,, And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”
Rev. 20: 12-15
Last time we saw that the Lord Jesus is a righteous judge and now we read that John sees who is appearing before the Judge:
"And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were opened; and another book is opened, which is the book of life; and the judgment received the dead, as it is written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave its dead, and death and hell gave their dead; "
and here will be all those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, all those who will not be saved and born again, the Lord Jesus said:
,, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”
John 5:24
and this means exactly what we said above that all unbelievers go to this court and for the faithful it says:
,, Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”
Rev. 20: 6
So it is quite clear that all unbelievers come to this court, including those who "slept" for many years and centuries, as well as those who were killed at the end of the Millennial Kingdom a very short time ago. "be" "to the shame and reproach of eternity.":
,, And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.”
Daniel 12: 2
We can practically see the reason why the prophet Danolo wrote this, because before our eyes there is so much sin that was once considered a shame, while today this "doing" is very popular and "no one" thinks that it may be a sin, let alone that It is a shame or it is not good to do that. However, there will come a time when they will stand before a just judge and then they will be very ashamed but also very sorry, but we saw last time that it is too late for anything but a fair court.
Unlike the faithful, John does not see white robes here, but only mentions sinners, "the dead small and great". Here will be all those who have committed the least sins that no one may have seen, great sinners who have suffered condemnation already on earth, rulers, emperors, politicians, educated, scientists, miscellaneous, alliances of the modern age, so there will be those who may have presented themselves as "righteous, good people, human rights activists, environmentalists, animals, planets, etc., there there will also be "ordinary" people of all ages who have rejected Christ's urge and there will be those who have deliberately taught people the wrong "paths" that lead to god, etc. not to mention more briefly ..all unbelievers "
"standing before God"
John says that everyone will stand trial and those who died a normal death and were buried, as well as those who were not buried for various reasons to all those who in some way "ended up" in various waters or sea depths, burned at the stake or they are torn apart by beasts, Their souls as unbelievers are found in hell. and they will all rise in their bodies.
"And the sea gave its dead, and death and hell gave their dead;" We have spoken of hell or "Hell" before, but let us say that hell is a temporary place of torment for the unbelievers, and all the souls of the unbelievers go to Hell after death happens with the body it is common for the body to be buried but we have seen that it can “end up” in other places as well.
All of them will be resurrected by the Lord Jesus who said:
,, Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life….
John 11:25
The Lord Jesus has authority over all creation, even over death and hell
,,… and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.”
Rev. 1:18
,, and the books were opened; and another book is opened, which is the book of life; and the judgment received the dead, as it is written in the books, according to their works.
Below we see that several books will be mentioned that will be present at the trial and that is for the reason that the trial is not biased but that there is valid evidence that will testify against every man who will be in this court. According to what the Apostle John writes there there will be a Bible
,, "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him--the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.”
John 12.48
because the words of God are written in the Bible, which are "Truth", so "Truth will be a witness" against all those who have rejected and who will in the future reject the "Word" or the Lord Jesus Christ.
,, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
John 1: 1-4
We know that God is Almighty and Almighty and He does not need any "books" to perhaps remember something because He cannot forget anything, books are there so that no one could say that he did not do something or did not think. everything is written so that no one will have the slightest chance to hide anything from the Righteous Judge because before God everything is "naked and revealed"
,, And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”
Hebrews 4:13
Billions of people have lived on earth so far and also billions will still live until the court and they all have their "biographies" in which everything is absolutely accurately written and what they did in public but also what they did in secret and maybe that no one saw, but they could not hide it from God because He saw because "everything is naked and revealed."
So everything that someone did, said or thought was written down and it will go to court
,, in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.”
Rom.2: 16
"And another book was opened, which is the book of life:" This is the book in which are written the names of all those who are saved by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This book is needed as proof that someone's name is not written in it, and if that is the case, nothing can help him in a terrible judgment, regardless of the fact that he lived according to some righteousness, perhaps flawlessly and morally, maybe he met God's standards by some standards, maybe he did many good deeds, etc., but if he did not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and accepted Him as the only savior, his name will certainly not be written in the book of life.
At the Last Judgment, there will be no question of what someone did and what he did, whether he is moral. Good, pious or how many good deeds there are. The question will be whether his name is in the book of life. If it is not the end, he will be in the Lake of Fire and that verdict will be fair and no one will be able to say anything in their defense because everything will be "documented" by the evidence from the books.
"And the judgment received the dead, as it is written in the books, according to their works." And in the fifteenth verse the final condemnation is written for all whose name is not written in the book of life:
"And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."
The Antichrist and the false prophet are already in the Lake of Fire:
,, Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.”
Rev. 19:20
and also Satan and the demons:
,, And the devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
Rev. 20:10
and now all the unsaved join them:
"Both death and hell would be thrown into the lake of fire. And this is the second death. "
The first death is when the body goes to the grave and the soul to Hell, and the second death is when both the body and the soul go to the Lake of Fire and there he will be tortured, "forever and ever" means forever.
,, "he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. "And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name."”
Rev. 14: 10-11
How terrible and dangerous this place is for everyone, it is best that they never find out and it is very difficult for us to describe it, but the voice of the "rich man" who begs from hell to warn his brothers so that they would not go to that place of torture:
,, "Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house, 'for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.'”
Luke 16: 27-28
And finally, to explain the purpose of the terrible judgment.
One does not go to Hell because someone did not have good deeds, or had many bad and evil deeds, but because he did not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and accepted him as Savior. And the purpose of the terrible judgment is to carry out a just trial that will determine everyone in whom part of the Lake of Fire will end and not whether someone will be "thrown" into the Lake of Fire or not.
"And he received judgment according to his works."
The good deeds we talked about will determine the degree of punishment so that those who had good deeds and those who committed terrible crimes will not be in the same place. The Lord Jesus Christ also spoke about that:
,, "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. "But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. "And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. "But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you."”
Mt.11: 21-24
Here we see that it will be easier to have "Sodom" than "Capernaum" because the people of Sodom had "only Lot" and Capernaum Christ, Capernaum had more light, so they will be punished more.
In the end, the advice for everyone would be that we should not think about these terrible punishments and degrees of punishment, but accept the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and expect rewards and not these terrible punishments.
The Bible says:
,, Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power…”
Rev. 20: 6