California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists · Oakland, Cal. · Mar 11, 1875
SIGNS OF THE END
By James White
The Sermon.
SIGNS OF THE END.
BY ELD. JAMES WHITE.
"What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?"—DISCIPLES.
"When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors."—JESUS. Matt. 24:3, 33.
THE DAY AND HOUR.
VERSES 36, 37: "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of Heaven, but my Father only. But, as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." The day and hour, and even the year, of the second advent, are purposely hidden. Some of the prophetic periods reach to the time of the end, while others extend still farther down, very near the end itself; yet none of them reach to the coming of the Son of man. The prophecies clearly point to the period of the second advent, but do not give the definite time of that event. But many suppose that the text proves that nothing may be known of the period of the second advent. In this, they greatly err, as may be seen from the following reasons:
1. Because our Lord, after stating that the sun should be darkened, and that the moon should not give her light, and that the stars should fall from heaven, gives the following forcible parable, and makes the most distinct application of it to this subject. He says: "Now learn a parable of the fig-tree; when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that is near even at the doors." Verses 32, 33. No figure should exceed the fact illustrated in a single particular. This being the case in the parable of the fig-tree, the point becomes an exceedingly strong one. No language can be more direct. No proof can be more complete. With all that certainty with which we know that summer is nigh when we see the buds and the leaves shoot forth from the trees in spring, may we know that Christ is at the doors. The most daring unbelief will hardly venture to deny these words of the Son of God, and assert that nothing can be known of the period of his second coming.
2. Because our Lord declares that as the days of Noah were, so should also the coming of the Son of man be. Said God to Noah, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." Gen. 6:3. The period of the flood was given to the patriarch. And under the direct providence of God, he prepared the ark and warned the people. So the fulfilling prophecies and the signs distinctly declare that the second coming of Christ is at the doors, and the solemn message has gone forth.
3. Those who claim that the text proves that nothing may be known of the period of the second advent, make it prove too much for their own unbelief. As recorded by Mark, the declaration reads: "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in Heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." If the text proves that men will know nothing of the period of the second advent, it also proves that angels will know nothing of it, and also that the Son will know nothing of it, till the event takes place. This position proves too much, therefore proves nothing to the point. Christ will know of the period of his second advent to this world. The holy angels who wait around the throne of Heaven to receive messages relative to the part they act in the salvation of men, will know of the time of this closing event of salvation. And so will the waiting, watching people of God understand. An old English version of the passage reads, "But that day and hour no man maketh known, neither the angels which are in Heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." This is the correct reading, according to several of the ablest critics of the age. The word know is used in the same sense here that it is by Paul, in 1 Cor. 2:2: "For I determined not to know [make known] anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." Men will not make known the day and hour, angels will not make it known, neither will the Son; but the Father will make it known.
Says Campbell: "Macknight argues that the term know is here used as a causative, in the Hebrew sense of the conjugation hiphil, that is, to make known. His [Christ's] answer is just equivalent to saying, The Father will make it known when it pleases him; but he has not authorized man, angel, or the Son, to make it known. Just in this sense, Paul uses the term know: 1 Cor. 2:2: 'I came to you making known the testimony of God; for I determine to make known nothing among you but a crucified Christ.'"
Albert Barnes, in his notes on the Gospels, says: "Others have said that the verb rendered knoweth means sometimes to make known, or to reveal, and that the passage means, 'that day and hour none maketh known, neither the angels, nor the Son, but the Father.' It is true the word has sometimes that meaning, as 1 Cor. 2:2."
The Father will make known the time. He gave the period of the flood to Noah, which well represents the proclamation of the second advent, given in connection with the evidence of the termination of the periods of Daniel, during the great Advent movement of 1840–44.
And when the patriarch's work of warning and building was finished, God said to him, "Come thou and all thy house into the ark." "For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights." So when the waiting, watching, weeping, toiling time shall be finished, and the saints shall all be sealed, and shut in with God, then will the voice of the Father from Heaven make known the definite time. See Rev. 16:17; Joel 3:16; Jer. 25:30.
