The Final Judgment
THE FINAL JUDGMENT
REVELATION 20:7-15
Everyone will have to give account of their lives to God. That is why it is important that we trust Christ here and now.
Organized evil and opposition to God need a leader, and so Satan is released to show that essentially humanity has not changed. Gog and Magog, see Ezekiel 38:2-3, seem to represent all those peoples who have been on the fringe of civilization and therefore only marginally involved with the beast. The use of “camp” (20:9) may be an indication that even the millennium is not the final goal of the church (see Hebrews 11:10; Revelation 21:2); the JBP translation “the army of the saints defending the beloved city” is worthy of consideration. It is striking how little is told us of the millennium.
The One who sits on the “great white throne” (20:11) is presumably Jesus Christ (see also John 5:22,27). The throne represents rule, and white purity. Faced by it, even material creation cannot abide it; 21:1 makes clear, however, that there is no thought of the abolition of the world. The “books” (20:12; see also Daniel 7:10) are no doubt the record of human history, though we should hesitate to take them literally. We should remember that this is genuine judgment, not merely a parade for condemnation, though there are those who appear only to hear the sentence (see John 3:18). The books give evidence of the person’s life and character, but the verdict is based on “the book of life”; in other words, acquittal is by grace. The idea that the book of life is opened merely to show that a person’s name is not there is almost blasphemous. We may be certain that the hardened Jew (Romans 11:25), the Gentile who has never heard, and all those who have seen and heard only perversions of the gospel, will be treated accordingly. We can accept without hesitation that the Judge, who was the sin offering for all humanity, will say to some, “Your life shows that if you had heard, or heard properly, you would have believed.” We may imagine some of those who had never heard falling at his feet in adoration, as they recognize the One they had always longed for. We are not entitled to think that Satan will have the satisfaction of drawing the bulk of humanity with him to hell. We know that some will be lost; our estimate of how many will be saved is likely to depend on our estimate of the power and love of God.
“The second death” (20:14): it might be better if we were to use this term rather than hell. Death is something that makes it impossible for humanity to accomplish their dreams and God’s will. As people stand before the great white throne they know what they are and what they have missed, but there remains no hope of ever changing or achieving.