The White Throne Judgement, Part 1

The death of Christ has made you saveable, but you must accept Him to be saved. Dr. Tony Evans says when we stand before God, our only hope is the clean slate Jesus offers us. So you can't blame Adam for your spiritual condition.

Jesus covered that one. Your spiritual condition has to do with your personal decision. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is the alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative.

Many people think that by becoming Christians, we escape judgment. But today, Dr. Evans explains that we'll all stand before God. We'll just have very different experiences when we get there.

Let's join him as he explains. We spoke about the millennium, the 1,000-year rule of Christ, on earth, fulfilling the destiny of man. That is, to have an earth run by righteousness, where Satan will be incarcerated for a thousand years, and Jesus will rule from Jerusalem with a rod of iron for a thousand years, and where righteousness will reign, where the lion will lay down with the lamb, where the children will be able to play in a cobra's den and not be bitten. But at the end of the thousand years, we're told in verse 7 of Revelation 20 that Satan will be released from his prison. At the end of the millennium, Satan will be released, and he will come and deceive the nations.

Let me explain again. Only believers go into the millennium. But those believers who are in their human bodies are going to procreate, and millions of people will be born. These millions of people who will be born, many of them will reject Christ's rule, but they won't be able to express it, because Jesus will rule with a rod of iron.

He will be the righteous dictator, and no rebellion will be allowed in the millennial kingdom. So they're going to have to stuff in their rebellious unbelief, keep it to themselves, because if they openly defy, they will be judged immediately with their rod of iron. And so at the end of the tribulation, God will release Satan in order to allow people who have rejected him to express their rejection.

They've stuffed it in for however long they've been born during that thousand-year period of time, and now they will be free to release it because Satan will draw it out of them, having been released from prison. Satan will not cause it. He will reveal what's already there, which ought to let you know that if in a perfect environment people can reject Christ, with Him visibly on earth to be seen, heard, that you don't need the devil to be sinful. The devil really doesn't make you do it.

He just frees you up to do it by creating the conditions for it. And so all of the unbelievers at the end of the millennium will be rallied by Satan for the final battle. That battle is called in verse 8, Gog and Magog, which comes from Ezekiel 38 and 39, which deals with the enemies of God, to gather them together for war against Jesus Christ. The number of them will be like the sand of the seashore. Thousands upon thousands and millions upon millions will rebel against Jesus' rule now that Satan can be free to allow them to reveal it. And they will come and gather and surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city that is Jerusalem. So in an instant, at the end of the millennium, when the rebellion occurs, fire comes down from heaven and destroys all the rebels who have joined Satan in his final battle. And then, according to verse 10, Satan will join the false prophet and the beast, the Antichrist, and he will be tormented day and night forever and ever in the lake of fire. We have now come to the end of history as you now know it. The millennial kingdom is finished, and now it's time for the transfer to the eternal state, heaven and hell.

But before the transfer occurs, there will be a transfer event. That event is called the white throne judgment. It is the last courtroom in history and the darkest moment in time. John says in verse 11, a great white throne comes down. I saw a great white throne. When he sees this throne, something else happens because he says, when this king who sits on the throne shows up, heaven and earth flees.

Let me give you a word for that. It's the uncreation. In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth. That's the creation. God did the creation. So God existed prior to the creation in the uncreation, because he had not done creation yet. Here you have the rolling back of creation, and creation as you know it, the universe as you understand it will evaporate, because now we're no longer dealing with time. Now we're in the process of transitioning to eternity. Second Peter 3 10 summarizes this event of the uncreation. Peter says, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burnt up.

Cosmic disintegration. Unlike anything that the movies could ever show you, they try to portray it, they try to demonstrate it in certain movies, but there will be the evaporation of the universe at the end of the thousand years when he sees the throne. This is a courtroom unlike any you've ever seen. Jesus Christ is seated on this throne. In Saint John chapter 5, verse 22 and 27, for not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son. Verse 27 says, and He gave Him, God gave Jesus, authority to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man.

Who's in the courtroom? I saw, verse 12, the dead, the great, the small standing before the throne. Verse 13, 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, every one of them, according to their deeds. Every non-Christian in history is going to be summoned. Every unsaved person in history will receive the court, and you will show up because you will have been summoned by the King.

