| This earth is the battleground of the great controversy between Christ and Satan, and although Christ defeated His enemy on the cross of Calvary, the execution has not yet taken place. Until that time, the devil is working with fury to destroy as many as he can “for he knoweth he hath but a short time.” Revelation 12:12. |
| Trials and disasters will increase, but if our focus is on the coming of the Lord, and we have His peace in our hearts, we will be given strength to bear them. |
| When all things have been fulfilled, the universe will know without a doubt that disobedience to God’s Ten Commandments does not bring peace and happiness, but untold suffering and misery. Praise God, sin and affliction will “not rise up a second time.” Nahum 1:9. |
| Sin and sinners will be destroyed in the second death, not to linger on for eternity, but destroyed completely. |
| “Behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble, the day that cometh shall burn them up… that it shall leave them neither root nor branch…. they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in that day… saith the Lord of hosts.” Malachi 4:1, 3. |
| “In the day of the Lord, just before the coming of Christ, God will send lightnings from Heaven in His wrath, which will unite with fire in the earth. The mountains will burn like a furnace, and will pour forth terrible streams of lava, destroying gardens and fields, villages and cities… |
| The earth will be convulsed, and there will be dreadful earthquakes everywhere. |
| God will plague the wicked inhabitants of the earth until they are destroyed from off it…” Spiritual Gifts Book 3 p82-83. |
| During this time, God’s faithful ones will stand unmoved, protected by holy angels who excel in strength. Daniel 12:1. |
| The Old Testament prophets speak of this dramatic period of earth’s history, and the writers of the New Testament repeat their words, sometimes a direct quotation, and at other times using their own words. |
| Isaiah describes the same scenes. “And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll…” Isaiah 34:4. |
| John wrote of the same event. “And the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.” Revelation 6:14. |
| Isaiah adds further details in very descriptive language saying, “Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside-down… The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage… The land shall be utterly emptied and utterly broken, for the Lord hath spoken this word.” Isaiah 24:1, 3, 19-20. |
| The Psalmist also speaks of it. “A fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world; the earth saw, and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord.” Psalm 97:3-5. |
| Ellen White continues her description, “Above the terrific roar of thunder, voices, mysterious and awful, declare the doom of the wicked. The words spoken are not comprehended by all, but they are distinctly understood by the false teachers. Those who a little before were so reckless, so boastful and defiant… are now overwhelmed with consternation and shuddering in fear.” Maranatha p285. |
| And again, “The earth’s crust will be rent by the outbursts of the elements concealed in the bowels of the earth. These elements, once broken loose, will sweep away the treasures of those who for years have been adding to them wealth by securing large possessions at starvation prices from those in their employ.” Manuscript 24. 1891. |
| As the wicked suffer for their evil deeds, the clouds break apart, and “there beams a star whose brilliance is increased fourfold in contrast with the darkness. It speaks hope and joy to the faithful, but severity and wrath to the transgressors of God’s law.” Ibid. |
| Amid the devastation and breakup of the earth, “the voice of God is heard from heaven… He speaks one sentence and then pauses, while the words roll around the earth…. The living saints…. knew and understood the voice, while the wicked thought it was thunder and an earthquake.” Early Writings p285. |
| “The sun appears, shining in its strength. Signs and wonders follow in quick succession. The wicked look with terror and amazement upon the scene, while the righteous behold with solemn joy the tokens of their deliverance. Everything in nature seems turned out of its course. The streams cease to flow. Dark, heavy clouds come up and clash against each other.” Maranatha p279. |
| “And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air, and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, ‘It is done”. Revelation 16:17. |
| “Dark, heavy clouds came up and clashed against each other. The atmosphere parted and rolled back; then we could look up through the open space in Orion, whence came the voice of God.” Early Writings p41. |
| That voice shakes the heavens and the earth, and there is a mighty earthquake, “such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake.” Revelation 16:18. |
| “Soon our eyes were drawn to the east, for a small black cloud had appeared… When it first appeared in the distance, this cloud looked dark and very small…. As it drew nearer the earth, we could behold the excellent glory and majesty of Jesus….” Maranatha p289. Christ comes in His own glory, in the glory of His Father, and in the glory of the holy angels, and “every eye shall see Him.” Revelation 1:7. |
