The Great White Throne

by G. Prasher | Category: God's Ways With Men | Oct 1932

Eternity! 0 dreadful thought

For thee a child of Adam's race,

If thou should'st in thy sins be brought

To stand before the Judge's face,

From whom the heaven and earth shall flee,

The Throned One of eternity.

The Great White Throne judgment, of which we read in Revelation 20. 11-15, will be at the time of "the resurrection at the last day." If Martha had this in view, as she made reply to the Lord's words. "Thy brother shall rise again," how very far off she put the hour of resurrection for her brother! though she came to learn that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and the Life: and that he that believeth on Him, though he die, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth on him shall never die (John 11. 24-26). We might well ask our readers the important question, "Believeth thou this ?" Concerning the resurrection of the just (Luke 14. 14), we have already seen how this will be in stages: some will be raised when the Lord comes to the air, and others when He comes to the earth as Son of Man (see 1 Thessalonians 4. 16; Daniel 12. 2). The passage in Daniel seems to the present writer to show also that at that time there will be a resurrection both of the just and of the unjust:-"And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." These, be it noted, are resurrections from the dead, but when Revelation 20. 12 is fulfilled the resurrection of the dead will have taken place. With the exceptions of the Beast and the False Prophet, who prior to the Millennium will be cast alive into the Lake of Fire, death will release its hold on all the sons of Adam, and with bodies raised from the earth or from the sea, and the souls from Hades, "the dead, the great and the small," shall be caused to stand before the throne, on which will sit in ineffable majesty the lord Jesus Christ.

HADES NOT THE GRAVE.

We should perhaps pay particular attention to the fact that 1-lades is not the grave. In their preface to the Old Testament the Revisers of the 1884 translation say:

"The Hebrew SHEOL... signifies the abode of departed spirits (we judge souls, not spirits), and corresponds to the Greek HADES, or the under world... HELL, if it could be taken in its original sense as used in the Creeds, would be a fairly adequate equivalent for the Hebrew word...The Revisers therefore... indicate that it does not signify THE PLACE OF BURIAL."

Very many confound truth here, though for the most part we fear these are wilfully ignorant. Time and space forbid our going far into this phase of truth now, but we would just remark that when the Hebrews referred to the place of burial they used the word Qeber, and at times Qeburah. The former is employed in the Old Testament nearly 70 times. There is nothing of haziness about the words of the Hebrew writers as they treat of the disposition of body and soul after death. Jacob could speak of having digged his grave (qeber) in the land of Canaan (Genesis 50. 5); but when David wanted a term which would be relative to the height of heaven, sheol, not qeber, is the word employed (Psalm 139. 8). Jacob, believing his son Joseph's body was devoured by wild beasts, said, "I will go down to Sheol to my son mourning"(Genesis 37. 35.) From the depth of Sheol, or Hades, then, men will be brought to stand up again in bodies that have been raised out of the earth or out of the sea. This resurrection of the dead, will likewise, we understand, be a resurrection of the just and of the unjust. Some there will be who though not "in Christ," neither of the commonwealth of Israel, will nevertheless be

SAVED IN THAT GREAT JUDGMENT DAY,

having had their names written in the Book of Life through their patience in well-doing, and their seeking for glory and honour and incorruption. To this it would appear the words of Romans 2. 5-11, refer: "God... will render to every man according to his works... For there is no respect of persons with God." From the myriads of God's intelligent creatures, to whom the glad news of salvation in Christ has not penetrated, it is impossible to conceive how many there may be who arc of the devout nature cited in Romans chapter 2. As we think of the meagre efforts of God's children to

Take up the torch and wave it wide,

The torch that lights time's thickest gloom,

there is no small measure of comfort in the knowledge that "the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse" (Romans 1. 20); and that to glorify Him as God, and give thanks (note verse 21); or, to "do by nature the things of the law" (Romans 2. 14), will be taken into account by the Judge of all the earth, when He sits to administer judgment to them

"to whom no tidings of Him came,

And they who have not heard" (Romans 15. 21).

Saints of God, and the assembly of the Living God, however, should be not slack in efforts to sound forth the Word of life: indeed, according to the ability which God giveth, the beautiful feet of them that bring glad tidings should ever be making towards the horizon: the musical call of the heavenly bodies, of which it is written,

"Their sound went out into all the earth,

And their words unto the ends of the world" (Romans 10. 18),

should stir our souls, and give an impetus to our feet, as we seek to give heed to the command:

"GO YE THEREFORE AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL THE NATIONS" (Matthew 28. 19).

The wise advice given by a lady of high estate, "to take occasional stock of our own development, and to plant ourselves in a bigger pot and water the roots," we may well give heed to.

ETERNAL PUNISHMENT.

