A man commits a crime, is put into jail and awaits his trial. At this trial, evidence to corroborate his guilt is produced followed by the judge sentencing him to prison. This describes what awaits every unbeliever at The Great White Throne Judgment!

But let’s back-up. Before Jesus’s death and resurrection, the deceased, saved and unsaved, resided in Hell (Sheol) with a vast gulf fixed between. (Luke 16:26) After Jesus’s resurrection He led the saved into Heaven (Ephesians 4:8-10), leaving the unsaved to be held in Hell (Hades) until their final judgment. Since that time, every person who has died and will die without Christ increases Hell’s numbers, and suffers the torment of the flames. “And in hell he (rich man) lift up his eyes, being in torments…And he cried out……have mercy on me…that he (Lazarus) may dip the top of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” (Luke 16:23-24) (NOTE: One’s presence in Hell is irrefutable proof that he or she is already condemned, being guilty of unbelief.) “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth NOT is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18)

At the end of God’s Millennium reign (after the Rapture and Tribulation), the guilty will have their ‘trial’ – their final judgment. “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it…” (Revelation 20:11a) Unbelievers will tremble before the Judge, Jesus Himself (John 5:22), the very ONE they rejected; the very ONE who took their sin and suffered its filth and died for the salvation they refused! (John 3:16)

“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 death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them:…” (Revelation 20:12, 13) Confronted with every idle word they’ve ever spoken (Matthew 12:36-37), every deed they’ve ever performed (I Samuel 2:3), and every secret they have hidden (Romans 2:16), not one unbeliever, billionaire to beggar, will be able to contradict their guilt! Because the unsaved are guilty of the shed blood of Jesus Christ and the sin of unbelief, their names will have been “blotted out of the book of life” (Revelation 20:15).

Understand! The final judgment is not to determine one’s already established guilt but to emphasize it, and to assess the unbeliever’s punishment which will be added to Hell’s ravaging torments. “…. and they were judged EVERY man according to THEIR works.” (Revelations 20:13b) Punishment will be meted out by the Lord according to the magnitude of one’s knowledge of God and how it is used: preachers/teachers who knew the truth, but disregarded it (Jude 13); people who repeatedly heard the truth, but ignored it, and religious hypocrites who pretended to know Jesus, but didn’t. (Matthew 7: 22-23) Each will suffer more than the heathen who had only an innate awareness of God and nature (Romans 1:19-20; 2:15) to bring Him to Jesus! (Matthew 11:20-24, Luke 10:12-15; 12:42-48)

What the particular punishments are, God has not revealed. Perhaps previous physical infirmities will become torturously intensified. Possibly unsatisfied evil lusts, appetites, and desires will gnaw away to excruciating limits. (Revelation 22:11) Maybe the body and/or conscience will serve as a perpetual banquet for the ‘undying worm’ (Mark 9:47-48). Such details are not given, but when Jesus said, “…it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire (Gehenna/ Lake of Fire)” (Matthew 18:8-9; Mark 9:43-49) it becomes abundantly clear that both the unbeliever’s body and soul will suffer unspeakable suffering! Death gives up the body; Hell gives up the soul and those having ‘served time’ in Hell, will be condemned to an everlasting sentence in the Lake of Fire. “…Death And Hell Were Cast Into The Lake Of Fire.” (Revelation 20:14)

If we are living without Jesus, each breath we take brings us nearer the edge of Hell; thrusts us one step closer to the precipice of eternal damnation. We must honestly ask ourselves, ‘If there is no eternal punishment, why did Jesus Christ endure the crown of thorns, the vicious flogging, the brutal crucifixion?’ If there is no Hell, Jesus died for nothing! But He DID die for something; He died for YOU and ME! Jesus, the very person who holds the keys of Hell (Revelation 1:18), suffered a cruel death so we need not suffer one flicker of flame or inhale one whiff of smoke.

Listen to Jesus’s words. “ I tell you... except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish”. (Luke 13:3) We had better fear the flames, turn to Jesus, and BELIEVE! "...I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." (John 5:24)