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Chapter 63
The Millennium
MY attention was again directed to the earth. The wicked had been destroyed, and their
dead bodies were lying on 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 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 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.
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