vaults of heaven, “Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and
unto the Lamb.” And angel and seraph unite their voices in adoration. As
the redeemed have beheld the power and malignity of Satan, they have seen,
as never before, that no power but that of Christ could have made them
conquerors. In all that shining throng there are none to ascribe salvation
to themselves, as if they had prevailed by their own power and goodness.
Nothing is said of what they have done or suffered; but the burden of
every song, the keynote of every anthem, is, Salvation to our God, and
unto the Lamb.
In the presence of the assembled inhabitants of earth and heaven the final
coronation of the Son of God takes place. And now, invested with supreme
majesty and power, the King of kings pronounces sentence upon the rebels
against His government, and executes justice upon those who have
transgressed His law and oppressed His people. Says the prophet of God: “I
saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the
earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And
I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were
opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the
dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books,
according to their works.”(1159)
As soon as the books of record are opened, and the eye of Jesus looks upon
the wicked, they are conscious of every sin which they have ever
committed. They see just where their feet diverged from the path of purity
and holiness, just how far pride and rebellion have carried them in the
violation of the law of God. The seductive temptations which they
encouraged by indulgence in sin, the blessings perverted, the messengers
of God despised, the warnings rejected, the waves of mercy beaten back by
the stubborn, unrepentant heart,—all appear as if written in letters of
fire.
Above the throne is revealed the cross; and like a panoramic view appear
the scenes of Adam’s temptation and fall, and the successive steps in the
great plan of redemption. The Saviour’s lowly birth; His early life of
simplicity and obedience; His baptism in Jordan; the fast and temptation
in the wilderness; His public ministry, unfolding to men heaven’s most
precious blessings; the days crowded with deeds of love and mercy, the
nights of prayer and watching in the solitude of the mountains; the
plottings of envy, hate, and malice which repaid His benefits; the awful,
mysterious agony in Gethsemane, beneath the crushing weight of the sins of
the whole world; His betrayal into the hands of the murderous mob; the
fearful events of that night of horror,—the unresisting prisoner, forsaken
by His best-loved disciples, rudely hurried through the streets of
Jerusalem; the Son of God exultingly displayed before Annas, arraigned in
the high priest’s palace, in the judgment-hall of Pilate, before the
cowardly and cruel Herod, mocked, insulted, tortured, and condemned to
die,—all are vividly portrayed.
And now before the swaying multitude are revealed the final scenes,—the
patient Sufferer treading the path to Calvary; the Prince of heaven
hanging upon the cross; the haughty priests and the jeering rabble
deriding His expiring agony; the supernatural darkness; the heaving earth,
the rent rocks, the open graves, marking the moment when the world’s
Redeemer yielded up His life.
The awful spectacle appears just as it was. Satan, his angels, and his
subjects have no power to turn from the picture of their own work. Each
actor recalls the part which he performed. Herod, who slew the innocent
children of Bethlehem that he might destroy the King of Israel; the base
Herodias, upon whose guilty soul rests the blood of John the Baptist; the
weak, time-serving Pilate; the mocking soldiers; the priests and rulers
and the maddened throng who cried, “His blood be on us, and on our
children!”—all behold the enormity of their guilt. They vainly seek to
hide from the divine majesty of His countenance, outshining the glory of
the sun, while the redeemed cast their crowns at the Saviour’s feet,
exclaiming, “He died for me!”
Amid the ransomed throng are the apostles of Christ, the heroic Paul, the
ardent Peter, the loved and loving John, and their true-hearted brethren,
and with them the vast host of martyrs; while outside the walls, with
every vile and abominable thing, are those by whom they were persecuted,
imprisoned, and slain. There is Nero, that monster of cruelty and vice,
beholding the joy and exaltation of those whom he once tortured, and in
whose extremest anguish he found satanic delight. His mother is there to
witness the result of her own work; to see how the evil stamp of character
transmitted to her son, the passions encouraged and developed by her
influence and example, have borne fruit in crimes that caused the world to
shudder.
There are papist priests and prelates, who claimed to be Christ’s
ambassadors, yet employed the rack, the dungeon, and the stake to control
the consciences of His people. There are the proud pontiffs who exalted
themselves above God, and presumed to change the law of the Most High.
Those pretended fathers of the church have an account to render to God
from which they would fain be excused. Too late they are made to see that
the Omniscient One is jealous of His law, and that He will in no wise
clear the guilty. They learn now that Christ identifies His interest with
that of His suffering people; and they feel the force of His own words,
“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren,
ye have done it unto Me.”(1160)
The whole wicked world stand arraigned at the bar of God, on the charge of
high treason against the government of heaven. They have none to plead
their cause; they are without excuse; and the sentence of eternal death is
pronounced against them.
