeyed His will.
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.
“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.”
“And I saw the dead”?that is, the wicked who had died from the time of Adam to Christ‘s second advent, and all the righteous and wicked who had died during and after the millennium, shall then have their eternal fate assigned to them. The godly who were transfigured and reigned with Christ during the millennium, shall also be present, not to have their fate assigned as if for the first time (for that shall have been fixed long before, John 5:24{2]), but to have it confirmed for ever, and that God‘s righteousness may be vindicated in the case of both the saved and the lost, in the presence of an assembled universe. [Compare “We must ALL appear,” etc. Romans 14:10; 2 Corinthians 5:10.] The saints having been pronounced just by Christ who read their names from “the book of life,” shall sit as assessors of the Judge. [Compare Matthew 25:31-32, 40{3]]
God‘s omniscience will not allow the most insignificant to escape judgment unobserved, and His omnipotence will cause the mightiest to obey the summons. The living are not specifically mentioned: as these all shall probably first (before the destruction of the ungodly, Revelation 20:9) be transfigured, and caught up with the saints previously transfigured; and though present for the confirmation of their justification by the Judge, shall not have their eternal state assigned to them at that time, but shall sit as assessors with the Judge.
“Small and great”—little men and contemptible women whose lives were filled with pettiness, selfishness, and nasty little sins will be there. Those whose lives amounted to nothing will be there, whose very sins were drab and dreary, mean, spiteful, sleazy, sinister, vulgar, common, and shameful. The great will be there, men who sinned with an influential, controlling hand, with dash, and courage and flair. Men like Alexander and Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin will be present, men who went in for wickedness on a grand scale with the world for their stage and who died unrepentant to the end. Now one and all are arraigned and on their way to be damned; a horrible fellowship gathered together for the first and last time. A simpler way to identify those who will be present is “the rest of the dead who did not share the first resurrection, and those who died during the millennium.
What is meant by “Stand before God?” We are apt to picture a great dramatic scene, multitude beyond multitude, rank behind rank, the millions who have lived upon the earth, all standing crowded together in the indescribable presence of One who looks not merely at the mass, but at the individual, and sees through the whole life and character of every single soul. The picture is inspirational, and it is what the words of St. John are intended to suggest. But we must get behind the picture to its meaning. The picture must describe not one scene only, but the whole nature and condition of the everlasting life. The souls of men in the eternal world are always “standing before God.” And what does that mean? We understand at once if we consider that that before which a man stands is the standard, or test, or source of judgment for his life. Every soul that counts itself capable of judgment and responsibility stands in some presence by which the nature of its judgment is decreed.
“And the books were opened”—(Daniel 7:10[4]; 12:1). Now John describes the books. Psychologists assure us that nothing we have ever experienced is really forgotten. The subconscious mind stores it all up in neat compartments, awaiting the appropriate trigger to recall it to the conscious mind. People saved from drowning have frequently testified to the fact that, in their last moments, their whole life flashed before their eyes.
The books mentioned here were the books of the living and the dead, or the book of life and the book of death: that is, the account of the good and evil actions of men; the former leading to life, the latter to death. All the actions of men, whether good or bad, are written in a book, and they shall have to give account of all of them. How careful should men be to turn away from vice, and to act uprightly before the holy blessed God, seeing that the works of men are written in a book!"
“and another book was opened, which is the book of life” [Revelation 3:5{5]; Revelation 13:8; Revelation 21:27; Exodus 32:32, Exodus 32:33; Psalm 69:28; Daniel 12:1; Philemon 4:3.] Besides the general book recording the works of all, there is a special book for believers in which their names are written, not for their works, but for the “work of Christ” for, and in, them. Therefore it is called, “the Lamb‘s book of life.” Electing grace has singled them out from the general mass.
God keeps books. There are two in particular which are mentioned by John. There is the book of life of the Lamb. John says, “And the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life.” This book is the Lambs book of life, in which are written the names of all those who from the beginning of time to the end, have been saved through faith in Christ. The book is vast, for the names are many. Every family and nation, people and language, every level of society, every culture, and every station are represented in that book. It contains the names of the hopeless sinners who trusted in God’s Son and were saved from wrath through Him. It contains the names of those long deluded by false religion that finally turned to Christ to be saved by Him alone. It contains the names of those saved in childhood’s tender years and those saved with life’s final breath. It contains the names of those who have gone from strength to strength and of those who have stumbled again and again. No matter! Is your name written there? That is the important thing.
