Ministration of Angels

BUT where are God's people at this time? They are caught up to meet the Lord and are taken to Heaven where they reign with Christ during the thousand years. Paul says, "For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thess. 4:16,17. Jesus directly states that the saints will go to Heaven. Compare John 7:32-34; 13:33-38. Then he tells them when and how they will go there. "In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." John 14:2,3. This shows that the saints will be taken to Heaven when the Lord comes.

In Rev. 19:1-10, John sees the saints in Heaven after their deliverance praising God. "And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in Heaven, saying, Alleluia! Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God." At his second coming Jesus takes his people to Heaven, to that place which he has prepared for them. The wicked, as we have seen, are all slain upon the earth.

Thus Rev. 19 presents us with these two grand facts: 1. The deliverance of the saints, and their triumphant entry into Heaven. Verses 1-10. 2. The destruction of the wicked upon the earth. Verses 11-21. Thus the earth is left entirely desolate, without an inhabitant. The next verses describe the binding of Satan, and his being cast into the earth. Rev. 20:1-3. A query may arise with regard to how Satan is bound. I understand it to be in this manner: The saints are all in Heaven beyond his reach. The wicked are all dead and in the earth; and hence they are out of his reach. Thus the devil is bound, having nothing to do but to roam up and down this desolate earth and meditate upon his sad condition. And it would also seem that he was confined to this earth, not allowed to go to other worlds.

That the wicked are not raised till the end of the one thousand years is directly stated in Rev. 20:4-7. "They [the saints] lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead [the wicked] lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection."

By reading Rev. 16-20, we find that God's people are taken from the earth before it is entirely desolated. Satan is not bound and cast into the earth till it is desolate. Therefore, when Satan is bound and presented before the Lord, the saints will be there to hear his sentence. I think that this is the time when Isa. 14 will have its fulfillment. The previous chapter foretells the destruction of the earth in the day of the Lord. "Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand: it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty," etc. Chap. 14 opens with a prophecy foretelling the deliverance of God's people: "For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land...And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this proverb [taunting speech, margin] against the king of Babylon [who represents Satan, the same as the "king of Tyrus" in Eze. 28], and say, How hath the oppressor ceased, the golden city ceased! The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the scepter of the rulers. [The "rulers of the darkness of this world," Eph. 6:12.] He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke [Satan has "smitten"' God's people with a "continual stroke" from Abel to the present time], he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth." As we have before shown, Satan has ruled the nations in sin and wickedness for six thousand years. He has tempted, persecuted, and martyred the righteous without any mercy. But now the scene is changed; his power is broken. The "strong man armed" has been bound by "a stronger than he," and his "house" has been "spoiled of its goods." Luke 11:21,22. Yes, Christ, the mighty conqueror, has bound Satan, opened the grave, and brought forth the saints. They are now out of Satan's power, and he is bound before them! What a scene! The devil in chains before his God against whom he has rebelled, before Christ whom he has despised, before the angels whom he has insulted, and before the saints whom he has persecuted and murdered! They now "take up a taunting speech against him," reminding him of his wicked rebellion, his multiplied crimes, and taunting him with his utter failure and his present helpless condition. "He is persecuted and none hindereth." Verses 1-6.

"The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet [because it is desolated of its inhabitants]; they [the righteous] break forth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us." Now Jesus prepares to cast him into the earth to reap the fruits of his labor, to wander up and down in the desolate earth which has been made so by his wickedness.

"Hell [grave, margin] from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee [here the wicked dead are represented as greeting Satan as he is cast into the earth], Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols; the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the, ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the hights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High; yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof?" Yes, the devil is the one who has made the earth to tremble and has shaken kingdoms, and, as the result of his course, the earth will at last be made a "wilderness."

But another mark of Satan follows: He "that opened not the house of his prisoners." When Satan had shut up the saints in his prison-house, the grave, he refused to open the house of his prisoners. But Jesus has conquered him; has opened his house and released his prisoners. Isaiah continues: "All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house [they are all dead and in their graves; hence they lie in their own houses]. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcass trodden under feet. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial [no; Satan will have to live on this dreary earth a thousand years, while the wicked are all dead and in their graves; hence he will not be "joined with them in burial"], because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people; the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned." Verses 7-20.

It was through the devices of the devil that the human family was led into sin, and consequently into death. Since that time he has ruled in the kingdoms of this world. He has stirred up men to war and carnage, till at last, at the beginning of the 1000 years, the whole earth is desolate of its inhabitants. It is now one vast heap of ruins, of crumbling palaces, smoking villages, and forsaken cities. On every hand, in every clime, is written in characters of blood, Ruin, Destruction and Desolation! Thorns and brambles grow in the streets of once populous cities; wild beasts and satyrs roam through forsaken temples, and the doleful wind moans through their silent chamber. Ghastly skeletons of the dead lie strewn over all the earth. The clouds above are black, and the earth beneath sends up fire and smoke!

