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Chapter 37—The Controversy Ended
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.
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
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the requirements of God and exciting rebellion against him.
Christ descends upon the Mount of Olives, and as his feet touch
the mountain, it parts asunder, and becomes a vast plain. Then the
New Jerusalem, in its dazzling splendor, comes down out of Heaven.
As it rests upon the place purified and made ready to receive it,
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 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
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