What Happens After Hell? The Great White Throne Explained

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, let's go. We're one more half hour and then we can head out for home. And for those of you joining us on television, we're glad to have you. And again, as we've mentioned almost every week, we have these programs available on video as well as the audio. Some of them are available now in printed form. We have four books ready. But I also like to read, as we've done for the last few programs, a little note written by one of my students down in McAllister. And I hadn't really thought of it this way before, so I'm going to wrote it as he gave it to me. I'm going to read it, sorry, as he gave it to me. If travel plans include eastern Oklahoma, that is to those of you out in the other parts of the country, if travel plans include eastern Oklahoma, we invite you to join one or all of Les' personally led classes. There are no fees, no collections, and no tests. And if you are interested and would like to join us, you call us on our 800 number and we'll tell you where and when you can meet with us. We'd love to meet you, because after all, McAllister is right on a main thoroughfare and Tulsa includes quite a few business trips and what have you. So if you can, we do have a class in Tulsa every Wednesday night other than the day that we tape. Okay, now for those of you here in the studio and for those of you that are following with us out in television, turn to Revelation chapter 20 once again, as we have been for the last several weeks covering what's going to take place in heaven while the tribulation is roaring here on earth. And then, of course, we know that we'll come back and be part and parcel of the Kingdom, that is, second coming. We covered all that over the last several weeks. And then in chapter 20, verse 7, we've touched on it, but let's review it quickly. But when the thousand years are expired, in other words, when that thousand years of the reign of Christ and there's been no sin, everything has been glorious, but it is still a time of testing, because you want to remember all the new generations of children that have come on the scene are still with the Adamic nature, but they've had no need for salvation because they're under the rule of the king. And on the other hand, as you approach the end, they're going to have to make a choice. That's the whole idea of the thousand years, to prove once again that the human makeup is incorrigible. And just as surely as Eve was tempted, so also these folks who are living in a perfect environment, remember, there is nothing amiss. And yet Satan is going to be loose now in verse 8, and deceive the nations who are in the four quarters of the earth. In other words, all the nations have come back on the scene again, beginning from the beginning of that thousand years. And again, Satan is going to cause them in rebellion, of course, to gather together to battle, the number of whom is the sand of the sea in Jerusalem, the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. In other words, just automatically he destroys all these rebels. Now verse 10, the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast, that is the Antichrist, you remember, that human being who is going to be the world ruler, and the false prophet who is another human being who will be the religious leader of that seven years, and they already are there, and they're still there. Contrary to what some may say, they are not annihilated. They have been in the lake of fire for a thousand years. They're still there, and they're going to continue to be there. They're going to continue to be tormented day and night forever and ever. Now then, verse 11. Here we come to that resurrection of the lost. Now I know I've probably confused some people on the resurrections, and I apologize for that. But nevertheless, remember that the first resurrection is the resurrection of the believer. And even though it was in three parts, you remember, and I guess that's where I threw a curve at a few people, but the first resurrection or the first group of resurrected saints were those that came out of the graves at the time of Christ's resurrection and became the firstfruits, if you remember. And then, of course, at the rapture or the great resurrection day of the body of Christ, as we've been talking about, is the largest group in that first resurrection. And then, of course, we still have the Old Testament believers and the Tribulation believers who have lost their lives. They will have to be resurrected. And we noticed from Daniel that that will probably be 75 days after Christ returns. And so there you have all the believers of all the ages now in what the Bible calls the first resurrection. They're all believers from Adam until the end. They are now in their heavenly state, and they are in their particular positions according to their groups. But now we have the resurrection of the lost. Now, a lot of people don't understand that lost people are going to be resurrected out of hell as we know it. Now, I've got the circle on the board, so we're going to go and look at that in just a moment. But now in verse 11, then, the great white throne is strictly for unbelievers. It's for the lost. You and I, as believers, will not come before the great white throne. And so he sought, and the earth and the heaven had fled away. There was no place found for them. Now, I told you earlier, I think that's what Peter is talking about in his little epistle, where he speaks of everything melting with fervent