Predicting the future is big business. One source estimates the national psychic industry to be a $2 billion a year business. While it’s easy to understand the desire for a glimpse into the future, there is only one source of reliable prophecy, and that is God’s Word. With free online versions and affordable printed copies, the Bible contains invaluable information about our future. Over the centuries, hundreds of biblical predictions have been fulfilled in astonishing detail, giving us confidence in its remaining end-time prophecies.
Facts About the Great White Throne Judgment
WHO: Everyone who ever died without knowing Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
WHAT: Each person’s life will be measured against God’s perfect standard of holiness.
WHEN: After Jesus’ Millennial reign.
WHERE: We can’t be sure, but it won’t be in heaven or on earth.
WHY: To settle all rebellion against God’s righteousness.
Jump to an Article Topic:
The Location of the Great White Throne
The Judge on the Great White Throne
The Sentencing at the Great White Throne Judgment
How to Avoid the Judgment
One of the Bible’s as-yet-unfulfilled prophecies is the Great White Throne Judgment, described in Revelation 20. This event will involve everyone who did not accept Jesus as their Savior during their life on earth. Christians will not be present; they will participate in a separate judgment known as the Judgment Seat of Christ. Because Christ’s righteousness has been credited to every believer, the latter will be a joyous occasion. The Great White Throne Judgment will be a different matter. Let’s take a closer look at the details that will surround this great judgment.
The People at the Great White Throne
In Revelation 20:12-13, we learn about the people at the Great White Throne: “I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God.… The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them.”
As John views the Great White Throne, he sees all who died without a relationship with Jesus Christ—the spiritually dead. Their bodies are summoned from their graves and the sea. Their souls are called from death and Hades to stand before the Judge of all the earth. According to John, this group will be made up of both small and great. That’s an expression that often appears in the Bible and over five times in the book of Revelation alone. It reminds us that all classes of people will be present from all ranks in the Church and the world. There will be many religious people at the Great White Throne: philanthropists, preachers, miracle workers, and laypeople.
Erwin Lutzer says this multitude is diverse in its religions. It will include Buddhists and Muslims and Hindus and Protestants and Catholics and Baptists and Presbyterians. There will be those who believed in one God and those who believed in many gods. It will include those who refused to believe in any God at all. Those who believed in meditation as a means of salvation and those who thought that doing great deeds would lead to eternal life will be represented. We see the moral and the immoral, the priest as well as the minister, the nun as well as the missionary.
What will happen to these religious people when they stand before God? Let the Lord Jesus answer that question. “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:21-23)
Contrary to popular opinion, believing in your chosen truth does not make it true. There is only one truth, and that’s the truth of Jesus Christ. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Believe in that truth, or you will not go to the Father. That’s what He said. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
The Location of the Great White Throne
Revelation 20:11 says, “I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.” The Bible does not specify where the Great White Throne Judgment will be. However, we know where it will not be: it will not be in heaven, and it will not be on earth.
It cannot take place on earth because at the appearance of the Lord, the earth and the heaven will have fled away. And it cannot take place in heaven because no sinner can enter the presence of God there. So, the Great White Throne Judgment takes place somewhere between heaven and earth. Perhaps on some distant planet that we don’t even know about, but it will take place.
And perhaps the name of it is more important than its location. The word great speaks of the infinite One who is the Judge. The word white speaks of divine holiness, purity, and justice. And throne speaks of the majesty of the One who has the right to determine the destiny of His creatures.
The Judge on the Great White Throne
The Person of the Great White Throne Judgment is revealed to us in Revelation 20:11-12: “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it…. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God.”
Who is the Judge on the Great White Throne? He is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And we discover this through our Lord’s own words: “The Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son…. And [the Father] has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man” (John 5:22, 27).
Paul wrote to the Romans, “God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ” (Romans 2:16). In Acts, Peter declared that God ordained Christ to be the Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42).
Christ is the Judge of the living at the Judgment Seat of Christ when believers come before Him after the Rapture. He is the Judge of the spiritually dead at the Great White Throne Judgment. Jesus Christ will conduct the trial, and no one is better qualified. He did all He could do to redeem humanity, and if anyone rejects His offer, then that person must be judged by Jesus.
The Sentencing at the Great White Throne Judgment
Revelation 21:27 states only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will get into heaven—so what is that book? The names of all the people born into the whole world are originally entered into the Book of Life. But those names are subject to being removed.
We can speculate that every person’s name is entered into the Book of Life with the time of conception and the time of birth. Perhaps the age of accountability might be next to his name. And then, if he’s a Christian, the date of his conversion to Christ as His Savior is there. But if there are no entries for the last items by the time that person dies, the entry will be blotted out (Revelation 3:5). An awful blank space will be left in the book at the place where that name should have been. Exhibiting this blank spot in the book will be the definitive and conclusive evidence that the person standing trial must be consigned to live forever without God.
What happens is, when we are born, our name goes into the Book of Life, and we have our entire lifetime to accept Christ. If we come to the end of our life and haven’t accepted Him, the Bible says our name will be blotted out of the Book of Life, and no man can go to heaven whose name is not in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
How to Avoid the Judgment
This One who spoke the world into being is the One who will ultimately make it right. And the Bible promises we will be with Him forever because we put our trust in Him. It also says that if we know Christ and are alive when Jesus comes back, we will be caught up together to be with Him and taken to heaven.
When Jesus Christ returns, the Bible says the dead in Christ will rise first, and then those who are still alive will be caught up together to be with Him in the sky. From that time on, believers will be with Him forever (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
No one can escape the judgment of God. For those of us who are Christians, the righteousness of Christ covers us. For everyone else, time is running out. The only way to be protected from the coming judgment and eternal punishment in the lake of fire is to place your trust in Jesus Christ today. Please don’t delay. Accept the Lord’s invitation while there is still time—there is room in the Father’s house (heaven) for everyone.
Continue your study of biblical prophecy with these other popular articles by David Jeremiah:
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The False Prophet in the Book of Revelation
11 Answers to Questions About the End Times
What Is the Rapture?
What Is the Millennium? 7 Answers to 7 Questions
4 Signs of the End Times
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