[This is an excerpt from the upcoming Second Edition of my commentary on the Book of Revelation, “The Essential Apocalypse”. It is to give you a taste of the detailed exposition so you may then want to read the whole book]

In verse 14 of chapter 20 in the Book of Revelation, we read that Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire (which I will identify below). Obviously, those two elements cannot literally be thrown in there like humans can, so it is a manner of speaking. But what is being pictured here is the fulfilment of this text: “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory’” (1 Corinthians 15:54). In other words, at the resurrection, then physical death (the consequence of the ‘first death’ — see §2 of chapter 1 for details about the meaning of the ‘first death’) will have been done away with, “swallowed up”, through the victory of Christ on the cross. Similarly, there will be no more need for Hades as the place of dead after the general resurrection. [Remember that we identified in §5 of chapter 3 what Sheol/Hades represents as the place of the dead for both those who are followers of God and those who are not, though in two separate parts of it]. All that will remain for all those who have refused Him is the second death — the lake of fire — eternal separation from God. Which is precisely what verse 14 in our text in Revelation 20 says: “This is the second death—the lake of fire”.

In verse 15 of chapter 20 in the Book of Revelation, we read how if the name of anyone appearing before God in judgement is not “written in the Book of Life, he was thrown in the lake of fire”. This Book of Life has already been referred to earlier as “the Book of Life of the Lamb who has been slain” (Revelation 13:8). It is also called “the Lamb’s Book of Life” (Revelation 21:27). The Book of Life, which is obviously not to be thought of as a literal physical book, is clearly referring to the heavenly record of all those who have life as a result of their being “in Christ”, who is life personified (John 14:6). That is how we become “partakers in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). This identification with Christ is the foundation of our salvation. He overcame the two enemies of Satan and death through His own death and resurrection. Through our identification and union with Him, we also partake in His resurrection and have life.

The Identity of the “Lake of Fire” & the Meaning of “Tormented Forever”

Now we turn to the ‘issues’ which I mentioned above, before those paragraphs of exposition of the verses. Namely, the identity of this “lake of fire and sulphur” and understanding the meaning of being “tormented day and night forever and ever”. First, what is this “lake of fire and sulphur”? Well that is identified for us in our text. It is a symbol for “the second death” (see verse 14). This is reiterated in chapter 21, verse 8: “…the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death”. We have already identified the second death in an earlier chapter of this book as referring to separation from God and everything which comes from Him.

I have tried to imagine that separation on an eternal level, but I can’t even begin to get my head around it; just as I can’t get my head around the idea that a situation can exist which is devoid of God’s presence when He is omnipresent. One has to conclude that the second death does not involve a geophysical location but is a state of soul in which God’s presence can never be experienced by those whose chosen fate is the eternal fire of judgement in eternal destruction — the most barren wilderness imaginable.

I say “chosen fate” because that is what it is, humanly speaking. One has a choice in this life. Eternal life through union with Christ or eternal separation from God forever. This life is where the choice has to be made. It could not be clearer. If a person repeatedly and finally scoffs at that idea, with no end to the scoffing, then they will have brought their future destiny on themselves. When I have spoken to people about all this, most have scoffed at me or looked pityingly at me, and a few have reacted as if this was music to their ears. The choice was made. Obviously, so long as they remain alive, they can continue to make a choice. But it is a chosen fate rather than something unfairly imposed on a desperately reluctant soul.

The “lake of fire” or “second death” also has a number of other parallel names which all amount to the same thing. For example, one of those parallel names is “eternal destruction” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). But that does not mean being vaporised into nothingness or completely obliterated, annihilated. For the eternal destruction is qualified there as pertaining to being “separated from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His might”. That is a form of destruction. It does not mean obliteration but, rather, a state of permanent devastation, ruination, desolation — the very opposite of what life should mean: A state of eternal death, lived consciously and tormentedly, to a greater or lesser degree. (I will explain what I mean by those “degrees” in an excursus further below). To those who stubbornly say that “eternal destruction” really means that one is simply annihilated, then how can it be explained when Christ says:

“It is better to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into Gehenna, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched” (Mark 9:47-48).

