By David L. Cooper

 My subject on this occasion is the Judgment at the Great White Throne.  I have chosen this subject because many people believe that at the great white throne a general judgment of all people of all time will take place.  This belief has such distressing implications that I think we should turn the full light of Scripture on it to show its utter falseness.  I shall never forget the time that I accepted Christ.  A beautiful hymn gripped my heart and soul.  Although I could not sing, I would repeat the words over and over again.  They go something like this:

 “One sweetly solemn thought comes to me o’er and o’er;

Nearer, my home, today, am I than e’er I’ve been before.”

 Then one of the verses goes like this:

 “Nearer my Father’s house, where many mansions be;

“Nearer today the great white throne, never the crystal sea.”

 I did not understand the judgment of the great white throne when I was a young Christian.  I had just accepted Christ.  I was thrilled with the new life that was pulsating my very being, the life of Christ hat was imparted to me when I accepted Him.  Thinking that the song was all right, I just enjoyed singing it.

 I used to hear another old song that impressed me deeply.  It runs something like this:

  “There’s a great day coming bye and bye, When the saint and the sinners

shall be parted right and left.      Are you ready for that day to come?”

 Many people today have the idea that there will be a general judgment, when everybody who has ever lived will be brought before the great white throne.  They believe a great sea of people, millions and hundreds of millions and billions of people, all who have lived through all the ages of history, will be raised at one time.  Then, they believe, that Christ will sit upon the great white throne of judgment; that He will call each individual up before Him and will pass on the merits of each one.  If the good that one has done outweighs the bad, he can stand on the right hand and will be allowed to enter thekingdom of God prepared for him before the foundation of the world.  But if he bad outweighs the good, he will be sent off into perdition.  Many people believe in this general judgment, but it is not the teaching of the Word of God.  It is a vicious theory, for anyone who accepts it can never know whether he is saved.  He can have no peace, no assurance of salvation; for he is determining his fate by his deeds; and he cannot be sure that his good deeds will counterbalance the evil.

 To see how utterly false this theory is, we must view it from various angles.  I want to call attention first to the fact that all people from Adam to the Resurrection of Christ were gathered into a place, in the central part of the earth, known as Sheol in the Old Testament, and as Hades in the New Testament.  Let us turn to Psalm 49:14-15. Remember that I always use the American Standard Version 1901 edition, of the Bible.

 “They are appointed as a flock for Sheol; death shall be their shepherd:

And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning;

And their beauty shall be for Sheol to consume, that there be no habitation for it.

But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol; for he will receive me.”

 Thus from Adam until the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord, all of the people who lived upon earth and died went down into Sheol.  From the account of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31), we learn that Sheol, or Hades (as it is known in the New Testament), is divided into two compartments which are separated by a great gulf.  Notice verse 26:

 “And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that they that

would pass from hence to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from

thence to us.”

 One of these compartments in Sheol is the place of departed lost spirits, where the wicked ones went, and still go.  The righteous, the godly, the saved were turned to the right and descended into that place where Abraham and all the other saved ones were. That situation existed from the time of Adam until the triumph of Christ.  But Abraham and the rest of the saved were released when Christ went down into Hades at the time of His crucifixion.  He was put to death in the flesh, but in the spirit He went down into Hades and completed His conquest over Satan, seized the keys of death and Hades, opened up that compartment where all the righteous were, and invited them to come out; and they all came out.  Then, He came back in spirit to the surface of the earth.  His spirit re-entered His body that had been lying in the tomb for three days. He revitalized it and came forth with an immortalized body; and those spirits who were released from Sheol returned with Him to the earth.  He was on earth again for forty days and then went back to glory, where He is on the right hand of the throne of God today; and all of the righteous spirits went with Him.

 “And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom;

 and the earth did quake; and the rocks were rent; 52 and the tombs were opened;

and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming forth out of the tombs after his resurrection they entered into the holy city and appeared unto many”  (Matthew 27:51-53).

 All those in Hades who had been righteous during their lives, trusting in the merits of Christ and not in themselves, were brought forth and carried with Him into glory.

“Thou has ascended on high, thou has led away captives; Thou hast received gifts

among men, yes among the rebellious also, that Jehovah God might dwell with them”

            (Psalm 68:18).

