“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 naught.” Revelation 18:15-17.
Such are the judgments that fall upon Babylon in the
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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
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.
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 an omniscient eye was following
him as he stood in the desk, as he walked the streets,
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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 the days of
your slaughter and 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
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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 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.”
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 every one 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
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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 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.” 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 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.
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.” [Genesis
1:2; The word here translated “Deep” is the same that in
Revelation 20:1-3 is rendered “Bottomless Pit.”] Prophecy
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CHAPTER SUPPLEMENT:
THE BIBLICAL MILLENNIUM
We live in the last days of history. The end of life as men now know it is
nearly ended. Soon Jesus will return. We only have one period of probation—
and that is during our present life. The millennium will not be a thousand years
of glory and peace here on earth. And it will not be an age of technological
progress or a “second chance” for the wicked. All mankind will not be converted
before it, during it, or after it. And neither Christ nor His redeemed ones
will be on the earth during the thousand years.
Here is the truth about the millennium and the events that mark its beginning
and end:
1 - Jesus is going to return for His people: He promised us that He would
(John 14:1-3), and so we can know that He will.
2 - There are four identifying marks of His second advent that cannot be
counterfeited by false christs: (1) He will come so that all alive on the earth at
that time can see Him return (Rev 1:7; Acts 1:9-11; Matt 24:30, 23-27). (2) He
will come so all can hear Him as He returns (Matt 24:31; 1 Thess 4:16). (3) He
will come in immense glory—that of His own and the millions of angels that
will come with Him (Lk 9:26; Matt 28:2-4; Matt 25:31; Rev 6:14-17). (4) He
will come unexpectedly (Matt 24:44, 36).
3 - His second coming will mark the beginning of the millennium. Six events
will take place: (1) He will raise the righteous dead (1 Thess 4:16). (2) He will
catch up the righteous living together with the righteous dead—to meet Him in
the clouds (1 Thess 4:17). (3) He will change their vile bodies to be like unto
His glorious body (Phil 3:20-21) and translate them (1 Cor 15:51-55; Isa 25:9).
(4) Having gathered all the righteous (1 Thess 4:17-18; Matt 25:34-40; 24:30-
31), He will take His redeemed ones to heaven (Jn 14:1-3; 17:24; 1 Thess
4:16-18). (5) He will destroy the living wicked with the brightness of His coming
(Lk 17:26-30; 2 Thess 2:8). (6) He will bind Satan to this earth (Rev 20:2-
3).
4 - During the millennium, the earth will be desolate (Rev 20:3; Jer 4:23-
26; Isa 24:1, 3). The wicked are dead (2 Thess 2:8), and there is no man left
(Isa 24:20-22; Jer 4:25-26; 25:31-33). Satan is bound on a desolate earth
(Rev 20:1-3), and the righteous are in heaven (Rev 20:4, 6; Dan 7:22) engaged
in a work of judgment (Rev 20:4; 1 Cor 6:1-3; Acts 24:25; Jude 6).
5 - At the close of the millennium, the Holy City descends from heaven
(Rev 20:9; 21:1-5; Zech 14: 4, 9), the wicked are raised—the “second resurrection”
(Rev 20:5, first part), and Satan is thus loosed to deceive them again
(Rev 20:7-8). Satan and the wicked surround the City to take it (Rev 20:8-9. All
of the wicked are destroyed (Rev 20:9), and this earth is made new (Rev 21:1-
5; 2 Pet 3:10-14). How we long for the second coming of Christ!
698 The Great Controversy
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 4:23-27.
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 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?” Isaiah 14:12-17.
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.
Even the wicked are now placed beyond the power of
Satan; and alone with his evil angels he remains to real-
699
ize 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.” 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 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; He who
smote the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, He that
ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.”
Isaiah 14:3-6.
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
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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.” It is at this time that, as foretold by Paul, “the saints
shall judge the world.” Revelation 20:4, 6. 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?”
1 Corinthians 6:3. 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.