It is now evident to all that the wages of sin is not noble independence
and eternal life, but slavery, ruin, and death. The wicked see what they
have forfeited by their life of rebellion. The far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory was despised when offered them; but how desirable
it now appears. “All this,” cries the lost soul, “I might have had; but I
chose to put these things far from me. Oh, strange infatuation! I have
exchanged peace, happiness, and honor, for wretchedness, infamy, and
despair.” All see that their exclusion from heaven is just. By their lives
they have declared, “We will not have this Jesus to reign over us.”
As if entranced, the wicked have looked upon the coronation of the Son of
God. They see in His hands the tables of the divine law, the statutes
which they have despised and transgressed. They witness the outburst of
wonder, rapture, and adoration from the saved; and as the wave of melody
sweeps over the multitudes without the city, all with one voice exclaim,
“Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are
Thy ways, Thou King of saints;”(1161) and falling prostrate, they worship
the Prince of life.
Satan seems paralyzed as he beholds the glory and majesty of Christ. He
who was once a covering cherub remembers whence he has fallen. A shining
seraph, “son of the morning;” how changed, how degraded! From the council
where once he was honored, he is forever excluded. He sees another now
standing near to the Father, veiling His glory. He has seen the crown
placed upon the head of Christ by an angel of lofty stature and majestic
presence, and he knows that the exalted position of this angel might have
been his.
Memory recalls the home of his innocence and purity, the peace and content
that were his until he indulged in murmuring against God, and envy of
Christ. His accusations, his rebellion, his deceptions to gain the
sympathy and support of the angels, his stubborn persistence in making no
effort for self-recovery when God would have granted him forgiveness,—all
come vividly before him. He reviews his work among men and its
results,—the enmity of man toward his fellow-man, the terrible destruction
of life, the rise and fall of kingdoms, the overturning of thrones, the
long succession of tumults, conflicts, and revolutions. He recalls his
constant efforts to oppose the work of Christ and to sink man lower and
lower. He sees that his hellish plots have been powerless to destroy those
who have put their trust in Jesus. As Satan looks upon his kingdom, the
fruit of his toil, he sees only failure and ruin. He has led the
multitudes to believe that the city of God would be an easy prey; but he
knows that this is false. Again and again, in the progress of the great
controversy, he has been defeated, and compelled to yield. He knows too
well the power and majesty of the Eternal.
The aim of the great rebel has ever been to justify himself, and to prove
the divine government responsible for the rebellion. To this end he has
bent all the power of his giant intellect. He has worked deliberately and
systematically, and with marvelous success, leading vast multitudes to
accept his version of the great controversy which has been so long in
progress. For thousands of years this chief of conspiracy has palmed off
falsehood for truth. But the time has now come when the rebellion is to be
finally defeated, and the history and character of Satan disclosed. In his
last great effort to dethrone Christ, destroy His people, and take
possession of the city of God, the arch-deceiver has been fully unmasked.
Those who have united with him see the total failure of his cause.
Christ’s followers and the loyal angels behold the full extent of his
machinations against the government of God. He is the object of universal
abhorrence.
Satan sees that his voluntary rebellion has unfitted him for heaven. He
has trained his powers to war against God: the purity, peace, and harmony
of heaven would be to him supreme torture. His accusations against the
mercy and justice of God are now silenced. The reproach which he has
endeavored to cast upon Jehovah rests wholly upon himself. And now Satan
bows down, and confesses the justice of his sentence.
“Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art
holy: for all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy
judgments are made manifest.”(1162) Every question of truth and error in
the long-standing controversy has now been made plain. The results of
rebellion, the fruits of setting aside the divine statutes, have been laid
open to the view of all created intelligences. The working out of Satan’s
rule in contrast with the government of God, has been presented to the
whole universe. Satan’s own works have condemned him. God’s wisdom, His
justice, and His goodness stand fully vindicated. It is seen that all His
dealings in the great controversy have been conducted with respect to the
eternal good of His people, and the good of all the worlds that He has
created. “All Thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord; and Thy saints shall
bless Thee.”(1163) The history of sin will stand to all eternity as a
witness that with the existence of God’s law is bound up the happiness of
all the beings He has created. With all the facts of the great controversy
in view, the whole universe, both loyal and rebellious, with one accord
declare, “Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints.”
