He makes the weak strong and inspires all with his own spirit and energy. The presence of Christ having been removed, Satan works wonders to support his claims. He represents himself to his deluded subjects as a redeemer, assuring them that his power has brought them forth from their graves and that he is about to rescue them from the most cruel tyranny. He claims to be the prince who is the rightful owner of the world and whose inheritance has been unlawfully wrested from him. Yet, true to his early cunning, he does not acknowledge himself to be Satan. They are ready to receive his suggestions and to do his bidding. In rejecting Christ they have accepted the rule of the rebel leader. He will marshal all the armies of the lost under his banner and through them endeavor to execute his plans. While deprived of his power and cut off from his work of deception, the prince of evil was miserable and dejected but as the wicked dead are raised and he sees the vast multitudes upon his side, his hopes revive, and he determines not to yield the great controversy. Now Satan prepares for a last mighty struggle for the supremacy. As the New Jerusalem, in its dazzling splendor, comes down out of heaven, it rests upon the place purified and made ready to receive it, and Christ, with His people and the angels, enters the Holy City. and there shall be a very great valley.” “And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one.” Zechariah 14:5, 4, 9. Says the prophet: “The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee.” “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. GC 662.2Ĭhrist descends upon the Mount of Olives, whence, after His resurrection, He ascended, and where angels repeated the promise of His return. A second probation, were it given them, would be occupied as was the first in evading the requirements of God and exciting rebellion against Him. A lifetime of transgression has not softened their hearts. They are to have no new probation in which to remedy the defects of their past lives. As the wicked went into their graves, so they come forth with the same enmity to Christ and the same spirit of rebellion. The force of truth urges the words from unwilling lips. With one voice the wicked hosts exclaim: “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!” It is not love to Jesus that inspires this utterance. GC 662.1Įvery eye in that vast multitude is turned to behold the glory of the Son of God. The wicked bear the traces of disease and death. What a contrast to those who were raised at the first resurrection! The righteous were clothed with immortal youth and beauty. They come forth, a mighty host, numberless as the sands of the sea. As He descends in terrific majesty He bids the wicked dead arise to receive their doom. He is accompanied by the host of the redeemed and attended by a retinue of angels. At the close of the thousand years, Christ again returns to the earth.
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