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41 - Desolation of the Earth - The Great Controversy · Sacred Texts Archive

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Chapter forty one, Desolation of the Earth. Her sins have reached unto heaven,
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and God hath remembered her iniquities in the cup which she hath filled.
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Fill to her double how much she hath glorified herself and lived deliciously, So
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much torment and sorrow give her, for she saith in her heart. I
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sit a queen and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore
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shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine, and
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she shall be utterly burned with fire. For strong is the Lord God who
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judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and
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lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her and lament for her, saying alas
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alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city. For in one hour is
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thy judgment come. The merchants of the earth that have waxed rich through the
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abundance of her delicacies, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment,
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weeping and wailing and saying alas alas, that great city that was clothed
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in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious
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stones and pearls. For in one hour, so great riches is come to
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nought. Such are the judgments that fall upon Babylon in the day of the
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visitation of God's wrath. She has filled up the measure of her iniquity.
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Her time has come. She is ripe for destruction. When the voice of
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God turns the captivity of his people, there is a terrible awakening of those
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who have lost all in the great conflict of life. Why approbation continued,
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They were blinded by Satan's deceptions, and they justified their course of sin.
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The rich prided themselves upon their superiority to those who were less favored. But
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they had obtained their riches by violation of the law of God. They had
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neglected to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to deal justly,
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and to love mercy. They had sought to exalt themselves and to obtain the
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homage of their fellow creatures. Now they are stripped of all that made them
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great, and are left destitute and defenseless. They look with terror upon the
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destruction of the idols which they preferred before their maker. They have sold their
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souls for earthly riches, and enjoyments, and have not sought to become rich
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toward God. The result is their lives are a failure. Their pleasures are
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now turned to gall their treasures to corruption. The gain of a lifetime is
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swept away in a moment. The rich bemoan the destruction of their grand houses,
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the scattering of their gold and silver, but their lamentations are silenced by
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the fear that they themselves are to perish with their idols. The wicked are
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filled with regret, not because of their sinful neglect of God and their fellow
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men, but because God has conquered. They lament that the result is what
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it is, but they do not repent of their wickedness. They would leave
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no means untried to conquer. If they could the world see the very class
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whom they have mocked and derided and desire tired to exterminate, pass unharmed through
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pestilence, tempest, and earthquake. He who is to the transgressors of his
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law a devouring fire, is to his people a safe pavilion. The minister,
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who has sacrificed truth to gain the favor of men, now discerns the
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character and influence of his teachings. It is apparent that the omniscient eye was
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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
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the soul, every line written, every word uttered, every act that led
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men to rest in a refuge of falsehood, has been scattering seed. And
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now in the wretched lost souls around him he beholds the harvest. Saith the
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Lord. They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people, slightly,
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saying peace, peace, when there is no peace with lies. He
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have made the heart of the righteous sad whom I have not made sad,
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and strengthened the hands of the wicket, that he should not return from his
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wicked by promising in life, Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter
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the sheep of my pasture. Behold, I will visit upon you the evil
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of your doings. Howl, ye shepherds, and cry and wallow yourselves in
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the ashes, ye principle of the flock, For your days for slaughter and
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your dispersions are accomplished. And the shepherds shall have no way to flee,
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nor the principle of the flock to escape. Ministers and people see that they
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have not sustained the right relation to God. They see that they have rebelled
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against the author of all just and righteous law. The setting aside of the
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divine precepts gave rise to thousands of springs of evil, discord, hatred,
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iniquity, until the earth became one vast field of strife, one sink of
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corruption. This is the view that now appears to those who rejected truth and
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chose to cherish error. No language can express the longing which the disobedient and
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disloyal feel for that which they have lost forever eternal life. Men whom the
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world has worshiped for their talents and eloquence now see these things in their true
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light. They realize what they have forfeited by transgression, and they fall at
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the feet of those whose fidelity they have despised and derided, and confess that
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God has loved them. The people see that they have been deluded. They
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accuse one another of having led them to destruction, but all unite in heaping
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their bitterest condemnation upon the ministers. Unfaithful pastors have prophesied smooth things they have
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led their hearers to make buoid the law of God and to persecute those who
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would keep it holy. Now, in their despair, these teachers confess before
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the world their work of deception. The multitudes are filled with fury. We
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are lost, they cry, and you are the cause of our ruin.
