Revelation 20:12

12. Dead… stand Not that they were dead and standing at the same time. Just so it is said, Matthew 11:5, “the lame walk, the deaf hear;” not that they were deaf and hearing at the same time: but the previously deaf now hear; and so the previously dead now stand. This presupposes the one universal resurrection (see Revelation 20:13) declared by the Lord’s mouth, as related by this same John in his Gospel, John 5:28-29. The dead implies the universal dead; small and great implies every individual.

Before God True reading before the throne; identical with “the throne of glory” of the “Son of man,” in Matthew 25:31. But the received reading God would not contradict the idea that it was visibly God the Son, to whom, indeed, the office of judging is committed.

The books The volumes both of the human and of the divine memory. These form a perfect universal human history, read by the eye of omniscience by the light of a blazing world, in the ears of the human race. Physiological facts render it probable that the human soul never truly forgets any idea once impressed upon its memory. So Byron:

“Each fainter trace that memory holds

So darkly of departed years,

In one broad glance the soul beholds,

And all that was, at once appears.”

Besides the record-books of the facts of human histories the universal particular biographies there is another book. There is a “double-entry;” one of facts condemning or justifying; the other a register of the true citizens of the New Jerusalem. The record of the name in the book of life decides the case, but that record is verified and sustained by the books of memory.

Judged Their eternal destiny decided.

Works The deeds done in the body. For there is a truth in the doctrine that we are justified by works.