 “And who is he that will harm you, if ye be zealous of that which is good?  14 But even if ye should suffer for righteousness’ sake, blessed are ye:  and fear not their fear, neither be troubled; 15 but sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord:  being ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear:  16 having a good conscience; that, wherein ye are spoke against, they may be put to shame who revile your good manner of life in Christ.  17 For it is better, if the will of God should so will, that ye suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing.  18 Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 19 in which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, 20 that aforetime were disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water:  21 which also after a true likeness doth now save you, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ; 22 who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him” (I Peter 3:13-22).

 Now, my friend, all the saved since the Resurrection of Christ go immediately at death into His presence.  Paul said that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, and to be present here in the body is to be absent from the Lord.  In his Epistle to the Philippians, chapter one, he had a great yearning and longing to depart from this life and be with Christ, which was far better than remaining in this life.  When the child of God passes out of this life, his body is laid in the tomb, but his spirit goes immediately into the presence of Christ, and he awaits the time of the Rapture.  Christ will appear from heaven in the air before the Tribulation, but He will not at that time come to the earth.  He is going to raise and immortalize the dead bodies of the saints that have already gone to glory. Then He will catch up all the living saints, all the born-again ones, and will immortalize their bodies.  They will go with Him back to glory.  Turn with me to I Corinthians 15:51-51:

“Behold, I tell you a mystery:  We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed,

52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump:  for the trumpet shall

            sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

 Now turn to I Thessalonians 4:13-18:

 “But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that fall asleep;

 that ye sorrow not, even as the rest, who have no hope.  14 For if we believe that

Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will

God bring with him.  15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that

we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise

 precede them that are fallen asleep.  16 For the Lord himself shall descend from

Heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:

and the dead in Christ shall rise first; 17 then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air:  and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

 During the Tribulation, there will be those who will turn to the Lord and who will be

slain for their testimony.  Turn to Revelation 6:9-11:

 “And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that

had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:  10 and

they cried with a great voice, saying, How long, O Master, the holy and true, dost thou

not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?  11 And there was

given them to each one a white robe; and it was said unto them, that they should rest

yet for a little time until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, who should be

killed even as they were, should have fulfilled their course.”

 These martyrs will go immediately into the presence of Christ upon death.  At the end of the Tribulation Christ will come all the way to the earth and will gather together His elect from heaven and from the four corners of the globe.  In Psalm 50:4-5, we read of His coming:

“He calleth to the heavens above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people: 5Gather my saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

 He calls to the heavens above for those saints who have been with Him in glory. He calls to the earth for those saints who are still living here.  These are the Tribulation saints who are alive and who have survived the Tribulation.  Their bodies will be immortalized, and they will be caught up to meet the Lord as He comes all the way to the earth.  From these facts, we now that all the righteous that have ever lived will be raised and they will have their glorified, immortalized bodies before the thousand years’ reign of our Lord begins.  The rest of the dead, all of the wicked, the unsaved, will remain in Hades all through the thousand years of our Lord’s reign.  At the expiration of that millennial reign, the Lord will establish the judgment of the great what throne.  The only passage that mentions this judgment is Revelation 20:11-15:

 “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon 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, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were

opened:  and another book was opened, which is the books of life:  and the dead

were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their

works.  13 And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave

up the dead that were in them:  and they were judged every man according to their

works.  14 And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.  This is the second

death, even the lake of fire.  15 And if any was not found written in the book of

life, he was cast into the lake of fire.”

 From childhood, I was taught that after the judgment of the great white throne, the earth

was going to be renovated, regenerated, renewed, and that we would live here upon this earth throughout all eternity.  You may have been taught the same idea.  If you have, let me say that you have been misinformed.  The Scriptures do not teach any such doctrine. The Lord Jesus Christ said, “The heavens and earth shall pass away, but my Word shall not pass away.”  The heavens and earth shall all vanish.  They were created out of nothing, and they will be returned to a state of nothing.  They will pass away.  From our Lord’s utterance, we do not know when that event will occur.  But from Revelation 20:11, welearn that at the end of the thousand years’ reign of our Lord, when He will establish the great white throne, the heavens and earth that now are will be destroyed, will pass out of existence.  Then, praise God, He is going to create the eternal order—a new heaven and a new earth—and all of us who have been saved shall live with Christ and God forever and ever.  In Revelation 20:11, we learn that the heavens will pass away at the end of the Millennium, but we do not find here who will sit upon the throne and conduct this great tribune.  When however we turn back to such a passage as John 5:26-27, we know instantly who the Judge will be:

 “For as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in

himself:  27 and he gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man.”

