Prophecy
16
Earth
Purified –
Revelation 20:11 – 21:1
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The Sequence
Revelation
20:11
And
I saw a great white throne, and him
that sat on it, from whose face the
earth and the heaven fled away; and
there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great,
stand before God; and the books were
opened: and another book was opened,
which is the book of life: and the
dead were judged out of those things
which were written in the books,
according to their works.{11} At
the end of the 1,000 years, the Holy
City will descend from Heaven.
Shortly afterwards, every wicked
person that once lived on Earth will
be resurrected and restored to
life. I saw a great white
throne and Jesus was seated on
it. His glory was so great that
Earth and sky were not visible. {12}
The wicked were speechless.
They stood before Jesus and His
throne, both great and small, and a
record of each life was opened for
review and the wicked were informed
of their sentence. Each was
sentenced according to what he had
done.
During the
1,000 years, the saints will sit in
judgment with Jesus. They will
review the records of the wicked and
determine the amount of suffering
that each will have to suffer.
Please notice that the saints do not
determine who will be saved and
lost. Jesus, according to the
authority given to Him, made this
determination prior to the Second
Coming. Therefore, the judgment
conducted by the saints during the
1,000 years has nothing to do with
salvation. The judgment is
limited to the matter of
restitution. When the wicked
are raised from their graves, they
will be given the sentences which the
saints determined. Later,
another book will be opened.
The seventh seal will be broken on
The Book of Life and the contents
will be made known to everyone.
Amazingly, The Book of Life (written
by the Father before life was
created) will perfectly mirror the
books of record (written by the
angels in real time).
This great
day will never be duplicated
again. Everyone who lived on
Earth during its 6,000 year history
will be alive and
present. Sin’s
drama will come to a close with every
sinner in attendance. The
saints (those who overcame sin
through faith in Jesus) will observe
the Great White Throne event from the
walls of the Holy City. Down
below and surrounding the Holy City,
there will be a numberless multitude
of wicked people. The wicked
surrounding the city will include
those who were thrown alive into the
lake of fire (a sea of fire) at the
Second Coming,[10] and
everyone else whom God could not
save.
Revelation
20:13-15
And
the sea gave up the dead which were
in it; and death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them: and
they were judged every man according
to their works. And death and hell
were cast into the lake of fire. This
is the second death. And whosoever
was not found written in the book of
life was cast into the lake of fire.{13} Hades
(the grave) gave up every person who
had died. Thus, everyone who
lived on Earth during the 6,000 years
of sin was present and accounted
for. After Jesus explained why
he could not save each wicked person,
each of the wicked was sentenced
according to what he had done to
others.
{14}
Then, all of the wicked (including
Lucifer and his demons) were thrown
into the lake of fire and the lake of
fire burns them up. The wicked
die the second death, a death from
which there is no hope of
resurrection.
{15}
If anyone’s name was not found
written in The Book of Life, he was
thrown alive into the lake of fire
– by a God of love!
At this
point, we should briefly review
four concepts: First, the Bible says
that the penalty for sin is death,
not living in hell forever.[11] Death
is a state of silence, where there is
no thought, action or awareness.[12]
Second, a God of love is always just
and fair. He will not punish
someone with infinite torture because
no crime merits infinite
torment. His law of love limits
punishment to a life for a life, a
bruise for a bruise, an eye for an
eye, and a tooth for a tooth.
God will not exceed them.
Third, the fires of hell cannot burn
forever![13] After
restitution has been extracted from
the wicked, they must die.
Mercifully, it is the second death
that will last forever because, never
again, will there be a place for sin
and sinners in God’s
universe. Finally, it is
important to understand that the
saints will not see their loved ones
writhing around in the flames of hell
for eternity because the wicked will
perish and become
“ashes.” The fires of
hell will come to an end and Jesus
will create a new Heaven and
Earth. The former things will
pass away and Jesus will establish a
new world order. He will wipe
away all tears. All attachments
with the wicked will end. The
meek will inherit the Earth and live
happily ever after, yes forever and
ever!
Revelation
21:1
And
I saw a new heaven and a new earth:
for the first heaven and the first
earth were passed away; and there was
no more sea.{21:1} Then
I saw Jesus create a new Heaven and a
new Earth, for the first Heaven and
the first Earth had passed away, and
there was no longer any sea (or lake
of fire).[14]
The
Rules of Interpretation
Consider how
the Rules of Interpretation
(discussed in the Introduction of
this book) are observed in this
prophecy:
Rule
One says an apocalyptic
prophecy has a beginning point and
ending point in time and the events
within the prophecy occur in the
order given. This prophecy
conforms to Rule One because Revelation 20:11 starts
a new prophecy. Chronologically
speaking, verse 11 does not follow
verse 10, so a new prophecy
begins. The chronological order
in this prophecy is self evident.
