Christ will also reward the God-fearing people. Revelation 11:18 also specifically mentions that a reward will be given “to those who fear Your name.” These God-fearing people are those who heed the eternal gospel to fear God and worship Him, and not to worship the beast or his image (14:6-7), and to care for the Lord’s needy people (Matt. 25:33-40). Then, after Christ comes back to earth and establishes the throne of His glory in Jerusalem, the center of His kingdom, He will judge the nations, all the living unbelievers. The New Testament says that Christ has been appointed to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42; 2 Tim. 4:1). When will He judge the living? It will be after He fights the war at Armageddon and destroys Antichrist, the false prophet, and their followers (Rev. 19:11-21). At that time, there will be a large number of unbelievers still living on earth. According to Matthew 25:31-46, Christ will gather all the nations to His throne in Jerusalem and judge them.
Many think that this judgment refers to the judgment exercised upon Christians to determine who is real and who is false. But consider what Matthew 25:31 and 32 say, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He shall sit on His throne of glory; and all the nations shall be gathered before Him.” In the New Testament the word nations refers to the Gentiles. Matthew 25:32 also says, “He shall separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” This judgment will be neither according to the law nor according to the gospel of grace; it will be according to the eternal gospel preached by the angel in Revelation 14:6-7. During the three and one-half years Antichrist will force people to worship his image, an angel in mid-air will proclaim the eternal gospel, telling the people on earth not to worship the image but to fear God and worship Him. Some of the inhabitants of the earth will heed this eternal gospel and they will fear God and worship Him, will not worship the image of the beast, and will also care for the needy Jews and Christians who will be suffering under the persecution of Antichrist. Therefore, in Matthew 25:34-36, the King shall “say to those on His right hand, Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.” When these righteous ones shall ask the Lord how they could have done this to Him, He shall answer, “Truly I say to you, in so far as you did it to one of these, the least of My brothers, you did it to Me” (Matt. 25:40). These “sheep” will then be transferred into the kingdom to become the nations during the millennium (2:26; 12:5). During these thousand years, the overcoming Christians will be Christ’s co-kings, the saved Jews will be the priests, and these righteous ones will be the people over whom the overcomers shall rule. The “goats,” the evil ones who followed Antichrist and refused to heed the eternal gospel, will be cast into the lake of fire “prepared for the Devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). This will occur during the seventh trumpet, taking place after the whole earth has become Christ’s kingdom.
The seventh trumpet also includes the destroying of the destroyers of the earth. Verse 18 says that Christ will “destroy those who destroy the earth.” The destroyers of the earth include the great Babylon (17:2; 18:3), Antichrist (13:3), the false prophet (13:14), Satan (20:7-9), and the people who follow them (17:12-24; 19:19; 20:8-9). All of them will be destroyed during the seventh trumpet.
The great Babylon, the false religion, the Roman Catholic Church, must also be considered as a destroyer of the earth. Revelation 17:2 says that “the kings of the earth have committed fornication” with her, and “they who dwell on the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” Since she is a destroyer of the earth and the whole earth has been corrupted by her, the Lord will destroy her.
After destroying the great Babylon, the Lord will destroy Antichrist, the false prophet, and their followers at the war of Armageddon. Antichrist and the false prophet will be cast into the lake of fire, and Satan will be destroyed. Actually, the Lord will deal with Satan twice—firstly by binding him and casting him into the abyss before the millennium and secondly by casting him into the lake of fire after the millennium. Antichrist will be the first to be put into the lake of fire. Antichrist, the false prophet, and their followers, a part of whom will be the “goats” in Matthew 25, will be thrown into the lake of fire prior to Satan (Rev. 19:20; Matt. 25:41), who will be kept in the abyss for a thousand years and who will ultimately be cast into the lake of fire. At the end of the millennium, all the dead unsaved people will also be thrown into the lake of fire (20:15). At that time, every negative thing in the universe will have been cleared away.