The One Seated upon the Throne

Then I saw a great white throne and the One sitting upon it, from whose face Earth and Heaven fled, and no place was found for them. (Revelation 20:11) 

It is obvious that the One seated upon the throne is divine, but some believe that readers are to understand the personal identity of the One seated upon throne as God the Father and others believe that readers are to understand the personal identity of the One seated upon the throne as Christ. We should understand the personal identity of the One seated upon the throne to be Christ for three reasons: Jesus said that the Father has committed "all judgment" to the Son, Jesus said that He will sit "on the throne of His glory" to render the final judgment of all people, and Paul wrote that Jesus is the One who will "judge the living and the dead."

The first reason we should understand the personal identity of the One seated upon the throne to be Christ is Jesus' statement that the Father has committed "all judgment" to the Son. This statement is recorded for us in John 5:22. This statement is in the context of words from Christ about the General Resurrection and the Final Judgment: interconnected events that are both under the authority of the Son (John 5:22-29). If we understand that the same John who wrote the Gospel of John also wrote the Book of Revelation, then we see John 5:22 as a more explicit statement regarding the personal identity of the One on the throne, helping to interpret the less clear statement (on this point) that John records in Revelation 20:11.

The second reason we should understand the personal identity of the One seated upon the throne to be Christ is Jesus' statement that He will sit "on the throne of His glory" to render the final judgment of all people. This statement is recorded for us in Matthew 25:31. This statement is also in the context of words from Christ about the Final Judgment (Matt 25:31-46).  In Matthew 25:31, Jesus not only mentions that He will be the one who renders judgment, He also explicitly includes the detail that He renders judgment while sitting "on the throne of His glory." This explicit detail helps us in determining the personal identity of the One seated upon the throne in Revelation 20:11.

The third reason we should understand the personal identity of the One seated upon the throne to be Christ is the Apostle Paul wrote that Jesus is the One who will "judge the living and the dead." Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote this in 2 Timothy 4:1, a verse that also mentions Christ's appearing and His kingdom. This is consistent with what Paul had preached on Mars Hill–that the judgment of the world will come through "a man whom [God] has appointed"(Acts 17:31)–and Peter's earlier proclamation that Jesus is "the One appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead" (Acts 10:42).

Some people argue that the personal identity of the One seated upon the throne in Revelation 20:11 must be God the Father. They point to Daniel 7, a passage that has some definite influence on the Book of Revelation, in which the Ancient of Days, who is distinguished from the Son of Man (and is thus clearly identified with God the Father rather than with Christ), is the One seated upon the throne. However, there is a redemptive-historical movement that we see depicted in Daniel 7:13-14 in which the Ancient of Days (God the Father) gives dominion to the Son of Man (God the Son).

Furthermore, "Christ was said to be seated with His Father upon His throne in Revelation 3:21." The ancient world knew of a bisellium– a throne that was a single piece of furniture with two seats. [David E. Aune, Revelation 1-5 (Dallas: Word Books, 1997), 262.] Just because the Father is depicted as seated on the throne in other passages does not mean that the Son is absent from the throne, or that He is not the focus of Revelation 20:11.

The personal identity of the One seated upon the throne in Revelation 20:11 is clearly Christ because Jesus said that the Father has committed "all judgment" to the Son, Jesus said that He will sit "on the throne of His glory" to render the final judgment of all people, and Paul wrote that Jesus is the One who will "judge the living and the dead." This matters to the church because it focuses our attention on God the Son, and it is through God the Son that we know God the Father rightly (John 14:6).