THE RESURRECTION by C. W. Stone

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 31, 1879

THE RESURRECTION.

By C. W. Stone

BY C. W. STONE.

(Concluded.)

After the first resurrection and the depopulation of the earth, Satan is bound, and cast into the bottomless pit. Rev. 20:1–3. The Greek word here rendered “bottomless pit” is abyssos. The same word in the Greek Old Testament is rendered “deep” in Gen. 1:2. In that case it evidently refers to the earth in its chaotic state. In Rev. 20:3 it doubtless refers to the earth in the chaotic state to which it will be reduced at the advent of Christ, as has been noticed. See Jer. 4:23–28. Here Satan is destined to remain a thousand years. What is signified by the binding of Satan? Simply this: He will have nothing to do. He cannot leave the earth, and there is not a living man on it. The saints are in Heaven, and the wicked are all dead. Satan is bound, for there is nothing that he can possibly do. He who has spent six thousand years in active labor in the destruction of souls, will find his occupation gone. Ah! there is one thing he can do,—he can wander among the graves and bleaching bones of his victims on this cursed earth, and reflect.

Three parties are spoken of in connection with the thousand years,—Satan, the saints, and the wicked dead. In verses 4, 5, and 6, the attention is called for a moment away from Satan and the wicked, to consider the work of the saints during the millennium. John sees them in Heaven sitting upon thrones, and judgment is given unto them. “And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” During this time they participate in the examination of the records of the wicked, and in passing judgment upon them. Paul also states that the saints shall judge the world. 1 Cor. 6:2, 3.

Rev. 20:6 shows that the righteous alone have part in the first resurrection. Verse 5 says that “the rest of the dead,” the wicked, “lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” That is also to say that at the end of the thousand years they will live again. We now observe that three things are to occur at the end of the thousand years. First, a change in the abode of the saints; for they were to live and reign with Christ a thousand years. Second, the wicked dead are to be raised. Third, Satan is to be loosed. Verse 7.

John does not in this chapter speak of the return of the saints and the descent of the beloved city to this earth, as he is directing the attention particularly to the final destiny of Satan and the wicked; but in relating what these do at the end of the thousand years, he speaks of “the camp of the saints and the beloved city” as being at that time on the earth. Verse 9. After finishing the record of what he saw of the wicked, he goes back to relate some things which he did not mention in this connected account of the wicked; and then he tells us all about the descent of this camp of the saints. “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Chap. 21:2. “The glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it.” Verses 23, 24.

This shows that the saints of God return to this earth when that city descends, which we also learn from Zech. 14:4, 5: “And his [the Lord’s] 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 toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley. . . . And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains. . . . and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.” Thus the “camp of the saints” is located on the earth. Then the Lord calls from their graves the “rest of the dead,” and they come forth “unto the resurrection of damnation.” John 5:29.

This is what looses Satan; for he immediately goes out “to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.” Rev. 20:8. Satan and his angels now find employment. He is determined to make one more grand effort to overthrow the plan of salvation. He goes out among the wicked hosts, and without doubt renders himself visible. He tells them of the city of God so lately descended to the earth. He encourages the mighty men of war to think that they can lay siege to it, and take it. They prepare for war. Immense armies are quickly formed. The command is given, and they come up from all directions, and compass the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city. What a company! Among them are “sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” Rev. 22:15. There with them is the man who once professed to love the Lord and hope in his truth. He was careless and negligent. There is the man who devoted all his faculties to making money. There are the giddy youth and the proud lady of fashion.

There stands the city with its dazzling walls and pearly gates. The precious stones, lighted by the glory of the Lamb of God, shine with inconceivable loveliness. The gates of pearl are closed. High upon the eternal walls are seen the saints of God, clad in glorious immortality. The wicked hosts see what the righteous have gained, and what they also might have obtained. Some of them went into the grave self-righteous, deceived. They come up in the second resurrection with the same exalted ideas of self, and immediately they begin to commend themselves to the Lord. They knock at the door, saying, “Lord, Lord, open unto us;” and they ask, “Have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” But the Saviour will say to them, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Matt. 7:22, 23; Luke 13:25–27. Anguish of mind settles upon them, racking them with untold pain and horror inexpressible as they see what they have lost, and contemplate their doom. “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.” Luke 13:28. Vain indeed will all the excuses they used to make for not obeying the Lord, nor receiving his truth, seem to them. Oh! if they had worlds, how gladly would they give them all for an hour in which to repent and find pardon! but it is too late. The awful wages of sin must be received. The vengeance of God no longer waits. Fire comes down from God out of heaven, and devours them. Rev. 20:9.

