11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
This picture of the final great assize is awesome in its simplicity. The battle now is over and the time of reckoning has come. Little needs to be said, although much could be, about the arraignment of men at the great white throne of God, before Whose face earth and heaven flee away. The position of the dead before the final judgment, so wisely and succinctly expressed in the words of the Westminster Confession (see Note for Sunday, 26th) - and so Scripturally - makes it clear that 'hell' here in 13, and in the parable in Luke 16, does not refer to the final state of torment, but to being 'reserved unto judgment' until the time of the great assize, when death and hell give up their dead, to be judged, when they themselves will be cast into the lake of fire. One important point which must not be missed is this: the reality of the great assize is part of the message given to the early Church (cf Acts 10:42) and as such should be part of the preaching of the Church. No doctrine has been so neglected as this in our pulpits in this 20th century of turmoil and convulsion. Modern preaching does not even match the spirit of the times, let alone underline the sanctions of the Word of God, and this is one compelling reason why the Church's voice tends to be treated with indifference as irrelevant. The need is very great now for the re-establishment of the validity of the moral law and its sanctions, and for the reminder that there is a price to be paid for the neglect of holy things. God means that we shall take His grace seriously - on pain of punishment! To preach judgment, it is true, is not to preach the gospel. But such preaching is a necessary pre-evangelism, to establish the need for the gospel, and it is only against the dark background of the law's condemnation that the good news is seen to be good news - a fact which Paul saw very clearly when he planned his opening chapters of the Epistle to the Romans. That the Church has been so blind to this for so long is a measure of how the deceptions of Satan have touched even the minds of the elect! (Matthew 24:24).