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The Great Controversy 1888
over its surface, while vast caverns mark the spot where the mountains
have been rent from their foundations.
Now the event takes place, foreshadowed in the last solemn service
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of the day of atonement. When the ministration in the holy of holies
had been completed, and the sins of Israel had been removed from the
sanctuary by virtue of the blood of the sin-offering, then the scape-
goat was presented alive before the Lord; and in presence of the
congregation of high priest confessed over him “all the iniquities of
the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins,
putting them upon the head of the goat.” [
Leviticus 16:21
.] In like
manner, when the work of atonement in the heavenly sanctuary has
been completed, then in the presence of God and heavenly angels,
and the host of the redeemed, the sins of God’s people will be placed
upon Satan; he will be declared guilty of all the evil which he has
caused them to commit. And as the scape-goat was sent away into a
land not inhabited, so Satan will be banished to the desolate earth, an
uninhabited and dreary wilderness.
The Revelator foretells the banishment of Satan, and the condition
of chaos and desolation to which the earth is to be reduced; and he
declares that this condition will exist for a thousand years. After
presenting the scenes of the Lord’s second coming and the destruction
of the wicked, the prophecy continues: “I saw an angel come down
from Heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in
his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the
devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into
the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he
should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be
fulfilled; and after that he must be loosed a little season.” [
Revelation
20:1-3
.]
That the expression, “bottomless pit,” represents the earth in a state
of confusion and darkness, is evident from other scriptures. Concern-
ing the condition of the earth “in the beginning,” the Bible record says
that it “was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face
of the deep.” [
Genesis 1:2
; The word here translated “deep” is the
same that in
Revelation 20:1-3
is rendered “Bottomless Pit.”] Prophecy
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teaches that it will be brought back, partially, at least, to this condition.
Looking forward to the great day of God, the prophet Jeremiah de-
clares: “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and