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And they turn upon the false shepherds. The very ones that once admired them
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most will pronounce the most dreadful curses upon them. The very hand that once
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crowned them with laurels will be raised for their destruction. The swords which were
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to slay God's people are now employed to destroy their enemies. Everywhere there is
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strife and bloodshed. A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth.
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For the Lord hath a controversy with the nations. He will plead with
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all flesh. He will give them that are wicked to the sword. For
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six thousand years, the great controversy has been in progress. The Son of
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God and his heavenly messengers have been in conflict with the power of the evil
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One to born enlighten and save the children of men. Now all have made
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their decision. The wicked have fully united with Satan in his warfare against God.
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The time has come for God to vindicate the authority of his downtrodden law.
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Now the controversy is not alone with Satan, but with men. The
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Lord hath a controversy with the nations. He will give them that are wicked
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to the sword. The mark of deliverance has been set upon those that sigh
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and cry for all the abominations that be done. Now the Angel of death
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goes forth, represented in Ezekiel's vision by the men with the slaughtering weapons,
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to whom the command is given, slay utterly old and young, both maids
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and little children and women. But come not near any man upon whom is
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the mark, and begin at my sanctuary, says the prophet. They began
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at the ancient men which were before the house. The work of destruction begins
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among those who have professed to be the spiritual guardians of the people. The
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false watchmen are the first to fall. There are none to pity or to
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spare. Men, women, maidens, and little children perish together. The
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Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their
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iniquity. The earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover
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her slain, and this shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite
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all the people that have fought against Jerusalem. Their flesh shall consume away while
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they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,
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and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. And it shall come
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to pass in that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among
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them, and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbor,
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and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor. In
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the mad strife of their own fierce passions, and by the awful outpouring of
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God's unmingled wrath fall the wicked inhabitants of the earth, priests, rulers,
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and people, rich and poor, high and low. And the slain of
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the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth, even
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unto the other end of the earth. They shall not be lamented, neither
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gathered nor buried. At the coming of Christ, the wicked are blotted from
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the face of the whole earth, consumed with the spirit of his mouth,
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and destroyed by the brightness of his glory. Christ takes his people to the
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city of God, and the earth is emptied of its inhabitants. Behold,
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the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it
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upside down and scatter whereth abroad. The inhabitants thereof the land shall be utterly
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emptied and utterly spoiled. For the Lord hath spoken this word, because they
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have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore
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hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate.
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Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned. The whole earth appears like a
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desolate wilderness. The ruins of cities and villages destroyed by the earthquake, uprooted
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trees, ragged rocks thrown out by the sea, or torn out of the
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earth itself are scattered over its surface, while vast caverns mark the spot where
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the mountains have been rent from their foundations. Now the event takes place foreshadowed
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in the last solemn service of the Day of Atonement, when the ministration in
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the Holy of Holies has been completed and the sins of Israel had been removed
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from the sanctuary by virtue of the blood of the sin offering. Then the
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scapegoat was presented alive before the Lord, and in presence of the congregation,
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the High Priest confessed over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel,
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and all their transgressions, in all their sins, putting them upon the head
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of the goat, in like manner. When the work of atonement in the
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heavenly Sanctuary has been completed, then in the presence of God and heavenly angels
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and the host of the Redeemed, the sins of God's people will be placed
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upon Satan. He will be declared guilty of all the evil which he has
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caused them to commit. And as the scape boat was sent away into a
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land not inhabited, so Satan will be banished to the desolate earth, an
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uninhabited and dreary wilderness. The Revelator foretells the banishment of Satan and the condition
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of chaos and desolation to which the earth is to be reduced, and he
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declares that this condition will exist for a thousand years. After presenting the scenes
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of the Lord's second coming and the destruction of the wicked, the prophecy continues.