That is not annihilation or vaporization. I take no pleasure in saying this, but it is some kind of neverending torment. Other parallel images are used to describe the post-death state of those who have refused to submit to the authority of Christ and become His disciple. One notable one is when the Christ says that those who are not His true disciples will be “thrown out into the outer darkness, where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12). The implication is surely that of being eternally lost in “outer darkness”, the equivalent of “destruction” and desolation, where there is a consciousness of that alienation which causes “wailing and gnashing of teeth”. This “gnashing of teeth” carries an image of extreme defiance and rage — an expression of contempt for the Divine, the same contempt which has been bubbling beneath the surface throughout the lives of those who despise the idea of a higher being to whom they are answerable. That “gnashing of teeth” is the wordless articulation of: “No one has the right to rule over me!” Ah, but they do. Your Creator does have that right; and this whole theatre of life on earth down through the ages has been a demonstration of that right of God to rule and of its rejection. What about the wailing? The Greek word translated here as “wailing” actually means:

“A bitter grief that springs from feeling utterly hopeless. This ‘wailing’ is usually accompanied by shrieks, brought on by uncontainable emotional (psychological) pain”. [From “Helps Word Studies” in Strong’s Concordance on the word κλαυθμός, klauthmós, translated here as “wailing”].

This is serious stuff, my friends. People for centuries have tried to waffle this all away, dilute it, melt it down and make it into something more acceptable to the lily-livered liberal “woke” mindset. I have wrestled with it over the years. Many have. But I cannot pour cold water on that fire and I cannot put ‘eternal destruction’ in a time machine to make it go away or mean something else. John the Baptist said of Christ:

“His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the storehouse, but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire!” (Matthew 3:12).

To me, it seems as plain as a pikestaff. It is “inextinguishable fire” in “outer darkness” in which one undergoes “eternal destruction”, ruination, desolation, Divine forsakenness, which is as “lost” as one can be. As I said earlier, ‘destruction’ does not mean utterly obliterated as if there is nothing left. If you are told that your house has been destroyed in a gas explosion, that house still exists but in a state of ruination. So it is with eternal destruction. What that actually involves one can only imagine but never really capture its full significance and awful reality. One can have an inkling of it because Christ underwent that desolation on the cross, as can be seen in His terrible exclamation, “My God, why have you forsaken me!” (Matthew 27:46). This He did as part of His vicarious experience for all those He would gather to Himself in His Ekklesia, so that they would not be subject to that forsakenness if they unite with Him in His victory over death and Satan.

So many want to water everything down in order to make it palatable to the masses and to themselves, but there is nothing palatable about this, and there isn’t supposed to be. In regard to the outer darkness, we read in context a parable about a wedding party crasher, which finishes like this:

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he spotted a man who was not dressed in wedding clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ But the man was speechless. Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’. For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:11-14).

Now, this is a parable in which the wedding feast refers symbolically to an event which we have already looked at in the previous chapter, the return of Christ for His people. There are those who claim that the “outer darkness” referred to by Christ three times in Matthew’s gospel is simply about the shame and inconvenience of being refused entry to the banquet and having to stand outside the wedding hall at night in the dark. I have never heard such claptrap in my life! Does that honestly sound like the kind of situation being referred to in this parable? Impenitent rebels against God are, as the apostle Peter said, “springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them” (2 Peter 2:17). This is serious stuff. In another parable plainly designed to picture His return to judge the world, Christ said that the master of the evil servant

“will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not anticipate. Then he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 24:50-51).

This is the same weeping and grinding of teeth which Christ mentioned in relation to the “outer darkness”. Does this really sound like someone who is somewhat miffed to be put out of the wedding feast having to stand outside at night? In another parable, it is said:

“So will it be at the end of the age: The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous, and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:49-50).

The “fiery furnace” here is another parallel idiom along with outer darkness, eternal fire, the lake of fire, eternal destruction, and so on. One cannot escape the fact that a refusal to submit to the Creator of the cosmos and a refusal to unite yourself with Christ and being in alignment with the satanic world-system (thereby having the ‘mark of the beast’, as I showed earlier) will lead after physical death to an everlasting experience that is unthinkably terrible in all respects. I can only tell it like it is. I am only interested in truth. I would far rather have uncomfortable and unpalatable truth than agreeable and seemingly pleasant lies, though many seem to disagree. When Jesus says, in His parable of the sheep and goats, “Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’” (Matthew 25:41), those “many” who disagree say that the Greek word translated as “eternal”, αἰώνιος, aiónios, really only means ‘for the length of an age’ because it is derived from αἰών, aión, meaning age, therefore they say it cannot mean everlasting and is just temporary, until they have learned their lesson. But that brings a huge difficulty with it, because of this verse at the end of that parable, which states: “And they [the goats] will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46). For if the punishment is not eternal, then neither is the “eternal life” for the righteous, as the same Greek word pertains to each. If “eternal life” is not eternal for God’s people, then what happens after it? Do we go back to having an untransformed nature? That whole whitewash is ridiculous. Obviously, from our limited, three-dimensional perspective, we cannot properly perceive what ‘eternal’ really means. But if the same adjective pertains to both sides of the final judgement scenario, then that shows us what we are dealing with. Everlastingness.

