The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 629

more terrible and extensive judgments which are to fall upon the world
just before the final deliverance of God’s people. Says the revelator,
in describing those terrific scourges: “There fell a noisome and grievous
sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which
worshiped his image.” The sea “became as the blood of a dead man: and
every living soul died in the sea.” And “the rivers and fountains of waters
... became blood.” Terrible as these inflictions are, God’s justice stands
fully vindicated. The angel of God declares: “Thou art righteous, O
Lord, ... because Thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of
saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink; for they
are worthy.” Revelation 16:2-6. By condemning the people of God to
death, they have as truly incurred the guilt of their blood as if it had been
shed by their hands. In like manner Christ declared the Jews of His time
guilty of all the blood of holy men which had been shed since the days
of Abel; for they possessed the same spirit and were seeking to do the
same work with these murderers of the prophets.
In the plague that follows, power is given to the sun “to scorch men
with fire. And men were scorched with great heat.” Verses 8, 9. The
prophets thus describe the condition of the earth at this fearful time:
“The land mourneth; ... because the harvest of the field is perished.... All
the trees of the field are withered: because joy is withered away from the
sons of men.” “The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid
desolate.... How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed,
because they have no pasture.... The rivers of water are dried up, and
the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.” “The songs of the
temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God: there shall be
many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.”
Joel 1:10-12, 17-20; Amos 8:3.
These plagues are not universal, or the inhabitants of the earth would
be wholly cut off. Yet they will be the most

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