The Controversy Ended
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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 was
clothed with immortal youth and
beauty. The wicked bear the traces of
disease and death.
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 have no new probation
in which to remedy the defeats 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.
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 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 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: 4,
5, 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.
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 see 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.
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 came 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.
Satan consults with
his angels, and then with these
kings, 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.
At last the order to
advance is given, and the countless
host moves on – an army such as
was never summoned by earthy
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.
Now Christ 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.
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 Savior 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 kindred’s, 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 that
now is theirs.
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.
Moreover, the 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 o 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.
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 upon
it, whose face the earth and the
heaven fled away; and there was 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.
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
warning rejected, the waves of mercy
beaten back by the stubborn,
unrepentant heart – all appear
as if it were written in letters of
fire.
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 Savior’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
plotting 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 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.
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.
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 that 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
Savior’s feet, exclaiming:
“He died for me!”
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 had tortured, and in
whose extremist anguish he found
satanic delight. His mother is there
to witness the result of 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.
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 ands 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.
The whole wicked world
stands 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
death is pronounced against them.
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.”
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 that they
have despised and transgressed. They
witness the outburst of wonder,
rapture, and adoration from the
saved; and as the wave of melody
sweeps over the multitude 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.
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.
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.
The aim of the great
rebel has ever been to justify
himself and to prove the divine
government responsible for his
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 that has been so long in
progress. For thousands of years this
chief of conspiracy has palmed off
falsehood for truth. However, the
time has now come when the rebellion
is to be fully 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 arch deceiver has
been fully unmasked. Those who have
united with him see the total failure
of his cause. Christ’s followers
and loyal angels behold the full
extent of his machinations against
the government of God. He is the
object of universal abhorrence.
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 that he has endeavored to
cast upon Jehovah rests wholly upon
himself. And now Satan bows down and
confesses the justice of his
sentence.
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