The Second Resurrection

The Great White Throne: Sinners Judged

Verse 11 (see also chapter 21, verse 1) 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.

After the sentencing of the devil, John’s focus shifted, as his attention was then drawn to The Great White Throne, and to Him who sat upon it. It is here that the fourth and last judgment, following the fourth and final resurrection (that of sinners, the wicked, the Christ haters and rejecters) will take place. In God’s reckoning, only the resurrection to life eternal and the resurrection to eternal damnation matter, at the end of the day. Thus, by His count, there is only two: This is the second (the first included all the saints raised and raptured before the apocalypse begins and those raised at the end of the tribulation period.). At the appearance of the One seated upon that Throne, the heaven and the earth will flee, or vanish. Evidently, this act will be indicative of the austerity, and seriousness of the occasion at hand. It also signifies the, shall we say, eternality of the man being as a whole, a complete composite creature (of physical body, and invisible spirit/soul), as he will at this point not only not have, but he will no longer require, or be dependent upon the earth and its protective biosphere/ecosystem for sustenance. In addition, and in affirmation that righteous man’s next habitat will not be renovations of the old, we are told that the New Heaven and the New Earth will be characterized by the absence of any ocean—i.e., it will have no sea, or other large body of water (21:1).

The Dead And The Books

Verse 12 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.

Verse 13 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.

Then, John saw the fruit of what will be the last resurrection, as those who had remained dead for the one thousand years, will be brought back to life so as to stand before God. In this case, God (the One seated upon the Throne) is the Son. That is, He is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, per the will and fore plan of the Father. “…For the Father is going to judge no one, insofar as, He has delegated that authority to the Son… (John 5:22, 27)”, Jesus told an already bitterly angry, hostile crowd of Jews who wanted to kill Him, then and there. Standing on Mars’ hill, preaching to the pagans of Athens, Greece, Paul the apostle confirmed the Lord’s words by noting that whereas “…in the past, God ignored men’s ignorance concerning Himself, He now commands that all men everywhere should repent: this, because He has established and set aside a day in which the world will be judged righteously by that Man whom He has ordained; of Whom He has given assurance (of this fact) to men, inasmuch as, He has raised Him (Jesus Christ) from the dead…