Chapter 42—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 life-time
of transgression 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
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great valley.” “And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that
day shall there be one Lord, and his name one.” [
Zechariah 14:5, 4, 9
.]
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.
Now Satan prepares for a last mighty struggle for the supremacy.
While deprived of his power, and cut off from his work of deception,
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