Before the universe has been clearly presented the great sacrifice made by
the Father and the Son in man’s behalf. The hour has come when Christ
occupies His rightful position, and is glorified above principalities and
powers and every name that is named. It was for the joy that was set
before Him,—that He might bring many sons unto glory,—that He endured the
cross and despised the shame. And inconceivably great as was the sorrow
and the shame, yet greater is the joy and the glory. He looks upon the
redeemed, renewed in His own image, every heart bearing the perfect
impress of the divine, every face reflecting the likeness of their King.
He beholds in them the result of the travail of His soul, and He is
satisfied. Then, in a voice that reaches the assembled multitudes of the
righteous and the wicked, He declares, “Behold the purchase of My blood!
For these I suffered, for these I died, that they might dwell in My
presence throughout eternal ages.” And the song of praise ascends from the
white-robed ones about the throne, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to
receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory,
and blessing.”(1164)
Notwithstanding that Satan has been constrained to acknowledge God’s
justice, and to bow to the supremacy of Christ, his character remains
unchanged. The spirit of rebellion, like a mighty torrent, again bursts
forth. Filled with frenzy, he determines not to yield the great
controversy. The time has come for a last desperate struggle against the
King of heaven. He rushes into the midst of his subjects, and endeavors to
inspire them with his own fury, and arouse them to instant battle. But of
all the countless millions whom he has allured into rebellion, there are
none now to acknowledge his supremacy. His power is at an end. The wicked
are filled with the same hatred of God that inspires Satan; but they see
that their case is hopeless, that they cannot prevail against Jehovah.
Their rage is kindled against Satan and those who have been his agents in
deception, and with the fury of demons they turn upon them.
Saith the Lord: “Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God;
behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the
nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy
wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down
to the pit.” “I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of
the stones of fire.... I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee
before kings, that they may behold thee.... I will bring thee to ashes
upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.... Thou shalt be
a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.”(1165)
“Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled
in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.” “The
indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and His fury upon all their
armies: He hath utterly destroyed them, He hath delivered them to the
slaughter.” “Upon the wicked He shall rain quick burning coals, fire and
brimstone, and a horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their
cup.”(1166) Fire comes down from God out of heaven. The earth is broken
up. The weapons concealed in its depths are drawn forth. Devouring flames
burst from every yawning chasm. The very rocks are on fire. The day has
come that shall burn as an oven. The elements melt with fervent heat, the
earth also, and the works that are therein are burned up.(1167) The
earth’s surface seems one molten mass,—a vast, seething lake of fire. It
is the time of the judgment and perdition of ungodly men,—“the day of the
Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of
Zion.”(1168)
The wicked receive their recompense in the earth.(1169) They “shall be
stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of
hosts.”(1170) Some are destroyed as in a moment, while others suffer many
days. All are punished “according to their deeds.” The sins of the
righteous having been transferred to Satan, he is made to suffer not only
for his own rebellion, but for all the sins which he has caused God’s
people to commit. His punishment is to be far greater than that of those
whom he has deceived. After all have perished who fell by his deceptions,
he is still to live and suffer on. In the cleansing flames the wicked are
at last destroyed, root and branch,—Satan the root, his followers the
branches. The full penalty of the law has been visited; the demands of
justice have been met; and heaven and earth, beholding, declare the
righteousness of Jehovah.
Satan’s work of ruin is forever ended. For six thousand years he has
wrought his will, filling the earth with woe, and causing grief throughout
the universe. The whole creation has groaned and travailed together in
pain. Now God’s creatures are forever delivered from his presence and
temptations. “The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they [the
righteous] break forth into singing.”(1171) And a shout of praise and
triumph ascends from the whole loyal universe. “The voice of a great
multitude,” “as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty
thunderings,” is heard, saying, “Alleluia; for the Lord God omnipotent
reigneth.”
While the earth was wrapped in the fire of destruction, the righteous
abode safely in the holy city. Upon those that had part in the first
resurrection, the second death has no power. While God is to the wicked a
consuming fire, He is to His people both a sun and a shield.(1172)
“I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first
earth were passed away.”(1173) The fire that consumes the wicked purifies
the earth. Every trace of the curse is swept away. No eternally burning
hell will keep before the ransomed the fearful consequences of sin.
One reminder alone remains: our Redeemer will ever bear the marks of His
crucifixion. Upon His wounded head, upon His side, His hands and feet, are
the only traces of the cruel work that sin has wrought. Says the prophet,
beholding Christ in His glory, “He had bright beams coming out of His
side: and there was the hiding of His power.”(1174) That pierced side
whence flowed the crimson stream that reconciled man to God,—there is the
Saviour’s glory, there “the hiding of His power.” “Mighty to save,”
through the sacrifice of redemption, He was therefore strong to execute
justice upon them that despised God’s mercy. And the tokens of His
humiliation are His highest honor; through the eternal ages the wounds of
Calvary will show forth His praise, and declare His power.
