Chapter 41 : Desolation of the Earth

“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, 3, 15-17.]

“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 18:5-10, 3, 15-17.]

Such are the judgments that fall upon Babylon in the 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 [654]

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

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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, 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.

[655] 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 your days for 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 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 [656]

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,

[657] 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 solemn

service of the day of atonement. When the ministration in the holy of [658]

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

[659] Pit.”] Prophecy 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 [660]

alone with his evil angels he remains to realize 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;

that smote the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, that ruled

the nations in anger, with a persecution that none restrained.” [Isaiah

14:3-6, Revised Version.]

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 [661]

of the Most High.” [Daniel 7:22.] At this time the righteous reign

as kings and priests unto God. John in 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.” [Revelation 20:4, 6; 1 Corinthians 6:2, 3.] It is at

this time that, as foretold by Paul, “the saints shall judge the world.”

[Revelation 20:4, 6; 1 Corinthians 6:2, 3.] 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?” [Revelation

20:4, 6; 1 Corinthians 6:2, 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; Isaiah 24:22.] 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” [Revelation 20:5; Isaiah 24:22.]