Chapter Forty One
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.”
Revelation 18:5-10.
“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 nought.”
Revelation 18:11, 3, 15-17.
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.
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 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 naked, 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 lifetime 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.
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.
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.
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 the 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.
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.”
Jeremiah 8:11;
Ezekiel 13:22.
“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 of your dispersions are
accomplished; . . . and the shepherds shall have no way to
flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.”
Jeremiah 23:1,2;
25:34,35, margin.
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 worshiped
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.
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 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.
“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.”
Jeremiah 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 decisions; 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.”
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.”
Ezekiel 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.
“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.”
Isaiah
26:21. “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 everyone on the
hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the
hand of his neighbor.”
Zechariah 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.”
Jeremiah 25:33.
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.”
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.
Now the event takes place foreshadowed in the last solemn
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 scapegoat was presented alive
before the Lord; and in the presence of the congregation
the 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.”
Leviticus 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 hosts 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 scapegoat was sent away into a land not
inhabited, so Satan will be banished to the desolate earth,
an uninhabited and dreary wilderness.
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.”
Revelation 20:1-3.
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.”[* THE
HEBREW WORD HERE TRANSLATED “DEEP” IS RENDERED IN THE SEPTUAGINT
(GREEK) TRANSLATION OF THE HEBREW OLD TESTAMENT BY THE SAME WORD
RENDERED “BOTTOMLESS PIT” IN
REVELATION 20:1-3.]
Genesis 1:2. 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.”
Jeremiah 4:23-26.
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.
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 cut 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?”
Isaiah 14:12-17.
For six thousand years, Satan’s work of rebellion has
"made the earth to tremble.” He had “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 had broken
his bonds and set the prisoners free.
Even the wicked are now placed beyond the power of
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, everyone in his own
house [the grave]. But thou art cast out 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.”
Isaiah 14:18-20.
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.
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 Jehovah 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 parable
against the king of Babylon [here representing Satan], and
say, How hath the oppressor ceased! . . . Jehovah 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.”
Verses 3-6, R.V.
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 Corinthians 4:5. Daniel declares that when the
Ancient of Days came, “judgment was given to the saints of
the Most High.”
Daniel 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.”
Revelation 20:4, 6. It is at this time that, as foretold by Paul, “the
saints shall judge the world.”
1 Corinthians 6:2. 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 recorded against their names in the book of death.
Satan also and evil angels are judged by Christ and His
people. Says Paul: “Know ye not that we shall judge
angels?”
Verse 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.
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.”
Revelation
20:5. 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.”
Isaiah 24:22.
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