Revelation 13

Chapter 13. The Great White ThroneThen I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 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. 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 he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:11-15)The thousand years have run their course and the earth is bright and glorious with all the blessing of the millennial age, until the awful curse of sin has almost been forgotten, and the idea of a personal devil is but a distant remembrance of long-forgotten ages. Yet we must not forget that while sin has long been suppressed, and the human race has accepted the scepter of Christ to earth’s remotest bounds, yet the elements of man’s natural corruption have still remained in the human soul, and human nature in itself is really no better notwithstanding the altered circumstances with which it has been favored through the millennial years. Therefore God permits one further test. One more dark tragedy must pass over the face of this long-distracted planet before it will finally settle into its eternal orbit of righteousness and blessing. And so it comes to pass that at the close of the 1,000 years Satan is loosed from his prison and permitted to go back once more to deceive the nations. Perhaps there was a purpose in this for even Satan himself. May it not be that God designed to let him see the difference between good and evil through the glorious object lesson of the millennial world? For 6,000 years he has been permitted to rule, and the result is desolation, sorrow, death and desperate ruin. Now for 1,000 years Christ has reigned and he beholds a prospect of beauty, blessedness and peace. How can he fail to recognize the difference between the evil and the good, and, if there can be one spark of desire in his fallen spirit, to turn toward the light? This is his final opportunity. Who can tell whether, if even he had learned the lesson of his long and dreadful imprisonment, had appreciated the meaning of this blessed object lesson of righteousness, and had turned to Jehovah with repentance and sincerity, even he might have found some place of mercy. But the result shows that he is incorrigibly bad. The only feeling that seems to animate him is a fiendish hate of God and man, a relentless resolve to blight and wreck the very scene that he beholds, and to use his brief respite not to undo his long career of wrong but to perpetrate the most audacious and desperate climax of his long career of wickedness. This is his last chance and he stakes his all upon it. For a thousand years he has been planning his desperate scheme and now is his opportunity to accomplish it. Perhaps he has come back to earth in the very form and nature of man. Perhaps he has mimicked the Son of God to the last extreme and been granted the power to become incarnate, a fiend in human form. And so he presents himself to men in his last disguise, a gifted glorious man, and begins to gather around him the restless spirits, who, with un-sanctifìed natures, have been tolerating the restraints of a holy government and fretting under the restrictions of Christ’s authority. In alluring light and with ingenious disguise he pictures before them, as once he did to the Son of God on the high mountain of the wilderness, the splendors of a universal empire, combining all the power, the wealth, the grandeur of the world in its supreme civilization, all the glorious culture of those days, and promises to them the aid of supernatural power and even the brilliant dream of dethroning the Son of God from the very heavens as well as the earth, and raising humanity to its grandest possibility, even to “be as gods” and sit upon the throne of the Infinite and Eternal. This was the dream of Eden. This was the proud ambition which prompted the building of Babel’s tower. This was the audacious proposal that He made to the Son of God in the wilderness. This, no doubt, will be his last exploit. It was for this that he left his high place in the heavens. This has been the purpose of his grand rebellion from its inception, to take the very place of God and cast Him from His throne. Doubtless he offers to many the alluring bribe, not of boundless power and supreme dominion, but the gratification of every selfish and unholy desire, the allurements which Paganism and Islam have held out to their votaries, the satisfaction of every gross and sinful passion, and an existence of sensual delight; and there will be enough of evil left in human nature to give a ready response. One by one the restless and unholy spirits of earth gather to his side until at length their numbers are as “the sand of the sea” and as a mighty army of millions, perhaps billions of men, armed not only with the weapons of earth but of hell, and, led by this brilliant archangel, they oppose the camp of the Son of God and besiege the “beloved city” itself. To human reason and sight it will doubtless seem at first a fearful and formidable assault, but if we are to judge by the dramatic picture of the Apocalypse the suspense will not be long. The tragedy will be swift and terrible. The fire of God will fall from heaven and in a moment the myriad ranks of earth and hell will melt away, engulfed in devouring flame. Satan will again be caught and cast out in eternal imprisonment not now into the abyss, the scene of his former confinement, but into the Lake of Fire where the Wild Beast and the False Prophet are already suffering torment day and night forever. Henceforth the devil’s career is ended. No more will he return to the earth or go forth to other realms to deceive and to destroy. He has been tested to the uttermost and found to be incorrigibly bad, and human nature has been proved and tried and it also has utterly and signally failed. Now the story of time is to end. The last of earth’s dispensations has run its course, and the Eternal Cycle is about to begin. And so the final scene so long prepared at last appears, and before the vision of the Seer there rises a spectacle of majesty and terror and a tragedy of woe more awful than mortal or angel has ever gazed upon before. It is the Great White Throne. It is the final judgment. It is the resurrection of the wicked. It is the passing out of the old earth and heaven and the ushering in of the new creation.

