And the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where [are] both the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night for the ages of ages.
Satan's doom was fixed on the first pages of the Bible. It falls here, after the thousand years. The verse settles what happens to the devil, what the lake of fire is, and how long "for ever and ever" lasts.
Satan's turn comes last, when no sinner is left on earth. His sentence, though, is very old.
For the first time in the history of the race (from Genesis 3 to Revelation 20) we have an earth without a single sinner on its surface. Satan now has to be dealt with. He is allowed to see the end of all his heartless scheming. He is foiled and defeated. His doom was fixed seven thousand years before it was carried out (Genesis 3:15). His head is bruised by the woman's seed.
He does not fall in one stroke. Scripture traces a descent, and his name changes at each stage.
The dragon was first cast out of heaven, then shut up in the abyss, and now cast into the lake of fire. As the dragon he is shut up; as Satan he is loosed; and as the devil he is cast into the lake of fire. Satan, which means adversary, is the open and declared enemy of God, of Christ, of the saints, of Israel… But as the devil, the deceiver and tempter of men, he is cast into everlasting torment.
Why did Satan's final judgment wait a thousand years after the beast and the false prophet went in? One writer answers.
It was the shining out of His coming that destroyed the beast and the false prophet. They were taken and both cast alive into the lake of fire… But it was not yet the time for the last and most terrible judgment of Satan. God's testing of the world was not quite over.
The beast and the false prophet went in a thousand years earlier. One writer weighs the wording used of them now.
Into it the beast and the false prophet were cast as the millennial age began, and now at the end of that age we read that there they still "are," and not that they were. The fire had not destroyed them.
Translations differ here: some read "are," while the ESV reads "were." One writer presses what the passage proves either way.
Two human beings were cast alive into the lake of fire a thousand years before. At the close of this long period they are found there, still in existence! How clear it is that this fire is not like material fire, but something completely different! What can remain a thousand years in the lake of fire unconsumed may remain, as far as one can see, forever. Some object that no verb stands here: the sentence reads simply, "where the beast and the false prophet." Fill the gap with "were cast," they say, and it tells us nothing about how long they stay. But what of the closing words? "They" — the word is plural — "will be tormented day and night forever and ever."
Some say the phrase only means "as long as this world lasts." One writer answers from where the verse stands in the story.
Here that meaning is impossible. At this very time the world comes to an end… These words stand at the door of a boundless eternity. No measuring line of dates and periods reaches across it. In that eternity Scripture declares that God, who exists of Himself, lives "for ever and ever." In that eternity Scripture says the torment of the lost lasts "for ever and ever." Those saved by grace should not argue back against God. We should bow our heads in silence before this mystery we cannot fathom, and adore the goodness that has delivered us by such a ransom from so fearful a doom.
Commentators differ on how literally to read the fire. One describes a real place with fixed limits.
Somewhere in the universe of God there will be a restricted area ("a lake"). Evil will be confined and punished there for ever. No sinning can go on there, though hatred of heart towards God and His Son must remain. Neither new birth nor repentance is possible in hell.
Another writer asks what fire could do to a being with no body:
We know fire well and what it does to material objects; but as far as we know, it has no effect on spiritual beings. So we judge the phrase to be symbolic, like so much else in this book. Yet it stands as the symbol of God's burning displeasure, His scorching judgment.
- Sentenced — his doom, fixed in Genesis 3:15, falls here; the serpent's head is bruised at last.
- Staged — cast out of heaven, then shut in the abyss, then cast into the lake of fire: three descending steps, not one.
- Still there — the beast and false prophet went in a thousand years earlier and are there yet. The fire consumed nothing.
- Settled — "for ever and ever" falls as the world ends. No age is left to limit it. Scripture uses the same phrase of God's own life.
- Adore — do not argue back against God. Bow, and worship the goodness that ransomed us from that doom.
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled, and place was not found for them.
John's vision moves past the thousand years and the final revolt to a throne set outside the world we know. The verse raises simple questions: who sits there, why earth and sky flee, and what shelter is left for a sinner.
The verse names the throne before it names anyone on it, and both words carry weight.
The character of the throne itself is the first thing to attract our attention. It is called "great" — great either because it fits the dignity of the Judge, or because it suits the size of the judgment. It is also called "white." This is probably not the colour we know as white, like white linen. Instead, the word really means clear or bright — the "whiteness of light." This expresses the dazzling purity of holiness — whether the holiness of the Judge Himself, or of the standard His judgment will follow. Everything connected with Him must match what He is in His own essential nature: the throne He sits on, and the sentence He pronounces. The Judge is not named here, though John saw the One seated on the throne. But we know from other Scriptures that it is Christ.
The One on the throne is not a stranger. What changes is not who He is but the office He fills.
Jesus sits upon that throne. He who is now the Saviour must then be the judge. God has put all authority into His hand, once pierced for our sins, and He sits there and wields the sword.