The word translated as ‘punishment’ there is κόλασις, kόlasis, which can also be translated as “torment”, as in the text: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment” (1 John 4:18). It is surely no coincidence that the translation of kόlasis in modern Greek is in fact “hell”! It is so obvious that we are dealing with something devastating.

You may say that the whole of eternity doesn’t leave room for learning the lesson. But the lesson was supposed to be learned now, in this dimension. That is what this life is for! If the only thing which makes you want to “learn the lesson” (i.e., “Okay, God, I give in”) is discovering first-hand after death how bad the ‘second death’ is, then that is the wrong motivation altogether! The time for choice is now, and not based on fear but on realising the power and glory of God. Once death strikes, the die (pun intended) has been cast and the choice has been made. I am mindful of that fateful saying in Ecclesiastes, “In the place where the tree falls, there it will lie” (Ecclesiastes 11:3).

To try and mitigate these uncomfortable truths is the wrong approach. Instead, we should find a way of penetrating their mysteries and accepting them. In any case, even if the “outer darkness” was only ‘age-long’ (i.e. lasting for some thousands of millennia), it would still be a serious matter! But really, the afterlife will be outside of time as we know it. So even using a word like aiónios doesn’t really carry the full reality. Suffice it to say that it is something utterly dreadful and unthinkable. Yet, there is another purpose:

“What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath who are fitted for destruction? What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory?” (Romans 9:22-23)

All those who are “vessels of His wrath who are fitted for destruction” are an example to the world that God gives salvation only to those who submit to Him. In fact, God shows immense patience with those who reject Him, considering that His fingerprints are smeared all over the whole creation. That patience alone demonstrates the glory of God. This is also why making it possible to ‘change your mind’ once the hammer of judgement has fallen on you would be so pointless. This present world and allotted lifespan is the time for the choice to be made. [NB: I make no inference here about those who sadly die before they have even grown or who may have some debilitating intellectual impairment. I leave all that in God’s hands, who is just and righteous and perfect. There are many mysteries in this whole complex subject area. My in-text observations are primarily about those who either consciously reject or willingly receive God’s warnings and promises]. For those who reject God, there is only outer darkness, eternal destruction, eternal fire, unquenchable fire, the lake of fire, which all signify tormentuous separation from the presence of God forever. The miracle is that in this life, even if one rejects God, one is still privy to His mercy and presence in so many ways.

I cannot tell you the precise mechanics of that “destruction” or “separation”. Such knowledge is way above my current pay-grade. However, I just cannot soften the blow. One cannot start thinking to oneself, “Well that’s not the way that I would do it!” Personally-speaking, I am just a fool who hardly has a clue. If God is infinitely wise and is the Creator of this whole show, and righteous and just and is love, and sees the end from the beginning, then I am very happy to leave all that judgement stuff up to Him! He knows best, and I trust Him completely. Trusting God leads to startlingly wonderful consequences in one’s life. Thinking one knows better than Him provokes a terrible fallout leading to a concatenation of deepening delusion, such as is laid out by Paul when he elaborates on the judgement which befalls those who align themselves with the Antichrist rather than the true Christ:

“… they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie, in order that judgment may come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness” (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12).

You can see there that this whole judgement thing is not about some capricious or arbitrary God bringing torment on people without good reason. For it will be the people themselves who will have wilfully “refused the love of the truth that would have saved them”. The more you reject God and His Truth, the deeper God allows you to fall into hopeless delusion, wallowing in deception and being entrenched in The Lie. Whatever happens in the afterlife is purely the result of personal choices in this life. The ball is in your court. [NB: If you want to say, “But what if I am not one of the elect? Then I have no choice”. Yes, you do. Not being one of the elect means that you consciously chose to reject Christ and you rejoiced in it. Don’t worry, you will not be sitting around cursing that you are not one of the elect! All are dead in their trespasses and sins and no one can come to Christ unless the Father draws them (Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13; John 6:44). And if you still want to get on your hind legs and object, and say, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?” the voice of God will reply to you, “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, ‘Why did You make me like this?’ Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use?” (Romans 9:19-21)].