“O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee
shall it come, even the first dominion.”(1175) The time has come, to which
holy men have looked with longing since the flaming sword barred the first
pair from Eden,—the time for “the redemption of the purchased
possession.”(1176) The earth originally given to man as his kingdom,
betrayed by him into the hands of Satan, and so long held by the mighty
foe, has been brought back by the great plan of redemption. All that was
lost by sin has been restored. “Thus saith the Lord ... that formed the
earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He
formed it to be inhabited.”(1177) God’s original purpose in the creation
of the earth is fulfilled as it is made the eternal abode of the redeemed.
“The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever.”(1178)
A fear of making the future inheritance seem too material has led many to
spiritualize away the very truths which lead us to look upon it as our
home. Christ assured His disciples that He went to prepare mansions for
them in the Father’s house. Those who accept the teachings of God’s word
will not be wholly ignorant concerning the heavenly abode. And yet, “eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man,
the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”(1179) Human
language is inadequate to describe the reward of the righteous. It will be
known only to those who behold it. No finite mind can comprehend the glory
of the Paradise of God.
In the Bible the inheritance of the saved is called a country.(1180) There
the heavenly Shepherd leads His flock to fountains of living waters. The
tree of life yields its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are
for the service of the nations. There are ever-flowing streams, clear as
crystal, and beside them waving trees cast their shadows upon the paths
prepared for the ransomed of the Lord. There the wide-spreading plains
swell into hills of beauty, and the mountains of God rear their lofty
summits. On those peaceful plains, beside those living streams, God’s
people, so long pilgrims and wanderers, shall find a home.
“My people shall dwell in a peaceful habitation, and in sure dwellings,
and in quiet resting-places.” “Violence shall no more be heard in thy
land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy
walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.” “They shall build houses, and
inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them,
They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shalt not plant, and
another eat:... Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their
hands.”(1181)
There, “the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and
the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.” “Instead of the thorn
shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the
myrtle-tree.”(1182) “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the
leopard shall lie down with the kid; ... and a little child shall lead
them.” “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,”(1183)
saith the Lord.
Pain cannot exist in the atmosphere of heaven. There will be no more
tears, no funeral trains, no badges of mourning. “There shall be no more
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, ... for the former things are passed
away.”(1184) “The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that
dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.”(1185)
There is the New Jerusalem, the metropolis of the glorified new earth, “a
crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of
thy God.”(1186) “Her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like
a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” “The nations of them which are saved
shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their
glory and honor into it.”(1187) Saith the Lord, “I will rejoice in
Jerusalem, and joy in My people.”(1188) “The tabernacle of God is with
men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God
Himself shall be with them, and be their God.”(1189)
In the city of God “there shall be no night.” None will need or desire
repose. There will be no weariness in doing the will of God and offering
praise to His name. We shall ever feel the freshness of the morning, and
shall ever be far from its close. “And they need no candle, neither light
of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light.”(1190) The light of the
sun will be superseded by a radiance which is not painfully dazzling, yet
which immeasurably surpasses the brightness of our noontide. The glory of
God and the Lamb floods the holy city with unfading light. The redeemed
walk in the sunless glory of perpetual day.
“I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the
temple of it.”(1191) The people of God are privileged to hold open
communion with the Father and the Son. “Now we see through a glass,
darkly.”(1192) We behold the image of God reflected, as in a mirror, in
the works of nature and in His dealings with men; but then we shall see
Him face to face, without a dimming veil between. We shall stand in His
presence, and behold the glory of His countenance.
There the redeemed shall “know, even as also they are known.” The loves
and sympathies which God Himself has planted in the soul, shall there find
truest and sweetest exercise. The pure communion with holy beings, the
harmonious social life with the blessed angels and with the faithful ones
of all ages, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood
of the Lamb, the sacred ties that bind together “the whole family in
heaven and earth,”(1193)—these help to constitute the happiness of the
redeemed.
There, immortal minds will contemplate with never-failing delight the
wonders of creative power, the mysteries of redeeming love. There will be
no cruel, deceiving foe to tempt to forgetfulness of God. Every faculty
will be developed, every capacity increased. The acquirement of knowledge
will not weary the mind or exhaust the energies. There the grandest
enterprises may be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations reached, the
highest ambitions realized; and still there will arise new heights to
surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects
to call forth the powers of mind and soul and body.