The Great Controversy
by Ellen G. White
Chapter 42: The Controversy Ended
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'I saw a new heaven and a new earth:
for the first heaven and the first earth
were passed away.' Revelation 21:1.
Illustration ©
Review and Herald Publ. Assoc. |
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At the close of the thousand years, Christ again returns to
the earth. He is accompanied by the host of the redeemed and attended by a
retinue of angels. As He descends in terrific majesty He bids the wicked dead
arise to receive their doom. They come forth, a mighty host, numberless as the
sands of the sea. What a contrast to those who were raised at the first
resurrection! The righteous were clothed with immortal youth and beauty. The
wicked bear the traces of disease and death. {GC 662.1}
Every eye in that vast multitude is turned to behold the
glory of the Son of God. 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. The force of truth urges the words from unwilling
lips. As the wicked went into their graves, so they come forth with the same
enmity to Christ and the same spirit of rebellion. They are to have no new
probation in which to remedy the defects of their past lives. Nothing would be
gained by this. A lifetime of transgression has not softened their hearts. 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. {GC 662.2}
Christ descends upon the Mount of Olives, whence, after His
resurrection, He ascended, and where angels repeated the promise of His return.
Says the prophet: "The Lord my God [663] 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, . . . 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. 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. {GC 662.3}
Now Satan prepares for a last mighty struggle for the
supremacy. 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. He will marshal all the armies
of the lost under his banner and through them endeavor to execute his plans.
The wicked are Satan's captives. In rejecting Christ they have accepted the
rule of the rebel leader. They are ready to receive his suggestions and to do
his bidding. Yet, true to his early cunning, he does not acknowledge himself to
be Satan. He claims to be the prince who is the rightful owner of the world and
whose inheritance has been unlawfully wrested from him. 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. The presence of Christ having been removed, Satan works wonders
to support his claims. He makes the weak strong and inspires all with his own
spirit and energy. He proposes to lead them against the camp of the saints and
to take possession of the City of God. With fiendish exultation he points to
the unnumbered millions who have been raised from the dead and declares that as
their leader he is well able to overthrow the city and regain his throne and
his kingdom. [664] {GC 663.1}
In that vast throng are multitudes of the long-lived race
that existed before the Flood; men of lofty stature and giant intellect, who,
yielding to the control of fallen angels, devoted all their skill and knowledge
to the exaltation of themselves; men whose wonderful works of art led the world
to idolize their genius, but whose cruelty and evil inventions, defiling the
earth and defacing the image of God, caused Him to blot them from the face of
His creation. There are kings and generals who conquered nations, valiant men
who never lost a battle, proud, ambitious warriors whose approach made kingdoms
tremble. In death these experienced no change. As they come up from the grave,
they resume the current of their thoughts just where it ceased. They are
actuated by the same desire to conquer that ruled them when they fell. {GC 664.1}
Satan consults with his angels, and then with these kings
and conquerors and mighty men. They look upon the strength and numbers on their
side, and declare that the army within the city is small in comparison with
theirs, and that it can be overcome. They lay their plans to take possession of
the riches and glory of the New Jerusalem. All immediately begin to prepare for
battle. Skillful artisans construct implements of war. Military leaders, famed
for their success, marshal the throngs of warlike men into companies and
divisions. {GC 664.2}
At last the order to advance is given, and the countless
host moves on—an army such as was never summoned by earthly
conquerors, such as the combined forces of all ages since war began on earth
could never equal. Satan, the mightiest of warriors, leads the van, and his
angels unite their forces for this final struggle. Kings and warriors are in
his train, and the multitudes follow in vast companies, each under its
appointed leader. With military precision the serried ranks advance over the
earth's broken and uneven surface to the City of God. By command of Jesus, the
gates of the New Jerusalem are closed, and the armies of Satan surround the
city and make ready for the onset. [665] {GC 664.3}
Now Christ again appears to the view of His enemies. Far
above the city, upon a foundation of burnished gold, is a throne, high and
lifted up. Upon this throne sits the Son of God, and around Him are the
subjects of His kingdom. The power and majesty of Christ no language can
describe, no pen portray. The glory of the Eternal Father is enshrouding His
Son. The brightness of His presence fills the City of God, and flows out beyond
the gates, flooding the whole earth with its radiance. {GC 665.1}
Nearest the throne are those who were once zealous in the
cause of Satan, but who, plucked as brands from the burning, have followed
their Saviour with deep, intense devotion. Next are those who perfected
Christian characters in the midst of falsehood and infidelity, those who
honored the law of God when the Christian world declared it void, and the
millions, of all ages, who were martyred for their faith. And beyond is the
"great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds,
and people, and tongues, . . . before the throne, and before the
Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands." Revelation 7:9.
