Chapter 39: 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 Revelation 16:1-21, 20:2, 7:15.
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