The present is emphatically the waiting, watching time. It is the especial period of the patience of the saints. In definite time we would find relief from the state of suspense to which our present position subjects us. The Lord appeals to us thus: "Watch ye therefore; for ye know not when the Master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning; lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch." Mark 13:35–37.
One of the fatal consequences of not watching is distinctly stated in Rev. 3:3: "If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." The consequence of not watching will be ignorance of the time. What will be the consequence of watching? The inference is unavoidable, that it will be a knowledge of the time. In answer to the agonizing prayer of the Son of God, "Father, glorify thy name," there came a voice from Heaven, saying, "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." The disciples understood these words from Heaven; while the people that stood by said it thundered. John 12:27–29. So will the waiting disciples of Christ understand the voice of God when he shall speak from on high. But the unbelieving world will not understand it. In comparing Noah's days and ours, the Lord continues:
NOAH'S TIME AND OURS.
Verses 38, 39: "For, as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." A picture of the present condition of the mass of mankind is here drawn. How dark the features! The people of the last generation will be like those before the flood, while the ark was preparing. Noah preached, and warned them of the coming flood, and they mocked. He built the ark, and they scoffed and jeered. He was a preacher of righteousness. His works were calculated to give edge to, and set home to138the heart, what he preached. Every righteous sermon, and every blow struck in building the ark, condemned a careless, scoffing world. As the time drew nearer, the people were more careless, more hardened, more bold and impudent, and their condemnation surer. Noah and his family were alone. And could one family know more than all the world? The ark is a matter of ridicule, and Noah is regarded as a willful bigot.
But the Lord calls Noah into the ark. And by the hand of Providence the beasts were lead into the ark; and the Lord shuts Noah in. This is regarded at first by the scoffing multitude as something wonderful; but it is soon explained away by the wiser ones, so as to calm their fears, and they breathe the easier.
The day of expectation finally arrives. The sun rises as usual, and the heavens are clear. "Now where is old Noah's flood?" is heard from a thousand impious lips. The farmer is caring for his herds and lands, and the mechanic is pursuing his work of building. On this very day, some are being joined in marriage. With many, it is a day of unusual feasting and sports. And while all are looking to long years of future prosperity and happiness, suddenly the heavens gather blackness. Fear fills every heart. The windows of heaven open, and the rain in torrents descends. "The fountains of the great deep are broken up," and here and there come gushing up rivers of waters. The valleys are fast filling up, and thousands are swept away in death. Some flee to the highest points of land; but the water fast follows them up. Men bear their wives and children to the mountains, but are obliged to part with them there to drown; while they climb the highest trees. But soon they, too, are covered with water, so that there is not a resting-place for Noah's dove. All are still in death. Horrid death! made still more horrible by being in consequence of slighted mercy! But where is Noah? Ah! safe in the ark, borne upon the billows. Safe from the flood; for God "shut him in."
By most people, the evidences of the soon coming of Christ are considered insufficient to base faith upon. But mark: the testimony and acts of one man condemned the people destroyed by the flood. The evidences then were sufficient, otherwise the world would not have been condemned. But a hundred times more convincing evidences come pouring in upon us, that the day of the Lord is near, and hasteth greatly. We follow down the numerous prophetic chains of Daniel, and of the Revelation, and we find ourselves in every instance standing just before the day of wrath. We see the signs spoken of by prophets, by Christ, and in the epistles, fulfilling, or fulfilled. And at the right time, and in the right manner, to fulfill certain prophecies, a solemn message arises in different parts of the world: "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand." Joel 2:1. Wherever we look, we see prophecy fulfilling. While the knowledge of God and the spirit of holiness are departing, spiritual wickedness, like a flood, covers the land.