The Great White Throne

The Great White ThroneIt is the symbol of sovereignty and of judgment. Its greatness tells of the importance of this august occasion. It is the greatest day that earth has ever seen. It is the grand assize before which all the millions of the past are to appear. Its whiteness speaks of the immaculate justice and unerring wisdom which are to characterize the Tribunal. There will be no mistakes here. There will be no misunderstandings here. There will be no hasty judgments here. Everything will be right and everything will be final and from this court there will be no appeal. Where that throne will be erected the boldest imagination can only approximately conceive. Probably it will appear in the air where the New Jerusalem is to descend, hanging suspended from the heavens and towering high above the earth. It will be encompassed with clouds of awful blackness and gleams of terrific light. Myriads of angels will hover round it as the officers of justice and the executioners of judgment, and all the portents of a dissolving universe will add to the sublimity and terror of the scene. But the grandest of all the objects of that awful day, will be:

He Who Sits Upon It

He Who Sits Upon ItIt is the throne of Jehovah. It is the throne of the Son of God. The form that sits enwrapped in majesty is He who once stood a prisoner before Pilate’s judgment hall. Pilate and Jesus meet at last, but, oh, how altered are the circumstances! Poetry has imperfectly tried to paint that scene and write upon our imagination: … that dreadful Form With rainbow wreath and robes of storm, On cherub wings and wings of wind, Appointed Judge of all mankind. Well may we ask, Can this be He who wont to stray A pilgrim on the world’s highway, Oppressed by power and mocked by pride, The Nazarene, the Crucified? Yes, it is even He, and many will remember in that day how once He said, “A time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned” (John 5:28-29). “The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). “And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man” (John 5:27). The men of Athens will be there to remember how once a passing missionary stood in the Areopagus and cried, “God… commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31). The Gentiles of Cesarea will remember how Peter said, “He is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42). Yes, it is Jesus. It is He who came to save the world, and they who have rejected the blood of the Lamb are now to realize what is meant by “the wrath of the Lamb” (Revelation 6:16). Once or twice during His earthly life there blazed from His eye and from His tongue the foregleam of judgment fire, as when He cursed the barren fig tree and it withered at His word; or, as when he uttered those awful woes against the Scribes and Pharisees which we read in Matthew, finishing up at last with the fearful words, “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?” (Matthew 23:33). Now His mission of mercy is accomplished. His mediatorial work is finished, and He sits down upon the throne of absolute and impartial judgment, and there is something in His countenance and His bearing so awful that the very universe shudders, and from His face the earth and heaven flee away; the sun goes out in darkness; the firmament is rolled up as a scroll; the stars forget to shine, and the earth reels and staggers like a drunken man.

The Risen Dead

The Risen Dead"And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne…. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them" (Revelation 20:12-13). Now earth’s myriads who had lived and died and slept on through the 1,000 years are ushered back to life again by an awful power which compels them to live. The wretched spirit of the criminal steals back into his more wretched form, his face distorted with agony and his risen body bearing the impress of the soul that abused it and that now comes back to share its doom. Just as truly as the righteous rise so will the wicked come forth from the graves of earth, from the graves of ocean, from the elements into which their bodies have been dissolved by decay, or by cremation. God will know where to find them. Each soul will take on a body absolutely fitted to its nature and reflecting its quality and character and they will cringe before that awful throne and form a spectacle more terrible even than judgment. Oh, soul, you may for a little season cut the frail cord that binds you to your body; you may suspend for a little the functions of that mortal frame and “shuffle off,” as you call it “the mortal coil.” But remember you have got to live forever. That soul can never die and that body must come forth to life and judgment to be “judged according to what [he] had done” (Revelation 20:12).

