My attention was again directed to the earth. The wicked had been
destroyed, and their dead bodies were lying upon its surface.
The wrath of God in the seven last plagues had been visited upon
the inhabitants of the earth, causing them to gnaw their tongues
from pain and to curse God. The false shepherds had been the signal
objects of Jehovah's wrath. Their eyes had consumed away in their
holes, and their tongues in their mouths, while they stood upon
their feet. After the saints had been delivered by the voice of
God, the wicked multitude turned their rage upon one another.
The earth seemed to be deluged with blood, and dead bodies were
from one end of it to the other.
The earth looked like a desolate wilderness. Cities and villages,
shaken down by the earthquake, lay in heaps. Mountains had been
moved out of their places, leaving large caverns. Ragged rocks,
thrown out by the sea, or torn out of the earth itself, were scattered
all over its surface. Large trees had been uprooted and were strewn
over the land. Here is to be the home of Satan with his evil angels
for a thousand years. Here he will be confined, to wander up and
down over the broken surface of the earth and see the effects
of his rebellion against God's law. For a thousand years he can
enjoy the fruit of the curse which he has caused. Limited alone
to the earth, he will not have the privilege of ranging to other
planets, to tempt and annoy those who have not fallen. During
this time, Satan suffers extremely. Since his fall his evil traits
have been in constant exercise. But he is then to be deprived
of his power, and left to reflect upon the part which he has acted
since his fall, and to look forward with trembling and terror
to the dreadful future, when he must suffer for all the evil that
he has done and be punished for all the sins that he has caused
to be committed.
I heard shouts of triumph from the angels and from the redeemed
saints, which sounded like ten thousand musical instruments, because
they were to be no more annoyed and tempted by Satan and because
the inhabitants of other worlds were delivered from his presence
and his temptations.
Then I saw thrones, and Jesus and the redeemed saints sat upon
them; and the saints reigned as kings and priests unto God. Christ,
in union with His people, judged the wicked dead, comparing their
acts with the statute book, the Word of God, and deciding every
case according to the deeds done in the body. Then they meted
out to the wicked the portion which they must suffer, according
to their works; and it was written against their names in the
book of death. Satan also and his angels were judged by Jesus
and the saints. Satan's punishment was to be far greater than
that of those whom he had deceived. His suffering would so far
exceed theirs as to bear no comparison with it. After all those
whom he had deceived had perished, Satan was still to live and
suffer on much longer.
After the judgment of the wicked dead had been finished, at the
end of the one thousand years, Jesus left the city, and the saints
and a train of the angelic host followed Him. Jesus descended
upon a great mountain, which as soon as His feet touched it, parted
asunder and became a mighty plain. Then we looked up and saw the
great and beautiful city, with twelve foundations, and twelve
gates, three on each side, and an angel at each gate. We cried
out, "The city! the great city! it is coming down from God
out of heaven!" And it came down in all its splendor and
dazzling glory and settled in the mighty plain which Jesus had
prepared for it.