Their warfare is ended, their victory won. They have run the race and reached
the prize. The palm branch in their hands is a symbol of their triumph, the
white robe an emblem of the spotless righteousness of Christ which now is
theirs. {GC 665.2}
The redeemed raise a song of praise that echoes and
re-echoes through the vaults of heaven: "Salvation to our God which
sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." Verse 10. And angel and
seraph unite their voices in adoration. As the redeemed have beheld the power
and malignity of Satan, they have seen, as never before, that no power but that
of Christ could have made them conquerors. In all that shining throng there are
none to ascribe salvation to themselves, as if they had prevailed by their own
power and goodness. Nothing is said of what they have done or suffered; but the
burden of every song, the keynote of every anthem, is: Salvation to our God and
unto the Lamb. [666] {GC 665.3}
In the presence of the assembled inhabitants of earth and
heaven the final coronation of the Son of God takes place. And now, invested
with supreme majesty and power, the King of kings pronounces sentence upon the
rebels against His government and executes justice upon those who have
transgressed His law and oppressed His people. Says the prophet of God: "I
saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and
the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 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."
Revelation 20:11, 12. {GC
666.1}
As soon as the books of record are opened, and the eye of
Jesus looks upon the wicked, they are conscious of every sin which they have
ever committed. They see just where their feet diverged from the path of purity
and holiness, just how far pride and rebellion have carried them in the
violation of the law of God. The seductive temptations which they encouraged by
indulgence in sin, the blessings perverted, the messengers of God despised, the
warnings rejected, the waves of mercy beaten back by the stubborn, unrepentant
heart—all appear as if written in letters of fire. {GC 666.2}
Above the throne is revealed the cross; and like a panoramic
view appear the scenes of Adam's temptation and fall, and the successive steps
in the great plan of redemption. The Saviour's lowly birth; His early life of
simplicity and obedience; His baptism in Jordan; the fast and temptation in the
wilderness; His public ministry, unfolding to men heaven's most precious
blessings; the days crowded with deeds of love and mercy, the nights of prayer
and watching in the solitude of the mountains; the plottings of envy, hate, and
malice which repaid His benefits; the awful, mysterious agony in Gethsemane beneath
the crushing weight of the sins of the whole world; His betrayal into the hands
of the murderous [667] mob; the fearful events of that
night of horror—the unresisting prisoner, forsaken by His best-loved
disciples, rudely hurried through the streets of Jerusalem; the Son of God
exultingly displayed before Annas, arraigned in the high priest's palace, in
the judgment hall of Pilate, before the cowardly and cruel Herod, mocked,
insulted, tortured, and condemned to die—all are vividly portrayed. {GC 666.3}
And now before the swaying multitude are revealed the final
scenes—the patient Sufferer treading the path to Calvary; the Prince
of heaven hanging upon the cross; the haughty priests and the jeering rabble
deriding His expiring agony; the supernatural darkness; the heaving earth, the
rent rocks, the open graves, marking the moment when the world's Redeemer
yielded up His life. {GC
667.1}
The awful spectacle appears just as it was. Satan, his
angels, and his subjects have no power to turn from the picture of their own
work. Each actor recalls the part which he performed. Herod, who slew the
innocent children of Bethlehem that he might destroy the King of Israel; the
base Herodias, upon whose guilty soul rests the blood of John the Baptist; the
weak, timeserving Pilate; the mocking soldiers; the priests and rulers and the
maddened throng who cried, "His blood be on us, and on our children!"—all
behold the enormity of their guilt. They vainly seek to hide from the divine
majesty of His countenance, outshining the glory of the sun, while the redeemed
cast their crowns at the Saviour's feet, exclaiming: "He died for
me!" {GC 667.2}
Amid the ransomed throng are the apostles of Christ, the
heroic Paul, the ardent Peter, the loved and loving John, and their truehearted
brethren, and with them the vast host of martyrs; while outside the walls, with
every vile and abominable thing, are those by whom they were persecuted,
imprisoned, and slain. There is Nero, that monster of cruelty and vice, beholding
