Many Christians believe that the Great White Throne in Revelation 20:11 is the Last Judgment when all people will stand in judgment before Jesus after the investigation and a verdict of their salvation will be made.

According to the teaching of some Evangelical Christians — particularly among those Protestants who adhere to a millennialist eschatology — there will be two separate resurrections for the judgment of believers and non-believers respectively.

According to this concept, the Great White Throne judgment is different than the Bema Seat judgment (The Judgment Seat of Christ), which will be only for Christians.

1 ¶ And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. 4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Satan’s Doom

7 Now when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 8 And will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. 10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

The Dead Are Judged

11 ¶ 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. 12 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. 13 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. 14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Other Christian denominations do not interpret the Bible as implying two last judgments, but see only one final judgment for all mankind (including Christians), at which Jesus will separate the saved from the damned (Matthew 25:31-33 ff, see The Sheep and the Goats).

Categories: Judgment (Christianity) | Christian eschatology | Book of Revelation | New Testament words and phrases | Christian terms |

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