The judgement and punishment: (20:12b-13b)
As the judgement started, the judge opens the books which contain the record of every thought, word and deed of every unsaved person who ever lived in any age. God has kept a perfect records of every person’s life and the dead will be judged “according to their deeds.” The judgement is made at par with the God’s holy standard (Matt. 5:48). As the Bible says: “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Because they have not turned to God in repentance during the grace period of God, all of them will under eternal destruction in hell.
There will be varying degrees of punishment in Hell. Viz, When Jesus sent twelve out on preaching, He said: “whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom ad Gomorrah in the day of judgement than for that city”(Matt. 10:14-15). Although there are varying degree of punishment, everyone there will suffer intolerable misery and torment.
After the books containing the prisoners’ evil deeds were opened, “another book was opened which is the book of life.” This book corresponds to the registry of citizens kept by ancient cities. It contains the names of all those whose “citizenship is in heaven”(Phil. 3:20). The book of Life is the record of God’s elect. All whose names are not recorded in this book will be eternally damned. Everyone one of them according to their deeds will be judged. Some people in horror protest before the Lord saying; “Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in Your name and in Your name cast out demons and in Your name perform many miracles?” But God says to them sternly: “I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness”(Matt. 7:22-23).
The second death (20:14-15):
As the sentence is passed, immediately all the people whose names are not figured in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire. All the people who go into the hell are fitted with specially designed bodies. This lake of fire or Hell already exists and perhaps currently unoccupied. The first two-occupants of the Hell would be “the beast and false prophet” will arrive at the end of tribulation (19:20).
The final Hell is also described in N.T as Gehenna. Gehenna is the valley of Ben-Hinnom (also called topheth (2 Ki. 23:10; Isa. 30:33; Jer. 7:31-32; 19:6) located in the southwest of Jerusalem. In the O.T idolatrous Israelites burned their children in the fire there as sacrifices to false gods (Jer. 19:2-6) In the days of Jesus, it was Jerusalem’s garbage dump yard where the fires were burning with foul smelling. Sometimes the bodies of criminals were dumped there. The valley of Ben-Hinnom was a fitting picture of eternal hell, one used repeatedly by Jesus.
The blessed and holy participants in the First Resurrection will not experience the Second death. But all the people who did not participate in the First Resurrection and whose names are not written in the book of life will undergo Second Death which is nothing but sentencing to lake of Fire (Hell). Those who die in their sins in this present world of time and space will die a second death of eternity. They will be sentenced to the lake of fire forever.
The Bible describes the Hell as the lake of fire exists outside the created universe, full of darkness which will isolate its inmates from each other (Matt. 22:13; 2 Pet.2:17) where the worm will never die, but the soul is tormented accompanied by weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 13:42; Lk. 13:28).