the joy and exaltation of those whom he once tortured, and in whose extremest
anguish he found satanic delight. His mother is there to witness the result of [668]
her own work; to see how the evil stamp of character transmitted to her son,
the passions encouraged and developed by her influence and example, have borne
fruit in crimes that caused the world to shudder. {GC 667.3}
There are papist priests and prelates, who claimed to be
Christ's ambassadors, yet employed the rack, the dungeon, and the stake to
control the consciences of His people. There are the proud pontiffs who exalted
themselves above God and presumed to change the law of the Most High. Those
pretended fathers of the church have an account to render to God from which
they would fain be excused. Too late they are made to see that the Omniscient
One is jealous of His law and that He will in no wise clear the guilty. They
learn now that Christ identifies His interest with that of His suffering
people; and they feel the force of His own words: "Inasmuch as ye have
done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto
Me." Matthew 25:40. {GC
668.1}
The whole wicked world stand arraigned at the bar of God on
the charge of high treason against the government of heaven. They have none to
plead their cause; they are without excuse; and the sentence of eternal death
is pronounced against them. {GC
668.2}
It is now evident to all that the wages of sin is not noble
independence and eternal life, but slavery, ruin, and death. The wicked see
what they have forfeited by their life of rebellion. The far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory was despised when offered them; but how desirable it
now appears. "All this," cries the lost soul, "I might have had;
but I chose to put these things far from me. Oh, strange infatuation! I have
exchanged peace, happiness, and honor for wretchedness, infamy, and
despair." All see that their exclusion from heaven is just. By their lives
they have declared: "We will not have this Man [Jesus] to reign over
us." {GC 668.3}
As if entranced, the wicked have looked upon the coronation
of the Son of God. They see in His hands the tables of the divine law, the
statutes which they have despised and [669]
transgressed. They witness the outburst of wonder, rapture, and adoration from
the saved; and as the wave of melody sweeps over the multitudes without the
city, all with one voice exclaim, "Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord
God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints" (Revelation
15:3); and, falling prostrate, they worship the Prince of life. {GC 668.4}
Satan seems paralyzed as he beholds the glory and majesty of
Christ. He who was once a covering cherub remembers whence he has fallen. A
shining seraph, "son of the morning;" how changed, how degraded! From
the council where once he was honored, he is forever excluded. He sees another
now standing near to the Father, veiling His glory. He has seen the crown
placed upon the head of Christ by an angel of lofty stature and majestic presence,
and he knows that the exalted position of this angel might have been his. {GC 669.1}
Memory recalls the home of his innocence and purity, the
peace and content that were his until he indulged in murmuring against God, and
envy of Christ. His accusations, his rebellion, his deceptions to gain the
sympathy and support of the angels, his stubborn persistence in making no
effort for self-recovery when God would have granted him forgiveness —all
come vividly before him. He reviews his work among men and its results—the
enmity of man toward his fellow man, the terrible destruction of life, the rise
and fall of kingdoms, the overturning of thrones, the long succession of
tumults, conflicts, and revolutions. He recalls his constant efforts to oppose the
work of Christ and to sink man lower and lower. He sees that his hellish plots
have been powerless to destroy those who have put their trust in Jesus. As
Satan looks upon his kingdom, the fruit of his toil, he sees only failure and
ruin. He has led the multitudes to believe that the City of God would be an
easy prey; but he knows that this is false. Again and again, in the progress of
the great controversy, he has been defeated and compelled to yield. He knows
too well the power and majesty of the Eternal. [670] {GC 669.2}
The aim of the great rebel has ever been to justify himself
and to prove the divine government responsible for the rebellion. To this end
he has bent all the power of his giant intellect. He has worked deliberately
and systematically, and with marvelous success, leading vast multitudes to
accept his version of the great controversy which has been so long in progress.
