Introduction to Revelation 20:11-15

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/16/2015 9:32 AM

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  Introduction to Rev. 20:11-15

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 20:11-15

            Message of the verses:  “11 Then 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. 12 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. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

            In his commentary on these verses John MacArthur entitles this chapter “Man’s Last Day in God’s Court,” and this seems to me an appreciate title, for once this chapter is complete then we will move on to the new heavens and the new earth, along with the New Jerusalem and not mention what happens here.

            What we have in this section is the final sentencing of the lost and what we are about to read and study is the most serious, sobering, and tragic passage in the entire Bible.  People who have studied this passage call it the “Great White Throne Judgment” for that is how the passage begins, and what we are looking at is the very court room of God who is the ultimate Judge.  To put it another way God is the Supreme Court, and what He will say will go, unlike our supreme court who in the past years has decided not just to interpret the law, but to make laws, and these laws are against what is the will of God.  Now when this trial is over all of the lost people will be sentenced and there will never again be a trial and God will never again need to act as judge.  John MacArthur writes “The accused, all the unsaved who have ever lived, will be resurrected to experience a trial like no other that has ever been.  There will be no debate over their guilt or innocence.  There will be an indictment, but no defense mounted by the accused; the convicting evidence will be presented with no rebuttal or cross-examination.  There will be an utterly unsympathetic Judge and no jury, and there will be no appeal of the sentence He pronounces.  The guilty will be punished eternally with no possibility of parole in a prison form which there is no escape.”  As I read over what I have just quoted from John MacArthur it makes me think about what I have been learning from the prophets, especially from the book of Amos in my last Spiritual Diary from the sixth chapter of Amos as I learned that God was upset to the point of punishing Israel and one of the reasons was because of their unjust court system, something that we surely have in our country today.  If the courts would be run like the Lord is going to run this Great White Throne Judgment then people would be much better off and sin would not be so prevalent in our society today.  

            MacArthur goes on stating “The language of this passage is plain, stark, and unembellished.  Few details are given, and the description is utterly lacking in the vivid, eloquent modifiers that might be expected.  But the scene is frightening enough in its own right that such language would be superfluous.  The beloved apostle John, recording this vision is a cave or on a hillside on the island of Patmos, no doubt was shaken as he wrote of the eternal damnation of the wicked.”  Thinking about how John just have felt as he went through what he writes about and has seen over these almost twenty chapters in the book of Revelation is something that we have not talked about too much, and something that had to take its toll on John.  In the book of Daniel where Daniel sees a lot of things that we could say are a bit similar we read that when he was old just like John was old when he penned Revelation, that Daniel actually became physically ill after seeing the visions that he saw, so we can surely state that both John and Daniel are owed a lot for the job that they have done so that we today can read their books.

            We have seen many things that Satan has done as we study this book and one of the things that he tries to do is to deceive people into thinking that there will not be a final judgment, but this passage is the truth of what will happen.  Satan told Eve a long time ago that she would surely not die if she ate the fruit that God told her not to eat, but as we know that she immediately died spiritually and later on physically, and all those who have not or will not accept the salvation that has been paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ will not only die spiritually, and physically, but will die eternally and be put in the lake of fire. 

            John MacArthur previews what we will be looking at by writing “This simple, but powerful text describes the terrifying reality of the final verdict and sentence on sinners under four headings:  the scene, the summons, the standard, and the sentence.”  We will begin to look at the scene in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful that the Lord Jesus Christ took my place on the cross to pay for my sin so that I will never have to face what this passage speaks of.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To tell others of what is about to happen so that they too will not have to go through what this passage speaks of. 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The Mosaic Covenant” (Exodus 20:1-17).

Today’s Bible question:  “How may one reap life everlasting?”

Answer in our next SD.