“And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”
When the books are opened, God is going to judge “the secrets of men” (Romans 2:16), as well as the open, flagrant sins. He is going to judge the things we have left undone as well as the things we have done. [Read the indictment of the nations in Matthew 25:41-46; every count is a sin of omission.] Men are to be judged not only for what they have done, but for what they are, for men are sinners. We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners; we do what we do because we are what we are. The lost will be weighed and measured by the holy character of Jesus and will be shown that they “have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
John says, “And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” Nothing can save the man who is determined to stand on his record; who insists, “I’m doing the best I can.” Salvation as proclaimed in the Bible is always according to faith, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Judgment is always according to works. The sinner can either ask God for a free pardon or demand a fair trial. If he chooses the fair trial, it will land him in the lake of fire, for he will be judged according to his works. To receive the free part he must plead guilty, cast himself upon the mercy of God, and accept the salvation He offers through Christ. This he must do before it is too late.
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[2} “ Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24).
[3} “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:31-32, 40).
[4} “A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened” (Daniel 7:10).
[5} “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.” (Revelation 3:5)
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.
The Holy Spirit now goes back to describe how men will be brought before the great white throne. John says, “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.” There will be no hiding place. The first question put to man by God was, “Where art thou?” As that word rang out across Eden, Adam and Eve came out of hiding to stand naked and ashamed before their Judge. That cry will go out again, and out of their tombs they will come, up from the depths of the sea, from the arctic wastes, up from the burning sands, and out of the tropical bush. From this age and from that, they will come, those newly dead and those whose bones are now dust. He knows where every speck of human dust is hidden, and at His word, it will all come scurrying back to make again the forms of departed. The bodies will rise from the dust, and the souls will come up from hades. Back they will come, with faces wrecked and ruined by sin and with souls knotted and gnarled, shriveled and shorn by lust and hate, envy and scorn, passion and pride, iniquity and crime. Back they will come to be judged—according to their works.
“And the sea gave up the dead which were in it,” which is not to be interpreted metaphorically of the world, and the men of it, who are like the troubled sea; but literally of the sea, and of all such who have been drowned in the waters of it, as were Pharaoh and his host; or have died upon the mighty waters, and have been cast into them, and devoured by the fish; and special regard may be made to the men of the old world, drowned by the flood; these shall be raised; the sea shall give them up. Now this, and what is expressed in the next clause, will NOT be done after the judgment is decided, the books are opened, and the sentence passed, but before all this, and in accordance to “their works,” as the last clause of this verse shows.
“And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.” “Death,” which is represented here as a person, and elsewhere as a king, reigning and having power over men, signifies death in general, and every kind of death of which men have died, whether natural or violent, over whom it will no longer have dominion, but will be obliged to deliver up all its subjects. And “hell” signifies the grave, which will now be opened, and deliver up all its prisoners, all that have been buried in the earth (see Job 26:5{6]); the Ethiopic version adds, “and the earth delivered up them that were dead in it”; but this seems unnecessary after the former.
“And they were judged every man according to their works,” some to greater punishment, and some to lesser, “according to their works”?that is, whatever their sinful works deserved. We are justified by faith, but judged according to (not by) our works. For the general judgment is primarily designed for the final vindication of God‘s righteousness before the whole world, which in this checkered dispensation of good and evil, though really ruling the world, has been for the time[a long time], less apparent. Faith is prized by God and the believer alone (Revelation 2:17). But works are respected by all. These, then, are made the evidential test to decide men‘s eternal state, thus showing that God‘s administration of judgment is altogether righteous. That is the background.
14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
(Verses 14 and 15) The books have been read; every mouth has been stopped, and all at the great white throne are found guilty before God. Now the fearful sentence is read. John says, “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.” The terrible words are spoken: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). It was to save men from this that Christ came and suffered, bled, and died. It was to warn men of this that God wrote the Bible and for centuries has striven by His Spirit with men. The Bible leaves it at that. There is no terrifying description of the horrors of the damned, no frightening drawings appended to the page, just the naked narrative, and the bear sentence. Eternity itself will fill in the rest.
“And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.” This is the second death, the lake of fire. All do not enter into death and hades. It is appointed unto "men once to die" (Hebrews 9:27); not unto all men, as the text is generally, but erroneously, read. Enoch and Elijah were caught up, and those alive at the Coming of Christ shall be changed, they will not die. When the first resurrection is completed, then death and hades are done with for saints, their work in holding respectively the body and soul is at an end. But they still continue to hold the ungodly dead in their terrible grip. They are strong, but Christ is their Master (Revelation 1:18{6]). Now that their work is over they are cast into the lake of fire; they were brought into existence, so to speak, by sin, and as the lake of fire is the eternal depository of all contrary to God’s light and love they are cast into it.
