CHAPTER 21: JUDGMENT AND HELL
Judgment (especially when it pertains to the Final Judgment) is one big word in the Bible that nobody enjoys discussing. Is there anyone who looks forward to going to a courthouse and standing as a defendant infront of a judge? Of course not. Yet the Bible plainly declares that there will be a judgment, a judgment that will be fair and final. If everything were perfect there would be no need of a judgment. But since God is holy and all of us are guilty of violating His laws in one form or another, therefore there must be a judgment.
It would not be necessary for anybody to obey God if there were no judgment. Imagine if everyone once they died automatically went to Heaven. That might be a sweet sounding thought but it is not reality. How do we know? Because God's Word declares otherwise. The reality is:
1. God is real
2. God is holy an cannot tolerate sin
3. Man has violated God's law
4. Sinners must be punished because of their sin
Even the most honest and moral person any of us could name has fallen short of God's standard of perfection. Think of it this way, it makes no difference if a football place-kicker misses a fieldgoal by three inches or thiry feet. It still goes down as a missed fieldgoal.
Why is our present world in such a mess? Because it is in spiritual turmoil. This isn't the world that God created for us. It is a fallen world that is under the curse of sin.
"The whole world lies in wickedness" (I John 5:19)
The facts of our universe are that God loves us enough not to give up on us and Satan hates us enough to want to ruin us. The result of course is conflict. As I said earlier, either one is a citizen of God's kingdom or he is a citizen of Babylon with Satan as its overlord. There is no middle ground.
"Oh I don't believe in Satan", some might say, "I think he is just a relic of man's medieval past." Just because you choose not to believe in him doesn't make him any less real. He's too busy destroying lives with vices and temptations to care about whether or not you believe he exists. His only care is that he can drag you to Hell with him by keeping you away from the real Jesus.
Believe the Bible. The Bible tells us that there is a Satan also known as the devil.
"Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and sea for the devil has come down to you with great wrath because he knows he has but a short time." (Revelation 12:12)
Satan has a deep hatred for God and for everything that God holds dear, mainly every human soul. His two biggest weapons are fear and greed. He's had hundreds of years to study human behavior. He knows which temptations to throw at which individuals. A moral person might not be tempted to use drugs or alcohol but he may be tempted to view unchurched people as less than he. Either way, whether through substance abuse or self-righteousness, we end up losing the temptation battle. We sin. The penalty for sin is judgment and death.
So is there any hope of getting out of this sin trap? Absolutely yes! Paul write in Romans 6:23:
"The wage of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."
Wow what a simple message! When I turned to Christ, I exchanged my sin debt for the gift of eternal life. Now when God looks at me He doesn't see my imperfect righteousness but the perfect righteousness of Christ. My destiny is now Heaven instead of judgment.
So why aren't more people saved? Be prepared to hear a hard truth: Jesus doesn't want any of you unless you want all of Him. That's a hard truth for a lot of people. You mean that it's not enough just to believe in God or even to believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah? Correct. Jesus doesn't want to become a small part of our lives. He wants to be the reason we live the way we live. We don't live morally to impress our parents. We live to honor God. We have a desire to be a godly influence on those around us. We want our lives to count for eternity. Only Jesus offers that kind of a life. With all that said let's see what will happen to the unsaved when they pass into eternity.
Let's do a quick recap of what we covered so far. Jesus will return for His bride someday soon. When He does He will come in power and glory and take His church to Heaven for 1000 years. The unsaved will be left on Earth where they will endure the 14 plagues mentioned in Revelation with the locust plague lasting five horrible months. After the five months there will be universal death on all the planet. The souls of the unsaved will go down to a place of silence (Hades) where they await the second resurrection. (Every unsaved soul since the time of Cain is waiting in a place of unconscious silence until the time of their resurrection) They will not live again until the 1000 years are over (Rev 20:5).
Satan will be bound on a desolate Earth for a 1000 years. He'll have no one to tempt of torment during that awful time.
After the 1000 years are over Satan will be loosened and he will deceive the nations of Gog and Magog who are all of the fallen angels. He and his angelic rebels will make one last desperate attack on Heaven (Ezekiel 38:16). All of them will be soundly defeated.
"And I will bring him to judgment...I will rain down on him...flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone." (Ezekiel 38:22)
"...And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them." (Revelation 20:9)
Satan really is the biggest fool who ever lived. He traded the second highest position in Heaven for an eternity in the worst place in the lake of fire.
The next event in Revelation is the second resurrection. But before we study the events of Revelation 20:12, I first want to define a certain term that appears in the Bible. The term is "mystery".
