And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.
Question 1: what makes the small dead and the great dead different ? And which will you and I be and why ?
As I understand it, the category of people being "judged" at the "Great White Throne" is...
"the DEAD". These are those who were
NOT "raised/resurrected" to enjoy the MK age (as
ALL "saints" of
ALL time periods
WILL be present to enjoy [the MK age]), OR those who will have DIED DURING the MK age ("death" will be
much more rare in the MK age, reserved
only for the rebellious); and...
THIS "judgment" (GWTj) correlates with the
SECOND of the
TWO "PUNISH" words in Isaiah 24:21-22[23]; the
FIRST of the
TWO "PUNISH" words (covered in vv.
21-22
a)
being parallel [time-wise] with the events/timing of
Revelation 19:19,21/16:14-16/20:5 (i.e. at the time of His Second Coming
to the earth, FOR the commencement of the promised and prophesied
earthly Millennial Kingdom--that is, 1000 years BEFORE the GWTj).
The "GWTj" does not involve "the Church which is His body," who will have experienced the "BEMA seat" (for "rewards")
well before this point in time; and it
also does not involve the rest of the "saints" (of all OTHER time periods) who will have been either been "resurrected"
to enter the MK age (1000 yrs BEFORE the GWTj occurs) [ike Dan12:13, Matt8:11 and its parallel, Job19:25-27, and Rev20:4b, etc], OR are "still-living"
to enter the MK age [like Dan12:12, Matt13:24,30,39,40,49-50, and Matt25:31-34, etc] (I believe Jesus' words in John 11:25-26 covers EACH of these TWO)
All of this brings me to the conclusion that the GWTj is for
all of "
the DEAD [/unsaved]" of all times.
No "believers/saints" here, at the GWTj.
The phrase
"small and great" is used elsewhere in Scripture, and seemingly
simply means that no one will be excluded:
https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria=small+and+great&t=KJV#s=s_primary_0_1
Question 2: Is this judgment for Christians (for lack of a better term ) good or bad ?
No.
To me if I am standing before God as a Christian I will rejoice no matter what I must suffer.
How great is His mercy !!!!