My attention was again directed to the earth. The wicked had
been destroyed, and their dead bodies were lying upon its surface. The wrath of
God in the seven last plagues had been visited upon the inhabitants of the
earth, causing them to gnaw their tongues from pain and to curse God. The false
shepherds had been the signal objects of Jehovah's wrath. Their eyes had
consumed away in their holes, and their tongues
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in their mouths, while they stood upon their feet. After the
saints had been delivered by the voice of God, the wicked multitude turned
their rage upon one another. The earth seemed to be deluged with blood, and
dead bodies were from one end of it to the other.
The earth looked like a desolate wilderness. Cities and
villages, shaken down by the earthquake, lay in heaps. Mountains had been moved
out of their places, leaving large caverns. Ragged rocks, thrown out by the
sea, or torn out of the earth itself, were scattered all over its surface.
Large trees had been uprooted and were strewn over the land. Here is to be the
home of Satan with his evil angels for a thousand years. Here he will be
confined, to wander up and down over the broken surface of the earth and see
the effects of his rebellion against God's law. For a thousand years he can
enjoy the fruit of the curse which he has caused. Limited alone to the earth,
he will not have the privilege of ranging to other planets, to tempt and annoy
those who have not fallen. During this time, Satan suffers extremely. Since his
fall his evil traits have been in constant exercise. But he is then to be
deprived of his power, and left to reflect upon the part which he has acted
since his fall, 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 all the sins that he has caused to be committed.
I heard shouts of triumph from the angels and from the
redeemed saints, which sounded like ten thousand musical instruments, because
they were to be no more annoyed and tempted by Satan and because the
inhabitants of other worlds were delivered from his presence and his
temptations.
Then I saw thrones, and Jesus and the redeemed saints sat
upon them; and the saints reigned as kings
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and priests unto God. Christ, in union with His people,
judged the wicked dead, comparing their acts with the statute book, the Word of
God, and deciding every case according to the deeds done in the body. Then they
meted out to the wicked the portion which they must suffer, according to their
works; and it was written against their names in the book of death. Satan also
and his angels were judged by Jesus and the saints. Satan's punishment was to
be far greater than that of those whom he had deceived. His suffering would so
far exceed theirs as to bear no comparison with it. After all those whom he had
deceived had perished, Satan was still to live and suffer on much longer.
After the judgment of the wicked dead had been finished, at
the end of the one thousand years, Jesus left the city, and the saints and a
train of the angelic host followed Him. Jesus descended upon a great mountain,
which as soon as His feet touched it, parted asunder and became a mighty plain.
Then we looked up and saw the great and beautiful city, with twelve foundations,
and twelve gates, three on each side, and an angel at each gate. We cried out,
"The city! the great city! it is coming down from God out of heaven!"
And it came down in all its splendor and dazzling glory and settled in the
mighty plain which Jesus had prepared for it.