Satan in his warfare against God . The time has come for God to vindicate the authority of His downtrodden law . Now the controversy is not alone with Satan , but with men . " The Lord hath a controversy with the nations ;" " He will give them that are wicked to the sword ."
The mark of deliverance has been set upon those " that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done ." Now the angel of death goes forth , represented in Ezekiel ' s vision by the men with the slaughtering weapons , to whom the command is given : " Slay utterly old and young , both maids , and little children , and women : but come not near any man upon whom is the mark ; and begin at My sanctuary ." Says the prophet : " They began at the ancient men which were before the house ." Ezekiel 9:1-6 . The work of destruction begins among those who have professed to be the spiritual guardians of the people . The false watchmen are the first to fall . There are none to pity or to spare . Men , women , maidens , and little children perish together .
" The Lord cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity : the earth also shall disclose her blood , and shall no more cover her slain ." Isaiah 26:21 . " And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem ; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet , and their eyes shall consume away in their holes , and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth . And it shall come to pass in that day , that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them ; and they shall lay hold everyone on the hand of his neighbour , and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour ." Zechariah 14:12 , 13 . In the mad strife of their own fierce passions , and by the awful outpouring of God ' s unmingled wrath , fall the wicked inhabitants of the earth--priests , rulers , and people , rich and poor , high and low . " 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 ." Jeremiah 25:33 .
At the coming of Christ the wicked are blotted from the face of the whole earth--consumed with the spirit of His mouth and destroyed by the brightness of His glory . Christ takes His people to the City of God , and the earth is emptied of its inhabitants . " Behold , the Lord maketh the earth empty , and maketh it waste , and turneth it upside down , and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof ." " The land shall be utterly emptied , and utterly spoiled : for the Lord hath spoken this word ." " Because they have transgressed the laws , changed the ordinance , broken the everlasting covenant . Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth , and they that dwell therein are desolate : therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned ." Isaiah 24:1 , 3 , 5 , 6 .
The whole earth appears like a desolate wilderness . The ruins of cities and villages destroyed by the earthquake , uprooted trees , ragged rocks thrown out by the sea or torn out of the earth itself , are scattered over its surface , while vast caverns mark the spot where the mountains have been rent from their foundations . Now the event takes place foreshadowed in the last solemn service of the Day of Atonement . When the ministration in the holy of holies had been completed , and the sins of
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