heat. And then we're going to see in chapter 21, if you want to just look at verse 1 of 21 a minute, this is why this earth is going to disappear from view, because then there comes a new heaven and a new earth. Now, we'll probably be talking about that in the next program. But now coming back to the great white throne, in verse 12, and I saw the dead of all the ages, small and great, and they stand before God in their resurrected body. Now, I'm going to explain a little bit. They're not going to be in resurrected bodies as glorious as ours are going to be. They're not going to have all the benefits that we'll have as believers, but they're going to have a resurrected body fit for the lake of fire. They'll have to be, because it's not going to be consumed. It's not going to be burned up. It's going to be a place of torment forever and ever bodily, bodily, with all the senses and with all of the feelings. They're going to spend their eternity. And now remember, as awful as it is, and it is awful, that's why I guess most people have quit talking about it, but that doesn't take it out of Scripture. It's going to be horrendous, but never lose sight of the fact that God, through the finished work of the cross, has made it possible for every human being to escape it. And they're all going to realize when they get there that they made their choice for it, even though we look at certain aspects of human history and say, well, they never heard. They never had a chance. Well, they must have had some kind of chance, otherwise God would not say they're without excuse, and they are without excuse. And so I think that's going to be part and parcel of the torment of that eternal doom, is that there will be that constant regret that they're there and they didn't have to be. And you know, as I've mentioned so often, when I teach John's Gospel, chapter 10, the shepherd and the sheepfold, and I always point out, where is that door into the sheepfold? Well, it's not up on some high, inaccessible cliff. It's not across some raging river. It's not across the ocean someplace, but where is it? Ground level, right smack in front of every human being as they sojourn through this life. And so God is absolutely just and fair that when people have, and He won't, this is going to be a place of judgment, and it's going to be awful. Now, when people say that believers are going to sit in sort of an amphitheater and look on, horror of horrors. Man, we won't want to see that, and I'm glad we won't. My, we won't want to see the lost stand there and hear their doom prescribed, but they're going to. But we're not going to see it. We're not going to even be aware of it after we get out of this particular situation. And so they stand before God in verse 12, and the books, now that's plural, the books were opened. And then another book, that's singular, was opened. That singular book is the book of life. And the dead who were judged out of those things which were written in the books, which is going to be record of their works. Now, of course, the book of life is going to show them that their name is not there. Now, there's two views. Some maintain that every person's name is in the book of life, and if they pass off this scene without salvation, then it's blotted out. The other view is that as they're saved and as they've experienced their salvation, their name is placed in the Lamb's book of life. Well, you can take either approach. You have Scripture verses for both. But the whole meltdown is, at the great white throne, it's going to come up, their name is not there. And they'll have no argument. And then He brings up the record. Now, I imagine all of us have had these thoughts. I know I did years and years ago. Well, how in the world has God kept an account of every human being, billions of them, over all the 6,000 years of human history? But now there's no problem. When they can put the whole King James version of the Bible on one little chip, then I see where God has no problems keeping a record of every human being, because His computer is far greater than anything that man has made. And that just takes away all the doubt. I mean, I know that He's going to have the record, and it's going to be there as clear as day. All right, and so verse 13, "...the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them." Now watch that language. Hell is going to give up those that are in it, so they can be judged, every man according to their works. And then these who had been occupying hell will be cast into the lake of fire. Now do you see the differences between those two places? Death and hell is the place of the unbeliever who has died tonight, and they're waiting for this great white throne judgment. They're waiting for their resurrection out of hell, only to go to something far worse, which is, of course, the lake of fire. And that comprises then the second death, physical death, and now the spiritual. And death, remember, we put that on the board months and months ago. The definition of death is the separation. For the physical, it's the separation of the spirit from the body. In the spirit realm, death is the separation from God, for an eternal separation. All right, now we're going to do something interesting, and I'd never really thought of it until a couple years ago. We were beginning to write a starter class in Tahlequah, and the lady said, now wait a minute, before you start, she said, I've got a question. What's the difference between hell and the lake of fire? And that's the way I learned. Boy, I mean, it was an