- A
great white throne becomes
visible
- The
wicked of all ages stand
before Jesus
- The
wicked are burned up
- God
creates a new Heaven and a
new Earth
Rule
Two says a fulfillment
only occurs when all of the
specifications are met, and this
includes the order stated in the
prophecy. There is a
profound point in this prophecy that
many people overlook. A lake of
fire will be created at the Second
Coming.[15] This
lake of fire will burn during the
1,000 years.[16] At the
end of the 1,000 years, God will cast
the wicked of all ages alive into
this fire.[17] No one
is in hell today. The wicked
are not punished before the saints
pass judgment on them and they are
resurrected to face their Creator![18]
Rule
Three says that
apocalyptic language can be literal,
analogous, or symbolic. To
reach the intended meaning of a
prophecy, the reader must consider
(a) the context, (b) the use of
parallel language in the Bible, and
(c) if an element is thought to be
symbolic, the Bible must interpret
the symbol with a relevant text.
The language used in this prophecy is
not symbolic because there are no
relevant texts defining a
symbol. On the other hand, we
find liberal use of analogous and
literal language. For example,
death and Hades (the grave) will be
thrown into the lake of fire.[19]
Personification is used to describe
the end of sin’s curse. Paul
says, “The last enemy to be
destroyed is death.”[20] Of
course, when death is no more, the
grave will not be necessary.
Thus, death and the grave will be
destroyed in the lake of fire.
Rule
Four is not used in
this prophecy.
References:
- Without
realizing it, many Christians
treat
Luke 16:19-31 as a
fact instead of a
parable. This puts the
Bible in a state of internal
conflict because the Bible
does not teach opposing
concepts. Return
- 1
Thessalonians 4:15-17 Return
- Deuteronomy
6:4; Malachi 3:6; 1 Timothy 2:5,6 Return
- 1 John 4:8,16; John 3:16 Return
- Malachi 1:14; 3:6; Hebrews 13:8 Return
- Luke 6:30; Obadiah 1:15; Romans 12:19 Return
- 1 Corinthians
6:1-3; Revelation
20:6 Return
- Ecclesiastes
12:14; 2 Corinthians
5:10 The
Bible
indicates that angels in
Heaven record every aspect of
human behavior. (Daniel 7:9,10; Malachi 3:16; Revelation
20:12.)
This explains why books of
record are used to judge the
dead prior to the Second
Coming. Jesus will also
use these same books to
silence any discrepancy a
wicked person might have when
he receives his sentence at
the end of the 1,000
years. In other words,
if a wicked person claims
that God’s judgment of
him is unfair, Jesus will
present the evidence that He
used when making His
determination. Since
these records exist, God has
evidently enabled certain
angels to be impartial
observers and chroniclers of
human conduct. Their
job is to record the words,
thoughts, and actions of
every person (including
Lucifer and the angels that
were cast out of Heaven) and
their work is represented in
the Bible as books of
record. (I am sure
Heaven uses a technology that
is far greater than books or
video duplication, but I am
sure you understand the
concept.) If such
angels do not exist and God
Himself is the recorder of
human conduct, a conflict of
interest occurs, because the
Judge uses records that He
wrote as the basis for His
judgment. Therefore, it
seems fair and reasonable to
conclude that God has
assigned intelligent angels
to serve as third-party
observers of human
conduct. If so, these
angels have nothing to gain
or lose. Their job is
to simply record the
facts. This arrangement
aligns with a generous God of
light who exalts principles
of love, who does nothing
shady, who has nothing to
hide, and has done everything
possible to save each
sinner. Return
- Isaiah
45:18-24 Return
- Revelation
19:20; 20:10 Return
- Romans 6:23 Return
- Ecclesiastes
9:5-6; Psalm 115:17 Return
- Malachi 4:3 Return
- John
says “there was no more
sea” after the first
Heaven and first Earth passed
away. John uses two
different Greek words thalassa (sea)
and limne (lake)
in two consecutive verses and
this has caused some
confusion.
(Revelation
20:15; Revelation
21:1)
Evidently, John uses the
word thalassas (sea)
in Revelation
21:1 instead
of limne(lake)
because the lake of fire
engulfs the whole world at
the very end.
Thus, the first Earth passes
away and is totally destroyed
by fire. John’s
use of two different words
can be seen as progressive,
that is, the lake (of fire)
becomes a sea (of
fire). This fire
destroys the elements of the
first Heaven and the first
Earth. (2 Peter 3:12)
Compare the use of thalassas and limne in Matthew 4:18, Mark 1:16 and John 6:17 with Luke 5:1 and 8:22,23. Return
- Revelation
19:20 Return
- Revelation
20:10 Return
- Revelation
20:15 Return
- For
more information on what
happens when a person dies,
please see Chapter 13 in my
book, Jesus: The
Alpha and The Omega or
download this chapter
at:
http://www.wake-up.org/Alpha/Chapter13.htm. Return
- Revelation
20:14 Return
- 1 Corinthians
15:26 Return
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