Do All People Before The Great White Throne End Up In The Lake Of Fire?

Apparently not, for in Rev. 20:15 we read:

And if anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.

The way this is formulated suggests that at least part of those who stand before the Great White Throne are indeed recorded in the book of life. Why would this book have to be mentioned if it were clear beforehand that not a single name was written in it? There is one manuscript of the NT, Sinaiticus, that indeed points in that direction by declaring in 20:13: “and they were condemned, each one according to his works.” But that is one manuscript; the majority of the textual witnesses do not speak of “condemned” but of “judged.”

Into the lake of fire are cast all who were expressly unbelieving (21:8) and, because of their works, have been erased from the book of life. But what are we to think of all those who never came into contact with God’s Word and therefore also did not reject it? Or people with intellectual disabilities? Or children who died at a young age? They may perhaps not have been believers, but neither are they people who fall into the category described in Rev. 21:8. Paul also speaks in Romans 2:14-16 of people who were not acquainted with God’s instruction in Scripture but nevertheless lived by the light God gave them in their conscience.

14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law commands, these, though without law, are a law to themselves; 15 indeed, they show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, while their conscience bears witness with them, and their thoughts among one another accuse or also excuse them, 16 in the day when God judges the hidden things of men according to my evangel, through Christ Jesus.

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