Desolation of the Earth.
"Her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her
iniquities." "In the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double. How
much
she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and
sorrow give her; for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no
widow,
and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day,
death,
and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire; for
strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who
have
committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her,
and
lament for her, . . . saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that
mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come." [REV. 18:5-10, 3,
15-17.] {GC88 653.1}
"The merchants of the earth," that have "waxed rich through the
abundance of her delicacies," "shall stand afar off for the fear of her
torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas that great city, that
was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold,
and precious stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come
to
naught." [REV. 18:5-10, 3, 15-17.] {GC88 653.2}
Such are the judgments that fall upon Babylon in the day of the
visitation of God's wrath. She has filled up the measure of her iniquity;
her time has come; she is ripe for destruction. {GC88 653.3}
When the voice of God turns the captivity of his people, there is a
terrible awakening of those who have lost all in the great conflict of
life.
While probation continued, they were blinded by Satan's deceptions, and
they
justified their
654
course of sin. The rich prided themselves upon their superiority to those
who were less favored; but they had obtained their riches by violation of
the law of God. They had neglected to feed the hungry, to clothe the
****d,
to deal justly, and to love mercy. They had sought to exalt themselves,
and
to obtain the homage of their fellow-creatures. Now they are stripped of
all
that made them great, and are left destitute and defenseless. They look
with
terror upon the destruction of the idols which they preferred before their
Maker. They have sold their souls for earthly riches and enjoyments, and
have not sought to become rich toward God. The result is, their lives are
a
failure; their pleasures are now turned to gall, their treasures to
corruption. The gain of a life-time is swept away in a moment. The rich
bemoan the destruction of their grand houses, the scattering of their gold
and silver. But their lamentations are silenced by the fear that they
themselves are to perish with their idols. {GC88 653.4}
The wicked are filled with regret, not because of their sinful
neglect
of God and their fellow-men, but because God has conquered. They lament
that
the result is what it is; but they do not repent of their wickedness. They
would leave no means untried to conquer if they could. {GC88 654.1}
The world see the very class whom they have mocked and derided, and
desired to exterminate, pass unharmed through pestilence, tempest, and
earthquake. He who is to the transgressors of his law a devouring fire, is
to his people a safe pavilion. {GC88 654.2}
The minister who has sacrificed truth to gain the favor of men, now
discerns the character and influence of his teachings. It is apparent that
an omniscient eye was following him as he stood in the desk, as he walked
the streets, as he mingled with men in the various scenes of life. Every
emotion of the soul, every line written, every word uttered, every act
that
led men to rest in a refuge of falsehood, has been scattering seed; and
now,
in the wretched, lost souls around him, he beholds the harvest.
655
{GC88 654.3}
Saith the Lord: "They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my
people
slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace." "With lies ye
have
made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and
strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his
wicked way, by promising him life." [JER. 8:11; EZE. 13:22.] {GC88 655.1}
"Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my
pasture! . . . Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings."
"Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye
principal of the flock; for your days for slaughter and your dispersions
are
accomplished; . . . and the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the
principal of the flock to escape." [JER. 23:1, 2; 25:34, 35 (MARGIN).]
{GC88
655.2}
Ministers and people see that they have not sustained the right
relation to God. They see that they have rebelled against the Author of
all
just and righteous law. The setting aside of the divine precepts gave rise
to thousands of springs of evil, discord, hatred, iniquity, until the
earth
became one vast field of strife, one sink of corruption. This is the view
that now appears to those who rejected truth and chose to cherish error.
No
language can express the longing which the disobedient and disloyal feel
for
that which they have lost forever,--eternal life. Men whom the world has
wor****ped for their talents and eloquence now see these things in their
true
light. They realize what they have forfeited by transgression, and they
fall
at the feet of those whose fidelity they have despised and derided, and
confess that God has loved them. {GC88 655.3}
The people see that they have been deluded. They accuse one another
of
having led them to destruction; but all unite in heaping their bitterest
condemnation upon the ministers. Unfaithful pastors have prophesied smooth
things; they have led their hearers to make void the law of God and to
persecute those who would keep it holy. Now, in their despair, these
teachers confess before the world their work of deception. The multitudes
are filled with fury. "We
656
are lost!" they cry, "and you are the cause of our ruin;" and they turn
upon
the false shepherds. The very ones that once admired them most, will
pronounce the most dreadful curses upon them. The very hands that once
crowned them with laurels will be raised for their destruction. The swords
which were to slay God's people are now employed to destroy their enemies.
