This concise description of a heavenly judgment on mankind has caused just as much a divide in opinion among Christian scholars as any other detail in the Book of Revelation, maybe even more so. It appears to be simple enough, and can be summarized in a few words: John is shown God's throne before which the dead appear. Books are opened along with a book called the book of life, and everyone is judged according to these. Afterward, Death, Hades and those not in the book of life are thrown into the lake of fire.
There is even a regular alternation between these two types of book:
books (12a)
book, the book of life (12b)
books (12c)
book of life (15)
Two main problems arise in trying to interpret these verses: the identity of those judged and the basis upon which they are to be judged. To answer those questions, let us first begin with scholars who follow the branch of eschatology (study of future events) called premillennial dispensationalism. This is probably still the most popular school of thought within evangelical and fundamentalist churches despite the repeated failures of its main proponents to accurately predict the order or rough timing of world events in advance. I will not even attempt to rehearse for you their detailed scenario for the future because I couldn't possibly do it justice. And my personal experience with those who have graduated from dispensational institutions such as Dallas Theological Seminary reveals that even some of them can't keep all the details clear in their mind. That is why elaborate prophecy charts were developed to hang on the walls of many churches in order to guide them through the maze of future happenings. With that rather negative introduction, here are some comments on 20:11-15 from three representative dispensationalists:
Walvoord: “...it may be assumed that verses 11-15 refer to the judgment of the wicked dead,who according to verse 5 would not be resurrected until after the thousand years and will have no part in what is called 'the first resurrection.' At that judgment John saw books...opened, including a book called the book of life. The text does not state clearly what these books are, but the first opened book may refer to human works and 'the book of life' is the record of those who are saved (cf. 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:5; 21:27). The fact that these dead have not been raised before is evidence in itself that they do not have eternal life and that their judgment is a judgment of their works.”
In Ryrie's Basic Theology he clearly sets out the doctrine of multiple judgments wihich is part and parcel of dispensational thinking. According to this scheme, Revelation 20 describes the final one of the series in which unbelievers alone are placed on trial and all condemned. The previous judgments, scattered over a period of future years, are identified as those of Old Testament saints, saints of the tribulation period, Jewish survivors of the tribulation, Gentile survivors of the tribulation, Satan and the fallen angels. I may have missed one judgment in my counting since other dispensationalists clearly see a total of seven separate judgments or even more.
Phillips does not go into much concrete detail, but he assumes along with others that this is strictly a judgment on unbelievers. “The dead, small and great, stand before God. Dead souls are united to dead bodies in a fellowship of horror and despair. Little men and paltry women whose lives were filled with pettiness, selfishness, and nasty little sins will be there...The great will be there, men who sinned with a high hand, with dash, and courage and flair. Men like Alexander and Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin will be present, men who went in for wickedness on a grand scale with the world for their stage and who died unrepentant at last. Now one and all are arraigned and on their way to be damned; a horrible fellowship congregated together for the first and last time.”
Against this picture, we have the following comments from those of a historic premillennial or amillennial viewpoint who see see nothing but problems with the dispensational view:
“That John sees 'the dead, great and small, standing before the throne' assumes that the last, great resurrection of the unrighteous and unrighteous has finally taken place (in light of 20:5; Dan. 12:2; John 5:28-29; and Acts 24:15).” (Beale)
Hendricksen: “Here is the one, general resurrection of all the dead.The entire Bible teaches but one, general resurrection!” He cites Matthew 22:31; John 3:28,29; 6:39, 40, 44, 54; Acts 24:15, 24:21; and Hebrews 6:2. for support. “Nowhere in the entire Bible do we read of a resurrection of the bodies of believers, followed, after a thousand years, by a resurrection of the bodies of the unbelievers. All arise at the same time.”
