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Eternal Peace: The Controversy Ended
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earth’s surface seems one molten mass—a vast, seething lake of fire.
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It is “the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses
for the controversy of Zion.”
Isaiah 34:8
.
The wicked are punished “according to their deeds.” Satan is
made to suffer not only for his own rebellion, but for all the sins
which he has caused God’s people to commit. In the 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. Satan’s work of ruin is
forever ended. Now God’s creatures are forever delivered from his
temptations.
While the earth is wrapped in fire, the righteous abide safely in
the Holy City. While God is to the wicked a consuming fire, He is
to His people a shield. See
Revelation 20:6
;
Psalm 84:11
.
“I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and
the first earth were passed away.”
Revelation 21:1
. The fire that
consumes the wicked purifies the earth. Every trace of the curse is
swept away. No eternally burning hell will keep before the ransomed
the fearful consequences of sin.
Reminders of the Crucifixion
One reminder alone remains: our Redeemer will ever bear the
marks of His crucifixion, the only traces of the cruel work that sin
has wrought. Through eternal ages the wounds of Calvary will show
forth His praise and declare His power.
Christ assured His disciples that He went to prepare mansions
for them in the Father’s house. Human language is inadequate to
describe the reward of the righteous. It will be known only to those
who behold it. No finite mind can comprehend the glory of the
Paradise of God!
In the Bible the inheritance of the saved is called “a country.”
Hebrews 11:14-16
. There the heavenly Shepherd leads His flock
to fountains of living waters. There are everflowing streams, clear
as crystal, and beside them waving trees cast their shadows upon
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the paths prepared for the ransomed of the Lord. Wide-spreading
plains swell into hills of beauty, and the mountains of God rear their