"For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever." Isa. 34:8-10. When this is fulfilled, in what an awful state the earth will be! Fire and brimstone on the face of the earth, and clouds and thick darkness above it! This is to be the home, this the kingdom, of the devil and his angels for one thousand years.

Now behold that mighty, fallen angel, terrible and majestic, even though fallen, the fiend of hell, as he stands and views this scene of ruin, of desolation, and of terror, the work of his own hands. As he looks upon the dark visages before him, his companions in woe, as he beholds their features, like his own, haggard and worn, as he glances at the awful scenery around him, his thoughts wander back to Eden—to Heaven—to the beautiful city of God. He remembers that he was once there, that he was a beautiful angel, that he was a companion of Christ, and the friend of God. He was then obedient and happy. Heaven was his home. Then he was surrounded by beauty, innocence, and loveliness. Now he remembers how he has rebelled against his God. Behold the result! One could almost pity him, devil though he be. Heaven, joy, happiness, immortality— all lost, and lost forever. Methinks I can hear him curse himself for his folly, and lament his bitter lot. Could he repent, could he be forgiven, oh! how quickly would he embrace the opportunity! But no he sinned against too much light and knowledge to ever be forgiven. He must suffer the consequences of his sins; for one long, dreary thousand years he must wander up and down this dark, desolate earth, without employment, except his own thoughts, to meditate upon his sad condition! Lack of employment, the absence of hope, the certainty of his final doom, and the wrath of God resting upon him, must render him indescribably miserable. This is the wages of sin, this the harvest of evil-doers. He has fought against God, but now the blows have rebounded upon his own head; he has persecuted the righteous, but now they are safe; he has destroyed their beautiful home, and now it is his prison. Thus he has fulfilled the proverb: "Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit; but the upright shall have good things in possession." Prov. 28:10. Here he must remain a thousand years in "his own pit," and suffer for the sins of the righteous, which have been laid upon him by our High Priest, Jesus Christ.

THE JUDGMENT OF THE WICKED.

We have seen that the righteous dead are raised from the grave, and the righteous living changed, and all taken to Heaven when Jesus comes. The wicked are slain upon the earth at that time. In Rev. 19:1-10, the saints are seen in Heaven, just delivered, singing songs of praise and partaking of the marriage supper of the Lamb. Verses 10-21 relate the destruction of the nations. The first three verses of the next chapter say that an angel comes down from Heaven, binds Satan, and casts him into the abyss, to remain one thousand years. Having thus disposed of the wicked and of the devil for a thousand years, John again turns his attention to the saints, and tells us their occupation during this thousand years. "And I saw thrones, and they [the saints] sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark in their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. [Where were the wicked?] But the rest of the dead [in the first resurrection, Jesus will take out of the grave all the righteous. Then of course, "the rest of the dead" will be all the wicked. Hence, he says, the rest of the dead] lived not again until the thousand years were finished." Then there are two resurrections, and they are one thousand years apart. Then, of course, the wicked will live again when the thousand years are finished. This proves that the wicked are dead and in their graves during the thousand years. Thus we see that the first resurrection takes place at the beginning of the thousand years, and the second at the end of that time. Rev. 20:1-5.

Of the righteous, John says, "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them." What judgment? I answer, The investigative judgment upon the wicked; for the saints are to judge both wicked men and fallen angels. Proof: 1 Cor. 6:2,3. "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?" This testimony is very direct and plain. Again Paul says, "Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, Who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts." 1 Cor. 4:5. This shows that when the Lord comes, all secrets will be laid open, and then the saints will judge men.

Daniel's language is to the same effect. He says, "I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High." Dan. 7:21,22. By all this we see that the saints are in Heaven during the thousand years, judging the wicked who have not yet had a resurrection. All the deeds of the wicked are written down in books; these books are opened before God, and they are judged by what is found in these books. Rev. 20:12. During the thousand years the saints will have access to these records, from which they can see and know that God's judgment upon the lost is just. They will unite with him in his judgment and condemnation of the wicked. At the end of this time Christ and all the saints come down to the earth. Jesus comes down upon the Mount of Olives, from whence he ascended. The mountain parts asunder and becomes a great plain. Zech. 14:4,5. Then the holy city comes down and rests upon this plain. The wicked will be raised, and gather up around the city. Rev. 20:4-9. Then the saints will execute upon them the punishment which has been apportioned to them for their crimes. Says Jude, "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints [what for?], to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." Verses 14, 15. David tells us what judgment this is: "Let the saints be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud upon their beds: Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand; to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them the judgment written; this honor have all the saints." Ps. 149:5-9. The saints come to execute "the judgment written" during the thousand years.