| “Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels, the beautiful, triumphant sons of God, possessing surpassing loveliness and glory, will escort Him on His way. In the place of a crown of thorns, He will wear a crown of glory – a crown within a crown… And on His vesture and on His thigh a name will be written, ‘KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS’. Revelation 19:16.” Our High Calling p367. |
| Come Lord Jesus, come quickly! |
| “Amid the reeling of the earth, the flash of lightning, and the roar of thunder, the voice of the Son of God calls forth the sleeping saints. He looks upon the graves of the righteous, then, raising His hands to heaven He cries, ‘Awake, awake, awake, ye that sleep in the dust, and arise!’ |
| Throughout the length and breadth of the earth the dead shall hear that voice, and they that hear shall live… |
| From the prison house of death they come, clothed with immortal glory… And the living righteous and the risen saints unite their voices in a long, glad shout of victory…” Great Controversy p641- 645 |
| “Behold… in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed…. for this mortal must put on immortality.” 1 Corinthians 15:52. |
| “Friends long separated by death are united, nevermore to part, and with songs of gladness ascend together to the City of God.” The Great Controversy p645. |
| Mothers will see their babies and children again. “As the little infants come forth immortal from their dusty beds, they immediately wing their way to their mothers’ arms. They meet again, nevermore to part. But many of the little ones have no mother there. We listen in vain for the rapturous song of triumph from the mother. The angels receive the motherless infants and conduct them to the tree of life.” 2 Selected Messages p260. |
| What a glorious day! |
| “We shall know our friends, even as the disciples knew Jesus. They may have been deformed, diseased or disfigured in this mortal life, but they rise in perfect health and symmetry; yet in the glorified body their identity will be perfectly preserved… In the face radiant with the light shining from the face of Jesus, we shall recognise the lineaments (features) of those we love.” The Desire of Ages p804. |
| “We all entered the cloud (of angels) together, and were seven days ascending to the sea of glass…” Early Writings p16. |
| It is many light years to the heavenly city, however, with immortal youth, God’s people will follow their Saviour through the starry heavens to His glorious home. |
| “Before entering the city, the saints were arranged in a perfect square, with Jesus in the midst…. His majestic form and lovely countenance could be seen by all in the square.” Early Writings p288. |
| “With unutterable love, Jesus welcomes His faithful ones to the joy of their Lord. The Saviour’s joy is in seeing, in the kingdom of glory, those who have been saved by His agony and humiliation.” Maranatha p315. |
| “I saw a very great number of angels bring from the city glorious crowns – a crown for every saint, with his name written thereon. As Jesus called for the crowns, angels presented them to Him, and with His own right hand, the lovely Jesus placed the crowns on the heads of the saints. In the same manner the angels brought the harps, and Jesus presented them also to the saints. |
| The commanding angels first struck the note, and then every voice was raised in grateful, happy praise, and every hand skilfully swept over the strings of the harp, sending forth melodious music in rich and perfect strains. |
| Then I saw Jesus lead the redeemed company to the gates of the city. He laid hold of the gate and swung it back on its glittering hinges and bade the nations that had kept the truth enter in… |
| Jesus looked upon His redeemed saints; their countenances were radiant with glory; and as He fixed His loving eyes upon them, He said, with His rich, musical voice, ‘I behold the travail of My soul, and am satisfied. This rich glory is yours to enjoy eternally. Your sorrows are ended’.” Early Writings p288-289. |
| “I saw the redeemed host bow and cast their glittering crowns at the feet of Jesus, and then, as his lovely hand raised them up, they touched their golden harps and filled all heaven with their rich music and songs to the Lamb.” Ibid p289. |
| “As the ransomed ones are welcomed to the City of God, there rings out upon the air an exultant cry of adoration…. |
| The Son of God is standing with outstretched arms to receive the father of our race … As Adam discerns the prints of the cruel nails, he does not fall upon the bosom of his Lord, but in humiliation casts himself at His feet… Tenderly, the Saviour lifts him up and bids him look once more upon the Eden home from which he has so long been exiled.” Maranatha p315. |
| “All the redeemed saints will see and appreciate as never before the love of the Father and the Son, and songs of praise will burst forth from immortal tongues. He loved us, He gave His life for us. |
| With glorified bodies, with enlarged capacities, with hearts made pure, with lips undefiled, we shall sing the riches of redeeming love.” Review & Herald. June 1884. |