But these evidences are considered insufficient to rest faith upon. Well, what kind of evidence would the unbelieving have? "When the signs of the end," says the skeptic, "are fulfilled, they will be so plain no one can doubt." But if the signs are of such a nature, and are fulfilled in such a manner, as to compel all to believe in the coming of Christ, how can it be as it was in the days of Noah? Men were not then compelled to believe. But eight believing souls were saved, while all the world besides sank in their unbelief beneath the waters of the flood. God has never revealed his truth to man in a manner to compel him to believe. Those who have wished to doubt his word, have found a wide field in which to doubt, and a broad road to perdition; while those who have wished to believe, have found everlasting rock upon which to rest their faith.
Just before the end, the world will be hardened in sin, and indifferent to the claims of God. Men will be careless about hearing warnings of danger, and blinded by cares, pleasures, and riches. An unbelieving and infidel race will be eating, drinking, marrying, building, planting, and sowing. It is right to eat and drink to sustain nature; but the sin is in excess and gluttony. The marriage covenant is holy; but God's glory is seldom thought of. Building, planting, and sowing, necessary for convenient shelter, food, and clothing, are right; but the world has gone wholly after these things, so that men have no time nor disposition to think of God, Heaven, Christ's coming, and the Judgment. This world is their God, and all their energies of body and mind bow down to serve it. And the evil day is put far away.
The faithful watchman who sounds the alarm as he sees destruction coming, is held up before the people from the pulpits of our land, and by the religious press, as a "fanatic," a "teacher of dangerous heresies;" while in contrast is set forth a long period of peace and prosperity to the church. So the churches are quieted to sleep. The scoffer continues to scoff, and the mocker mocks on. But their day is coming. Thus saith the prophet of God: "Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt. And they shall be afraid; pangs and sorrow shall take hold of them. * Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it." Isa. 13:6–9.
Most dreadful day! And is it near? Yes; it hasteth! It hasteth greatly! What a description given by the prophet! Read it; and as you read, try to feel how dreadful will be that day: "The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land." Zeph. 1:14–18.
Now we hear the "peace and safety" cry from the pulpit, and all the way along down to the grog-shop. "Where is the promise of his coming?" is murmured from the impious lips of a thousand last-day scoffers. But the scene will speedily change. "For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, * and they shall not escape. The scoffing of the haughty scoffer will soon be turned to wailing and howling. "The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low." Isa. 2:11, 12. "And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground." Jer. 25:33.
The last plagues, in which is filled up the wrath of God, now bottled up in Heaven, waiting for Mercy to finish her last pleadings, will be poured out. Unmingled wrath of Jehovah! And not one drop of mercy? Not one! Jesus will lay off his priestly attire, leave the mercy-seat, and put on the garments of vengeance, never more to offer his blood to wash the sinner from his sins. The angels will wipe the last tear shed over sinners, while the mandate resounds through all Heaven, Let them alone. The groaning, weeping, praying church on earth, who in the last message employs every power to sound everywhere the last note of warning, lest the blood of souls be found in her garments, is now hushed in solemn silence. The Holy Spirit has written within them these prophetic words of their soon-expected Lord: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still." Rev. 22:11.
A Little While.
By Madeleine Arne
Oh! for the peace that floweth as a river,
Making life's desert places bloom and smile;
Oh! for a faith which grasps Heaven's bright forever,
Amid the shadows of that little while.
A little while for patient vigil keeping,
To face the storm, to wrestle with the strong,
A little while to sow the seed with weeping,
Then bind the sheaves, and sing the harvest song.
A little while to wear the robe of sadness,
To toil with weary steps through miry ways;
Then to pour forth the fragrant oil of gladness,
And clasp the girdle round the robe of praise.
A little while 'midst shadow and illusion,
To strive by faith, love's mystery to spell;
Then read each dark enigma's bright solution,
And hail sight's verdict: "He doeth all things well."
A little while the earthen pitcher taking
To wayside brooks, from far-off fountains fed;
Then the parched lip its thirst forever slaking
Beside the fullness of the Fountain-head.
A little while to keep the oil from failing,
A little while faith's flickering lamp to trim;
And then, the Bridegroom's coming footsteps hailing,
To haste to meet him with the bridal hymn.
Thus he, who is himself the Gift and Giver,
The future glory, and the present smile,
With his bright promise of the glad forever,
Can light the shadows of that—little while.