What is meant by a mystery? A mystery is a divine truth that only God can fully understand. A mystery can be either good or evil. Paul descibed the divinity of Christ as a mystery:
"Great is the mystery of godliness...God was manifest in the flesh..." (I Tim. 3:16)
Many cults and skeptics ask, "How could Jesus be fully God and fully human." I can't understand it either but I accept it. I've learned to accept some things that I can't fully understand. I can't explain how a 767 passenger jet can get off the ground in spite of its immense weight; but I accept it because I know it happens every day.
The word "mystery" is also used to identify Babylon. Why? Because Babylon is part of what Paul called the "mystery of iniquity" (2 Thes. 2:7).
Believe it or not evil is a mystery. Why? One question that Bible skeptics ask is, "If Lucifer were created perfectly then how could he have ever sinned unless he was pre-programmed to sin? If he was very wise wouldn't he realize that if he were to pick a fight with Almighty God, he would lose? Doesn't this raise the question as to whether or not there really is a devil?"
All I can say is that the Bible does not go into great detail concerning the angelic rebellion. But it did happen and the Bible tells us only what we NEED to know. Proud Lucifer took a chance and lost.
Now let's look again at our "demonic duo", the woman and the beast. The woman (Babylon) represents the world system that excludes God. The "many waters" are all the people of the Earth who become corrupted by Babylon. The beast with seven heads and ten horns is Satan. The seven heads are seven hills and they are also seven kings or kingdoms.
Revelation 17 also mentions an eighth king who is of the seven. The eighth king is Satan himself who will rule Earth from the heavenly sanctuary during the last 42 months of the world's existence.
Those are the heads but who are the ten horns? As I've said they are not the Common Market countries. In 1981 the CM went from nine to ten members and there was some evangelical hoopla: "Look, the beast now has ten horns!" By 2015 the CM morphed into what we know as the European Union which since 1981 grew to 28 members. There now isn't any evangelical hoopla.
As we've seen the ten horns represent the fullness in number of all those who will never become saved. Is it possible that this group will be divided into ten sub-groups? Is it possible that light sinners like unsaved humanitarians will be in Group 1 whereas serial killers will be in Group 10 with eight groups in-between? Is it possible that the higher the group's assigned number will determain the level of punishment they'll receive in the lake of fire? All of these groups would be ten groups or ten horns. Yes, all of the above is possible.
We have seen the final defeat of Satan and his demons, but what about the unsaved? The Bible says that THE DEAD, who were killed after the 14 plagues, will not live again until the 1000 years is finished. After Satan's final defeat we see THE DEAD being raised as individuals who will now stand for judgment.
"And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the 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 which were written in the books." (Revelation 20:12)
Each person will have all of his thoughts, motives, words, and actions replayed. Even the most secret of sins will be brought into the light.
"For there is nothing hid which shall not be manifest." (Mark 4:22)
"But I say unto you, that every idle word that men speak, they shall give account in the day of judgment" (Mat. 12:36)
There will be no joy in this judgment. Instead there will be embarrassment, grief, remorse, tears, and curses. People will curse their friends for dragging them down the wrong road. They will curse parents for not showing them the Gospel message. They will curse cult leaders who kept them is spiritual bondage. Also they will curse godless political tyrants that many of them served. Pay close attention my fellow Christians to this one, many of them will curse Christians who crossed their path in life and who never shared the Gospel message.
Ultimately they will curse themselves. During their lifetime they either rejected or neglected God's pardon. They did not have the faith and courage to turn to Jesus.
As I've said earlier, two of the devil's best weapons are fear and greed - fear over losing things that we want to keep for ourselves and greed for always wanting more for ourselves even if it means compromising our character.
The day of salvation will have passed. It is now the day of judgment. If a man is unjust he will remain unjust still. (Revelation 22:11)
People might be shown how their sin affected other people. Political tyrants might be shown scenes of decent people suffering under their rule. Gossipers might be shown scenes of how their gossip pushed some people to the brink of suicide. Serial killers and drug dealers might be shown scenes inside funeral homes and be made to see the grief that their actions caused. Abortionists might be shown scenes of grown children who were never allowed to be born. And "love them and leave them" so-called fathers might be shown scenes of a single mom trying to console a child who cries at night, "Why can't I have a daddy?!". None of this will be pleasant to watch. Yet we all have to realize that our sin not only affects our lives but it also affects the lives of those around us.
Also, I realize that the Bible doesn't really mention this, but it is possible that people standing at the White Throne judgment might be shown what their lives might have been like had they committed their lives to Christ. Moral decent people as well as felons might be shown and told, "Look what might have been." By this point I don't believe anyone will be able to answer God with a curse.
Finally there will be the excuses. God might hear words like:
"I felt I was doing the right thing - that is right in my own view."