| “Some things in the Bible may appear to us mysterious because they are beyond our finite comprehension. But as our Saviour leads us by the living waters, He will make clear to our minds that which was not before clearly understood.” Ibid August 8, 1907. |
| “Christ will lead His redeemed ones beside the river of life and will explain to them all that perplexed them in this world. The mysteries of grace will unfold before them. Where their finite minds discerned only confusion and broken promises, they will see the most perfect and beautiful harmony.” 9 Testimonies p194. |
| “We shall see that our seemingly unanswered prayers and disappointed hopes have been among our greatest blessings.” The Ministry of Healing p473. |
| “The ways of Providence will be made clear; the mysteries of grace through Christ will be unfolded. That which the mind cannot now grasp, which is hard to be understood, will be explained… The heart will be made to sing for joy.” 6 Bible Commentary p1091. |
| “Every sinful tendency, and every imperfection, has been removed by the blood of Christ… They are without fault… sharing the dignity and privileges of the angels.” In Heavenly Places p367. |
| “When the redeemed, who have been subject to sorrow, toil, and afflictions, who have groaned beneath the curse, are gathered up around that tree of life to eat of its immortal fruit…. there will be no danger of their ever losing right to the tree of life again, for he that tempted our first parents to sin will be destroyed by the second death.” My Life Today p355. |
| “Restored to the tree of life in the long-lost Eden, the redeemed will ‘grow up’ to the full stature of the race in its primeval glory. The last lingering traces of the curse of sin will be removed, and Christ’s faithful ones will appear in ‘the beauty of the Lord our God’.” God’s Amazing Grace p360. |
| “To be heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ is to be entitled to unsearchable riches – treasures of such value that in comparison with them the gold and silver, the gems and precious stones of earth, sink into insignificance.” Review & Herald. June 10, 1884. |
| “In the heavenly school we shall have opportunity to attain, step by step, to the greatest heights of learning.” Counsels to Parents, Teachers and Students p209. |
| “Between the school established in Eden at the beginning and the school of the hereafter there lies the whole compass of this world’s history – the history of human transgression and suffering, of divine sacrifice, and of victory over death and sin. Not all the conditions of that first school of Eden will be found in the school of the future life. No tree of knowledge of good and evil will afford opportunity for temptation. No tempter is there, no possibility of wrong…. Restored to His presence, man will again, as at the beginning, be taught of God.” Education 301-302. |
| “We shall ever feel the freshness of the morning and shall ever be far from its close.” Maranatha p356. |
| “Our lifework here is a preparation for the life eternal. The education begun here will not be completed in this life, it will be going forward through all eternity – ever progressing, never completed.” The Ministry of Healing p466. |
| “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 holiest aspirations reached, the highest ambitions realised; 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 body.” Maranatha p363. |
| “Every right principle, every truth learned in an earthly school, will advance us just that much in the heavenly school.” God’s Amazing Grace p366. |
| “Heaven is a place of interested activity; yet to the weary and heavy laden, to those who have fought the good fight of faith, it will be a glorious rest; for the youth and vigour of immortality will be theirs…. To these energetic workers a state of eternal indolence would be irksome.” Child Guidance p354. |
| “In the world to come Christ will lead the redeemed beside the river of life and will teach them wonderful lessons of truth. He will unfold to them the mysteries of nature. They will see that a master hand holds the world in position. |
| They will behold the skill displayed by the great Artist in colouring the flowers of the field, and will learn of the purposes of the merciful Father, who dispenses every ray of light, and with the holy angels the redeemed will acknowledge in songs of grateful praise God’s supreme love to an unthankful world.” My Life Today p361. |
| “As Christ walked and talked with His disciples during His ministry on this earth, so will He teach us in the school above, leading us beside the river of living waters and revealing to us truths that in this life must remain hidden mysteries because of the limitations of the human mind, so marred by sin.” Counsels to Parents, Teachers and Students p209. |
| “The study of the incarnation of Christ, His atoning sacrifice and mediatorial work, will employ the mind of the diligent student as long as time shall last… The themes of redemption will employ the hearts and minds and tongues of the redeemed through the everlasting ages… forever and forever new views of the perfection and glory of Christ will appear. Through endless ages the faithful Householder will bring forth from His treasures things new and old.” My Life Today p360. |
