EARTH'S
FINAL HOUR
Excerpts from the book:
"The Great Controversy"
by; Ellen G. White :
When the protection of human laws shall be withdrawn from
those who honour the law of God, there will be, in different lands, a
simultaneous movement for their
destruction. As the time appointed in the decree draws near,
the people will conspire to root out the hated sect. It will be determined to
strike in one night a decisive blow, which shall utterly silence the voice of
dissent and reproof.{GC 635.1}
The
people of God—some in prison cells, some hidden in solitary retreats in the
forests and the mountains—still plead for divine protection, while in every
quarter companies of armed men, urged on by hosts of evil angels, are preparing
for the work of death.With shouts of triumph, jeering, and imprecation, throngs
of evil men are about to rush upon their prey, when, lo, a dense blackness,
deeper than the
darkness of the night, falls upon the earth. Then a rainbow,
shining with the glory from the throne of God, spans the heavens and seems to
encircle each praying company. The angry multitudes are suddenly arrested.
Their mocking cries die away. The objects of their murderous rage are
forgotten. With fearful forebodings they gaze upon the symbol of God’s covenant
and long to be shielded from its overpowering brightness. {GC 635.3}
By the people of God a voice, clear and melodious, is heard, saying, “Look up,” and lifting their eyes to the heavens, they behold the bow of promise. The black, angry clouds that covered the firmament are parted, and like Stephen they look up steadfastly into heaven and see the glory of God and the Son of man seated upon His throne. In His divine form they discern the marks of His humiliation; and from His lips they hear the request presented before His Father and the holy angels: “I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am.” John 17:24. Again a voice, musical and triumphant, is heard, saying: “They come! they come! holy, harmless, and undefiled. They have kept the word of My patience; they shall walk among the angels;” and the pale, quivering lips of those who have held fast their faith
utter a
shout of victory.{GC 636.1}
It is at midnight that God manifests His power for the deliverance of His people. The sun appears, shining in its strength. Signs and wonders follow in quick succession. The wicked look with terror and amazement upon the scene, while the righteous behold with solemn joy the tokens of their deliverance. Everything in nature seems turned out of its course. The streams cease to flow. Dark, heavy clouds come up and clash against each other. In the midst of the angry heavens is one clear space of indescribable glory, whence comes the voice of God like the sound of many waters, saying: “It is done.” Revelation 16:17.{GC 636.2}
That voice shakes the heavens and the earth. There is a mighty earthquake, “such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.” Verses 17, 18. The firmament appears to open and shut. The glory from the throne of God seems flashing through. The mountains shake like a reed in the wind, and ragged rocks are scattered on every side. There is a roar as of a coming tempest. The sea is lashed into fury. There is heard the shriek of a hurricane like the voice of demons upon a mission of destruction. The whole earth heaves and swells like the waves of the sea.Graves are opened, and “many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth... awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Daniel 12:2. All who have died in the faith of the third angel’s message come forth from the tomb glorified, to hear God’s covenant of peace with those who have kept His law. “They also which pierced Him” (Revelation 1:7), those that mocked and derided Christ’s dying agonies, and the most violent opposers of His truth and His people, are raised to behold Him in His glory and to see the honor placed upon the loyal and obedient.{GC 637.1}
Thick
clouds still cover the sky; Fierce lightnings leap from the heavens, enveloping
the earth in a sheet of flame. Through a rift in the clouds there beams a star
whose brilliancy is increased fourfold in contrast with the darkness. It speaks
hope and joy to the faithful. A
marvellous change has come over those who have held fast their integrity in the
very face of death. They have been suddenly delivered from the dark and
terrible tyranny of men transformed to demons. Their faces, so lately pale,
anxious, and haggard, are now aglow with wonder, faith, and love. Their voices
rise in triumphant song: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help
in trouble.While these words of holy trust ascend to God, the clouds sweep
back, and the starry heavens are seen, unspeakably glorious in contrast with
the black and angry firmament on either side. The glory of the celestial city
streams from the gates ajar. Then there appears against the sky a hand holding
two tables of stone folded together.The hand opens the tables, and there are
seen the precepts of the Decalogue, traced as with a pen of fire. Memory is
aroused It is impossible to describe the horror and despair of those who have
trampled upon God’s holy requirements.Fearful will be the doom of him to whom
God shall say: Depart, thou wicked servant.{GC 640.1}
The voice of God is heard from heaven, declaring the day and hour of Jesus’ coming, and delivering the everlasting covenant to His people. Like peals of loudest thunder His words roll through the earth. The Israel of God stand listening, with their eyes fixed upward. Their countenances are lighted up with His glory, and shine as did the face of Moses when he came down from Sinai. The wicked cannot look upon them.{GC 640.2}