Everywhere there is strife and bloodshed. {GC88 655.4}
"A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath
a
controversy with the nations: he will plead with all flesh; he will give
them that are wicked to the sword." [JER. 25:31.] For six thousand years
the great controversy has been in progress; the Son of God and his
heavenly
messengers have been in conflict with the power of the evil one, to warn,
enlighten, and save the children of men. Now all have made their decision;
the wicked have fully united with Satan in his warfare against God. The
time
has come for God to vindicate the authority of his downtrodden law. Now
the
controversy is not alone with Satan, but with men. "The Lord hath a
controversy with the nations;" "he will give them that are wicked to the
sword." {GC88 656.1}
The mark of deliverance has been set upon those "that sigh and that
cry
for all the abominations that be done." Now the angel of death goes forth,
represented in Ezekiel's vision by the men with the slaughtering weapons,
to
whom the command is given: "Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and
little children, and women; but come not near any man upon whom is the
mark;
and begin at my sanctuary." Says the prophet, "They began at the ancient
men
which were before the house." [EZE. 9:1-6.] The work of destruction begins
among those who have professed to be the spiritual guardians of the
people.
The false watchmen are the first to fall. There are none to pity or to
spare. Men, women, maidens, and little children perish together. {GC88
656.2}
"The Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the
earth for their iniquity; the earth also shall disclose her blood, and
shall
no more cover her slain." [ISA. 26:21.]
657
"And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people
that have fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall consume away while
they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their
holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. And it shall
come
to pass in that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them;
and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbor, and his
hand
shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor." [ZECH. 14:12, 13.] In the
mad strife of their own fierce passions, and by the awful outpouring of
God's unmingled wrath, fall the wicked inhabitants of the earth,--priests,
rulers, and people, rich and poor, high and low. "And the slain of the
Lord
shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of
the earth; they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried."
[JER.
25:33.] {GC88 656.3}
At the coming of Christ the wicked are blotted from the face of the
whole earth,--consumed with the spirit of his mouth, and destroyed by the
brightness of his glory. Christ takes his people to the city of God, and
the
earth is emptied of its inhabitants. "Behold, 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."
[ISA. 24:1, 3, 5, 6.] {GC88 657.1}
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. {GC88 657.2}
Now the event takes place, foreshadowed in the last solemn
658
service of the day of atonement. When the ministration in the holy of
holies
had been completed, and the sins of Israel had been removed from the
sanctuary by virtue of the blood of the sin-offering, then the scape-goat
was presented alive before the Lord; and in presence of the congregation
of
high priest confessed over him "all the iniquities of the children of
Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon
the head of the goat." [LEV. 16:21.] In like manner, when the work of
atonement in the heavenly sanctuary has been completed, then in the
presence
of God and heavenly angels, and the host of the redeemed, the sins of
God's
people will be placed upon Satan; he will be declared guilty of all the
evil
which he has caused them to commit. And as the scape-goat was sent away
into
a land not inhabited, so Satan will be banished to the desolate earth, an
uninhabited and dreary wilderness. {GC88 657.3}
The Revelator foretells the banishment of Satan, and the condition of
chaos and desolation to which the earth is to be reduced; and he declares
that this condition will exist for a thousand years. After presenting the
scenes of the Lord's second coming and the destruction of the wicked, the
prophecy continues: "I saw an angel come down from Heaven, having the key
of
the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the
dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a
thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and
set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the
thousand years should be fulfilled; and after that he must be loosed a
little season." [REV. 20:1-3.] {GC88 658.1}
That the expression, "bottomless pit," represents the earth in a
state
of confusion and darkness, is evident from other scriptures. Concerning
the
condition of the earth "in the beginning," the Bible record says that it
"was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."
