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Descent of the New Jerusalem, December 15
And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high
mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem,
descending out of heaven from God.
Revelation 21:10
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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 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 transgressions 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 res-
urrection, 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 very great
valley.”
Zechariah 14:5, 4
.... 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.
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