The Judgment

The JudgmentThe “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). The inexorable principle of this judgment is personal merit or demerit. They are judged rigidly according to their works. There is no mercy here. This is the cardinal principle of divine judgment enunciated by Paul in the second chapter of Romans in these solemn words: So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will give to each person according to what he has done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism. (Romans 2:3-11) This is the law pure and simple. The gospel is a subsequent and wholly different principle. But the persons who will stand in this judgment have rejected the gospel, and therefore they will be judged strictly by the law and according to their works. There are two books. The one is the book of record or remembrance, containing all the actions, thoughts, words, motives—the whole testimony against sinful men. How can this testimony be preserved? Ah, friends, has not science taught us something of the innumerable ways in which God can register the records of the past by countless automatic processes on the living pages of the universe? What is the telephone but just a little hint of the unseen wires that are passing through the spaces of this universe in every direction, and registering at the other end every whisper and echo of our lives? What is the phonograph but a suggestion that God has a thousand sensitive plates in every part of yonder firmament, and that every word you speak becomes recorded and treasured up yonder to be re-echoed in the judgment day? What is man’s photography but a little bit of light discovered by our imperfect minds out of the vaster and grander processes which we have never discovered, by which God, perhaps, is constantly recording and preserving a continuous photograph of every act and attitude of human life, and that someday it will all repeat itself in the awful video of the judgment record? Thus God can preserve a testimony and can make every conscience and soul confess that it is true. Let us not think that this is to be some hurried, terrified moment of swift and sudden doom. Doubtless it will be calm and long protracted, and time will be given for every testimony, every excuse, every case, and each soul will go forth echoing its own sentence and vindicating even its most terrific judgment. For it is written, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10-11). Oh, how can sinners stand in that great day! Oh, how can any of us meet that awful test? Beloved, we cannot stand; we cannot meet it; we dare not face that dread tribunal and that holy God. And we need not, because there is another book that will be opened in that day. It is the Lamb’s book of life. It is the record of those names that accepted eternal life as the free gift of the Savior’s love and the purchase of His precious blood. It is a book of mercy. It is a record of grace, and for those who are entered there the judgment is past. The Lord bore it Himself in their stead and in that dreadful day they will sit with Him among the justified and among the judges of the world. Beloved, this, the Great White Throne, is no place for a child of God. Alas, for those that enter there! For them mercy is past and for them justice only can mean eternal doom. It is true that God will adjust the standard of judgment to the light and opportunity that each soul enjoyed. “All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law” (Romans 2:12), and for them the standard will be the law of conscience, the unwritten law of God in their own hearts. And if it will be found that any mortal being has lived up to the law of conscience he will be acquitted in that day. But is it not written “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?” (Psalms 130:3). Beloved, do not venture into the judgment of the Great White Throne, but hasten to the foot of Calvary. Accept His mercy and His precious blood. Tell Him that He has been judged for you in that awful hour when He cried, “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out” (John 12:31), and “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32). Tell Him you accept His judgment instead of yours and ask Him to make you know that your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life; and then, for you, this glorious word is true, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24). I will never forget a Christian woman on whom I called many years ago in her last hours, and how this glorious truth of our deliverance from the judgment was used of God to banish her fears and open for her an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I found her near her end and sincerely but timidly trusting in the mercy of her Savior. She had given her heart and life to Him the best she knew, “But, oh,” she said to me again and again, “that awful judgment, how I dread it! I believe that somehow God will forgive and take me in, but oh, the judgment! The judgment! My soul shrinks from the terrible prospect!” I sat down by her side with my open Bible and poured into her mind the glorious gospel that had but just before brought to me the perfect peace of God. I said to her, “Dear sister, you are not going into the judgment. You have been judged already in Christ for your sins, and long, long before that dreadful judgment will come to pass you will have been with Jesus in heaven and through the glory of the millennial years. When you come with Him to the judgment you will be seated by His side.” As the truth gradually broke in upon her soul and at last filled it, it was beautiful to see the transformation. The darkness and dread melted away and the light of hope and victory passed over her face, and she wept with wonder and gratitude to think it could be true. As she passed through the gates there was not a cloud nor a fear. Beloved, do you know your full salvation? Will you claim it? And, oh sinner, will you know your only hope? Keep out of the judgment. Flee to the Savior. Make sure that your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life.

The Execution of the Sentence and the Doom of the Condemned

The Execution of the Sentence and the Doom of the CondemnedOur sensitive hearts may shrink from the truth but our weakness will not quench those flames, and our specious reasonings will not close those fiery gates. It is written by the kindest hand that ever sought to bless us, “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15). This is the dreadful abode prepared not for man but for the devil and his angels. Into it Satan and Antichrist have already been hurled, and now those who have chosen him as their master and rejected the mercy of the Lord are to share his everlasting punishment. What it means it is idle to speculate. It is called the “second death” (Revelation 20:14). It is spoken of as “forever and ever” and if men may speciously reason that this verse just means age-long, it must be remembered that the age in which it occurs is not one of the pages of time but the mighty aeons of eternity. Oh, let us not deceive ourselves by playing with words, but let us take in all their meaning the earnest faithful warnings by which divine mercy would shut us up to the only way of escape; and let us “flee from the coming wrath” (Matthew 3:7) and “take hold of eternal life” (1 Timothy 6:12).