Many read this verse as the moment Christ returns. Commentators here press one detail against that reading: the earth has already gone.
Many people suppose this to be the time of the coming of Christ, and so put the millennium before His coming. But this will not bear the light of Scripture... When the Lord Jesus comes, He comes to the earth from heaven. But that is not the case here. For the Lord sits on a great white throne, and instead of His coming from heaven to earth, both earth and heaven are gone. It cannot be His coming to the earth, for there is no earth to come to. The entire system of earth and heaven as they now are will have vanished from the scene. It will not be annihilated, but destroyed. There is a great difference between those two thoughts.
This throne stands between two worlds — the one that flees, and the eternal one still to come.
The earth and the sky the Lord Himself appointed to display His glory and righteousness cannot stay in the glory of His face... "Earth and sky fled away" — they did not pass out of existence, and they were not annihilated. The next clause guards against that unscriptural conclusion — "no place was found for them."... The world of the thousand years passes away, and the eternal worlds come in; both are material. Between the two, the great white throne is set up. This gives profound solemnity to the scene before us. For the throne is not set on the earth, nor in relation to its dispensations and times. It is a scene entirely outside human history. We have passed out of time into eternity. The judgment of the throne is therefore final, and eternal in its very nature.
No place was found for earth and sky. Those who stand before this throne find no place either.
On what do the dead stand? Not on earth, for that has disappeared... The greatest of the prophets saw a throne with an altar of sacrifice beside it (Isaiah 6). There the altar met and answered the righteous claim of the throne. The throne in the innermost room of the tabernacle of old had blood — the witness of death — sprinkled on it. But the throne before us is great and white, and there is neither altar nor blood. Oh, the horror, the despair, the agony of standing in one's sins, searched by the blaze of divine light! There are no caves, rocks or caverns in which the guilty soul may hide, for these have fled.
- Great. The throne takes its name from the dignity of the One who fills it and the size of the judgment it carries out.
- White. Not the colour of linen but the brightness of light — the purity of the Judge and of the standard He judges by.
- The Judge. The One seated there is Christ. The hand that holds all authority was pierced for our sins. The Saviour of today is the judge of that day.
- No earth. This is not the second coming. There is no earth to come to. Heaven and earth have fled, and the scene stands outside time.
- No place. The old creation finds no room, and neither does the sinner. This throne has no altar and no blood beside it. The One who is Saviour now will be judge then.
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is [that] of life. And the dead were judged out of the things written in the books according to their works.
Revelation 20:12 shows the last scene of human history. Heaven and earth are gone, and the dead stand before a throne. Everything turns on two kinds of books: the record of what people did, and the book of life.
This scene is not Christ's return to earth. It comes after the present heaven and earth are gone.
There they stand (verse 12), the great and the small, before the throne; but where is it? Just before, in verse 11, we are told the earth and the heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. Then we see, not thrones, but "a great white throne," and the dead stand before it to be judged... At the end of the thousand years Christ does not come. Instead the heaven and the earth that now are depart.
The verse names one group only: "the dead." Commentators read this as the unsaved, not a mixed crowd of everyone who ever lived.
This is clearly not a judgment of living people, like the one in Matthew 25, where people are separated as sheep from goats. No — the passage says clearly that it is "the dead, great and small," who are found here. It is the dead out of Christ, the unsaved dead, and only they... this is not a throne of grace, or sprinkled blood to meet the sinner's need, but of stern unbending judgment and nothing but judgment.
Some take "great and small" as proof that the righteous must be there too. Trotter tests that reading against the same phrase elsewhere in Revelation.
At the sounding of the seventh trumpet, Revelation 11:18 says, "your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants... and those who fear your name, both small and great." Do the objectors themselves take that phrase to include everyone of every age who fears God's name? Of course they do not.
The books hold deeds, not natures — and that distinction decides who is even in view.
Every responsible soul on earth has his life and history written above. Nothing is forgotten, nothing is too small; God records it all, and never gets it wrong. Infants and those without understanding are the only exceptions. Judgment goes by works, by deeds. People are responsible for what they have done, not for what they are by birth... We cannot help the existence of the evil nature in us, but we are responsible for its activity.
One book keeps people out of judgment; the other holds the record of their sins.
"The book of life" is opened; but there is no judgment for those whose names are written in it by the hand of God's choosing, redeeming love. "The books" are opened too — those dreadful records written in letters deep, broad, and black. They are the terrible lists of the sins of every man, woman, and child, from the beginning to the end of time. There will be no hiding in the crowd. Each one will stand there alone, as a single person, in that appalling moment.
Two kinds of evidence come out at that throne.
