Revelation 20:11

The great white Throne, the General Resurrection, the Judgement on all the Dead and on Death and Hell, Revelation 20:11-15

11. a great white throne Probably not absolutely the same as that of Revelation 4:2 &c.: the King is to sit now not as Lawgiver or Administrator but as Judge. Possibly it is called "great" as compared with the thrones of Revelation 20:4; "white," of course, as symbolical of the holiness and purity of the judgement to be administered.

and him that sat on it This has throughout, from Revelation 4:2 onwards, been universally the title of God the Father. Moreover, the description of the Great Assize here is substantially the same as that of Daniel 7:9-10: and there the Ancient of Days, Who sits on the throne, is plainly distinguished from the Son of Man. Therefore we are no doubt to understand the presence of the Father here, in spite of St John 5:22; John 5:27. There is no contradiction, if we take a duly high view of the relation between the Father and the Son. St Paul's doctrine, Acts 17:31; Romans 2:16 (allowing that Titus 2:13 is ambiguous), shews the accurate relation between the two sides of the truth: and Revelation 3:21, compared with our Lord's own words in St Matthew 16:27 and parallels, shews the propriety of this image.

from whose face&c. The passing away of earth and heaven is spoken of in Isaiah 51:6, St Matthew 24:35 and parallels; but the strong expression of their fleeing before God's presence is peculiar to this place: Psalms 104:32, however, is something of a precedent. That the destruction will be by fire is not stated here, or anywhere but in 2 Peter 3:10; 2 Peter 3:12, and perhaps 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8. In St Peter l.c. we have this destruction of the world by fire compared with the destruction by the Flood, and this parallel seems to have been recognised in popular Jewish belief. Popular Christian belief continued the series, by interpolating between the two a purely mythical "flood of wind;" an idea also found, curiously enough, in the Mexican mythology, which completed the elemental series with a destruction by earthquakes. The lesson of all this seems to be, that the Deluge is a matter of universal tradition, and that the destructibility of the world is recognised by a universal instinct: but that the mannerof its destruction is not so revealed, that it can safely be conceived by us in picturesque detail. The destruction of our globe, perhaps of the whole solar system, by fire is quite within the bounds of possibility, even according to the known laws of nature; but those laws more naturally suggest the world literally "waxing old like a garment, and them that dwell therein dying like a moth," and the elements rather congealing with cold than "melting with fervent heat." On the other hand, passages like Acts 10:42; 1Th 4:15; 2 Timothy 4:1; 1 Peter 4:5 seem plainly to prove that the human race will not be extinct when that Day comes, but that there will be "the quick" as well as "the dead" ready to undergo the Judgement. But the judgement of the dead only is described here. St John had learnt, as St Paul had not, that the dead would be the larger class of the two: whether he learnt it from his own longer life, or from the length of time implied in this vision.

and there was found no place for them The phrase is a reminiscence of Daniel 2:35; we had a similar one in Revelation 12:8.