 Because Christ took upon Himself the form of a man and became the God-man, to Him was given the right and authority to execute judgment.  From Revelation, chapter 20, we know that He will reign on earth for a thousand years.  From Psalm 2 and Psalm 8, as well as Zephaniah 3:14-16, we know that He will reign in Zion, which is the millennialJerusalem.  All during the thousand years’ reign, He will decide between many peoples and the nations.  He will decide all disputes of a national nature.  At the end of the millennial reign, He will establish the great white throne and will sit upon it and administer judgment.  Now the next thing that we want to notice is Revelation 20:12:

 “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 out of the things which were written in the books,

according to their works.”

 There are books here, a collection of them.  And then there is a Book of Life.  In the collection of books are recorded the life, actions, thoughts, words, and intentions of all men.  These records will be there at the judgment of the great white throne.  And this Book of Life will be there.  Here is something that is very, very important.  AT the judgment of the great white throne will be the Book of Life in which the name of everyone who is born into the world is written, and from which erasures have been and will be made.  Now you ask, “Is this the Lamb’s Book of Life?”  Well, let us turn to Psalm 69:28:

  “Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.”

  The Psalmist petitions that certain wicked people have their names blotted out of the Book of Life, this large volume that contains the name of everyone born into the world.  And he asks that they not be written with the righteous.  In the Book of Life appear the names of all people, because Christ died on the cross for all.  But in the Lamb’s Book of Life appear the names of the righteous only, of those only who accept Christ, who is the Sacrificial Lamb, as their Saviour.  The Book of Life that is mentioned inRevelation 20:12 is the original book in which everyone’s name is written.  “It is appointed unto men once to die and after this cometh judgment” (Heb. 9:27).  When one has rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, and his spirit departs from his body at his last breath, he is doomed for all eternity.  Nothing can be done to change this situation or his destiny then. It is just too late.  So then, those who are unrighteous, those who are unsaved, have their names erased from the original Book of Life.  And, of course, they are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  But when one is genuinely repentant, and accepts by faith the Lord Jesus Christ as his redeemer, his name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. All of those who have their names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will be raptured either before or at the end of the Tribulation.  So they will be raised prior to the judgment of the great white throne, which will be at the end of the Millennium.  Thus, only the wicked, only the lost, only the unrighteous will come into the judgment.  They will appear before the great white throne because their names will have been erased from the Book of Life and will not have been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

            Looking again at Revelation 20:12, we find that they will be judged “out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.”  Their deeds will determine the extent and the intensity of their punishment.  Now let us read the rest of Revelation, chapter 20:

 “And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the

dead that were in them:  and they were judged every many according to their

works.  14 And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.  This is the second

death, even the lake of fire.  15 And if any was not found written in the book of

 life, he was cast into the lake of tire” (Revelation 20:13-15).

 THE SCRIPTURES CLEARLY SHOW that only the lost come to judgment before the great white throne and are cast along with death and Hades, into the lake of fire and suffer punishment, being banished from the presence of God and His glory, forever and ever.

 We see therefore that there is to be no general judgment.  There is no great day coming when the saints and the sinners will be parted right and left.  The Christian can truly have the sweetly solemn thought come to him o’er and o’er that he is one day nearer his Father’s house than he has ever been before.  But he cannot rightly believe that he is one day nearer the great white throne than he has ever been before.  “Do the saved ever come into judgment?” you ask.  Yes, they have already come into one, and they will come into another.  They have already come into the judgment at the cross, where Christ paid the penalty for their sins and set them free.  They will come before the judgment seat of Christ.  Let us read II Corinthians 5:10-11:

 “For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ; that each

one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done,

 whether it be good or bad.  Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade

men, but we are made manifest unto God; and I hope that we are made manifest

also in your consciences.”

