42 . Controversy Ended
At the close of the thousand years , Christ again returns to the earth . He is accompanied by the host of the redeemed and attended by a retinue of angels . As He descends in terrific majesty He bids the wicked dead arise to receive their doom . They come forth , a mighty host , numberless as the sands of the sea . What a contrast to those who were raised at the first resurrection ! The righteous were clothed with immortal youth and beauty . The wicked bear the traces of disease and death .
Every eye in that vast multitude is turned to behold the glory of the Son of God . With one voice the wicked hosts exclaim : " Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord !" It is not love to Jesus that inspires this utterance . The force of truth urges the words from unwilling lips . As the wicked went into their graves , so they come forth with the same enmity to Christ and the same spirit of rebellion . They are to have no new probation in which to remedy the defects of their past lives . Nothing would be gained by this . A lifetime of transgression has not softened their hearts . A second probation , were it given them , would be occupied as was the first in evading the requirements of God and exciting rebellion against Him .
Christ descends upon the Mount of Olives , whence , after His resurrection , He ascended , and where angels repeated the promise of His return . Says the prophet : " The Lord my God shall come , and all the saints with Thee ." " And His 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 , . . . and there shall be a very great valley ." " And the Lord shall be king over all the earth : in that day shall there be one Lord , and His name one ." Zechariah 14:5 , 4 , 9 . As the New Jerusalem , in its dazzling splendor , comes down out of heaven , it rests upon the place purified and made ready to receive it , and Christ , with His people and the angels , enters the Holy City .
Now Satan prepares for a last mighty struggle for the supremacy . While deprived of his power and cut off from his work of deception , the prince of evil was miserable and dejected ; but as the wicked dead are raised and he sees the vast multitudes upon his side , his hopes revive , and he determines not to yield the great controversy . He will marshal all the armies of the lost under his banner and through them endeavor to execute his plans . The wicked are Satan ' s captives . In rejecting Christ they have accepted the rule of the rebel leader . They are ready to receive his suggestions and to do his bidding . Yet , true to his early cunning , he does not acknowledge himself to be Satan . He claims to be the prince who is the rightful owner of
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