The Great White Throne

(by Joseph R. Chambers jrc@pawcreek.org)
As the final moment arrives to complete the judgment of sinners, we can expect that arrogance and rebellion have finally finished their course. The Bible is filled with godless men that were always ready to laugh in the face of God. The nature of sin, which started in Heaven among the angels and invaded the garden of perfect beauty to defile the human family, was never a light thing. Some men restrain themselves lest they show the full potential of their evil possibility, but the ultimate powers are never far below the surface. Sin is deeply rooted and blatantly destructive. When sin is unrestrained, it is as dark as midnight. Even when it is restrained, it is still nothing but naked death.

The result of sin was clearly visible when Lucifer chose a creature to hide within and stole his way into the first garden. That creature walked into the presence of Adam; but because of the weight of sin’s consequence, he had to crawl out. This has been the perfect result of sin for six thousand years. Sin never leaves with the same beauty with which it enters. Sin is totally incapable of maintaining the joy of its own action. By sin’s own nature, it is not capable of one act without leaving a dark mark on its victim.

If the human family could simply gather up the fragments left of anyone overcome by sin and look at it without the facade that Satan has produced, we would hate its every expression. We see only the obscure lines of age, disease, exhaustion, and brokenness and forget that all of this is the remnant of the fallen nature. With our naked eyes, we have never seen a man or woman that hasn’t been touched by sin; so, we do not know for what to look. Sin works deeply, often slowly, but it holds firmly. When it is finished, nothing is left. The Bible never covers over this story, but “we see through a glass darkly” (I Corinthians 13:12).

All of this is about to change. The greatest glimpse of sin man has ever witnessed was on the cross when God in the flesh died. He was a perfect picture of a sinless man. His very presence was awesome because He walked in perfection. When He spoke, men of authority, trained to be unbending, sent to arrest Him said, “Never man spake like this man” (John 7:46). When He died, the universe shook so violently that it was called an earthquake. The sun went out, the rocks were rent like a garment, and the Son of God cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

The Book of Revelation is the picture of the horrors of sin meeting the master of sin. While we know that, because of our redemption, sin met its Master in the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, the world does not know that yet. The world will know, and the signs suggest, that it will be very soon. The Great Tribulation of seven years will purge this earth of every effect that sin has had on our environment. The War in Heaven, led by angels, will strip Satan of his obscure and safe staging area and cast him down to the earth. The seals, trumpets, thunders, plagues and vials of wrath, will together repay Satan and all that share his nature of every evil act. When the One World Religion and the One World Government of Revelation chapters seventeen and eighteen are finished, the only judgment left will be for God to resurrect the wicked dead and open the books of human deeds. This is what the Bible calls the White Throne Judgment.

After the entire cosmos has been purified to a spotless perfection, death and hell, the sea and the grave, and the lowest regions of the earth will give up the soul of every wicked person to face God in a perfectly sinless courtroom at the White Throne Judgment. In such an atmosphere the least of sins will rip the soul of every guilty individual. Before the Great Judge has even spoken, the wails and screams of the wicked will be unbearable.

When the wicked finally be judged and they have passed into the Lake of Fire, “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). This earth is soon to be a garden and the happiness of His family will fill the earth.