Deeds long since forgotten, and sins that people thought too small to matter and have dropped out of memory — all of them will be brought out as the ground of condemnation. And more than that: the book of life will be opened, and if the names of those brought before this solemn court are not found in it, the sentence is passed... So there are two kinds of evidence, positive and negative. Both condemn, and both shut out every ground of appeal.
A missing name has a history behind it.
The book of life is opened next and searched closely. Not one name of the ungodly is found in its pages. Their names could have been written in that book, but they despised mercy and refused grace, so now judgment and its carrying out must take their course.
If judgment goes by works, the result is settled before the trial starts. So the gospel does not wait for that day.
People speak as though men were on probation, and the day of judgment would prove how it will turn out with them, whether they will be saved or lost. This is all wrong... the gospel comes to man and addresses him as one already lost, and needing salvation. Men do not have to wait until the judgment to know how it will turn out... Judgment is for my work (Revelation 20:12), and on that ground all are already lost. But salvation is of grace, and is God's work.
- Setting. Heaven and earth are gone. The dead stand before the throne, not before a returning Christ.
- Company. Only "the dead" stand there, those out of Christ. "Great and small" marks the range inside that group; it does not bring in the righteous.
- Evidence. The books hold a full record of deeds. Judgment rests on what people did, and each one stands alone with his own page.
- Verdict. The book of life supplies the second, silent proof — no name there, no claim to life, no appeal.
- Escape. Works can only condemn, so the one way out of that court is grace received now, before the books are ever opened.
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 each according to their works
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, [even] the lake of fire.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And if any one was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.
Revelation 20 ends with one sentence that decides the eternity of everyone standing at the great white throne. What settles it is not a record of deeds but a name in a register. Two kinds of books lie open, and this verse tells us which one settles the matter.
God judges the dead by their works, yet the works are not what seals the outcome. One writer explains why the book of life also lies open at this throne — to show what is missing from it:
This is the "resurrection of judgment" that our Lord speaks of in the gospel of John. It will include all the unsaved, and the unsaved alone. The book of life is there, but there is no sign of any saints to be judged. It is opened to show that the names of those to be judged were not there. So they are condemned on both negative and positive grounds. Their names were not written in the book of life, and their works declared them liable to righteous judgment. So they fall without hope under the everlasting sentence of the lake of fire, which is the second death — a sentence from which there is no appeal and no escape.
Could any name at that throne actually be in the book? One writer answers no, and gives the reason:
Then the book of life is mentioned — but note, not to write anyone's name in it. Could any of their names have been in that book? No. None of those whose names God Himself has written in the book of life appear at this throne. God had raised these saved ones from their graves long before. They had shared with Christ in His reign of a thousand years. So they do not appear at the great white throne at all.
Another writer draws the same conclusion from the wording, which leaves no room for an exception:
The names of the condemned were not there. So it is not a bare statement, but one of awful emphasis, that he adds, "And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." Not a hint of anyone who was found written there. The book of life matched the books of deeds exactly. Their works called for God's final punishment, and to grace they had been indifferent or actively opposed.
If everything hangs on the register, the practical question is how anyone comes to be in it. The answer given is that nothing a person produces can put it there:
To be written in the "book of life" means to have life in Christ. Not our works, not our character, not our religiousness, not our tears, our prayers or our service can put our names in the "book of life." Grace alone can do it, and grace does it, as we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Reader, is your name written there?
Human records get revised. This one, as writers describe it, belongs to God's own purpose and stands:
The Lamb's book of life contains names written there before the founding of the world. This is the book of God's counsels and purposes. He knows the end from the beginning. Before human responsibility began its course, He wrote in it the names of all who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. These are true, born-again believers in Christ. He calls them, justifies them, and glorifies them. He works in their hearts by His Holy Spirit, who has sealed them and marked them off as His own forever. The Lamb's book of life is the record of reality, and out of that book no name is blotted out.
These people have already died once. The sentence here is described as a second and far deeper thing:
Death and Hades delivered up the dead that were in them: and they were judged each according to their works. And their works condemn them. Not a word is said about them in the book of life, and they are cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. They are raised from their first death to be cast for ever into that place of torment, from which there is no escape.
For those whose names are in the book, this warning turns into praise. One writer rests that confidence on a promise from Jesus:
We may well send up a hymn of heartfelt praise to God that we whose names are written in that book of life can never come into that judgment. And rejoice in these good words of the Lord: "Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life" (John 5:24).
- The book decides. Works are read out at the throne, but the sentence turns on one thing: whether the name is in the book of life.
- The book is grace. No effort, character, religion, tears or service writes a name there. Believing on the Lord Jesus is how grace does it.
- The book is permanent. It holds names written before the world began, and no name is blotted out of it.
- The book explains the silence. No one at that throne is found in the book. God raised those who are in it long before, and they never come to that throne.
- The book is open now. Whoever hears Christ's word and believes has already passed from death to life. That person never comes into judgment.