Soon there appears in the east a small black cloud, about half the size of a man’s hand.The people of God know this to be the sign of the Son of man. In solemn silence they gaze upon it as it draws nearer the earth, becoming lighter and more glorious, until it is a great white cloud, its base a glory like consuming fire, and above it the rainbow of the covenant. Jesus rides forth as a mighty conqueror. Not now a “Man of Sorrows,” He comes, victor in heaven and earth, to judge the living and the dead. With anthems of celestial melody the holy angels, a vast, unnumbered throng, attend Him on His way. The firmament seems filled with radiant forms—“ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.” No human pen can portray the scene;As the living cloud comes still nearer, every eye beholds the Prince of life. His countenance outshines the dazzling brightness of the noonday sun. “And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.” Revelation 19:16. {GC 640.3}
Before His presence “all faces are turned into paleness;The righteous cry with trembling: “Who shall be able to stand?” The angels’ song is hushed, and there is a period of awful silence. Then the voice of Jesus is heard, saying: “My grace is sufficient for you.” The faces of the righteous are lighted up, and joy fills every heart. And the angels strike a note higher and sing again as they draw still nearer to the earth.{GC 641.1}The King of kings descends upon the cloud, wrapped in flaming fire. The heavens are rolled together as a scroll, the earth trembles before Him, and every mountain and island is moved out of its place.“And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”
Revelation 6:15-17.{GC 642.1}
The derisive jests have ceased. There are those who mocked Christ in His humiliation. Those who derided His claim to be the Son of God are speechless now. There is the haughty Herod who jeered at His royal title and bade the mocking soldiers crown Him king. There are the very men who with impious hands placed upon His form the purple robe, upon His sacred brow the thorny crown, and bowed before Him in blasphemous mockery. With awful distinctness do priests and rulers recall the events of Calvary.And now there rises a cry of mortal agony. Louder than the shout, “Crucify Him, crucify Him,” swells the awful, despairing wail, “He is the Son of God! He is the Messiah!”Amid the reeling of the earth, the flash of lightning, and the roar of thunder, the voice of the Son of God calls forth the sleeping saints. “Awake, awake, awake, ye that sleep in the dust, and arise!”And the whole earth shall ring with the tread of the exceeding great army of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. From the prison house of death they come, clothed with immortal glory, crying: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” 1 Corinthians 15:55. And the living righteous and the risen saints unite their voices in a long, glad shout of victory.{GC 644.2}
All come forth from their graves the same in stature as when they entered the tomb. Adam, who stands among the risen throng, is of lofty height and majestic form, in stature but little below the Son of God. The living righteous are changed “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” On each side of the cloudy chariot are wings, and beneath it are living wheels; and as the chariot rolls upward, the wheels cry, “Holy,” and the wings, as they move, cry, “Holy,” and the retinue of angels cry, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.” And the redeemed shout, “Alleluia!” as the chariot moves onward toward the New Jerusalem.{GC 645.2}
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. Upon the heads of the overcomers, Jesus with His own right hand
places the crown of glory. 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. {GC 645.3}
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.”{GC 646.1}
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.{GC 647.2}
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.{GC 648.1}
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.{GC 648.2}
The heirs of God have come from garrets, from hovels, from dungeons, from scaffolds, from mountains, from deserts, from the caves of the earth, from the caverns of the sea. On earth they were “destitute, afflicted, tormented.They are no longer feeble, afflicted, scattered, and oppressed. Henceforth they are to be ever with the Lord. They stand before the throne clad in richer robes than the most honored of the earth have ever worn. Amid the waving of palm branches they pour forth a song of praise, clear, sweet, and harmonious; every voice takes up the strain, until the anthem swells through the vaults of heaven: “Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” And all the inhabitants of heaven respond in the ascription: “Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever.”
Revelation 7:10, 12. {GC 650.1}
As the nations of the saved look upon their Redeemer and behold the eternal glory of the Father shining in His countenance; as they behold His throne, which is from everlasting to everlasting, and know that His kingdom is to have no end, they break forth in rapturous song: “Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His own most precious blood!” {GC 651.2}
The
result of the Saviour’s conflict with the powers of darkness is joy to the
redeemed, redounding to the glory of God throughout eternity. And such is the
value of the soul that the Father is satisfied with the price paid; and Christ
Himself, beholding the fruits of His great sacrifice, is satisfied.{GC 652.2}
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