The saints of God behold this execution of his justice. “When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.” Ps. 37:34. Every one of them will say it is just. They have lived in the presence of God for a thousand years. They have examined the faithful records of the lives of the wicked, and have sat upon thrones in union with the heavenly court in judging them. And when the judgment is executed they will unite in saying, “True and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.” Rev. 19:1, 2.

The eternal fire which descends upon the wicked devours them, burns them up, and leaves them neither root nor branch. Mal. 4:1. Not one will escape; for that very fire, Peter says, will melt the whole earth. “The heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Pet. 3:7. The earth is reserved to the same fire that is to be the perdition or destruction of ungodly men. How does that fire affect the earth? “The elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” Verse 10. The common punctuation of this verse conveys a wrong idea. It should be punctuated thus: “The elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also; and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” “The earth also” shall melt with fervent heat. Then will exist the lake of fire, the hell (Greek, gehenna, Mark 9:43) in which the wicked will be punished. “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” Rev. 20:14. The word hell here is from hades, and signifies the grave. It is so given in the margin of verse 13. “Death and the grave were cast into the lake of fire.” This fire is spoken of in Deut. 32:22. “For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell [Hebrew, sheol, grave, same as hades].” The grave is a child of sin, but the lowest one ever made shall be destroyed by the fires of that great day, when the earth shall become a seething, boiling lake of fire. “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Rev. 20:15.

But you will ask, Where is the beloved city during this conflagration? I answer, The Bible leaves it on the earth. It rests upon a very great plain, purified and prepared by a special act of Christ when it descended. Zech. 14:4. It will be preserved amid the conflagration by the power of God, as was the ark during the flood. And as the ark bore its living freight safely over from “the world which then was” to “the world which now is,” when the former, “being overflowed with water, perished” (2 Pet. 3:5–7), so will the beloved city safely bear its immortal inhabitants from the earth which now is, over the lake of fire to the earth made new. For although “the elements shall melt with fervent heat,” yet the apostle continues, “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” Verse 13. The marks of the curse burned out and the wicked reduced to ashes, the fires cease, the earth is renewed and becomes the everlasting abode and possession of the righteous, “according to his promise.”

The burning of the wicked, and the protection of the righteous and the city of God, are spoken of in the following extracts from the thirty-third chapter of Isaiah: “Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without. . . . The earth mourneth and languisheth. . . . Now will I arise, saith the Lord; now will I be exalted. . . . Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble. . . . The people shall be as the burnings of lime; as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire. . . . Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly. . . . Thine eye shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation; . . . not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed. . . . But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams. . . . The Lord is our king; he will save us.”

After the fires of that great day shall have done their work, and the purified new earth shall have appeared, then shall the righteous go forth upon the lovely fields, and “ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.” Mal. 4. Earth shall bloom in its Eden robes of purity again, and the saints of God shall dwell securely therein forever. “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” Isa. 66:22, 23. Glorious assemblies of the redeemed! They shall assemble at the new Jerusalem every Sabbath while eternity lasts, to praise the great Creator and to celebrate the day which God in the beginning set apart as a memorial of his rest when he first “made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is.” Gen. 2:1–3; Ex. 20:8–11.

When the young earth came from the hand of its Maker, God pronounced it very good. Gen. 1:31. The angels of God were filled with delight as they beheld the handiwork of Him who “laid the corner stone thereof,” and lifting up their voices in strains of sweetest harmony, “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Job 38:7. So when the innumerable company of the redeemed shall look out upon the earth renewed, the marks of sin obliterated, and the desert blooming as the rose, again will there arise a joyous song of adoration from immortal tongues, to worship “Him that liveth forever and ever.”

As the beloved John was upon the Isle of Patmos, the angel of the Lord communed with him in vision. He brought the future like a living panorama before him, and permitted him to see the saints in the enjoyment of their glorious reward, and also to hear the songs of deliverance and joy they shall sing. Perhaps it was amid the holy stillness of one of these Sabbath convocations that the grand anthem was sung; but again the seer heard the morning stars sing together, and all the sons of God shout for joy. “And every creature which is in Heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” Rev. 5:13.

Such, dear reader, are some of the scenes which follow the resurrection of the dead. Such is the reward in store for the righteous. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.” Without that blessed portion none can have the reward. “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” Matt. 16:27. Not until the coming of our Lord shall we receive the reward. Do not wonder, then, that we look with longing hearts for the return of the Master, and with hope for the resurrection of the dead. May

reader and writer be prepared for that glad day, is my prayer. “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. 22:14. “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly.” Verse 20. My heart responds, “Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus.”