Controversy Ended
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the midst of the stones of fire.... I will cast thee to the ground, I will
lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.... I will bring thee to
ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.... Thou
shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.”
Ezekiel 28:6-8,
16-19
.
“Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments
rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.” “The
indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and His fury upon all their
armies: He hath utterly destroyed them, He hath delivered them to the
slaughter.” “Upon the wicked He shall rain quick burning coals, fire
and brimstone and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their
cup.”
Isaiah 9:5
;
34:2
;
Psalm 11:6
, margin. Fire comes down from
God out of heaven. The earth is broken up. The weapons concealed in
its depths are drawn forth. Devouring flames burst from every yawning
chasm. The very rocks are on fire. The day has come that shall burn as
an oven. The elements melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the
works that are therein are burned up.
Malachi 4:1
;
2 Peter 3:10
. The
earth’s surface seems one molten mass—a vast, seething lake of fire. It
is the time of the judgment and perdition of ungodly men—“the day of
the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy
of Zion.”
Isaiah 34:8
.
The wicked receive their recompense in the earth.
Proverbs 11:31
.
They “shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up,
saith the Lord of hosts.”
Malachi 4:1
. Some are destroyed as in a
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moment, while others suffer many days. All are punished “according
to their deeds.” The sins of the righteous having been transferred to
Satan, he is made to suffer not only for his own rebellion, but for all
the sins which he has caused God’s people to commit. His punishment
is to be far greater than that of those whom he has deceived. After all
have perished who fell by his deceptions, he is still to live and suffer
on. In the cleansing flames the wicked are at last destroyed, root and
branch—Satan the root, his followers the branches. The full penalty
of the law has been visited; the demands of justice have been met; and
heaven and earth, beholding, declare the righteousness of Jehovah.