Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #13 of Revelation chapter 20 and we are going to read Revelation 20:11-12:

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Here, God is bringing us to Judgment Day, of course.  He has done that repeatedly throughout the Book of Revelation, but here He gives us special insight into the judgment throne.  The Lord God is the one seated upon the judgment throne and it is said to be “a great white throne.”  It is white because white is the color of holiness and purity and God’s judgment is just and perfect, right and good.  He is the Just Judge.  He judges righteous judgment.  Romans, chapter 2 says it is the “righteous revelation of the judgment of God” and that is exactly what God means.  Mankind cannot rightly argue with God or charge God with injustice.  Men do that, but it is not justified in any way.  It is like a criminal that has been caught and does not like the judgment passed upon him, but it is a just judgment.

Here, we have a glorious picture that God is giving us of that great white throne “and him that sat on it.”  In the Bible, “to sit” means to rule and God is ruling upon His judgment throne.  We have an Old Testament Scripture that this verse draws upon, which is Daniel 7:9-11:

I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.

The last verse is exactly what we read in Revelation 20 in the previous verse where it said, “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”   Here, the vision that God gave to Daniel was of the “Ancient of days” sitting upon the throne and His throne is said to be like a “fiery flame” because it is the throne of judgment – the wrath of God is being poured out.  In the Bible, the “fire” points to God’s wrath and God is said to be “a consuming fire.”

When Daniel saw this vision he saw that the Ancient of days had a “garment white as snow” and the “hair of his head like the pure wool,” so the hair would also be white.  It is a sparkling clean picture that God is presenting of Himself in judgment.  Again, there is perfect purity of judgment which indicates that the judgment is correct.  It is not a wrong judgment.  It is not something that is somehow mistaken in any way.  God’s judgment that began on the churches was correct.  God’s judgment which transitioned to the entire world on May 21, 2011 was also correct.  They were the righteous judgments of God.  The churches had been disobedient and unfaithful in their task to be the caretakers of the Word of God, so God judged them for it.  The world and all its (unsaved) inhabitants have been unfaithful and rebellious.  They have transgressed the Law of God and strayed from His commandments.  Concerning the people of the world, the Lord says in Isaiah 24:4-5:

The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.

Men have broken God’s covenants and sinned against God and the Law of God declares that the wages of sin is death.  God had put up with the sins of mankind for thousands of years while He worked out His salvation program during the day of salvation and the light of the Gospel was shining in the world as God was saving His elect people.  The Lord endured, patient and longsuffering, in putting up with the sinfulness of mankind, but then came the time when all the elect had been saved and, immediately, the Great Tribulation ended and the sun was darkened, and the moon did not give its light and the stars fell and God began His judgment on the world.  It was according to His Law because the rebels had sinned and now it was the proper time in God’s program of “times and seasons” to judge the people of the earth.  And that is exactly what God did.

In Revelation 20, we see the great white throne and Him that sat on it and then it says, “from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.”  The Greek word translated as “face” can also be translated as “presence,” so it could say, “from whose presence the earth and the heaven fled away.”  This is something we read earlier in the Book of Revelation.  It says in Revelation 6:12-17:

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

Here, we find the context is Judgment Day when the sun is black and the moon is as blood and the stars fall and we know that relates to the time immediately after the Tribulation.  When did the Great Tribulation conclude?  It was May 21, 2011, after exactly 23 years or 8,400 days of the Great Tribulation, so it is referring to “these days after that tribulation” in which we are currently living.  This is the Bible and the Lord spoke in parables and the Book of Revelation is no exception.  Some theologians say it is written in a “hyperbolic style,” and what does that mean?  It means “parables,” so we do not think that every mountain and island was literally moved out of their places and we do not think that mountains and rocks literally fell on people.  But it is a figure that describes the “presence” of the One seated upon the throne in the Day of Judgment and mankind is attempting to hide or remove from that presence because He is a God of wrath.  The image in the Book of Daniel was of a fiery flame coming forth from the throne.  Mankind is guilty and subject to destruction, so it is as though they are fleeing.  I think that is what God is teaching us when He says, “from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.”

The “earth” can be used to represent people.  Mankind is closely identified with the earth and when men flee, it is as though the earth is fleeing from the presence of God.  For instance, if we go back to Isaiah 34, it says in Isaiah 34:1-2:

Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of JEHOVAH is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.

Isaiah 34 is another chapter that describes Judgment Day.  Notice that God first speaks to the nations: “Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear.”  These words are synonymous – nations, people and earth.  Mankind and the earth are intimately associated and we saw in Revelation 6 that it was people that were afraid of the presence of God and the wrath of the Lamb in the Day of Judgment and they wanted mountains and rocks to cover them.

So, here in our verse, the Lord God is seated upon the great white throne of His judgment, “Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear.”  You may also have noticed that the verses I read in Revelation 6 said, “And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”  God is giving the illustration of rolling up a scroll and that is how He would roll up the heaven in the Day of Judgment.  Satan and his kingdom of darkness and all the unsaved people of the world are fearful of God’s wrath and it is as though they are fleeing away.  The “heaven” was established by the Bible when God wrote of the Gospel and laid out His salvation program, it was placing the Gospel lights in the spiritual heavens.  The Lord Jesus is the “Son,” so the “sun” is placed by the Bible in the heaven; the Law of God is the “moon” and there is the “moon” which the Bible places in the heaven; and the “stars” can relate to true believers, so the “stars” are placed in the heaven as the light bearers of the Gospel.

The Bible placed those lights in the spiritual heaven and when Judgment Day comes the Bible declares the Gospel program is finished and the time to evangelize the world has come to an end.  The sun is darkened, the moon does not give her light and the stars fall from heaven, spiritually.  The Bible gave the lights and the Bible takes the lights out of the heaven, making the heaven dark over the earth, spiritually, so the unsaved people of the earth are, in a sense, fleeing and the heavens have “fled” and thy have also gone from the presence of the Lord God: “and there was found no place for them.”  This is language we saw in Revelation, chapter 6.  It said in Revelation 6:14:

And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

So there was an established “place” for the kingdoms of this world, which the mountains typified.  And every “island” would be a continent, which would represent the whole earth because the earth is made up of continents.  So the kingdoms of this world are moved out of their places.

It is a little difficult to get a clear picture of what God means when he says, “and there was found no place for them.”  Of course, we do know that this would relate to the very last day of Judgment Day when God will destroy the earth, the heavens and the literal sun, moon and stars.  He will destroy this creation, so there is a literal aspect to this, I think.  They are gone for evermore and they are no longer found and there is “no place for them” because God is going to create a new heaven and a new earth.  The old creation was corrupt and, therefore, is destroyed.