Ultimately, it matters not one bit what we think about being “tormented day and night forever and ever”. It is all going to happen anyway. I find that so many want to do God’s thinking for Him. Personally, I do not think He could have made it any clearer. But all these fancy-pants pastors, do-it-yourself theologians, and wannabe newbies with lily-livers want to try and explain away anything which offends their wishy-washy sensitivities to make it all more palatable and congenial. The fact that they have written books which influence the gullible and ignorant is something for which they will have to pay.

Now, before you take up your torches and pitchforks to hunt me down and burn me at the stake, let me say that I do not make the rules, fortunately. I am just a little messenger-boy who is under oath, with a hand on the Bible, to report the truth as it is. So, do not shoot the messenger — just deal with the message! I cannot alter what the Scriptures say. I see symbolism where there plainly is symbolism. But what right do I have to waffle away the reality of being separated from the presence of the Lord “forever and ever”? Why would that be a symbol? How can “forever and ever” be a symbol? Now, you may want to say to me, “Read the book by so-and-so. He’ll soon put you right”. Dear friend, I’ve read ’em all and I’m not impressed. It all feels like desperation to me when people want to soften things up to make them more palatable to those who these days are rightly called “snowflakes”. The same sort of desperation pervades the language of those who want to take things in the other direction and make them more rigid than they are. Those who take away or add to these Scriptures are under the sword of a curse which should make them halt in their tracks before they play cavalier with plain meanings (Revelation 22:18-19).

Whatever we say to try and explain it away, or not, it will be what it is and that is that. At its most basic, it involves separation from the presence of God. This is a state of soul. Hell is not a location in the manner in which we understand location. Outside of this present cosmos of limited dimensionality, there must exist a whole different space-time continuum. The fact is that we cannot imagine in any deep and realistic way whatsoever what the afterlife entails. We can guess, but that is all. For here we only have symbols, images, and suggestions.

Well that concludes my brief spiel about the ramifications of the final judgement and its implications. Now, as promised above, I am here including an excursus on the fact that there will be varying degrees of condemnation and rewards in the afterlife. As we have reached a major turning point in the Book of Revelation — in the sense that chapter 20 is the final summation of the age and the judgement at the end of it, and chapters 21 and 22 deal primarily with the age to come — it seems good and right to provide this explanation after reading how John “saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne… and the dead were judged”. That is all the dead, whether disciples of Christ and followers of God or not.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Excursus on Degrees of Condemnation and Rewards in the Final Judgement

If you are thinking how unfair it is to have a ‘one-size-fits-all’ scenario, you need to know that this is not the case and there will be varying degrees of condemnation for the unbelieving, and varying degrees of rewards for the faithful in the final judgement. Many do not realise this, which is why they try to smooth over the facts about the afterlife. But it should come as no surprise, as God is righteous and just. So let’s examine those degrees in some depth. First, let’s look at the different degrees or levels of condemnation for those who have refused to follow God or to be disciples of Christ.

A. Degrees of Condemnation

Those who are not disciples of Christ will not all receive the same Divine treatment. That there will be varying degrees of judgement can firstly be inferred from the fact that God will judge the dead “according to their works”. It will be a cosmic ‘court’ dispensing ‘horses for courses’. As Christ put it: “For the Son of Man will come in His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will repay each one according to what they have done” (Matthew 16:27). This is concurred by Paul: “He will repay each one according to his works” (Romans 2:6). And in our text in chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation, we read:

“Then I saw a great white throne and the One seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from His presence, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And there were open books, and one of them was the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their deeds, as recorded in the books” (Revelation 20:11-12).

So those who are not disciples of Christ, who have refused to submit to the will of God (and thus will not be populating “the new heaven and new earth”), will undergo variable evaluations and measures of judgement, according to how their lives have been lived. That must inevitably happen, for the works of one are different from the works of another and God is just. We see this principle of differentiation operating in Jesus’ words denouncing the Galilean cities in which he performed most of his miracles:

“Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you’” (Matthew 11:20-24).

Plainly, those of the cities of Israel that witnessed Christ’s miracles and then rejected His words will suffer greater condemnation than pagan cities which did not experience such clear revelation from God. So we see here that there will be what we can call “degrees of divine toleration” on the Day of Judgement. It will not be a blanket bombing, with every unbeliever ‘blasted’ into the same number of tiny fragments. Wisdom will be applied to the whole process, based on revelation received and then acted upon.

