THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT

Revelation 20:11-15

When it comes to judgment, there are some who would say that there is only one general judgment. That

is, that every individual will take part in the same judgment. But according to the Scriptures, there are two

judgments in which people are judged on a individual basis. One is the Judgment Seat of Christ, and the

other is the Great White Throne Judgment.

This Great White Throne Judgment is not to be confused with the "Judgment Seat of Christ" mentioned

elsewhere in the Scriptures. The "Judgment Seat of Christ" is for those who have been saved. At that

judgment, the saved will be judged according to their works. They will be judged according to the life they

lived after they received Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour.

The Great White Throne Judgment on the other hand is not at all for the saved, but is reserved solely for

those who die without Jesus Christ.

There are many who refuse to accept the teaching of death and hell and judgment, choosing rather to

believe that God is a God of love and would not refuse any decent human being a place in heaven. To their

way of thinking, God would never condemn anyone to a place of eternal torment.

But the fact of the matter is, it's not God who determines a person's eternal destiny. Each of us determine

our own eternal state based upon our acceptance or our rejection of Jesus Christ. Those who reject Christ

condemn themselves to eternal destruction.

Now then, there are those who have fallen prey to the teaching that hell is nothing more than the loss of self-

esteem. In their minds, hell, with its fire and brimstone, doesn't exist. But regardless of what one may

choose to teach or believe about the subject, the Bible is still the final authority, and according to the

authority of the Word of God, hell is as real as the pew you're sitting on.

There are four things I want us to notice about this Great White Throne Judgment.

I. THE CERTAINTY OF THIS JUDGMENT

A. It is certain as to its Time

1. God has a specific time set for this judgment of the unsaved.

2. According to the book of Revelation it will take place at the end of the 1,000 year

Millennial reign of Christ on the earth, just prior to the creation of a new heaven and a new

earth.

B. It is certain as to its Terror

1. For those who mocked and scoffed and scorned the Biblical teaching of judgment, this

will indeed be a terrible time.

2. The phrase "from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away" gives us some

indication as to the terror that will accompany this judgment.

3. Hebrews 10:26-27, 31

4. Hebrews 12:25

II. THE EQUALITY OF THIS JUDGMENT

Verse 12 mentions both the small and great standing before God in judgment. By John's words we

understand that no one will be excluded. No one will be left out. No one will be able to escape.

A. "Small" speaks of the Insignificant

1. There will be standing before the Lord on that day those who the world never heard of.

2. There will be those who were poor, those who were homeless, those who were forgotten.

3. The average, ordinary people of the earth will be there. The mechanic and the carpenter,

the farmer and the oil field worker, the truck driver and the dish washer, the secretary and

the desk clerk, the janitor and the short order cook, the salesman and the teacher.

4. Those who chose to live in relative obscurity, those who lived in the secluded places of the

world, those who never rose to a place of prominence will all be there on that day if they

never accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour.

B. "Great" speaks of the Important

1. While we may have a difficult time grasping the thought of the "small" being there, the

concept of the "great" being there is easily and in most cases, readily accepted.

3. When we speak of the great, we speak of those in authority, those whose political, financial

and social popularity brought them to the forefront.

3. When we speak of the "great" we speak of such infamous men as Napoleon and Alexander.

Men like Hitler and Stalin.

4. We think of those "great" and well-known infidels and agnostics such as Voltaire and

others who openly and blatantly denied the existence of God and scoffed at any mention

of future judgment.

5. I think what we need to understand by the mention of the "small" and "great", is that God

is no respector of persons. Listen to these verses of Scripture:

a. Deuteronomy 10:17, "For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords,

a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh

reward:"

b. 2 Chronicles 19:7, "Wherefore now let the fear of the LORD be upon you; take heed

and do it: for there is no iniquity with the LORD our God, nor respect of persons,

nor taking of gifts."

c. Acts 10:34, "Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God

is no respecter of persons:"

d. Colossians 3:25, "But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he

hath done: and there is no respect of persons."

e. 1 Peter 1:17, "And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth

according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:"

6. There will be an equality at the Great White Throne in the sense that all men will be judged

the same, regardless of how insignificant or important they were.