For thousands of years this chief of conspiracy has palmed off falsehood for
truth. But the time has now come when the rebellion is to be finally defeated
and the history and character of Satan disclosed. In his last great effort to
dethrone Christ, destroy His people, and take possession of the City of God,
the archdeceiver has been fully unmasked. Those who have united with him see
the total failure of his cause. Christ's followers and the loyal angels behold
the full extent of his machinations against the government of God. He is the
object of universal abhorrence. {GC 670.1}
Satan sees that his voluntary rebellion has unfitted him for
heaven. He has trained his powers to war against God; the purity, peace, and
harmony of heaven would be to him supreme torture. His accusations against the
mercy and justice of God are now silenced. The reproach which he has endeavored
to cast upon Jehovah rests wholly upon himself. And now Satan bows down and
confesses the justice of his sentence. {GC 670.2}
"Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name?
for Thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for
Thy judgments are made manifest." Verse 4. Every question of truth and
error in the long-standing controversy has now been made plain. The results of
rebellion, the fruits of setting aside the divine statutes, have been laid open
to the view of all created intelligences. The working out of Satan's rule in
contrast with the government of God has been presented to the whole universe.
Satan's own works have condemned him. God's wisdom, His justice, and His
goodness stand fully vindicated. It is seen that all His dealings in the great
controversy have been conducted [671] with respect to the eternal good
of His people and the good of all the worlds that He has created. "All Thy
works shall praise Thee, O Lord; and Thy saints shall bless Thee." Psalm
145:10. The history of sin will stand to all eternity as a witness that with
the existence of God's law is bound up the happiness of all the beings He has
created. With all the facts of the great controversy in view, the whole
universe, both loyal and rebellious, with one accord declare: "Just and
true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints." {GC 670.3}
Before the universe has been clearly presented the great
sacrifice made by the Father and the Son in man's behalf. The hour has come
when Christ occupies His rightful position and is glorified above
principalities and powers and every name that is named. It was for the joy that
was set before Him—that He might bring many sons unto glory—that
He endured the cross and despised the shame. And inconceivably great as was the
sorrow and the shame, yet greater is the joy and the glory. He looks upon the
redeemed, renewed in His own image, every heart bearing the perfect impress of
the divine, every face reflecting the likeness of their King. He beholds in them
the result of the travail of His soul, and He is satisfied. Then, in a voice
that reaches the assembled multitudes of the righteous and the wicked, He
declares: "Behold the purchase of My blood! For these I suffered, for
these I died, that they might dwell in My presence throughout eternal
ages." And the song of praise ascends from the white-robed ones about the
throne: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches,
and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." Revelation
5:12. {GC 671.1}
Notwithstanding that Satan has been constrained to
acknowledge God's justice and to bow to the supremacy of Christ, his character
remains unchanged. The spirit of rebellion, like a mighty torrent, again bursts
forth. Filled with frenzy, he determines not to yield the great controversy.
The time has come for a last desperate struggle against the King [672]
of heaven. He rushes into the midst of his subjects and endeavors to inspire
them with his own fury and arouse them to instant battle. But of all the
countless millions whom he has allured into rebellion, there are none now to
acknowledge his supremacy. His power is at an end. The wicked are filled with
the same hatred of God that inspires Satan; but they see that their case is
hopeless, that they cannot prevail against Jehovah. Their rage is kindled
against Satan and those who have been his agents in deception, and with the
fury of demons they turn upon them. {GC 671.2}
Saith the Lord: "Because thou hast set thine heart as
the heart of God; behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the
terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of
thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down to
the pit." "I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of
the stones of fire. . . . I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay
thee before kings, that they may behold thee. . . . I will bring thee
to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
. . . Thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more."
Ezekiel 28:6-8, 16-19. {GC
672.1}
"Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise,
and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of
fire." "The indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and His fury
upon all their armies: He hath utterly destroyed them, He hath delivered them
to the slaughter." "Upon the wicked He shall rain quick burning
coals, fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of
their cup." Isaiah 9:5; 34:2; Psalm 11:6, margin. Fire comes down from God
out of heaven. The earth is broken up. The weapons concealed in its depths are
drawn forth. Devouring flames burst from every yawning chasm. The very rocks
are on fire. The day has come that shall burn as an oven. The elements melt
with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein are burned
up. Malachi 4:1; 2 Peter 3:10. The earth's surface seems one molten mass—a
vast, seething [673] lake of fire. It is the time of
the judgment and perdition of ungodly men—"the day of the Lord's
vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion."