“If all men are to appear before the judgment seat, this must include all believers. The New Testament teaches this quite explicitly [citing passages such as Romans 14:10; II Corinthians 5:10; Hebrews 10:30; James 3:1; and I Peter 4:17]. Though believers must all appear before the judgment seat, they need have no fear of the Day of Judgment [Romans 8:1; I John 4:17]...the sins and shortcomings of believers will be revealed in the judgment as forgiven sins, whose guilt has been totally covered by the blood of Jesus Christ...The reason why the Bible teaches that the final judgment will be according to works, even though salvation comes by faith in Christ and is never earned by works, is the intimate connection between faith and works.” (Hoekema)
“It is not said that men are condemned because of their works...In this passage there is an intermingling of two themes: on the one hand, that of the resurrection with the end of death; on the other, the theme of the Book of Life. Only those who are not written in the Book of Life (and not those who have produced bad works) are thrown into the second death. There is no correlation between the judgment of works and the gift of eternal life or rejection unto death. The sole criterion is one who was not found written in the Book of Life.” (Ellul)
“These are 'the rest of the dead' of verse 5; now they too have been raised. 'books were opened': As in Dan.7:10, these are the records of men's lives...: 'They will come with dread when their sins are reckoned up, and their lawless deeds will convict them to their face'. The last assize is conducted with scrupulous justice; if salvation is always by grace, divine judgment is always according to men's works (cf. 2:23, 22:12; om. 2:6, etc.)...It is curious exegesis that would infer from this [i.e. 20:15] that all who appear at the last assize are consigned to perdition. True, those who have committed apostasy and worshipped 'the image of the beast' have no place in the book of life (13:8); but the dead who stand before the throne include all mankind from earliest days.” (Bruce)
Elsewhere Bruce explains that 'book of life' in the Old Testament refers to natural life (see Exodus 32:32f; Psalm 69:28, 139:16; and Daniel 12:1). However, in later Judaism and the New Testament it is used of the life of the age to come (see Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5, 22:19, etc). Thus, “this is the book of life of the slaughtered Lamb (Rev. xiii.8, xxi.27), in which the names of the elect have been inscribed 'from the foundation of the world' (xvii.8). The same idea is expressed in Lk. x.20, 'your names are written'; Acts xiii.48, 'as many as were ordained (i.e. inscribed) to eternal life believed.'”
“If the first resurrection is limited to actual martyrs, then the judgment of verses 11-15 involves both believer and impenitent. If the second resurrection is of the wicked only, then the judgment is of those who will in fact be consigned to the lake of fire. Reference to the book of life as part of the final testimony suggests a general judgment of all mankind (excluding martyrs who had already entered into their reward). There is no significance in the change from 'small and great' (11:18; 13:16; 19:5,18) to 'great and small' in verse 12. The point is that no one is so important as to be immune from judgment and no one is so unimportant as to make judgment inappropriate...The issue is not salvation by works but works as the irrefutable evidence of a man's actual relationship with God. Man is saved by faith, but faith is inevitably revealed by the works it produces.” (Mounce)
Beasley-Murray states: “The trial of men 'by what they had done as written in the books' stresses the complete justice of the procedure. The picture is taken from Dn. 7:10, which may reflect both current court procedures and the habit of Persian kings to record every detail of their provinces through an elaborate spy system. It is to be noted that 'the book of life' (cf. v. 15) has a testimony to give separate from the other books. Alford writes, 'These books and the book of life bore independent witness to the fact of men being or not being among the saved: the one by inference from the works recorded: the other in inscription or non-inscription of the name in the list. So the books could be as vouchers for the book of life.'”
“All men are judged according to their works, which are recorded in books which have been opened (v. 12). When it comes, however, to the book of life (vv. 12,15), the pattern of recompense is no longer carried out consistently. The believers are withdrawn from the judgment. Through election they have a righteousness which leads to life.” (Bottger)
And finally, there is the comment found in The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery: Besides the literal books mentioned in the Old Testament, “the two most important and evocative 'books' in the Bible are metaphoric books. One is the heavenly record of the deeds of every living person. Another is the list of names of those who will dwell in the eternal city. In Revelation this book is called the book of life (Rev 20:15). In the background is the practice in biblical times of keeping an official register of the names of citizens of a given town or kingdom. The books of God's record of a person's deeds and his register of heavenly citizenship are intertwined, since a person's actions are the basis of judgment. This combination can be traced all the way back to Exodus 32:32...On the day of final judgment the books of deeds will be opened,and each person will be judged according to what he or she has done. But another book, the book of life, written from the foundation of the world, will also be opened at that time (Rev 17:8; 20:12). Jesus will acknowledge before the Father and the angels those whose names are written there (Rev 3:5). Everyone will be judged from the book of deeds, but those whose names appear in the book of life will enter the eternal city (Rev 21:27). Those whose names are not written in the Lamb's book of life will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:15).”
My own personal view rejects the dispensational view as a vain and totally needless attempt to (1) exempt believers from any sort of unpleasant examination whatsoever at Judgment Day and (2) preserve at all costs the doctrine of salvation by grace, not works. The first of these motives is undoubtedly also behind the idea that believers will not have to suffer on earth either during the “tribulation.” These views, of course, are both quite attractive to believers and have contributed greatly toward the popularization of dispensationism in American.
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