Peter also plainly shows that there are degrees of judgement when he speaks about the fate of apostates:

“If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them” (2 Peter 2:20-21).

“It would have been better for them…” — that is, the degree to which they would have experienced their judgement would not have been as severe if they had not appeared to become disciples of Christ first by professing to embrace His teachings and then subsequently falling away. This does not mean that it is possible to become a genuine disciple of Christ then fall away. These impostors and apostates only appeared to become disciples but did not do so in reality. Nevertheless, they still clearly heard and understood the message but later chose to reject it. We need to understand what lies behind these degrees of condemnation. God will be perfectly just, and thus each person will undergo precisely what he or she deserves — according to deeds committed.

Although the Bible does not directly answer every question we might want to ask about this subject, the main outlines and implications are clear. So, on what foundations will these degrees of Divine judgement on those who are not disciples of Christ, followers of the true God, be based?

First, the extent to which people have abandoned themselves to lawlessness — that is, the breaking of God’s law. That this would be so is common sense. Indulgence in greater darkness will bring greater judgement.

Second, the degrees of Divine judgement will be based on the extent to which people have led others into lawlessness by their example and influence. A great example of this is in some words of Christ here: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea” (Mark 9:42-43). To lead someone else into lawless behaviour, or cause them to fall, is regarded as being deserving of a greater judgement than merely committing the lawless act oneself. As the Lord Jesus says in the very next verse: “Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! It is necessary that stumbling blocks come, but woe to the person through whom they come” (Matthew 18:7). This highlights the need to take responsibility for our actions. If we are a bad example to others, or lead them into darkness, then that is grounds enough for an even more severe condemnation than if we had only indulged in that darkness ourselves.

Third, degrees of Divine judgement on those who are not disciples of Christ or followers of the true God will be based on the extent to which light, knowledge and privilege received have been abused or ignored. A classic example of this is shown in the Scribes — the very people who painstakingly wrote out the scriptures in scrolls and thus had full knowledge of God’s law — who paraded around in long robes and made a religious show of themselves. To them, Jesus said: “These will receive greater condemnation” (Luke 20:47). The same is said here: “Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayers. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation” (Matthew 23:14). That is not just your average condemnation they will receive, but a greater one than others who did not have their privileges of light and knowledge. This surely proves degrees of condemnation. Another example is in a parable of Christ:

“That servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or do what his master asked will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know his master’s will and did things worthy of punishment will receive a light beating. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be asked” (Luke 12:47-48).

At the end of this parable, Jesus distinguishes between the punishments which involved “a severe beating” (a ‘beating’ being symbolic of Divine judgement) and those which involved “a light beating”, which are both based upon the amount of knowledge which the unfaithful servants had of their master’s will. There will thus be a distinction made. This is the degrees of Divine judgement in action, and it symbolically illustrates a fundamental principle of God’s righteous judgment: Greater light or knowledge brings with it greater responsibility before God. A corollary of this principle is that greater light rejected results in greater judgment. It is for this reason that the unbelieving residents of Capernaum — before whom Christ’s miracles had been carried out — will endure a worse fate than the people of Sodom, who had less light revealed to them (Matthew 11:24).

The same principle was reiterated by the Christ when He said of those who set out to destroy Him: “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. But they no longer have any excuse for their sin” (John 15:22). Similarly, He said to the Pharisees: “If you were [spiritually] blind, you would not be guilty of sin, but now because you claim that you can see [spiritually], your guilt remains” (John 9:41).If we are judged according to the light we have received (and not all have received the same amount of light), then it logically follows that there will be differing degrees of judgement and condemnation.

Judgement can be shown as if on a fuel gauge. It increases according to the revelation we have been given and our refusal to respond to it, as well as according to the responsibility we have been given and our refusal to exercise it. As Paul puts it:

“But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. God will repay each one according to his deeds” (Romans 2:5-6).

“Storing up” for ourselves “wrath against yourself for the day of wrath”. Unless we are covered by the blood of Christ, the penalty for our sin builds up like in a bank account. The more that people sin, the greater the ‘bank balance’. The greater the bank balance, the greater the wrath of God against it. This is why there will be degrees of suffering in hell. It’s conditional. 