[GEN. 1:2; THE WORD HERE TRANSLATED "DEEP" IS THE SAME THAT IN REV. 20:1-3
IS RENDERED "BOTTOMLESS PIT."]
659
Prophecy teaches that it will be brought back, partially, at least, to
this
condition. Looking forward to the great day of God, the prophet Jeremiah
declares: "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and
the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they
trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no
man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the
fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken
down." [JER. 4:23-27.] {GC88 658.2}
Here is to be the home of Satan with his evil angels for a thousand
years. Limited to the earth, he will not have access to other worlds, to
tempt and annoy those who have never fallen. It is in this sense that he
is
bound; there are none remaining, upon whom he can exercise his power. He
is
wholly cut off from the work of deception and ruin which for so many
centuries has been his sole delight. {GC88 659.1}
The prophet Isaiah, looking forward to the time of Satan's overthrow,
exclaims: "How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
how art thou cast down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations."
"Thou
hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my
throne
above the stars of God." "I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be
brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall
narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that
made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as
a
wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of
his prisoners?" [ISA. 14:12-17.] {GC88 659.2}
For six thousand years, Satan's work of rebellion has "made the earth
to tremble." He has "made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the
cities thereof." And "he opened not the house of his prisoners." For six
thousand years his prison-house has received God's people, and he would
have
held them captive forever, but Christ has broken his bonds, and set the
prisoners free. {GC88 659.3}
Even the wicked are now placed beyond the power of
660
Satan; and alone with his evil angels he remains to realize the effect of
the curse which sin has brought. "The kings of the nations, even all of
them, lie in glory, every one in his own house [the grave]. But thou art
cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch. . . . Thou shalt not be
joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and
slain
thy people." [ISA. 14:18-20.] {GC88 659.4}
For a thousand years, Satan will wander to and fro in the desolate
earth, to behold the results of his rebellion against the law of God.
During
this time his sufferings are intense. Since his fall, his life of
unceasing
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.
{GC88 660.1}
To God's people, the captivity of Satan will bring gladness and
rejoicing. Says the prophet: "It shall come to pass in the day that the
Lord
shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy trouble, and from the
hard service wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this
proverb against the king of Babylon [here representing Satan], and say,
How
hath the oppressor ceased! . . . The Lord hath broken the staff of the
wicked, the scepter of the rulers; that smote the peoples in wrath with a
continual stroke, that ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that
none restrained." [ISA. 14:3-6, REVISED VERSION.] {GC88 660.2}
During the thousand years between the first and the second
resurrection, the Judgment of the wicked takes place. The apostle Paul
points to this Judgment as an event that follows the second advent. "Judge
nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light
the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the
hearts." [1 COR. 4:5.] Daniel declares that when the Ancient of days
661
came, "Judgment was given to the saints of the Most High." [DAN. 7:22.] At
this time the righteous reign as kings and priests unto God. John in the
Revelation says: "I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was
given unto them." "They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall
reign with him a thousand years." [REV. 20:4, 6; 1 COR. 6:2,3.] It is at
this time that, as foretold by Paul, "the saints shall judge the world."
[REV. 20:4, 6; 1 COR. 6:2, 3.] 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 ****tion which the
wicked must suffer is meted out, according to their works; and it is
recorded against their names in the book of death. {GC88 660.3}
Satan also and evil angels are judged by Christ and his people. Says
Paul, "Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" [REV. 20:4, 6; 1 COR. 6:2,
3.] And Jude declares that "the angels which kept not their first estate,
but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting
chains-under
darkness unto the Judgment of the great day." [JUDE 6.] {GC88 661.1}
At the close of the thousand years the second resurrection will take
place. Then the wicked will be raised from the dead, and appear before God
for the execution of "the judgment written." Thus the Revelator, after
describing the resurrection of the righteous, says, "The rest of the dead
lived not again until the thousand years were finished." [REV. 20:5; ISA.
24:22.] And Isaiah declares, concerning the wicked, "They shall be
gathered
together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in
the
prison, and after many days shall they be visited" [REV. 20:5; ISA.
24:22.]
{GC88 661.2}
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