But what of such as having heard and rejected the gospel message while in this life, and then are raised to stand before the Great White Throne? These will then bow before the One to whom God has given the Name which is above every name, although they refused to do so here on earth. As the books are opened they will be judged according to their works; and foremost, we believe, among those works that will condemn will be the fact that they believed not on Him. "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent" (John 6. 29); and so, conversely, disbelief will be a work that will bring its condemnation. Even now the Holy Spirit convicts of sin because men believe not on Christ. Hopeless, indeed, will be the situation for all such as have not obeyed the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. "He that believeth not hath been judged already" (John 3. 18), says the Holy Spirit, "because he hath not believed on the name of the Only Begotten Son of God"; but the sentence or punishment that will be awarded will proceed from the One who will sit upon the Great White Throne-all honour, and the authority to execute judgment having been given unto Him (John 5. 24-27). But what of the interim, a protracted period for myriads, between death and "the resurrection at the last day"? To this we find an answer in 2 Peter 2. 9, "The Lord knoweth how... to keep the unrighteous under punishment unto the day of judgment"; and the words which follow in this passage seem to indicate an adequate discrimination in -the measure of guilt-"But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement, and despise dominion." Perhaps no more solemn example might be cited than that of Sodom and Gomorrah. These, we are told, "are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire" (Jude 7). The participial form of the verb, suffering (hupechousai), conveys the thought that these, even while Jude was writing, were undergoing, or being subjected to, the punishment of eternal fire. Then we have the example of the angels who kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, these "He hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day" (Jude 6). Thus men will be brought from hell, and angels from Tartarus, to receive their final sentences, and depart to their eternal conditions-the lost to the Lake of Fire, to be the eternal associates of the Devil and his angels; but those whose names are found in the Book of Life will pass into the new heavens, and the new earth, to enjoy the righteousness which will ever dwell there.

LIMBO AND PURGATORY.

With reference to the myriads of the infant dead who will be raised, the Scriptures enable us to speak with certainty in respect to the efficacy of the work of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ on behalf of these. David, who on falling asleep went to the place of comfort, could say of his dead child, "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me" (2 Samuel 12. 23). Thus we have the authority of the Word of God for children, who have not attained responsible years, going to a place of bliss. Rome taught erroneously that any "unbaptized" baby who died would go to a place called Limbo, a kind of antechamber to purgatory, and by no means a happy place. This, like their doctrine of purgatory, is in opposition to the teaching of Scripture. The babes, thank God, are not dependent upon the useless administration of a human rite, but upon the precious blood of Christ; which on the one hand avails for the guilty who believe in Him, and on the other hand atones for original sin in the innocents. The infant dead, then, will find their own band as amongst those that are Christ's at His coming (1 Corinthians 15. 23). As to Purgatory we would but say. while myriads, who have died in responsible years, have lifted up their eyes, being in torments, in Hell, that neither the cash of the credulous, nor the prayers of the priest, can mitigate those torments, or move them to the abode of the blest. The Lord Jesus Christ in resurrection led His captivity thence (Ephesians 4. 8); that is, all who died in faith in Him prior to the cross He took their souls with Himself to heaven; but every other, we understand, must wait and bear the punishment, or place assigned them in Hades until the judgment or the great day, when they will be judged out of the things which are written in the books, according to their works: when death and Hades will be cast into the Lake of Fire, with every one whose name is not found written in the Book of Life. "This is the second death, even the Lake of Fire."

COMETH NOT INTO JUDGMENT.

These lines may be read by some who know not as yet the Saviour, therefore we would close this article with a personal reminiscence. While labouring in the gospel in the far north of Scotland we had occasion to hold conversation with an elderly woman at her cottage door. It was remarked we had the knowledge from the Word of God that we would never come into the judgment. The statement seemed to arrest the peasant woman, and she readily exclaimed, "I have read my Bible long years, and still I could not say that." The precious Scriptures were then opened, and the words read-words that fell from the lips of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ Himself- from John 5. 24:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, HE THAT HEARETH

MY WORD, AND BELIEVETH HIM THAT SENT ME,

HATH ETERNAL LIFE, AND COMETH NOT INTO

JUDGMENT, BUT HATH PASSED OUT OF DEATH

INTO LIFE."

As she listened to, and looked at, these wonderful words of truth she was deeply impressed; and appreciating that they were spoken by the JUDGE (Acts 17. 31), who is still in grace offering salvation, we believe she opened her heart to receive the truth. Turning to her chest of drawers she reached and laid hold of her old Bible, requesting to have the place marked, so that she might the more readily find the portion again. Yes! He must be Saviour, or Judge. The One who is the ordained Judge, has Himself taken the punishment of the believer in Him: so we sing,

Yes, He has borne it, borne in love unbounded

What none can know;

He passed through death, and gloriously confounded

Our every foe.

G. Prasher | Oct 1932
God's Ways With Men