To make sure you show up, God is going to create an unglorified eternal body to house your soul that has been being held in a holding tank—I'll describe that in a moment—for this Judgment Day. Dr. Evans will have more on what the Bible says about the white throne judgment when he continues in just a moment. First though, don't miss your chance to get a copy of Tony's current series, Prophecy and Our World.

It's a look at God's prophetic plan for our planet, focusing on the difference it makes in our lives today. Along with the 12 full-length CDs or digital downloads included in this two-volume collection, we'll also send you the luxury edition of Dr. Evans' book, Prayers for Victory in Spiritual Warfare, packed with principles about productive prayer and real-life examples of how to connect with God when you need His power and protection the most. Over 100,000 people have been helped by this powerful resource, and we want to offer that same help to you. Just make a contribution toward Tony's ministry, and we'll send you the CDs and book as our thank-you gift. Just go to tonyevans.org, or call us at 1-800-800-3222, where our friendly resource team members are standing by 24-7 to help you. That's 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat that contact information for you after part two of today's message.

Here's Dr. Evans. This day is not for Christians. It's not for saints, whether Old or New Testament.

At this event, only non-believers are there. God is going to call them from the sea, He's going to call them from the grave, and they will receive an unglorified eternal body. It says all will be called, all will show up, whether small or great.

The superstar is going to show up, the somebodies will show up, the nobodies will show up. This is millions and billions of people, because this is accumulation of all the unsaved for all of history. And they will come and meet the judge. When they come to meet the judge, it says there are books, plural, and a book. The books, plural, it says are their deeds, everything they have done during that time when they were alive. And there will be a personal review with each one, it says. So men will stand before God looking at the record of their deeds in the face of a perfect Savior.

He says this is at the great white throne. So the standard of judgment at this location is not your neighbor. The standard of judgment is not the folks you live with, play with, work with.

The standard of judgment is the judge. It's like the man who went fishing and his boat tipped over, he fell in the water, he was beginning to drown. This stranger came alongside in his boat and picked him up and put him in the boat and saved him. Three or four years later, this man who was saved did a crime and had to go to court. When the judge came in, he noticed it was the man who saved him a few years ago. The man looked up and said, whoo, I'm sure glad to see you. The man behind the bench says, when I saw you last, I was your Savior. But right now in here, I am your judge.

Right now, before you die and in the age of grace, he is your Savior. On this occasion, he is your judge. And you can't mix the two. This is of another nature, and it is devastating in its repercussions. So the books are open, and every person will get the opportunity to make their case, and there will be a perfect record of every thought, word, and deed done. People will argue, as some do in courts today, well you may have brought me here for murder, but I've never raped anybody. You may have brought me here for rape, but I've never stolen from anybody. One of the things you know is that when you're in court, they didn't bring you there for what you didn't do.

They brought you there for what you did do. And you can't use what you didn't do to cancel out what you did do, because if you're guilty for what you did do, you're gonna be judged for what you did do. So when you stand before God at this judgment, what you did that was good does not cancel out what you did that was bad, nor does it overcome it, and it's part of the court record. From the judge's perspective, the purpose of this judgment is not to determine your eternal destiny. If you are at this judgment, your eternal destiny has already been determined. The purpose of this judgment is only to determine the degree of judgment, not the fact of judgment. You have already been found guilty by being there, for these are only those who have rejected God.

But the sentence varies. You go to court, you're found guilty for something, some go to death row, some go to life imprisonment, some go to life imprisonment without parole. There are different levels of the judgment of incarceration. Hell is not an equal opportunity judgment. The Bible says that if you cause other people to stumble, Matthew 18.6, then your judgment is going to be greater.

If you didn't just mess up you, but you messed up other folk. You hurt other folk, you abused other folk, you created havoc with other folk, that goes on your deed list, and your condemnation will be magnified. Matthew 12, 38 to 40 says some will receive greater condemnation, more hell to pay than others. Luke 12 verse 47 and 48 says that some will be whipped with few lashes, others will be whipped with many lashes. So there are levels of hell, like there are levels of heaven, levels of reward.

