Страница 111 из 120
destroyed by the brightness of his glory. Christ takes his people to
Desolation of the Earth
319
the city of God, and the earth is emptied of its inhabitants. “Be-
hold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and
turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.”
“The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled; for the Lord
hath spoken this word.” “Because they have transgressed the laws,
changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore
hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are
desolate; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned.” [Isaiah
24:1, 3, 5, 6.]
The whole earth appears like a desolate wilderness. The ruins
of cities and villages destroyed by the earthquake, uprooted trees,
ragged rocks thrown out by the sea or torn out of the earth itself, are
scattered over its surface, while vast caverns mark the spot where
the mountains have been rent from their foundations. Here is to be
[475]
the home of Satan with his evil angels for a thousand years. Here he
will be confined, to wander up and down over the broken surface of
the earth, and see the effects of his rebellion against the law of God.
For a thousand years he can enjoy the fruit of the curse which he
has caused. Limited alone to the earth, he will not have the privilege
of ranging to other planets, to tempt and a
fallen. During this time, Satan suffers extremely. Since his fall his
life of intense activity has banished reflection; but he is now deprived
of his power, and left to contemplate the part which he has acted
since first he rebelled against the government of Heaven, and to look
forward with trembling and terror to the dreadful future, when he
must suffer for all the evil that he has done, and be punished for the
sins that he has caused to be committed.
Shouts of triumph ascend from the angels and the redeemed
saints, that they are to be no more a
that the inhabitants of other worlds are delivered from his presence
and temptations.
During the thousand years between the first and the second
resurrection, the Judgment of the wicked dead takes place. The
righteous reign as kings and priests unto God; and in union with
Christ they judge the wicked, comparing their acts with the statute
book, the Bible, and deciding every case according to the deeds done
in the body. Then the portion which the wicked must suffer is meted
out, according to their works; and it is written against their names in
320
The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4
the book of death. Satan also and evil angels are judged by Christ
and his people.
Chapter 37—The Controversy Ended
[476]
At the close of the thousand years, Christ again returns to the
earth. He is accompanied by the host of the redeemed, and attended
by a retinue of angels. As he descends in terrific majesty, he bids
the wicked dead arise to receive their doom. They come forth, a
mighty host, numberless as the sands of the sea. What a contrast to
those who were raised at the first resurrection! The righteous were
clothed with immortal youth and beauty. The wicked bear the traces
of disease and death.
Every eye in that vast multitude is turned to behold the glory of
the Son of God. With one voice the wicked hosts exclaim, “Blessed
is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!” It is not love to Jesus
that inspires this utterance. The force of truth urges the words from
unwilling lips. As the wicked went into their graves, so they come
forth, with the same enmity to Christ and the same spirit of rebellion.
They are to have no new probation, in which to remedy the defects
of their past lives. Nothing would be gained by this. A lifetime
of transgression has not softened their hearts. A second probation,
were it given them, would be occupied as was the first, in evading
[477]
the requirements of God and exciting rebellion against him.
Christ descends upon the Mount of Olives, and as his feet touch
the mountain, it parts asunder, and becomes a vast plain. Then the
New Jerusalem, in its dazzling splendor, comes down out of Heaven.
As it rests upon the place purified and made ready to receive it,
Christ, with his people and the angels, enters the holy city.
Now Satan prepares for a last mighty struggle for the supremacy.
While deprived of his power, and cut off from his work of deception,
the prince of evil was miserable and dejected; but as the wicked dead
are raised, and he sees the vast multitudes upon his side, his hopes
revive, and he determines not to yield the great controversy. He will
marshal all the armies of the lost under his ba
endeavor to execute his plans. The wicked are Satan’s captives. In
rejecting Christ they have accepted the rule of the rebel leader. They
321
322
The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4
are ready to receive his suggestions and to do his bidding. Yet, true
to his early cu
He claims to be the Prince who is the rightful owner of the world,
and whose inheritance has been unlawfully wrested from him. He
represents himself to his deluded subjects as a redeemer, assuring
them that his power has brought them forth from their graves, and
that he is about to rescue them from the most cruel tyra
presence of Christ having been removed, Satan works wonders to
support his claims. He makes the weak strong, and inspires all with
[478]
his own spirit and energy. He proposes to lead them against the
camp of the saints, and to take possession of the city of God. With
fiendish exultation he points to the u
been raised from the dead, and declares that as their leader he is well
able to overthrow the city, and regain his throne and his kingdom.
In that vast throng are multitudes of the long-lived race that
existed before the flood; men of lofty stature and giant intellect, who,
yielding to the control of fallen angels, devoted all their skill and
knowledge to the exaltation of themselves; men whose wonderful
works of art led the world to idolize their genius, but whose cruelty
and evil inventions, defiling the earth and defacing the image of
God, caused him to blot them from the face of his creation. There
are kings and generals who conquered nations, valiant men who
never lost a battle, proud, ambitious warriors whose approach made
kingdoms tremble. In death these experienced no change. As they
come up from the grave, they resume the current of their thoughts
just where it ceased. They are actuated by the same desire to conquer
that ruled them when they fell.