Madeleine Arne.
Ministration of Angels.
By Dudley Marvin Canright
SATAN BOUND FOR ONE THOUSAND YEARS.
HAVING learned the origin of Satan, and the history of his work thus far, we will now inquire what his final destiny will be. To ascertain this, we will again call attention to the subject of the sanctuary. It was all typical of the heavenly sanctuary, as we have before seen. Every day in the year the people brought their victims to the door of the sanctuary, and confessed their sins over them. Then they were slain, and the blood containing the sins thus confessed, was taken into the sanctuary. Thus the sins of those who confessed them were conveyed from themselves into the sanctuary during the whole year. Heb. 9 : 1-7; Lev. 1 : 3. At the end of the year, the high priest presented two goats before the door of the sanctuary, and cast lots for them. One lot was for the Lord, the other for the scape-goat. Lev. 16 : 1-8. The one on whom the Lord's lot fell, was then slain, and his blood taken into the sanctuary, and by it the sins in there were atoned for. Verses 9-19. Then these sins were taken out of the sanctuary and placed upon the head of the scape-goat, and he bore them away into a land not inhabited. Verses 20-22. All this was typical of Christ's ministration in the true sanctuary above. Heb. 8 : 1-5. Therefore, Christ will minister in the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary till the day of atonement, or Judgment. During this time the sins of God's people are conveyed, by faith in the blood of Jesus, into the heavenly sanctuary. At the day of atonement, the blood of the Lamb of God will be offered to cleanse the heavenly sanctuary from these sins.
According to the pattern, when the heavenly sanctuary is cleansed by the blood of the Lamb of God, the sins of the righteous will be conveyed by the High Priest (Christ) and placed upon the head of the scape-goat, who will then be sent into a land not inhabited. Now we are prepared to ask who this scape-goat is.
"THE SCAPE-GOAT.—The next event of that day, after the sanctuary was cleansed, was the putting off all the iniquities and transgressions of the children of Israel upon the scape-goat, and sending him away into a land not inhabited, or of separation. It is supposed by almost every one that this goat typified Christ in some of his offices, and that the type was fulfilled at the first advent. From this opinion I must differ, because, 1. That goat was not sent away till after the high priest had made an end of cleansing the sanctuary. Lev. 16 : 20, 21. Hence that event cannot meet its antitype till after the end of the 2300 days (1844). 2. It was sent away from Israel into the wilderness, a land not inhabited. If our blessed Saviour is its antitype, he also must be sent away; not his body alone, but soul and body (for the goat was sent away alive), from, not to, nor into, his people; neither into Heaven, for that is not a wilderness, nor a land not inhabited. 3. It received and retained all the iniquities of Israel; but when Christ appears the second time, he will be without sin. 4. The goat received the iniquities from the hand of the priest, and he sent it away. As Christ is the priest, the goat must be something else besides himself, which he can send away. 5. This was one of two goats chosen for that day, of which one was the Lord's and was offered for a sin-offering; but the other was not called the Lord's, neither offered as a sacrifice. Its only office was to receive the iniquities from the priest after he had cleansed the sanctuary from them, and bear them into a land not inhabited, leaving the sanctuary, priest, and people, behind, and free from their iniquities. Lev. 16 : 7-10, 22. 6. The Hebrew name of the scape-goat, as will be seen from the margin of verse 8, is Azazel. On this verse Wm. Jenks, in his Comp. Com., has the following remarks: 'Scape-goat. See dif. opin. in Bochart. Spencer, after the oldest opinion of the Hebrews and Christians, thinks Azazel is the name of the devil; and so Rosenmuller, whom see. The Syriach as Azazil, the angel (strong one) who revolted.' 7. At the appearing of Christ, as taught in Rev. 20, Satan is to be bound and cast into the bottomless pit, which act and place are significantly symbolized by the ancient high priest's sending the scape-goat into a separate and uninhabited wilderness. Thus we have the Scripture, the definition in two ancient languages, both spoken at the same time, and the oldest opinions of the Christians, in favor of regarding the scape-goat as the type of Satan."
