Reflections on Revelation #325

‘Day 325

“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them; and they were judged, each one of them according to their deeds. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:11,15. (NASB)

This scene is quite scary on the face of it. Everyone on earth, great and small, white and black, rich and poor, will one day be called to account. Nothing is ultimately done in secret; all things will one day come out into the open. This is a powerful incentive to right living. 
Sin had a beginning and sin has an end. It is comforting to know that death’s days are numbered. One day we will be reunited with our loved ones and separation will forever be a choice instead of something imposed on us.

I love v14, “Death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire.” It used to be amused with the KJV version of this, which had death & hell being thrown into the lake of fire. Most modern translations use the Greek ‘hades.’ Hades is not hell it is the grave – the place of the dead. Using ‘hell’ for ‘hades’ was a KJV translator’s invention. Most modern translations correct this.

Death and everything that leads up to it is a genuinely ugly business that finds ways of inserting itself into our lives. The Book of Revelation certainly doesn’t sugar-coat the problem. But it confronts the problem with good news. Death is not a permanent fixture of reality. Death is not natural to the universe. Death itself will one day die! That’s why Jesus died so that one day He might destroy death itself. I’m looking forward to that day, aren’t you? Read V15 How does God feel about the destruction of the wicked? Is it “good riddance” along with a sigh of relief? Or is this the most difficult moment in the history of the universe?

We have now been shown a glimpse through the millennium and into the future. The last 4 chapters of the book of Revelation offer the clearest and most detailed account in the Bible of events just before, during, and after the second coming. While there are hints of a millennium elsewhere in the Bible (ICor.15:20-22, Isa.26:19-21), these final chapters are the only place where such a time period is clearly laid out. The account of the 1000yrs comes between the second coming of Jesus and His third return to this earth. 

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