Annihilationism-Jesus Christ Will Judge Every Unsaved Person in Human History at the Great White Throne Judgment
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday October 26, 2014
Annihilationism: Jesus Christ Will Judge Every Unsaved Person in Human History at the Great White Throne Judgment
Lesson # 3
Please turn in your Bibles to Revelation 20:11.
“Annihilationism” is the belief that all the unsaved will be judged by God and thrown into the lake of fire where they will cease to exist.
There are several passages of Scripture which refute this.
Daniel 12:2 reveals that there will be those in Israel who lived during Old Testament dispensations who will experience “everlasting” contempt.
In Matthew 25:46, the Lord says that when He judges the Gentiles subsequent to His Second Advent, the saved will go to eternal life while the unsaved go away into “eternal” punishment.
In 2 Thessalonians 1:9, Paul says that those unsaved individuals who persecuted the Thessalonian believers will pay the penalty of “eternal” destruction, away from the presence of the Lord.
In Revelation 14:10-11, John writes that those people who worship the Antichrist during the last three and a half years of the seventieth week will drink of the wine of the wrath of God.
He says that they will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb and that this torment goes up forever and ever.
Furthermore, notice in Revelation 14:10 that the unsaved have no rest day and night.
In Revelation 19:20, the apostle John reveals that the Antichrist and the false prophet are thrown alive into the lake of fire at the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
Then, in Revelation 20:10, John says that after the millennium and Satan’s release from prison after the millennium, Satan will start a final rebellion against God which will be overthrown and he will then be thrown into the lake of fire.
John then says that the Antichrist and the false prophet are still there in the lake of fire when Satan is thrown into the lake of fire.
Every unbeliever in history will have to stand before Christ at the Great White Throne Judgment, which will take place at the end of human history and is the judgment of all unregenerate humanity in human history for their rejection of Christ as Savior (Rev. 20:11-15).
The Lord Jesus Christ will conduct the Great White Throne Judgment as He will all judgments since God the Father has promoted Him to sovereign ruler of creation as a result of His voluntary substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the cross (See Philippians 2:5-11; Hebrews 1:1-3).
The “Great White Throne Judgment” will take place immediately after God puts down the Gog-Magog rebellion of mankind and is the judgment of all unregenerate humanity in human history for their rejection of Jesus Christ as Savior (Rev. 20:11-15).
Revelation 20:11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. (NASB95)
The individual who sat upon the great white throne judgment is Jesus Christ Himself since the Lord Himself declared to the Jews in John 5:22-29 that the Father had given Him authority to judge the living and the dead.
Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. (NASB95)
The ones judged are “the dead, great and small,” those who had no part in the first resurrection (20:5-6), which of course refers to the unbelieving dead of the second resurrection (John 5:29).
“The dead, great and small” emphasizes that no one is exempt; all who have died without trusting in Jesus Christ as Savior, regardless of their status in human history, religiously, politically, economically, or morally, must stand before this throne to face the judgment of Jesus Christ.
“The book of life” is one thing in eternity past and one thing in time and something different in eternity future.
In eternity past, the names of every person that will live in time are in the book of life since God desires all men to be saved (John 3:16-18; 1 Timothy 2:4).
The names of those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ in time will not only have their names removed from the book of life but will have them transferred to the book of works mentioned at the Great White Throne Judgment in Revelation 20:12.
The unbelievers whose names have been transferred from the book of life to the book of works will be judged by Christ according to their works or their own merits which are nothing more than human righteousness and thus inferior to the righteousness of Christ and His righteous act at the Cross.
The statement “the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds” makes clear that the unbeliever is emphatically “not” judged according to their sins since Jesus Christ died for all people, Jew and Gentile and for every sin that they have committed-past, present and future.
The unbeliever will be judged according to their self-righteous human good works, which do not measure up to the perfect work of the impeccable Christ on the Cross (Rev. 20:11-15).
The sins of the unbeliever are never brought up since Christ died for all their sins and instead their self-righteous works that do not measure up to Christ’s perfection will be used to condemn them to the eternal lake of fire.
The unbeliever goes to the lake of fire because of their rejection of Christ as their Savior since 1 Timothy 2:4 and John 3:16-17 clearly indicates that God desires all people to be saved, thus, He has made provision for all people to be saved through the Person and Work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
Since the unbeliever has rejected the work of Christ on the cross, they must rely solely upon their own merit for salvation.
All the good works of the unbeliever add up to man’s relative righteousness (Is. 64:6), which are infinitely inferior the righteousness of Christ.
The fact that the unbeliever depends upon their own merits to obtain salvation and rejects the work of Christ is the basis for their condemnation at the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev. 20:11-15).
Revelation 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (NASB95)
“The second death” is the perpetuation of spiritual death into eternity or eternal separation from God and it is the final judgment of the unbelievers in the human race and fallen angels whereby they are cast in the Lake of Fire (Matt. 25:41; Heb. 9:27; Rev. 20:12-15).
Revelation 20:15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (NASB95)
At the Great White Throne Judgment, every unbeliever in human history will experience the righteous indignation of God forever in the eternal Lake of Fire.
God’s righteous indignation is the legitimate anger towards evil and sin since both are contrary to His holiness or perfect character and nature.
It expresses His holiness, which pertains to the absolute perfection of God’s character or the purity of His character or moral perfection and excellence and means that God can have nothing to do with sin or sinners.
He is totally separate from sin and sinners unless a way can be found to constitute them holy and that way has been provided based upon the merits of the impeccable Person and Finished Work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross.
The presence of evil, sin and injustice is totally absent in the character of God, thus God does not tolerate evil or sin because it is contrary to His character, i.e. His inherent moral qualities, ethical standards and principles.
Therefore, God’s wrath, which is in reality, righteous indignation is an expression of His holiness.
God’s wrath is His settled opposition to and displeasure against sin meaning that His holiness cannot and will not coexist with sin in any form whatsoever.
It is not the momentary, emotional, and often uncontrolled anger to which human beings are prone and does not refer to an explosive outburst but rather it refers to an inner, deep resentment that seethes and smolders, often unnoticed by others as in the case of God’s wrath.
God hates sin so much and loves the sinner so much that He judged His Son Jesus Christ for every sin in human history-past, present and future and provided deliverance from sin through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
If the sinner will not exercise faith in Jesus Christ as his or her Savior, then they will face His righteous indignation at the Great White Throne Judgment.
The only way to avoid God’s righteous indignation is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. (NASB95)
Revelation 20:12 and 21:8 make clear that the lake of fire is not a place or state of nothingness or unconscious existence, as is the Hindu Nirvana but is the place of everlasting torment, the place of eternal spiritual death or separation from God.