On this subject, Chas. Beecher, Redeemer and Redeemed, p. 66, says: "Two goats were to be presented before the Lord by the high priest. They must be exactly alike in value, size, age, color—they must be counterparts. Placing these goats before him, the high priest put both his hands into an urn containing two golden lots, and drew them out, one in each hand. On the one was engraved La-Yehova (for Jehovah) on the other, La-Azazel (for Azazel).
"The goat on which the lot La-Yehova fell, was slain. After its blood had been sprinkled in the holy of holies, the high priest laid his hands on the head of the second goat, confessed the sins of the congregation, and gave him to a fit man to lead away and let go in the wilderness, the man thus employed being obliged to wash his clothes and person before returning to the congregation."
With regard to what this scape-goat represents, he says that "one opinion is that Azazel is a proper name of Satan. In support of this, the following points are urged: The use of the preposition implies it. The same preposition is used on both lots, La-Yehova, La-Azazel; and if the one indicates a person, it seems natural that the other should, especially considering the act of casting lots. If one is for Jehovah, the other would seem for some other person or being; not one for Jehovah, and the other for the goat itself. What goes to confirm this, is that the most ancient paraphrases and translations treat Azazel as a proper name. The Chaldee paraphrase and the targums of Onkelos and Jonathan would certainly have translated it if it was not a proper name; but they do not. The Septuagint, or oldest Greek version, renders it by apopompaios, a word applied by the Greeks to a malign deity sometimes appeased by sacrifices. Another confirmation is found in the book of Enoch, where the name Azalzel, evidently a corruption of Azazel, is given to one of the fallen angels, thus plainly showing what was the prevalent understanding of the Jews at that day. Still another evidence is found in the Arabic, where Azazel is employed as the name of the evil spirit. In addition to these, we have the evidence of the Jewish work Zahar, and of the Cabalistic and Rabbinical writers. They tell us that the following proverb was current among the Jews: 'On the day of atonement, a gift to Sammael.' Hence Moses Gerundinensis feels called to say that it is not a sacrifice, but only done because commanded by God.
"Another step in the evidence is that we find the same opinion passing from the Jewish to the early Christian church. Origen was the most learned of the fathers; and on such a point as this, the meaning of a Hebrew word, his testimony is reliable. Says Origen: 'He who is called in the Septuagint apopompaios, and in the Hebrew, Azazel, is no other than the devil.' Lastly, a circumstance mentioned of the Emperor Julian, the apostate, that confirms the argument. He brought as an objection against the Bible, that Moses commanded a sacrifice to the evil spirit. An objection he never could have thought of, had not Azazel been generally regarded as a proper name.
"In view then, of the difficulties attending any other meaning, and the accumulated evidence in favor of this, Hengstenberg affirms, with great confidence; that Azazel cannot be anything else but another name for Satan." pp. 67 and 68.
In conclusion on this point, Beecher says: "Would it not be strange if, in all the symbols of the sacrificial system, there was not a single intimation of the serpent's existence? And where should we expect to see his baleful shadow, if not here on the great day of atonement?" p. 73. Irenaeus, in his Book against Heresies, quotes an ancient verse thus: by means of Azazel, that fallen, and yet mighty angel. Book I, chap. 15.
Thus we see that it is susceptible of very clear proof that Satan is the great antitypical scape-goat. Indeed, we can come to no other conclusion. How fitting, how just, it is that Satan, the great author of sin, should receive back upon his own head the sins and transgressions into which he has led God's people!
In the type they brought the scape-goat alive before the Lord, and the 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." So it will be in the antitype. Satan will be arraigned before God, and there, in the presence of the angelic hosts and the redeemed saints, Christ, his conqueror, will enumerate his sins and iniquities, and those he has caused the Lord's people to commit; then he will pronounce his sentence, and send him away into a "land not inhabited." We have seen that this must take place at the day of Judgment. Jude says that the fallen angels are reserved unto the Judgment of the great day.
In Rev. 19, the second coming of Christ is described. Chapter 20 opens thus: "And 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." Verses 1-3.
