On judgment day, Jesus Christ will be seated on the great white throne of judgment, all the ungodly will stand before the throne, and all the heavenly hosts will be arrayed beside and behind Jesus, and the books will be opened.

“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 delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.” Revelation 20:12b-13.

It must be understood that this is not a trial. The people before the throne are already guilty; otherwise, they would not be there. Hell, or Hades is an actual place inside this earth. There are real people in it now.

Jesus described it as a place where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, noisy and miserable, a holding place until sentencing.

There also appear to be degrees of punishment in the lake of fire.

“And they were judged, each one according to his works.” Revelation 20:13b.

This does not lessen the misery by much because while the punishment may vary, the duration is always the same, eternity, forever and ever. Bear in mind too that each was judged according to his works and punished accordingly.

That does not mean that somehow God is going to see some overlooked good thing that will reverse the sentence and allow someone into heaven.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him [God the Father] who sent Me has [right now] everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” John 5:24.

“He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated [or transferred] us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His [Jesus ] blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:13-14.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1a.

So then, those standing before the throne are condemned already. Those next to the throne are not condemned. Yet those next to Christ would often look just as bad as the condemned before Him, sometimes worse.

However, if the books were to be opened for those who trusted in Christ the pages would be blank. The blood of Christ has washed them white as snow.

“The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them.” Revelation 20:13a.

Death refers to the grave and Hades meaning hell shows us that those, however they perished, at sea or whether buried in a grave, their bodies will be re-united with their souls which are in hell, and they shall stand physically before the great white throne.

Granted these will be eternal bodies but not glorified bodies as the saved next to the throne will have. These people will be physically recognizable to us and to each other and they shall be as palpable and real as you and I are today.

Daniel speaks of this in Daniel 12.

“And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Daniel 12:2.

Jesus refers to this resurrection in John 5.

“For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation (damnation).” John 5:26-29.

Everyone has done something they are ashamed of, hopefully in the distant past. Now the Christian can confess this to God and, if possible, apologize to whomever and/or make restitution, and put this out of mind (You have left this burden at the feet of Jesus I trust?).

There are those of course, who have no shame. This is because their conscience has become dull from constant sin in their lives.

“This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life if God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” Ephesians 4:17-19.

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.” 1 Timothy 4:1-2.

The sentence in Daniel 12:2, shown earlier, is a bit puzzling. How can someone like the Nazi German Adolph Eichmann become ashamed, who (and this is a paraphrase) said that I jump willingly into my grave knowing that I have the death of six million Jews on my conscience.

Conscience, you look inside this person and see the death and hot ashes within him, and you wonder where God will find any shame.

Well, I cannot tell you how, but the Scripture tells me that he will stand before Christ with a burden of everlasting shame.

If you have ever been victimized by some hell-bound sinner, be assured that your face will appear before them in the lake of fire, and they will be continually tormented with shame for what they did to you for all eternity.

They will endure endless days and nights without sleeping, without ceasing, without respite without forgiveness, and without closure. They will long to fall at your feet and beg forgiveness just to rid themselves of the torment.

But you yourself will not know what burdens can be lifted from your shoulders until you have knelt at the feet of Jesus and confessed your sins and the sin of rejecting Him and accept Him as your Lord and Savior.

You do not have to be one of those who rise to everlasting contempt and shame.

There is trauma in death. God did not create man to die so when the soul and spirit are ripped from the body it is traumatic.

When the soul is cast into hell it is traumatic, and now we have the soul taken from hell and reunited with the body. Will there be a moment of elation?

But again, trauma, souls ripped out of the black hole of hell, reunited with their bodies and standing before their Creator in this eerily beautiful place.

Stars at their feet and stars overhead, they are joined with the condemned of all time.

And in front of them is a sight that beggars the imagination. The Christ they had rejected all their lives in all His royal glory and fully displaying that He is God the Son, no longer on the cross but exalted above all creation.

Those who rejected Him while on earth will now kneel before Him and acknowledge that He is indeed Lord of all. More trauma as they stand before the throne and see loved ones next to Christ.

Their mother, father, or grandmother, someone they truly loved and realize that they will never again have their mother hold them, that they will never feel their grandmother s hand caress their face again.

Then to see the beautiful light that they dwell in and that shines from them. Just as Moses face shone after forty days in the presence of God (Exodus 34:29-35) they shine even more so now, since they are with the Lord in glory.

All this cast away because they were too occupied with gaining as much as they could in life, gathering everything of this world to themselves; eternal life thrown away for a world that no longer exists.

This knowledge alone will add to the sore distress of the damned.

“And they were judged, each one according to his works.” Revelation 20:13b.

Revelation 20:13b ends similarly to verse 12b below.

“And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.” Revelation 20:12b.

God is emphasizing that people, while they are there because they rejected Christ s sacrifice for their sins, will still pay for all their sins eternally.

“Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” Revelation 20:14.

Death and Hell are cast into the lake of fire. This is very significant. It reassures us that death and its attendant hell are to be done away with eternally.

There will be no new conflicts. No surprises when we enter the eternal state all things will indeed be new, and death and hell will then be residing in the lake of fire which shall never give up anything that has been put into it.

The first death is a spiritual death. The second death is eternal separation from God.

“And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire.” Revelation 20:15.

None of these before the throne of Judgment is in the Book of Life. Yet the book as seen here in Revelation 20:15 is checked anyway to confirm before all that this individual is not there.

They are then taken by angels and unceremoniously thrown into the lake of fire; the last trauma comes with great indignity.

The Lord Jesus tells us that the lake of fire was created for the Devil and his angels. And though there are a great many humans now waiting to go there, it was not meant to be that way.

Did you know that people could altogether cease going to hell right at this moment. Just think zero population growth. Christ s sacrifice is for any who will come to Him, and it works instantly.

Unfortunately, the whole world is not going to turn to Christ. But you or your family can know this though; we all have only this present moment.

“We then, as workers together with Him [Jesus Christ] also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” 2 Corinthians 6:1-2.

There is no way of knowing we have more than the next few minutes to decide. Do it now. Jesus says to all of us.

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” John 6:37.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” John 5:24.

Judgment Day, Part 2 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 6-28-15, updated on 10-31-23.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.