Isaiah 34:8. {GC 672.2}
The wicked receive their recompense in the earth. Proverbs
11:31. They "shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up,
saith the Lord of hosts." Malachi 4:1. Some are destroyed as in a moment,
while others suffer many days. All are punished "according to their
deeds." The sins of the righteous having been transferred to Satan, he is
made to suffer not only for his own rebellion, but for all the sins which he
has caused God's people to commit. His punishment is to be far greater than
that of those whom he has deceived. After all have perished who fell by his
deceptions, he is still to live and suffer on. In the cleansing flames the
wicked are at last destroyed, root and branch—Satan the root, his
followers the branches. The full penalty of the law has been visited; the
demands of justice have been met; and heaven and earth, beholding, declare the
righteousness of Jehovah. {GC
673.1}
Satan's work of ruin is forever ended. For six thousand
years he has wrought his will, filling the earth with woe and causing grief
throughout the universe. The whole creation has groaned and travailed together
in pain. Now God's creatures are forever delivered from his presence and
temptations. "The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they [the
righteous] break forth into singing." Isaiah 14:7. And a shout of praise
and triumph ascends from the whole loyal universe. "The voice of a great
multitude," "as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty
thunderings," is heard, saying: "Alleluia: for the Lord God
omnipotent reigneth." Revelation 19:6. {GC 673.2}
While the earth was wrapped in the fire of destruction, the
righteous abode safely in the Holy City. Upon those that had part in the first
resurrection, the second death has no power. While God is to the wicked a
consuming fire, He is to His people both a sun and a shield. Revelation 20:6;
Psalm 84:11. [674] {GC 673.3}
"I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first
heaven and the first earth were passed away." Revelation 21:1. The fire
that consumes the wicked purifies the earth. Every trace of the curse is swept
away. No eternally burning hell will keep before the ransomed the fearful
consequences of sin. {GC
674.1}
One reminder alone remains: Our Redeemer will ever bear the
marks of His crucifixion. Upon His wounded head, upon His side, His hands and
feet, are the only traces of the cruel work that sin has wrought. Says the
prophet, beholding Christ in His glory: "He had bright beams coming out of
His side: and there was the hiding of His power." Habakkuk 3:4, margin.
That pierced side whence flowed the crimson stream that reconciled man to God—there
is the Saviour's glory, there "the hiding of His power." "Mighty
to save," through the sacrifice of redemption, He was therefore strong to
execute justice upon them that despised God's mercy. And the tokens of His
humiliation are His highest honor; through the eternal ages the wounds of
Calvary will show forth His praise and declare His power. {GC 674.2}
"O Tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter
of Zion, unto Thee shall it come, even the first dominion." Micah 4:8. The
time has come to which holy men have looked with longing since the flaming
sword barred the first pair from Eden, the time for "the redemption of the
purchased possession." Ephesians 1:14. The earth originally given to man
as his kingdom, betrayed by him into the hands of Satan, and so long held by
the mighty foe, has been brought back by the great plan of redemption. All that
was lost by sin has been restored. "Thus saith the Lord . . .
that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in
vain, He formed it to be inhabited." Isaiah 45:18. God's original purpose
in the creation of the earth is fulfilled as it is made the eternal abode of
the redeemed. "The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein
forever." Psalm 37:29. {GC
674.3}
A fear of making the future inheritance seem too material [675]
has led many to spiritualize away the very truths which lead us to look upon it
as our home. Christ assured His disciples that He went to prepare mansions for
them in the Father's house. Those who accept the teachings of God's word will
not be wholly ignorant concerning the heavenly abode. And yet, "eye hath
not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things
which God hath prepared for them that love Him." 1 Corinthians 2:9. Human
language is inadequate to describe the reward of the righteous. It will be
known only to those who behold it. No finite mind can comprehend the glory of
the Paradise of God. {GC
674.4}
In the Bible the inheritance of the saved is called "a
country." Hebrews 11:14-16. There the heavenly Shepherd leads His flock to
fountains of living waters. The tree of life yields its fruit every month, and
the leaves of the tree are for the service of the nations. There are
ever-flowing streams, clear as crystal, and beside them waving trees cast their
shadows upon the paths prepared for the ransomed of the Lord. There the
wide-spreading plains swell into hills of beauty, and the mountains of God rear
their lofty summits. On those peaceful plains, beside those living streams,
God's people, so long pilgrims and wanderers, shall find a home. {GC 675.1}
"My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and
in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places." "Violence shall no
more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou
shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise." "They shall
build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the
fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant,
and another eat: . . . Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their
hands." Isaiah 32:18; 60:18; Isaiah 65:21, 22. {GC 675.2}
There, "the wilderness and the solitary place shall be
glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose."
"Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier
shall come up the myrtle tree." "The wolf also shall dwell with the
lamb, and the leopard shall [676] lie down with the kid;
. . . and a little child shall lead them." "They shall not
hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain," saith the Lord. Isaiah 35:1;
55:13; Isaiah 11:6, 9. {GC
675.3}
Pain cannot exist in the atmosphere of heaven. There will be
no more tears, no funeral trains, no badges of mourning. "There shall be
no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying: . . . for the former
things are passed away." "The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick:
the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity."
Revelation 21:4; Isaiah 33:24. {GC 676.1}
There is the New Jerusalem, the metropolis of the glorified
new earth, "a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem
in the hand of thy God." "Her light was like unto a stone most
precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal." "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 honor into it." Saith the Lord: "I
will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people." "The tabernacle of
God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and
God Himself shall be with them, and be their God." Isaiah 62:3; Revelation
21:11, 24; Isaiah 65:19; Revelation 21:3. {GC 676.2}
In the City of God "there shall be no night." None
will need or desire repose. There will be no weariness in doing the will of God
and offering praise to His name. We shall ever feel the freshness of the
morning and shall ever be far from its close. "And they need no candle,
neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light." Revelation
22:5. The light of the sun will be superseded by a radiance which is not
painfully dazzling, yet which immeasurably surpasses the brightness of our
noontide. The glory of God and the Lamb floods the Holy City with unfading
light. The redeemed walk in the sunless glory of perpetual day. {GC 676.3}
"I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and
the Lamb are the temple of it." Revelation 21:22. The people of God are
privileged to hold open communion with the Father and the Son. "Now we see
through a glass, darkly." [677] 1 Corinthians 13:12. We behold
the image of God reflected, as in a mirror, in the works of nature and in His
dealings with men; but then we shall see Him face to face, without a dimming
veil between. We shall stand in His presence and behold the glory of His
countenance. {GC 676.4}
There the redeemed shall know, even as also they are known.
The loves and sympathies which God Himself has planted in the soul shall there
find truest and sweetest exercise. The pure communion with holy beings, the
harmonious social life with the blessed angels and with the faithful ones of
all ages who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb, the sacred ties that bind together "the whole family in heaven and
earth" (Ephesians 3:15)—these help to constitute the happiness
of the redeemed. {GC
677.1}
There, immortal minds will contemplate with never-failing
delight the wonders of creative power, the mysteries of redeeming love. There
will be no cruel, deceiving foe to tempt to forgetfulness of God. Every faculty
will be developed, every capacity increased. The acquirement of knowledge will
not weary the mind or exhaust the energies. There the grandest enterprises may
be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations reached, the highest ambitions
realized; and still there will arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to
admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of
mind and soul and body. {GC
677.2}
All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study
of God's redeemed. Unfettered by mortality, they wing their tireless flight to
worlds afar—worlds that thrilled with sorrow at the spectacle of
human woe and rang with songs of gladness at the tidings of a ransomed soul.
With unutterable delight the children of earth enter into the joy and the
wisdom of unfallen beings. They share the treasures of knowledge and
understanding gained through ages upon ages in contemplation of God's
handiwork. With undimmed vision they gaze upon the glory of creation—suns
and stars and systems, all in their appointed order circling the throne [678]
of Deity. Upon all things, from the least to the greatest, the Creator's name
is written, and in all are the riches of His power displayed. {GC 677.3}
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And the years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer
and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is
progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men
learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character. As Jesus
opens before them the riches of redemption and the amazing achievements in the
great controversy with Satan, the hearts of the ransomed thrill with more
fervent devotion, and with more rapturous joy they sweep the harps of gold; and
ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of voices unite to
swell the mighty chorus of praise. {GC 678.1}
"And every creature which is in heaven, and on the
earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in
them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him
that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever."
Revelation 5:13. {GC
678.2}
The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more.
The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through
the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness,
throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the
greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and
perfect joy, declare that God is love. {GC 678.3}
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