We can plainly see in this the antitype of the scape-goat. But he was sent into the wilderness, a land not inhabited. Then it is an important point for us to determine what this bottomless pit is, into which Satan is to be cast. If, on examination, we find it to be a "wilderness," or a desolate place, this will confirm the truthfulness of our position, that Satan is the antitypical scape-goat. Rev. 20:3, says that Satan was cast into the bottomless pit. Rev. 9:1-3, locates the bottomless pit on the earth. "And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from Heaven [where to?] unto the earth; and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit." The air extends only about forty-five miles above the earth. In order for it to be darkened by ascending smoke, the smoke must come from the earth. "And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth," &c. This locates the bottomless pit upon this earth.
What is the meaning of the term "bottomless pit"? The idea commonly attached to it is that of an eternal, burning hell. But this is not the Bible meaning of that term. Its primary signification is, a dark place, a waste, a wilderness, an uninhabited region. The original word, abussos, which, in Rev. 20:1-3, is rendered bottomless pit, is in other places rendered deep. Thus Gen. 1:1, 2:— "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep," or the bottomless pit.— American Bible Union translates abussos by the word abyss. Thus Rev. 20:1-3: "And having the key of the abyss." This, compared with Gen. 1:2, "Darkness was upon the face of the deep," abyss, or bottomless pit, locates this place very definitely. It is the face of this earth in its dark, void, chaotic, state. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."
Then if, in the future, Satan is to be cast into the deep, or abyss, this earth must be reduced back to its original chaotic state; so that it shall be "without form and void, and139darkness upon the face of the deep." Will this ever be? Listen to Jeremiah, as he has a vision of the future condition of the earth. Chap. 4:19-28: "I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled; suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment. How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?" He then gives the result of this sound of the trumpet, alarm of war, and destruction upon destruction. "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light." Compare this with Gen. 1: "The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Then the time is coming when this earth will be reduced back to its original condition. But he continues: "I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by his fierce anger. For thus hath the Lord said, The whole land shall be desolate."
If we had space, we could give whole chapters showing that all the earth will be desolated of its inhabitants and turned into a wilderness, so to remain for a period of one thousand years. Remember that it was a place similar to this into which the scape-goat was turned, i. e., a wilderness, a land not inhabited. This is the place where Satan, the great antitypical scape-goat, is to be bound a thousand years. Rev. 20:1-5, places the commencement of this period at the time of the resurrection of the blessed and holy, which is shown by 1 Thess. 4:16, to be at the second advent of our Lord. The battle of the great day, by which all the enemies of the Lord are slain (Rev. 16; Jer. 25), takes place at that time. So that is the time of the binding of the dragon and the desolation of the earth. And as this battle takes place in "the day of the Lord," and the utter and final overthrow of the wicked at the end of the thousand years of Rev. 20 also takes place in the day of the Lord, according to 2 Pet. 3:7-10, it follows that the thousand years are in that period covered by this phrase, "the day of the Lord." Of course, in that day the desolation occurs. Thus Isaiah says, "Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty." "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it." Chap. 13:6, 9. "For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever; from generation to generation, it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever. Chap. 34:8-10.
The expressions "forever and ever" and "from generation to generation," show that the earth will be desolate for no short length of time.
As we have seen, this desolation of the earth takes place at the beginning of the day of the Lord—the commencement of the thousand years. This also is the time when Jesus makes his second advent; for he is the one who destroys the nations. Ps. 2:7-9. In Rev. 19, his advent is described, together with the destruction of the nations and the desolation of the earth. "And I saw Heaven opened, and behold, a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; and his name is called The Word of God. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron. And he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS: And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
"And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh." Verses 11-21. This leaves the world desolate of all its inhabitants. The next verse says, "And I saw an angel come down from Heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit [abyss] 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." Rev. 20:1-3. Thus we see that just as soon as the earth is made a "wilderness," Satan is cast into this desolate region to remain a thousand years.
D. M. CANRIGHT.
(To be Continued.)