The Great White Throne

In the previous post I talked about the Judgment seat of Christ or the Bema seat. This is for believers to be given a degree of reward based on how they lived their lives for Christ after they had been saved. The Great White Throne judgment is for all of the lost at the end of all time to be judged and sentenced to eternal Hell or "Lake of Fire". Just as there are degrees of reward in Heaven, there are degrees of punishment in Hell. For example, someone like Hitler will face a much stronger judgment than say a person in South America that never was told of Jesus. Luke 12:47-48 "And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more."

I believe every American citizen, with the access to literally a church on every street corner, will be whipped, beaten, pulverized, pureed, etc... If you thought the visual in the Passion Of The Christ was bad, wait until these people experience the Passion of the Stripes!!! Jesus Christ will be judge and jury and will say to each of them, "Depart from me you that work iniquity, I never knew you."

Now for the primary scripture:
Revelation 20:11-15 "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. 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."

Notice it mentions at the end of this passage the "Book of Life". In the next post I will expound on what the Book of Life is, who is in it, who is not, and whether you are added to the Book of Life, if you are blotted out of the Book of Life, or if God has a cosmic eraser and keeps adding and later blotting you out. The short answer is everyone is in the book and it's the lost who get blotted out once they die.

The Bible reveals three different judgments to come. The first is the judgment of the sheep and the goats or a judgment of the nations (Matthew 25:31-36). This takes place after the tribulation period but prior to the millennium; its purpose is to determine who will enter the millennial kingdom. The second is a judgment of believers’ works, often referred to as the “judgment seat [bema] of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10). At this judgment, Christians will receive degrees of reward for their works or service to God. The third is the great white throne judgment at the end of the millennium (Revelation 20:11-15). This is the judgment of unbelievers in which they are judged according to their works and sentenced to everlasting punishment in the lake of fire.

If I made the Great White Throne judgment sound horrible, I have done my job; it is supposed to be horrible and something to be avoided. The good news is if you haven't trusted Christ as your savior yet there is still time. Once you come to a genuine trust in Christ as sufficient to pay your sin debt, you can do what I have done and what all the christian believers have done, and that is settle out of court through our great Advocate, Jesus Christ.
1 John 2:1 "My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."