 The saved will not be judged for their sins because they will have had their sins washed away in the blood of the Lamb.  But they will be rewarded according to their deeds.  The parable of the pound found in Luke, chapter 19, shows that they will also be rewarded in accordance with the quality of their service to God.  And the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, found in Matthew, chapter 20, shows that the reward of the saved is also determined by the spirit in which they served God.  The men who bargained to work for a shilling a day labored throughout the heat of the day.  Those who went in at the eleventh hour were willing to trust and toil.  They took advantage of the first opportunity of serve which came to them.  They did not have the haggling, dickering spirit of those who entered at the beginning of the day.  On the contrary, they were willing to trust their employer to do the proper thing.  He appreciated that fact.  Their trustful attitude was the factor determining the amount which they were to receive.  The Lord despises a self-seeking spirit.  He appreciates a trustful, loving attitude.  Jesus, therefore, shows that the attitude of a person will enter into the awarding of reward.

 The time and the place that the saved will appear before the judgment seat of Christ is not definitely stated in Scriptures, but when Revelation 11:15-19 is studied in the light of that entire Book, it appears that this judgment will be held in heaven near the time of the Lord’s return to the earth at the end of the Tribulation.

 We see now that the saved have come into judgment at the cross and that they will come before Christ’s judgment seat to be rewarded.  We have also seen that the lost come before the great white throne to be condemned.  “But,” you ask, “will there be any people who are neither lost nor saved?  Will they ever be judged?”  The answer to both questions is yes.  Turn to Matthew 25:31-46 and follow most carefully, because it is the portion of Scripture usually cited in connection with Revelation 20:11-15 to prove that all people will be brought into judgment before the great white throne.  But the judgment recorded in Matthew chapter 25 is of living nations.  The dead are never called nations. No resurrection is mentioned.  The basis of this judgment is the treatment extended to our Lord’s brethren according to the flesh—the Jewish people.  Those who are good to them are put on the right hand and are permitted to enter the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world.  On the other hand, those who are placed one the left hand, and who are sent off into everlasting punishment, are the ones who have been unkind and bigoted toward His brethren.  These facts show that this is not a judgment to determine whether or not one is saved.  (When anyone accepts the Lord and is actually trusting Him, he has passed out of death into life.  He is safe in Jesus.)  Those of whom we read in the judgment of Matthew chapter 25 are apportioned their destiny upon the basis of works. In view of all these facts, no one can possibly read into this passage the conception of a universal judgment into which both the saved and the lost are brought.

  On the other hand, if we allow this passage to give its message, we cannot avoid the conclusion that the nation here mentioned are the remnants of the nations which survive the Tribulation.  As we have already learned, the Tribulation is a period of seven years which follows this day of grace.  During this time God pours out His judgments upon the world.  There are three series of them set forth under the symbolism of the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls (Revelation, chapters 6, 8, 9 and 16).  The major portion of humanity will be swept from the face of the globe at that time, but there will be some who will survive that ordeal and who will be brought into this judgment of the nations.  That there will be those who do survive is evident from the statement of Isaiah 13:12, “I will make a man more rare than fine gold, even a man than the pure gold of Ophir.”  An examination of this passage in its context shows that the Prophet was speaking about the Tribulation, which here is called “the day of Jehovah.”  In the twenty-fourth chapter of this same book the Prophet again, in a most vivid manner, describes the Tribulation judgments.  In verse 6 he gives this information:  “Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are found guilty:  therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.”  These few men who are left will be brought into this judgment of the nations.  Christ will then separate them as sheep from the goats.  The sheep, although not yet saved, will enter the millennial kingdom, where they will be converted by the Jewish evangels.  Paul tells us in Romans, chapter 11, that all Israel will be saved.  This national conversion will occur during the Tribulation, by means of the 144,000 who are mentioned in Revelation, chapter 7.  When converted Israel acknowledges the national sin of rejecting Christ and pleads for His return, He will come, as Hosea, 5:15-6:4, and other Scriptures clearly reveal.  Psalm 67 is the prayer of converted Israel at the end of the Tribulation.  Notice the first two verses:

 “God be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause his fact to shine upon us;

2 That they way may be known upon earth, thy salvation among all nations.”

 The nations here mentioned are the sheep of Matthew chapter 25.  They enter the Millennium and are converted by the remnant of Israel.  The goats are accursed and enter into eternal punishment.

So we see that there are four great judgments revealed in the Bible, instead of one general judgment.  There will be no gathering of saints and sinners for judgment at the great white throne.  Yet what a dreadful judgment will be there!  Thank of the millions of people who are dying without God, lost, lost, forever lost!—doomed to come before the great white throne and to be cast with death and Hades into the lake of fire.  If you have never accepted Christ, I plead with you to do so now.  May God lead you to this decision.