| “There the student of science may read the records of creation and discern no reminders of the law of evil. He may listen to the music of nature’s voices and detect no note of wailing or undertone of sorrow. In all created things he may trace one handwriting – in the vast universe behold ‘God’s name writ large’, and not in earth or sea or sky one sign of ill remaining.” Education p303. |
| At the end of the thousand-year-investigation into the records of the lost, the redeemed will return to the earth, and from above its broken and twisted ruins, will watch the descent of the city of God. |
| “The holy city will come down through the open space in Orion.” Early Writings p41. |
| The apostle John saw its descent in vision, for he said, “I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven…” Revelation 21:2. |
| Jesus’ final advent will precede the descent of the city, then “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.” Zechariah 14:4. |
| This hallowed expanse will be the resting place of the New Jerusalem. |
| It will be the capital city of a renewed earth, restored once again to its original Edenic beauty. The Creator will speak as He did in the beginning, and the elements will obey His voice. They will spring forth into a glorious ‘new earth’. He will “command, and it will stand fast.” Psalm 33:9. |
| God said, “Behold, I create new heavens (atmospheric) and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind…. |
| And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them… They shall not labour in vain… The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock….” Isaiah 65:17, 21, 23, 25. |
| “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Isaiah 11:9. |
| David prophesied, “The meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” Psalm 37:11. |
| Jesus quoted these words in His sermon of blessing, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5. |
| In vision, Ellen White saw and experienced this wonderful new earth. She said, “I saw a field full of all kinds of flowers, and as I plucked them, I cried out, ‘They will never fade’. Next I saw a field of tall grass, most glorious to behold; it was living green… Then we entered a field full of all kinds of beasts – the lion, the lamb, the leopard, and the wolf, all together in perfect union. We passed through the midst of them, and they followed on peaceably after.” Early Writings p18. |
| “And I saw a table of pure silver, it was many miles in length, yet our eyes could extend over it. I saw the fruit of the tree of life, the manna, almonds, figs, pomegranates, grapes, and many other kinds of fruit. I asked Jesus to let me eat of the fruit. He said, ‘Not now. Those who eat of the fruit of this land go back to earth no more…. You must go back to the earth again and relate to others what I have revealed to you.” Early Writings p19-20. |
| In God’s eternal kingdom, “there is no disappointment, no sorrow, no sin, no one who shall say, I am sick; there are no burial trains, no mourning, no death, no partings, no broken hearts.” The Mount of Blessings p17. |
| Not only is this earth to be ransomed, but it is to be exalted. “Our little world, under the curse of sin the one dark blot in His glorious creation, will be honoured above all other worlds in the universe of God. Here, where the Son of God tabernacled in humanity; where the King of glory lived and suffered and died – here, when He shall make all things new, the tabernacle of God shall be 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’. And through endless ages as the redeemed walk in the light of the Lord, they will praise Him for His unspeakable Gift -– Immanuel, ‘God with us’.” The Desire of Ages p26. |
| Only one reminder of our sinful world 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….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’… And the tokens of His humiliation are His highest honour; through the eternal ages the wounds of Calvary will show forth His praise and declare His power.” The Faith I Live By p361. |
| “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6. |
| When Eden shall bloom on earth again, God’s holy rest day, the memorial of His creative power, will be honoured by all beneath the sun. “’From one Sabbath to another the inhabitants of the glorified new earth shall go up ‘to worship before Me’, saith the Lord’.” Isaiah 66:23. The Desire of Ages p283. |
| “There the loves and sympathies that God has planted in the soul will 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, the sacred fellowship that binds together ‘the whole family in heaven and earth’ – all are among the experiences of the hereafter.” Education p306. |
| “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 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. |
| 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. |
| 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…” Signs of the Times March 10, 1880. |
| And every voice will rise saying, “Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.” Revelation 5:13. “Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of voices unite to swell the mighty chorus of praise.” The Great Controversy p667-668. |