All of this should not make us think, “Oh well, I haven’t been terribly evil so I won’t need to worry too much as it will be a low degree of condemnation”. It will still be a terrible experience, separated from God; just not as bad in some cases as in others. Instead, it should spur us on to be those who receive heavenly rewards rather than merely aspiring to a lower level of condemnation.

So the above explains the degrees of condemnation in the final judgement by God on those who have rejected Him and the intermediary work of Christ. Thus, there is no need for the attempts to lessen the blow by making out as if all those who refuse God and Christ will simply be annihilated. Instead of all this “woke” nonsense, people simply need to understand how God’s justice works in relation to levels of condemnation. There is no blanket one-size-fits-all when it comes to the judgement of God.

B: Degrees of Reward Among Disciples of Christ

However, it also has to be said that the same principle applies to those who are the disciples of Christ. For they will be judged according to the manner in which, or depth to which, they have used the gifts, talents and light they have been given by God. So, a stricter judgement and more or less rewards, according to how they have put to work the light they have received. “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly” (James 3:1). This is why becoming a teacher in the world of Christ’s disciples is such a serious undertaking; and they will be held even more accountable than those who do not teach. This will not be a judgement of condemnation but to determine the degree of reward for the disciple of Christ.

Greater diligence means greater reward. This is simply justice in action. The harder that the disciples of Christ work for the furtherance of the Christ’s kingdom, the greater the reward which will be received. As it is revealed:

“For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive a reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as if through the flames” (1 Corinthians 3:11-15).

We see here — concerning those who are “saved”, i.e. who are genuine disciples of Christ — that a difference is made between them. Those who have established their actions on the foundations they have in Christ will be rewarded accordingly, whereas those who have not done well in that regard — although still being genuine disciples of Christ and thus will still be saved — will suffer loss in regard to their reward of glory. Some, who have done poorly in their work for the Kingdom, will only be saved ‘by the skin of their teeth’, as it were (“as if through flames”). They will “suffer loss” in terms of heavenly rewards but they will still be saved. Let this be understood: There are degrees of rewards in heavenly glory.

Again, we see this same principle worked out in the Parable of the Minas, in which Christ presents Himself as a king who gives each of his servants a mina (unit of currency) and then instructs them to “Do business” during his absence until he comes back to receive his kingdom. This is symbolic of the way that different disciples of Christ are given various tasks and missions along with the material and spiritual resources to carry them out. Here is the text:

“When he returned from procuring his kingship, he summoned the servants to whom he had given the money, to find out what each one had earned. The first servant came forward and said, ‘Master, your mina has produced ten more minas.’ His master replied, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very small matter, you shall have authority over ten cities.’ The second servant came and said, ‘Master, your mina has made five minas.’ And to this one he said, ‘You shall have authority over five cities’” (Luke 19:15-19).

There is a plain reference here to a differentiation concerning rewards for his servants. The Lord Jesus was presenting, in symbolic form, what He expects of all those who are His disciples and showing that subsequently they will be rewarded in the fullness of the kingdom in “the new heaven and new earth”, according to how they have used their God-given gifts. The main point of these verses of Scripture is to show the necessity of ‘investing’ our spiritual ‘capital’ so that it leads to spiritual gain. Laziness and relative unfaithfulness will lead to loss of rewards.

So, there will be degrees of reward in heavenly glory. How this will work out in reality is not directly revealed but disciples of Christ can surely gather that their roles in “the new heaven and new earth” will be based on how they have fared spiritually and fulfilled their mission here on earth. In fact, if we take the heavenly angels as a model, it will give us a good idea of how degrees of glory work out. For we can see that there is a great diversity among the angels in heavenly authority. There are “thrones”, “authorities” and “powers” of various kinds (Colossians 1:16; 1 Peter 3:21-22). A hierarchy exists among the angels. They all enjoy the presence of God, but they do not share equal heavenly glory. There are different degrees. And so will it surely be with us, also.

We can gather from the Scripture texts that the basis of these degrees of glory for the disciples of Christ is in three main areas: First, the amount that we have exercised wisdom and our educational and pastoral responsibility towards others. Second, the extent to which we have responsibly shared with others the Light which we have been given. Third, the fullness to which we have used (invested) any and all of our God-given gifts.

The overriding message of this section of the chapter on degrees of condemnation and rewards is that ‘God is a just judge’ to a supreme extent and thus only judges people according to what is deserved; and as our Creator, it is his prerogative to do so. But this should give us all great cause to listen and respond accordingly. Why squander heavenly rewards?

.

.

.

.

© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2023
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]