But nevertheless, it is the summary term for this judgment that all the unrighteous will be a part of. He says that they will open the books and every one, each one individually will stand before God. But that's not why you go to hell. You don't go to hell because of what's written in the book, because that's not the purpose of the book. The purpose of the book has nothing to do with your eternal destiny. The purpose of those books is to decide the level of judgment, not the fact of it.

Then why does anybody go to hell? Verse 15, and if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. So we got another book, not the books, the book, and this book has names in it. The people who go to hell go to hell because their name is not in that book. That's different than the deeds. The deeds, how much hell you get. The book is why you're there. You are there because your name's not there. If your name is not there, the books tell you the level of hell you get.

So let's talk about this book with the names in it. Adam was created and he sinned. When he sinned, the Bible says that sin was passed down to the whole human race. So everybody who was born is born in sin and shaped in iniquity. We all sin because we all carry the Adamic nature that includes sin, which is why you don't have to teach people how to sin. You don't have to teach kids how to be selfish.

You don't have to teach them how to lie. It's built in and transferred from parent to child and from Adam to the human race. So the whole world is born in sin. But the Bible says Jesus died for the sins of the world before the foundation of the earth. In other words, before Jesus ever entered the earth, God took into account his death. And in taking his death into account, addressed the original sin of Adam, because Romans chapter 5 verse 18 says, in Adam all die, but in Christ all are made alive.

Let me explain. When God initiated creation, every name of every man, woman, boy, and girl was written in the book of life. Every person.

Why? Because 1st John 2 2 says, he not only died for our sins, he died for the sins of the whole world. So on the cross, even before Jesus got to the cross, God took into account the cross so that the cross, even in the mind of God, would cover Adam's sin. And it's transferred to the human race. Since original sin was covered by God in his mind, before Adam even was created, because God knew Adam would sin, God covered the human race, and that is why when a woman comes to me or a man or a family who has lost that baby in a childbirth situation where the baby didn't live or the baby was young and hit by a car and they asked me, where is my child, I can with confidence tell them, your baby is in heaven because the death of Christ has already judged the sin of Adam that you, the parents, transferred to them, according to Romans 5 18.

Well, wait a minute. Then if that's the case, why does anyone go to hell? Because while the death of Christ covers original sin, it does not cover personal sin where rejection of Christ is involved. In other words, it covers original sin saving you from Adam's condemnation, but personal sin gets covered when you accept Christ. So original sin is covered, therefore babies are covered, until the age of accountability.

What's the age of accountability? It's when you can understand that you are a sinner, that you have sinned, and you have the capacity to respond to the gospel. Once you hit that age of accountability, which varies from person to person based on where they live and what they've been exposed to, once you hit that age of accountability, the death of Christ has made you savable, but you must accept Him to be saved from your personal sin.

So you can't blame Adam for your spiritual condition, Jesus covered that one. Your spiritual condition has to do with your personal decision to respond or reject the good news of the gospel. Dr. Tony Evans, talking about what will happen on the day when non-christians stand before the white throne of judgment. If you're ready to respond today to the good news of the gospel and begin living a full, everlasting life with God through Jesus Christ, go to tonyevans.org right now and follow the link that says Jesus. There, Tony will tell you what it means to be a Christian and walk you through everything you need to know to start your brand new life.

It's the most important decision you can ever make, and we encourage you to do it today. tonyevans.org is also the place to take advantage of that special double offer I mentioned earlier. It includes Tony's current two-volume series, Prophecy and Our World, a 12-lesson collection focusing on terms that everyone in the church hears but may not fully understand.

Subjects like the rapture, the tribulation, and the white throne judgment we've been learning about today. And when you support Tony's ministry with a financial contribution, we'll send this complete collection of messages to you as our thank you gift, along with the luxury edition of his powerful book, Prayers for Victory in Spiritual Warfare. This is the last week for this special double offer, so don't miss out. Visit tonyevans.org and make the arrangements today. That's tonyevans.org. Or get some in-person help from our resource team by calling 1-800-800-3222, day or night.

That's 1-800-800-3222. Everybody, from cartoonists to moviemakers, even to our friends on Facebook, has an idea of what Judgment Day will look like. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans will continue our examination on what the Bible says people can expect when they face the great white throne. Be sure to join us. The alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.