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For In One Hour Is
Thy Judgment Come
- "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
- 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
- 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"
- 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 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.
- Thou Hast Said In
Thine Heart . . .
- I Will Be Like The
Most High
- 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
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
- 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.
The Great
Controversy Between Christ
and Satan - Chapter 41 - Pg. 653-661
- If you liked
this chapter and want to see the
whole book, click on: The Great Controversy
Preparing For Eternity
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