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The Millennial Sabbath
Before entering the City of God, the Saviour bestows upon
His followers the emblems of victory and invests them with
the insignia of their royal state. The glittering ranks are
drawn up in the form of a hollow square about their King,
whose form rises in majesty high above saint and angel, whose countenance beams upon them full of benignant love.
Throughout the unnumbered host of the redeemed every
glance is fixed upon Him, every eye beholds His glory whose
"visage was so marred more than any man, and His form
more than the sons of men.” Upon the heads of the overcomers, Jesus with His own right hand places the crown of
glory. For each there is a crown, bearing his own “new
name” (Revelation 2:17), and the inscription, “Holiness to
the Lord.” In every hand are placed the victor’s palm
and the shining harp. Then, as the commanding angels
strike the note, every hand sweeps the harp strings with
skillful touch, awaking sweet music in rich, melodious
strains. Rapture unutterable thrills every heart, and each
voice is raised in grateful praise: “Unto Him that loved us,
and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath
made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him
be glory and dominion for ever and ever.”
Revelation 1:5, 6.
Before the ransomed throng is the Holy City. Jesus opens
wide the pearly gates, and the nations that have kept the
truth enter in. There they behold the Paradise of God, the
home of Adam in his innocency. Then that voice, richer than
any music that ever fell on mortal ear, is heard, saying: “Your
conflict is ended.” “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world.”
Now is fulfilled the Saviour’s prayer for His disciples: “I
will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me
where I am.” “Faultless before the presence of His glory with
exceeding joy” (Jude 24), Christ presents to the Father the
purchase of His blood, declaring: “Here am I, and the children
whom Thou hast given Me.” “Those that Thou gavest
Me I have kept.” Oh, the wonders of redeeming love! the
rapture of that hour when the infinite Father, looking upon
the ransomed, shall behold His image, sin’s discord banished,
its blight removed, and the human once more in harmony
with the divine!
With unutterable love, Jesus welcomes His faithful ones to
the joy of their Lord. The Saviour’s joy is in seeing, in the
kingdom of glory, the souls that have been saved by His
agony and humiliation. And the redeemed will be sharers
in His joy, as they behold, among the blessed, those who have
been won to Christ through their prayers, their labors, and
their loving sacrifice. As they gather about the great white
throne, gladness unspeakable will fill their hearts, when they
behold those whom they have won for Christ, and see that
one has gained others, and these still others, all brought into
the haven of rest, there to lay their crowns at Jesus’ feet and
praise Him through the endless cycles of eternity.
As the ransomed ones are welcomed to the City of God,
there rings out upon the air an exultant cry of adoration. The
two Adams are about to meet. The Son of God is standing
with outstretched arms to receive the father of our race—the
being whom He created, who sinned against his Maker, and
for whose sin the marks of the crucifixion are borne upon
the Saviour’s form. As Adam discerns the prints of the
cruel nails, he does not fall upon the bosom of his Lord, but
in humiliation casts himself at His feet, crying: “Worthy,
worthy is the Lamb that was slain!” Tenderly the Saviour
lifts him up and bids him look once more upon the Eden
home from which he has so long been exiled.
After his expulsion from Eden, Adam’s life on earth was
filled with sorrow. Every dying leaf, every victim of sacrifice,
every blight upon the fair face of nature, every stain upon
man’s purity, was a fresh reminder of his sin. Terrible was
the agony of remorse as he beheld iniquity abounding, and,
in answer to his warnings, met the reproaches cast upon
himself as the cause of sin. With patient humility he bore,
for nearly a thousand years, the penalty of transgression.
Faithfully did he repent of his sin and trust in the merits of
the promised Saviour, and he died in the hope of a resurrection.
The Son of God redeemed man’s failure and fall; and
now, through the work of the atonement, Adam is reinstated
in his first dominion.