“This is the second death,” that is, the lake of fire. The bodies of the wicked will be constituted to last through eternal ages; they will never die, but eternally exist in the second death. It is not extinction of existence, not annihilation, but it is torment during the lifetime of the Almighty and Eternal God. Nor will there be apportioned to each the same amount, measure, and degree of punishment. The place is common to all [the lake of fire], but "many stripes" and "few stripes" (Luke 12:47-48{7]) indicate the dispensing of various degrees of punishment.
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[6} “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death” (Revelation 1:18). To hold “the keys of hell and of death,” was to hold the power over the invisible world. It was appropriate for the Savior to represent Himself as having this authority, since he had Himself been raised from the dead by his own power (compare John 10:18), thus showing that the dominion over this dark world was entrusted to Him.
[7} “And that 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. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more” (Luke 12:47-48). They who have many privileges, who are often warned, who have the gospel, and do not repent and believe, shall be far more severely punished than others. They who are taught early in life in Sunday schools, or by pious parents, or in other ways, and who grow up in sin and impenitence, will have much more to answer for than those who have no such privileges.
15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life”
All men are involved in this judgment. It is an all-encompassing scene into which all other pictures of the judgment have to be fitted. And fitted they can be if we recognize that what is important is the spiritual lessons and not the physical descriptions. The significance of the book of life is that it contains the names of those who have been cleansed from sin, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14). It is revealing that only those who are hidden in Christ and covered with His righteousness can face the judgment without fear for all their sins have been borne by another. But as Paul constantly stressed, while our works cannot justify us, they can certainly condemn us, and those who are not His will be found doubly guilty, for they have not only broken God’s law but they have also rejected His mercy. For them there is no future. There is only the lake of fire.
“Was cast into the lake of fire”?that is, they will be doomed to a punishment which will be well represented by their imprisonment in a sea of fire forever. This is the termination of the judgment?the winding up of the affairs of men. The vision of John here rests for a moment on the doom of the wicked, and then turns to a more full contemplation of the happy lot of the righteous, as detailed in the two closing chapters of the book.
The fate of the wicked is depicted so briefly. But now they are left behind. Now that man’s final judgment has been described, and the destruction of all that is evil revealed, we move on in the remainder of the book to the destiny of the righteous. For this in the end was the aim of this book and is the aim of God. And what a transformation it is. A few verses previously it was all doom and gloom, but that is now behind and we are to see the glorious vision of the future. One can’t help but feel sorry for those who see in this new picture a future that will be tarnished and fail, for it is rather a picture of complete triumph and full blessedness for all who are His.
FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED FROM REVELATION 20:11-15
(1) There will be a general resurrection of the dead?of the righteous and the wicked. This is implied by the statement that the “dead, small and great,” were seen to stand before God; that “the sea gave up the dead which were in it”; that “Death and Hades gave up their dead.” All were there whose names were or were not written in the book of life.
(2) There will be a solemn and impartial judgment. How long a time this will occupy is not said, and is not necessary to be known?for time is of no consequence where there is an eternity of devotion?but it is said that they will all be judged “according to their works”?that is, strictly according to their character. They will receive no arbitrary doom; they will have no sentence which will not be just. See Revelation 22:11.
(3) The wicked will be destroyed, in what may be properly called the “second” death. As remarked in the notes, this does not mean that this death will in all respects resemble the first death, but there will be so many points of resemblance that it will be proper to call it “death.” It does not mean that they will be “annihilated,” for “death” never implies that. The meaning is, that this will be a cutting off from what is properly called “life,” from hope, from happiness, and from peace, and a subjection to pain and agony, which it will be proper to call “death”?death in the most fearful form; death that will continue forever. No statements in the Bible are more clear than those which are made on this point; no affirmation of the eternal punishment of the wicked “could be” more explicit than those which occur in the sacred Scriptures. See the Matthew 25:46, and 2 Thessalonians 1:9.
(4) This will be the end of the woes and calamities produced in the kingdom of God by sin. The reign of Satan and of Death, so far as the Redeemer‘s kingdom is concerned, will be at an end and henceforward the church will be safe from all the arts and efforts of its foes. Religion will be triumphant, and the affairs of the universe will be reduced to permanent order.
(5) The preparation has been made for the final triumph of the righteous?the state to which all things are predisposed; and now nothing remains to complete the plan of God for mankind except to give a rapid sketch of the final condition of the redeemed. This is done in the two following chapters, and with this the book is concluded.