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I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the
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bottomless Pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on
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the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and
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bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and
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shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive
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the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled, and after that
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he must be loosed to a little season. That the expression bottomless pit represents
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the earth in a state of confusion and darkness is evident from other scriptures concerning
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the condition of the earth in the beginning. The Bible record says that it
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was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
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Prophecy teaches that it will be brought back partially, at least to this
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condition, looking forward to the great day of God. The prophet Jeremiah declares,
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I beheld the earth, and lo, it was without form and void,
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and the heavens and they had no light. I beheld the mountains,
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and lo they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld,
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and lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens
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were fled. I beheld, and lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness,
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and all the cities thereof were broken down. Here is to be the
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home of Satan with his evil angels for a thousand years. Limited to the
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earth, he will not have access to other worlds to tempt and annoy those
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who have never fallen. It is in this sense that he is bound.
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There are none remaining upon whom he can exercise his power. He is wholly
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cut off from the work of deception and ruin, which for so many centuries
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has been his sole delight. The prophet Isaiah, looking forward to the time
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of Satan's overthrow, exclaims, how art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,
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Son of the Morning, How art thou cut down to the ground,
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which didst weaken the nations? Thou hast said in thine heart, I will
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ascend into Heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.
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I will be like the most high. Yet thou shalt be brought down to
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Hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see THEE shall narrowly
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look upon THEE and consider THEE, saying, is this the man that made
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the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms, that made the world as
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a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof, That open not the house of his
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prisoners. For six thousand years. Satan's work of rebellion has made the earth
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to tremble. He has made the world as a wilderness and destroyed the cities
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thereof, And he opened not the house of his prisoners. For six thousand
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years. His prison house has received God's people, and he would have held
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them captive forever. But Christ has broken his bonds and set the prisoners free.
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Even the wicked are now placed beyond the power of Satan, and alone
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with his evil angels, he remains to realize the effect of the curse which
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Sin has brought. The kings of the nations, even all of them lie
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in glory, every one in his own house the grave. But thou art
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cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch. Thou shalt not be joined
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with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land and slain thy people.
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For a thousand years. Satan will wander to and fro in the desolate
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earth to behold the results of his rebellion against the law of God. During
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this time, his sufferings are intense. Since his fall, his life of
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unceasing activity has banished reflection. But he is now deprived of his power and
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left to contemplate the part which he has acted since first he rebelled against the
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government of Heaven, and to look forward with trembling in terror, to the
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dreadful future, when he must suffer for all the evil that he has done,
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and be punished for the sins that he has cause to be committed to
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God's people. The captivity of Satan will bring gladness and rejoicing, says the
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prophet. It shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give
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thee rest from thy sorrow and from thy trouble, and from the heart service
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wherein thou wast made to serve. That thou shalt take up this proverb against
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the King of Babylon, here representing Satan, and say, how hath the
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oppressors ceased? The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter
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of the rulers, that smote the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke,
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that ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that none restrained. During
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the thousand years between the First and the Second Resurrection, the judgment of the
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wicked takes place. The Apostle Paul points to this judgment as an event that
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follows the Second Advent. Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come,
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who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest
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the counsels of the hearts. Daniel declares that when the Ancient of Days came,
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judgment was given to the saints of the Most High. At this time
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the righteous reign as kings and priests unto God. John and the Revelation says,
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I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given
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unto them. They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall
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reign with him a thousand years. It is at this time, as foretold
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by Paul, the saints shall judge the world in union with Christ. They
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judge the wicked, comparing their acts with the Statute Book the Bible, and
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deciding every case according to the deeds done in the body. Then the portion
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which the wicked must suffer is meted out according to their works, and it
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is recorded against their names in the Book of Death. Satan also and evil
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angels are judged by Christ and his people, says Paul, know ye not
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that we shall judge angels. And Jude declares that the angels which kept not
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their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting
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chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the Great Day. At the close
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of the thousand years, the second resurrection will take place. Then the wicked
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will be raised from the dead and appear before God for the execution of the
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judgment. Ridden Thus the Revelator, after describing the resurrection of the righteous,
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says, the rest of the day lived not again until the thousand years were
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finished. And Isaiah declares concerning the wicked, they shall be gathered together as
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prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison,
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And after many days shall they be visited. End of Chapter forty one.