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Article		December 30, 2015
Great White Throne Judgment

The book deals with the many places in Revelation where the symbol sets Sea, Earth, and Rivers / Streams are used. The Heaven symbol set is mentioned less.

The scope of the book was chosen to end with the Second Coming in Chapter 19. Chapter 20 talks about the millennium period and the Great White Throne judgment that follows it. Chapter 20 does have a reference to all these symbol sets in it, however, and there is a valuable understanding with them.

Right at the time the Great White Throne judgment is about to begin, Revelation 20:11 says "And I saw a Great White Throne and him sitting at the top of it, from whose face Earth and Heaven fled away, and no place was found for them."

From understanding the symbol sets, we understand this verse to say that God's faithful people and his angelic host flee / depart before the judgment begins.

Of this judgment, Revelation 20:13 says "they were judged, one by one, according to their works" and 20:15 says "And whoever was not found inscribed in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire".

It needs to be understood what this is like for God. He has loved these trillions of people from before they were born and he has loved them with a love deeper than we can understand. Yet, he will turn his wrathful face toward them and suffer in sorrow as he judges them and sends them to the Lake of Fire and thus separates them permanently from him for eternity. Horrible.

When the judgment is complete, Revelation 21:1 says "And I saw new Heavens and a new Earth, for the former Heavens and the former Earth had departed, and The Sea was no more."

From the symbol sets, we understand this to mean that the angelic host and God's faithful people return. The unfaithful are gone and no longer will there be any unfaithful. We also notice that the angelic host and God's faithful are new in some way, though we don't know how.

You might be thinking that this interpretation that the angelic host and God's faithful would not be present for the Great White Throne judgment is interesting but completely lacks Biblical support.

Not so. Isaiah describes it in Isaiah 26:20-21 "Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by. 21 See, the Lord is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will disclose the blood shed on it; the earth will conceal its slain no longer."