interesting study. All right, now the first thing we have to do then is go back and get some of the scriptural descriptions of these things. Where is hell, and what is it comprised of? Go back with me to Matthew now, chapter 12, from the Lord's own lips. Matthew chapter 12. Let's begin at verse 39. The scribes and the Pharisees, of course, are dealing with Him here. And now in 39, He, Jesus, answered and said unto them, to it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. Now there's a lot more there than I've got time to comment on. That also refutes those who say that Jonah was imagination. It was a myth. Jesus gives perfect credence to it. Now verse 40, for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights where? In the heart of the earth. Now we know that when the thief on the cross turned to Him and said, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom, what was Jesus' answer? Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. But here we find that Jesus says that in those three days and three nights, He's going to be in the center of the earth. Now He went down into what? The Apostles' Creed, if I know it, says that we believe that Jesus Christ died, was buried, descended into what? Into hell. That's what the Apostles' Creed says. And I've had so many people say, you mean Jesus actually went to hell? Well, yes and no, for here's the reason. We have three words in Scripture that all speak of the same place. Now down in the center of the earth is what Jesus' own words were. Down in the center of the earth is the area that we call in the Hebrew it's Sheol, and in the Greek it's called Hades, and in the English it's called hell. Now all three of them pertain to this center-most part of the earth where Jesus said He would descend to. But now let's go to Luke chapter 16. It's the only way you can put these things together is just compare Scripture with Scripture. It's all in here, but you have to look for it. Now in Luke 16 we have the account of the rich man and Lazarus. Now I'm not going to take it all verse by verse. We haven't got time, and most of you have heard sermon after sermon on how Abraham and Lazarus were there in paradise, but the rich man was in torment. All right, now let's come down to verse 22. And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. And the rich man also died, and was buried, and in hell, see, down in Sheol, in hell he lifted up his eyes being in torment, and he sees Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Now then, this is of course just one instance where this took place for our benefit. It didn't happen routinely, but the Lord presents it as one instance. And now verse 24, he cried and said, that is the rich man did, Father Abraham have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. Now we know he's not there bodily. They will be in the lake of fire, but here he's only there in the realm of the soul and spirit. But soul and spirit is so intrinsically involved with the body, and I always like to give this illustration. My little wife's a nurse, you all know that, and she is told of it, and I've read of it, and you've heard of it, where an amputee can come into the hospital, and in the process of their time in the hospital, they will sometimes have excruciating pain, where? In that leg that's been long gone. And they call it what? Phantom, phantom pain. They have been so used to that leg, that even though it's been gone, they will still imagine, or whatever, the pain that would be in it. Now I bring this into this setting. The soul and spirit are so entwined with the body of our makeup, that even though the rich man's body was in the grave up on the surface, yet the soul and spirit was suffering as if it were a bodily need, and so he was tormented and was in thirst. All right, now then Abraham responds, and he says, "...Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime received many good things, and likewise Lazarus the evil. But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." Now verse 26, "...and besides all this, even if I would want to come and give you comfort," Abraham is saying, "...beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that they who would pass from here to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence." All right, so what have we got? We've got Hades, or hell, or however you want to call it, but Abraham defines it as a place with a great gulf fixed. Now on one side was torment, no doubt about it, but on the other side was paradise. All right, now we know that before the cross, all the way from Adam, men lived and died, and even the believers, with the two exceptions, and you know I'm always pointing out that God is God, and He can make His exceptions, but there were only two who did not die and go down into paradise. They went up, and that was Enoch, and who? Elijah. Now those were God's exceptions, but other than that, all the believers of the Old Testament could not go to heaven. They had to go down to paradise because, you see, the atoning blood of Christ is the only thing that would remove the stain of sin. Animals' blood couldn't take it away, and so these Old Testament believers were saved for eternity, but they were not ready for God's presence because their sins had not been atoned for by the blood of Christ, so they went down to paradise. All right, on the other hand, the lost from all the ages, including today, they are still going down into hell, as we understand it, but into the torment side. Now then, when the thief was told, today thou shalt be with me in