Revelation 20:12; And Another Book was Opened
Revelation 20:12 (KJV) And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
The question of what happens to the living just persons who are alive at the end of the Millennium does not come up in the passage. Presumably these saints will have divine protection during Satan’s final rebellion and will survive the transition from the old earth and heaven to the new ones. The assumption must be that God will give them new bodies that suit them for conditions of immortality in the new heaven and the new earth.
Written records of the acts of each individual form the bassi for this judgment (cf. Daniel 7:10).
Daniel 7:10 (KJV) A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
This is what the biblia “books” or “scrolls” contained. The judgment is not arbitrary (Swete). The nature of the human deeds recorded in these books may be good and bad deeds or bad deeds only. Sceipture makes consistent reference to a register of human actions (cf. Deuteronomy 32:34; Psalm 56:8; Isaiah 65:6; Daniel 7:10; Malachi 3:16; Matthew 12:37) (Lee).
Deuteronomy 32:34 (KJV) Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
Psalm 56:8 (KJV) Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
Isaiah 65:6 (KJV) Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom,
Malachi 3:16 (KJV) Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
Matthew 12:37 (KJV) For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
Daniel 7:10 and Malachi 3:16 seem to include both good and evil deeds in this record, But Isaiah 65:6 appears to limit to the evil only (Ford).
The greater focus of this passage, however, is on the other book, “the book of life”, which apparently decides the ultimate issue (cf. Revelation 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 21:27).
Revelation 3:5 (KJV) He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
Revelation 13:8 (KJV) And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Revelation 17:8 (KJV) The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Revelation 21:27 (KJV) And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
[Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8-22 – An Exegetical Commentary, Moody, 1995, 431]