CHRISTIANS WILL BE AT THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT THIS STUDY WILL BLOW YOUR MIND Revelation 20: 11,12,15 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. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. This is a subject that I have been thinking about for years. There is a lot more to this than I will be able to write about today but I wanted to put this before discriminating readers and let it begin to soak. When I say begin to soak I mean this is something that takes time to sink in. I taught about humanism in the curriculum of our public schools in a large church once. Over a year later I had the secretary for the school administrator tell me that she got very angry at me for that lecture but over the past year she had seen that what I had said was true. It took a year for it to soak in after she had learned what to look for. Notice that in the last verse of our text that it says: And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Now, this can only mean that some were there whose names were in the book of life. Only the persons whose names were not in the book of life were cast into the lake of fire. If I said that anyone who did not have a ticket was not allowed into the stadium you would not think that means that the only people there were people without tickets. What this means is that not every Christian will be a part of the first resurrection. The first resurrection is a prize to be won. Philippians 3:14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Paul calls the first resurrection a prize here. The context shows this. Verse 11 of the same chapter makes this clear: if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Paul knew that he was saved and he knew he would be raised from the dead but what he did not know, at this time, was whether he would attain to the first resurrection. Paul also calls the first resurrection a prize in 1 Corinthians 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. The only runners allowed in the Greek games were Greeks; outsiders were not allowed in the race. Pauls readers knew this. In the same way the only ones allowed in the Christian race are Christians. There are many Christians in the race but only a few will win the prize of the first resurrection. The phrase better resurrection occurs repeatedly in the Book of Hebrews. The great Hall of Faith in chapter 11 is summarized with this statement: : and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection. A person must be worthy to share in the first resurrection. Luke 20:35 But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage NOTE : the Greek word translated resurrection in all the above quotes is an unusual word that means out resurrection because some are raised out from among the rest of dead; the other dead are left in the grave until later. Rev. 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. This is just a brief overview that I will be hammering out in the days to come. Many of the early Plymouth Brethren referred to the out resurrection. E. H. Bullinger, G.H. Pember, G. H. Lang, Robert Govett, and others taught it. If you would like to study this more Google Out Resurrection I will post a companion study below this on my personal page: Judging Angels. Mike Clinton Hiawassee Ga. Sept. 10, 2014
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 11:23:06 +0000
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