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It is generally accepted that the Great White Throne is where unbelievers are judged and sent to the Lake of Fire.
The verse prior to this judgement, v10, is where Satan is bound and cast into the Lake of Fire.
However, in this same verse it says that the False prophet and the beast are already in the Lake of Fire.
One possible explanation, which Witness Lee seems to have taught without explicitly spelling it out, is that . . . .
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It seems to me that while Revelation is not a book to be ignored, it is also not a book whose goal is to be figured out. It seems to me that the goal of Revelation is to paint a picture of events that will occur during "end times."
And I put that in quotes because even trying to define the time-span of the recorded events (whether literal or metaphorical) and placing it in some specific time in history, whether past, present, or future (and whether specific events presumed to be future happen before or after certain points within the "end times") does not seem to be the goal.
Rather, the goal of Revelation is to present signs that will ready us and keep us on the path without reference to where we actual are in terms of the literal end of it all. We should always see the end as reasonable to be close while still living as image-bearers of God in this world as if it would go on for centuries to come.
For me, what I find problematic in the kind of Revelation studies that go on these days is that they too often are focused on seeking the near-equivalent of "day and hour" and turn too many away from their current living in the world and instead abandon the present in hope of the future.
And when we look at it that way, how do we read passages, whether in Revelation or other parts of the NT, that indicated that the "present" generation would see the return of Christ? As something other than the return in Revelation that we see as still to come? As a metaphorical period of a generation (say 20 years for grins) multiplied by the "1,000 years is as a day" returns 20,000 years within which to return. Don't accuse me of saying this is true. Just an example of a way to try to "pin it down."
And I don't buy "pin it down." But the uncertainty means we have to continue to live this life as if it will last for somewhere around the allocated 70 years, yet know that there is a reasonable view that it could still be any moment.
And if the church will be "raptured" before it all begins, then why tell us the rest? Assuming that "once saved, always saved" is as simple as we try to make it, there is no reason to concern ourselves with it.
So, why the lengthy description of what will not matter? Why the loops of events, first in terms of seals, then of bowls, then of horses? Maybe so that we will understand whatever seems to be the present situation fits into the narrative in some way. That shows that the state of the world and the movement forward of God will always suggest the end. Yet there is still no clarity that any particular time is near or within the (hypothetical?) 7 years of the end times.
So how are we to live? Soberly. Obedient. As if we really have a King (not just a hero that saves us). Taking the commands of the King as seriously as we are able.
I will not simply state that the judgement seat and the great white throne are irrelevant. No matter how metaphorical or how literal, they speak of reckoning for both the people of God and those who refuse God. Whether everyone living now dies and the end times (as we understand them) don't happen for 3,000 more years, or it comes to be tonight, we should be prepared. Whatever the reality of the outcome is, when we die (or it happens, if earlier) it is what it is. If we understand that properly, then we should live now with the view to seeing that day in its fullness. Live that way today. And tomorrow. And the next. And so on until we no longer live in this realm — whether because we die or the end arrives.