Chapter Forty-One -God's Day of Judgment - Its Joyful Outcome!

AS HUMANS, we were created to live forever. If Adam and Eve had obeyed God's commands, they would never have died.  (Genesis 1:28; 2:8, 16, 17; Ecclesiastes 3:10, 11.  But when they sinned, they lost perfection and life both for themselves and their offspring, and death came to reign over mankind  as a relentless enemy.  (Romans 5:12, 14; 1 Corinthians 15:26)  Nevertheless, God's purpose to have perfect humans live forever on a paradise earth did not change. Out of his great love  for mankind, he sent to earth his only-begotten Son, Jesus, who gave his perfect human life as a ransom for "many" of Adam's offspring.  (Matthew 20:28; John 3:16)  Jesus can now use this legal merit of his sacrifice to restore believing humans to life in perfection on a paradise earth.  (1 Peter 3:18; 1 John 2:2)  What grand reason for mankind to "be joyful and rejoice"! -Isaiah 25:8, 9. 

With Satan confined in the abyss, Jesus' glorious Thousand Year Reign begins. It is now the "day" in which God purposes to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed." (Acts 17:31; 2 Peter 3:8) John declares: "And I saw a great white throne and the one seated on it.  From before him the earth and the heavens fled away, and no place was found for them." (Revelation 20:11) What is this "great white throne"?  It can be none other than the judgment seat of "God the Judge of all." (Hebrews 12:23)  Now he will judge mankind as to who will benefit from Jesus' ransom sacrifice. -Mark 10:45. 

God's throne is "great," emphasizing Jehovah's grandeur as Sovereign Lord, and it is "white," calling attention to his flawless righteousness.  He is the ultimate Judge of mankind. (Psalm 19:7-11; Isaiah 33:22; 51:5, 8)  He has, however,  delegated the work of judgment to Jesus Christ:  "The Father judges no one at all, but he has committed all the judging  to the Son." (John 5:22)  With Jesus are his 144,000 associates, to whom the "power" of judging was given . . . for a thousand years." (Revelation 20:4) Even so, It is Jehovah's standards that decide what will happen to each individual during Judgment Day. 

How is it that "the earth and the heaven fled away"?  This is the same heaven that departed as a scroll at the opening of the sixth seal-the humans ruling powers that are "stored up for the fire and are being reserved to the day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly  men."  (Revelation 6:14; 2 Peter 3:7)  The earth is the organized  system of things that exists under the rulership. (Revelation 8:7)   The destruction  of the wild beast  and kings of the earth  and their armies, along with those who render worship to its image, marks the fleeing away of this heaven and earth. (Revelation 199:19-21)  Judgments having been executed on Satan's earth and heaven, the Great Judge decrees another Day of Judgment.  

Next time: Chapter Forty-One - God's Day of Judgment -Its Joyful Outcome! - The Thousand Year Judgment Day

From the book of Revelation