Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was no place found for them. 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 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.   Revelation 20:12-15 NKJV

There were several times that I set out in January to read my bible through the year. I would read through the Old and New Testaments right up until Revelation and that would do me in. I would read the first few chapters and then I would become intimidated and frustrated and stop.

Back in 2013 our former pastor did an in depth study of the book of Revelation. It was 29 weeks long, one hour each week. I attended every session. I then realized that Revelation is not so scary or intimidating after all. It is a fascinating book and I strongly recommend that you read it. You may want to use a good study bible or bible commentary to accompany you in this reading and help explain it to you.

Please pay particular attention to what happens here in Revelation chapter 20, especially verses 11-15. Here we are given a description of the judgement of the unbelieving dead. It occurs at the close of the Millennium.  Verses 1 and 2 of Chapter 20 describes the Millennium. This is a period of time when Christ shall reign on the earth (Isaiah 2:3, Daniel 7:14, Zechariah 14:9). Satan will not be free to work. Isaiah 11:3-5 tells us that righteousness will prevail.  Isaiah 2:4 tells us that He will judge between the nations, and rebuke many people, it goes on to say that nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. It will be a time of universal peace. We are told in Isaiah 35:1-2 that the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose, it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice. There will be increased productivity throughout the earth.

At the close of the Millennium is where today’s scripture passage comes in. We are told in v. 12 that the dead were judged from what was written in the books according to their deeds. This tells us that it is based on works and shows that the punishment is deserved. Now we know that we are saved by faith through grace. But we are told in James 2:14 that faith without works is dead, meaning if we have faith in the Lord and we love Him with all our hearts that we will want to serve Him. Our faith will produce good works. Those that have rejected Christ as their Savior during their lifetime will be thrown into the lake of fire.

Jesus tells us in John 5:28-29 that an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and will come forth; those who did good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgement. The resurrection of life includes all believers. The resurrection of judgment will include unbelievers at the end of the Millennium.

Please understand that there are no in-between believers, undecided believers or hope-to-someday-be believers. You are either a believer or you are an unbeliever. You either have faith or you don’t. You either accept Christ as your Savior or you don’t. There is no middle ground. My little brief writing here is in no way to be considered a study of Revelation, but what you must know is this- If you don’t want to be thrown into the lake of fire and spend eternity in hell, you need to be a believer. You need to wholeheartedly seek the Lord. You need to commit your life to Him. This is urgent! Please don’t delay. If you don’t have a relationship with the Lord or if you feel that your relationship Him is not as good as it could be, turn to Him. Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you (James 4:8). One minute from now may be too late.

The thing you need to understand is God is going to judge the unbelievers. The believers are going to spend eternity with Him in glory. We are told in Revelation 20:10 that the devil, the beast and the false prophet are going to be thrown into the lake of fire and so will the unbelievers. This is hell my friend and it’s forever.

Thanks to Brother L. C. Lord, I can finally say that I read the whole book and I know how it ends. We win! The devil is already defeated. If you want to be on the winning team, commit yourself to God today. Tomorrow may be too late.

Have a great day!