paradise, turn with me now to Ephesians, Christ was speaking of that, as He said in Matthew, in the centermost part of the earth. He said it, I didn't, that He would be three days and three nights in the center of the earth. Now then, Paul puts his stamp of okay on all this, and this is why I'm comfortable teaching it. Now in Ephesians chapter 4, here again it comes out in such plain language. This isn't gobbledygook, this isn't something that takes a theologian degree in interpretation or anything like that, you just take it for what it says. Verse 7, 8, 9, where he writes in Ephesians 4, but unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ, wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, as he did in Acts chapter 1, he ascended up, no, in John chapter 12, that's when I think he took all these, 20, John 20, and when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now watch the term captivity and captive. Now verse 9, now that he ascended, in other words he went up, what is it but that he also, now what's the next word, descended first into what? The lower parts of the earth. He went down into Hades, he went down into hell, he went down into the paradise side. All right, and then, he that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill or fulfill all things. Now putting it in just plain visual perspective then, from the cross, he and the thief went down into the paradise side of Sheol, Hades, and hell, for I have not ascended to my father and your father. I think here is where he emptied paradise, and now paradise is where? Well, it's up in heaven. Paul now teaches that to be absent from the body is what? Present with the Lord. We don't go down into the innermost parts of the earth, we go immediately up into the presence of the Lord, because that's where paradise is now located. But hell, now the Old Testament tells us, the place of torment was enlarged. In other words, after paradise was removed, that whole area has now become then totally the place of torment. And so when a person dies today, even way out here in our time of 1993, that unbeliever still goes immediately to the place of torment. Now then, here we are, clear out at the end of the thousand years, and we're at the great white throne, up in space, not on the earth, because it has fled away. So now then, in that resurrection of the unjust, they are brought bodily. I don't know what it's going to look like, I just know that they're going to be there bodily, because that's what resurrection denotes. And so here they come. Now come back to Revelation 20. They stand before the Lord, before Christ, who will now be the judge and not the Savior. And as judge, He shows them their record, and yes, there's going to be degrees of punishment. Jesus made that so plain, because He said at one time to the citizens of Capernaum, it will be more tolerable for the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah than it will be for you. Because, He said, had Sodom and Gomorrah had His ministry, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes, but Capernaum didn't. And so He makes it very plain that the citizens of Capernaum, who rejected all of His ministry and His miracles, are going to suffer more in the eternal doom than even the horrible people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Now then, verse 14 of chapter 20, we've got to wind this up quickly. And so death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, and this is the second death. So whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. I don't care if they don't like to preach it anymore, the book still says it. And there are groups who try to hoo -hoo it all away, that a God of love couldn't do this. Well, I've shown you God's love was so great at the cross that there is no room for removing the eternal doom of the lost person. Now then, the lake of fire, where is it? Well, who knows? It'll have to be somewhere clear out in space. Now again, with a little bit of scientific reading that I do, I think you've all heard of the black holes in space. Now I think when you read what they think is a black hole, it's almost a perfect description of what the lake of fire will be like. A black hole is a place where time again is nothing. And I read one time where they thought that within it, because of its tremendous specific gravity, it's going to be tremendously dense, that there is intense heat, even though it's intense darkness, and it's a feeling of constantly falling. Now I don't know where they get that, but that's the way I've read it. Not in a Christian magazine, but in a scientific one, that within that black hole there could be that sensation of constantly falling. And so I'm just throwing that out as possibilities. I'm not saying it is, but we do know that the lake of fire is eternal. It'll be without end. And as we were talking here in our break before we started the lesson, I think one of the most horrible aspects of the punishment of lost people is that constant regret. They'll realize they're there, and they didn't have to be. And that's going to be awful, to think that they miss glory by something so simple as believing the gospel. And so it's sobering. As much as we would love to see the Lord come today, the only thing that tempers my enthusiasm for that is the fact that maybe today, maybe tomorrow, a few will still be saved and escape all this. But I'll tell you, it behooves us to be mindful that the eternal doom of the lost is something beyond our comprehension. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.