III. THE ACCURACY OF THIS JUDGMENT

Verses 12, 13b, 15

The mention of books speaks to the accuracy of this judgment. Accurate records are being kept in

heaven, and one day those books will be the basis of the judgment that goes forth from the Great

White Throne.

Those at the judgment mentioned here will be judged in regards to two things:

A. The Lord they Rejected

1. First of all, John mentions a "book" singular, which is the book of life. Contained in the

book of life are all the names of all the people who have been saved and born again by

God's grace.

2. Those from every "nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people" will have their names

written there.

3. On the other hand, everyone who stands before the Great White Throne have rejected Jesus

Christ and God's free gift of eternal life, and their names are not to be found in the Lamb's

book of life.

4. There will be those who were trusting in their baptism.

There will be those who were trusting in good works.

There will be those who were trusting in church membership.

There will be those who were trusting in themselves (the "each man is the salvation of his

own soul" philosophy).

There will be those who were trusting in the ways of Mohammad or Confucius or the Virgin Mary.

There will be those who were trusting in their particular denomination.

There will be those who were trusting in some other way other than the Bible way.

ILLUSTRATION: An article in the Arlington Heights, Illinois Daily Herald pretty much sums up

the thinking of many who will one day find themselves standing before the Great White Throne in

judgment. The article said, "At a January 4, 2000 interfaith dialogue in the Chicago suburbs, Nobel

Peace Prize nominee M. Cherif Bassiouni, a law professor at DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois, said

all religions lead to God using different paths. ‘The judgment is not by the choice we make, but by how

we pursue the path of the choice we make,' he said.

He went on to say, ‘Different religions and cultures are equal in the eyes of God and should be seen as

equal in the eyes of man.'

While that may sound good, it doesn't measure up to the Word of God.

4. Jesus said of Himself, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the

Father, but by me."

5. Peter said in Acts 4:12, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other

name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

B. The Life they Neglected

1. John also mentions the "books" plural and says that these books contain the works of those

being judged.

2. These books are not opened to see whether a person goes to heaven or hell. That has

already been determined as the result of their rejection of Christ and their name not being

in the first book.

3. The purpose of the books of records or the books of deeds is to determine the degree of

punishment a person will receive.

a. Matthew 11:20-24

b. Luke 12:47-48

c. We have reason to believe that while every Christ rejector will be doomed, not every

Christ rejector will receive the same degree of punishment. For example, an

individual who lives a relatively honest and decent life, but who never receives Christ

as Saviour, will not receive the same degree of punishment that a man like Hitler will

receive.

4. The mention of "books" also indicates to us that a person's judgment will be exact and

fair. Every evil deed, thought, motive, and desire is recorded in the books spoken of by

John. Everything done in secret is there. Every sin commited in the dark and behind closed

doors is recorded.

5. Every unbeliever will be judged and punished for their exact sin, no more and no less.

IV. THE TRAGEDY OF THIS JUDGMENT

A. There is no Hiding

1. Regardless of where an individual may be buried or where their ashes may have been

strewn, the Lord will bring them forth to stand before Him at the Great White Throne.

2. There will be no hiding in the great pyramids of Egypt, or the jungles of Africa, or the rain

forests of Brazil, or the desert sands of Arabia, or the burial grounds of the Indians, or the

battlefields of war, or the alleys and secret places of murder.

B. There is no Help

1. Every person will be judged by themselves.

2. There will be no one there to plead their case or to speak on their behalf.

C. No Hope

1. Verse 15

2. Once a person dies without Jesus Christ and finds themselves standing before the Lord at

the Great White Throne, that's it.

3. There's no hiding, no help, and no hope.

CLOSING: The saddest part about all of this is that it doesn't have to be this way. God has provided a way

in which every one of us can escape the horrors of this judgment. No one within the sound of my voice has

to stand at the Great White Throne judgment.

The Bible says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth

in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Paul said, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

If you stand before the Lord in judgment at the Great White Throne it will be because you rejected the free

gift of God's salvation. You'll have no one to blame but yourself.