"I was upholding family tradition. The parents You gave me raised me in that false cult. Now I have to pay the price for staying in it?!"
"I didn't feel comfortable being around those kind of people. My friends use to say, 'We should send them all back to their own country on a boat that leaks.' At the time I laughed and agreed. Now I realize that everyone was created in God's image."
"My country had laws that restricted religious expression. I felt I was being a good citizen. Now I realize that none of those party thugs cared anything about my soul."
"I've always been a man of science. I didn't believe in things that I couldn't observe in a laboratory under controlled conditions. But now that I see God now I believe."
"I always hated people who said, "Gay is not okay". But all I did is what came natural to me. I really didn't need my gay lovers. The Person I really needed was the Jesus of the Bible. With Him and the right gay conversion therapy that the politicans worked so hard to ban, I might have come out of the gay lifestyle."
"I'm use to getting what I want. I'm not proud of what I did but I wanted her more than anything. I decided that if I couldn't have her then no one would. Now I have nothing."
"If I ever had a real salvation experience I would've had real joy. I would not have needed all of those illegal drugs."
"We felt those missionaries were bringing in a strange religion. Our tribe fought against them. Now I realize that their Jesus offered eternal life while our religion offered nothing."
"I enjoyed the pleasure that porn gave me. Now I realize that every girl was created for God's glory and that I passed up eternal pleasures in Heaven for the temporary pleasures of sin."
"I wanted a taste of the good life. After all I worked hard all those years and I felt I deserved it. As some people have said, 'A man's best friend is a buck.'"
No one will have a proud look on their faces. Instead their faces will be wet with tears.
Before we see what's next, let's define the one sin that keeps all other sins on a person's record - the unpardonable sin.
All sin can be pardoned by the grace of God except one - blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Jesus said:
"And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit it will not be forgiven." (Luke 12:10)
All of the sins such as lust, pride, greed, and bigotry can be forgiven except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. What is this sin and why is it so different from any other sin?
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the sin of unbelief. The Holy Spirit says that we need Christ as Saviour and Lord. When we try to go through life and get to Heaven without Christ, we are calling the Holy Spirit a liar because we really do need Christ. Because of the sin of unbelief, the thousands of all of our other sins remain on our record. If we die in that condition, like the souls at the White Throne judgment, we will be unfit for God's holy kingdom.
It's not that God is unwilling to forgive the sin of unbelief. He does that every day in our present world. But at the White Throne judgment He cannot. It would compromise His holiness and justice if He allowed all sinners into Heaven with all of their sin. The streets of gold would be as dangerous as the night time streets of many major US cities.
The next event is for God to pronounce the Final Judgment against each individual sinner present. His sincere words might sound something like this:
"________, My court has found you guilty of rejecting God's pardon through His Son Jesus of Nazareth. This rejection of My only Begotten Son constitutes blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Because of this blasphemy all of your other sins remain and your name consequently is not found in the Book of Life. It deeply saddens Me to have to say this but in order for My perfect justice to be upheld, you must depart from Me into the lake of fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels."
This will be a horrible moment for all of those present. It is possible that each person might be shown the Book of Life and see the blank space where his name could have appeared.
At this point the unsaved will cry out:
"Lord please remember all of the good things I said and did in life! Also please let it be possible for me somehow to have a second chance at grace! I'll do whatever You require regardless of the cost!"
At this point I want to address the meaning of a verse that has confounded Bible students for years. It is Revelation 17:16.
"And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot and make her desolate."
One bogus interpretation showed the Vatican being blown up by nuclear missles. What's the real meaning? We've indentified the ten horns as the fullness in number of all those who will never become saved. At the White Throne judgment everyone will be a former something (ie atheist, terrorist, Scientologist, unsaved churchmember). Everyone will want to become saved. There won't be a person present who won't want a second chance at grace. No one will want to be a part of the Babylon system still. They will hate and even verbally curse the Babylon system over and over again. In short the above verse predicts that all the unsaved will someday hate the Babylon system and will no longer want to be a part of it.
Does God give second chances at grace? When the rich man mentioned in Luke 16 died he was sent to a state of torment. He wasn't given a second chance at grace so that he could turn to Christ or work off his so-called "bad karma". Instead his spirit was shown a temporary vision of what his future will be like after the second resurrection, the resurrection of the lost. Today his spirit is sleeping in his grave while awaiting that terrible day.
"And as it is appointed onto men once to die, but after this the judgment." (Hebrews 9:27)
There will be no higher court for these people to which to appeal. When we read the last verse of Revelation 20, we can see the horrible fate of all the unsaved:
"And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire." (v.15)
Judgment Day hasn't come yet! There is still hope for unsaved people. Let us all heed the words of Jesus:
"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Mat. 4:17)