Last Desolation.

CHAPTER 39 (The Great Controversy)

The Earth Desolated

I then beheld the earth.  The wicked were dead, and their bodies were lying upon the face of the earth.  The inhabitants of earth had suffered the wrath of God in the seven last plagues.  They had gnawed their tongues for pain and had cursed God.  The false shepherds were signal objects of Jehovah's wrath.  Their eyes had consumed away in their holes, and their tongues in their mouths, while they stood upon their feet.  After the saints were delivered by the voice of God, the rage of the wicked multitude was turned upon each other.  The earth seemed to be deluged with blood, and dead bodies were from one end of the earth to the other.

The earth was in a most desolate condition.  Cities and villages, shaken down by the earthquake, lay in heaps.  Mountains were moved out of their places, leaving large caverns.  The sea had thrown out ragged rocks upon the earth, and rocks had been torn out of the earth, and were scattered all over its surface.  The earth looked like a desolate wilderness.  Large trees were rooted up, and were strewn over the land.  Here is Satan's home, with his evil angels, through the 1000 years.  Here they will be confined, and wander up and down over the broken surface of the earth, and see the effects of his rebellion against God's law.  The effects of the curse which he has caused, he can enjoy through the 1000 years.  Limited alone to the earth, he will have no privilege of ranging around to other planets, to tempt and annoy those who have not fallen.  Satan suffers in this time extremely.  Since his fall his evil traits have been in constant exercise.  He is then deprived of his power, and left to reflect upon the part he has acted since his fall, and to look forward with trembling and terror to the dreadful future, when he must suffer for all the evil he has done, and be punished for all the sins he has caused to be committed.

Then I heard shouts of triumph from the angels, and from the redeemed saints, which sounded like ten thousand musical instruments, because they were to be no more annoyed and tempted by the Devil, and the inhabitants of other worlds were delivered from his presence and his temptations.

Then I saw thrones, and Jesus and the redeemed saints sat upon them; and the saints reigned as kings and priests unto God, and the wicked dead were judged, and their acts were compared with the statute book, the word of God, and they were judged according to the deeds done in the body.  Jesus, in union with the saints, meted out to the wicked the portion they must suffer, according to their works; and it was written in the book of death, and set off against their names.  Satan and his angels were also judged by Jesus and the saints.  Satan's punishment was to be far greater than that of those whom he had deceived.  It so far exceeded their punishment that it could not be compared with theirs.  After all those whom he had deceived had perished, Satan was to still live and suffer on much longer.

After the judgment of the wicked dead was finished, at the end of the one thousand years, Jesus left the City, and a train of the angelic host followed him.  The saints also went with him.  Jesus descended upon a great and mighty mountain, which, as soon as his feet touched it, parted asunder, and became a mighty plain.  Then we looked up and saw the great and beautiful City, with twelve foundations, twelve gates, three on each side, and an angel at each gate.  We cried out, The City! The great City!  It is coming down from God out of heaven!  And it came down in all its splendor, and dazzling glory, and settled in the mighty plain which Jesus had prepared for it.

See Zechariah 14:4-12; Revelation 5:10, 20:2-6, 20:12, 21:10-27

Zec 14:3  Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. 

Zec 14:4  And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 

Zec 14:5  And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. 

Zec 14:6  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: 

Zec 14:7  But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. 

Zec 14:8  And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. 

Zec 14:9  And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one. 

Zec 14:10  All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king's winepresses. 

Zec 14:11  And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. 

Zec 14:12  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. 

Rev 5:10  And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 

Rev 20:3  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. 

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 

Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. 

Rev 20:12  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. 

Rev 21:10  And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 

Rev 21:11  Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; 

Rev 21:12  And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: 

Rev 21:13  On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. 

Rev 21:14  And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 

Rev 21:15  And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. 

Rev 21:16  And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. 

Rev 21:17  And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. 

Rev 21:18  And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. 

Rev 21:19  And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; 

Rev 21:20  The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. 

Rev 21:21  And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. 

Rev 21:22  And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 

Rev 21:23  And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. 

Rev 21:24  And 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 honour into it. 

Rev 21:25  And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. 

Rev 21:26  And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. 

Rev 21:27  And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.