Transported with joy, he beholds the trees that were once
his delight—the very trees whose fruit he himself had gathered
in the days of his innocence and joy. He sees the vines
that his own hands have trained, the very flowers that he
once loved to care for. His mind grasps the reality of the
scene; he comprehends that this is indeed Eden restored,
more lovely now than when he was banished from it. The
Saviour leads him to the tree of life and plucks the glorious
fruit and bids him eat. He looks about him and beholds a
multitude of his family redeemed, standing in the Paradise
of God. Then he casts his glittering crown at the feet of
Jesus and, falling upon His breast, embraces the Redeemer.
He touches the golden harp, and the vaults of heaven echo
the triumphant song: “Worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lamb
that was slain, and lives again!” The family of Adam take up
the strain and cast their crowns at the Saviour’s feet as they
bow before Him in adoration.
This reunion is witnessed by the angels who wept at the
fall of Adam and rejoiced when Jesus, after His resurrection,
ascended to heaven, having opened the grave for all who
should believe on His name. Now they behold the work of
redemption accomplished, and they unite their voices in the
song of praise.
Upon the crystal sea before the throne, that sea of glass as
it were mingled with fire, —so resplendent is it with the glory
of God, —are gathered the company that have “gotten the
victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark,
and over the number of his name.” With the Lamb upon
Mount Zion, “having the harps of God,” they stand, the
hundred and forty and four thousand that were redeemed
from among men; and there is heard, as the sound of many
waters, and as the sound of a great thunder, “the voice of
harpers harping with their harps.” And they sing “a new
song” before the throne, a song which no man can learn save
the hundred and forty and four thousand. It is the song
of Moses and the Lamb—a song of deliverance. None but
the hundred and forty-four thousand can learn that song;
for it is the song of their experience—an experience such as
no other company have ever had. “These are they which
follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.” These, having
been translated from the earth, from among the living, are
counted as “the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb.”
Revelation 15:2, 3;
14:1-5. “These are they which came out
of great tribulation;” they have passed through the time of
trouble such as never was since there was a nation; they have
endured the anguish of the time of Jacob’s trouble; they
have stood without an intercessor through the final
outpouring of God’s judgments. But they have been delivered,
for they have “washed their robes, and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb.” “In their mouth was found no
guile: for they are without fault” before God. “Therefore are
they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night
in His temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell
among them.” They have seen the earth wasted with famine
and pestilence, the sun having power to scorch men with
great heat, and they themselves have endured suffering,
hunger, and thirst. But “they shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any
heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall
feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of
waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”
Revelation 7:14-17.
During the thousand years between the first and the second
resurrection the judgment of the wicked takes place.
The apostle Paul points to this judgment as an event that
follows the second advent. “Judge nothing before the time,
until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden
things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of
the hearts.”
1 Corinthians 4:5. Daniel declares that when the
Ancient of Days came, “judgment was given to the saints of
the Most High.”
Daniel 7:22. At this time the righteous
reign as kings and priests unto God. John in the Revelation
says: “I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment
was given unto them.” “They shall be priests of God and of
Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”
Revelation 20:4, 6. It is at this time that, as foretold by Paul, “the
saints shall judge the world.”
1 Corinthians 6:2. In union
with Christ they judge the wicked, comparing their acts with
the statute book, the Bible, and deciding every case according
to the deeds done in the body. Then the portion which the
wicked must suffer is meted out, according to their works;
and it is recorded against their names in the book of death.
Satan also and evil angels are judged by Christ and His
people. Says Paul: “Know ye not that we shall judge
angels?”
Verse 3. And Jude declares that “the angels which
kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He
hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the
judgment of the great day.”
Jude 6.
At the close of the thousand years the second resurrection
will take place. Then the wicked will be raised from the dead
and appear before God for the execution of “the judgment
written.” Thus the revelator, after describing the resurrection
of the righteous, says: “The rest of the dead lived not
again until the thousand years were finished.”
Revelation
20:5. And Isaiah declares, concerning the wicked: “They
shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the
pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days
shall they be visited.”
Isaiah 24:22.
The texts above are excerpts from
the book
The Great Controversy
Pages 646-648 "God's
People Delivered"
Pages
660-661 "Desolation of the Earth" |
