All truth must be carried in the posture of Christ, not merely stated, not merely spoken correctly, but borne cruciform. Truth that is detached from His posture becomes accusation rather than invitation, exposure without remedy, light without warmth. Christ never separated what He said from how He stood before humanity. He knelt with truth. He wept with truth. He bled with truth. Truth in Christ is not a weapon raised above others; it is a burden willingly placed upon one’s own shoulders first. He did not proclaim righteousness from a safe distance—He entered the consequences of unrighteousness. Thus, any truth that refuses to pass through humility, patience, longsuffering, and self-sacrificing love has not yet been fully conformed to Him, regardless of its accuracy. Christ’s posture was always toward restoration. Even when He rebuked, His rebuke carried grief, not triumph. Even when He exposed sin, He remained present with the sinner. He did not rush people to conclusions; He walked them to the cross. Truth carried outside this posture may still be factually sound, but it will lack redemptive power—it will harden rather than heal. To carry truth as Christ carried it is to accept misunderstanding, rejection, and delay. It is to resist the temptation to prove oneself right at the cost of another’s soul. It is to trust that truth, when wrapped in Christlikeness, does not need force to prevail. It bears witness by endurance. In the final generation—where truth will cut sharply and deception will be refined—the posture of Christ will be the distinguishing mark of those who bear heaven’s message. The loudest truths will be carried by the quietest spirits. The sharpest light will come from lives already laid down. Only such truth will be recognized as His, because it looks like Him. After the scattering of God’s people we cannot but be concerned, in the reading of Jeremiah's prophecies, to find that they were so little regarded by the men of that generation; but let us make use of that as a reason why we should regard them the more; for they are written for our learning, and for warning to us and to our purpose. A vision of God's judgment, using powerful imagery of "un-creation" or cosmic devastation to show how sin has ruined the land, making it empty, dark, and desolate, as if the world were returning to chaos, with mountains trembling, people gone, and cities broken, all due to rebellion and refusal to repent, signifying a complete societal breakdown and warning of severe consequences for turning away from God. A vivid, poetic warning that the people’s persistent sin and idolatry have unraveled the covenant of God, leading to a laying the world to waste. It is a powerful illustration of the consequences of disobedience, while also containing a hint of God's enduring mercy in the promise that a full end would not be made. God's judgment is so severe it's like undoing creation itself. The mountains, hills, and heavens react with trembling and darkness, symbolizing the shock and horror of the natural world at the people’s rebellion. God's fierce anger over sin. This is not a first creation event but a metaphor for spiritual and moral decay, where foolishness and rebellion against God have brought ruin. What unites Jeremiah’s chapters 4 and 25’s prophetic reality to revelation is not merely shared imagery of devastation, but a shared moral logic. These passages reveal the end result of sustained rejection of divine truth—first by the nations of the world, and more tragically, by a people who bore God’s name while refusing His ways. Scripture presents destruction not as an arbitrary act of divine anger, but as the inevitable harvest of truth resisted, light rejected, and conscience silenced. When read together, these texts form a continuous testimony that stretches from ancient Judah through the collapse of nations and culminates in the final reckoning of the world system at the return of Christ. Jeremiah 4 speaks to a devastating diagnosis: “For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.” This is not ignorance in the innocent sense, but willful estrangement. God identifies the people as “my people,” yet describes them as having no true knowledge of Him. This reveals a critical biblical truth: proximity to religious identity does not equal relationship, and familiarity with religious language does not guarantee submission to divine authority. In every age, including our own, this condition appears when a people can skillfully navigate systems of power, economics, and self-preservation, yet lack the wisdom to walk humbly, justly, and obediently before God. Jeremiah’s vision then expands from moral diagnosis to cosmic consequence. He looks upon the earth and declares it “without form, and void,” echoing the language of Genesis before creation was ordered by the word of God. This is not accidental. Scripture is showing that rejection of God’s truth does not merely corrupt individuals; it unravels creation itself. When God’s ordering word is rejected, disorder follows. Mountains tremble, cities flee, birds disappear, and fruitful places become wilderness. This imagery communicates that human rebellion fractures the harmony between heaven and earth. In our time, this is mirrored in social collapse, environmental devastation, moral confusion, and the unraveling of trust between peoples and institutions. These are not random crises; they are symptoms of a world that has severed itself from the Source of life. Yet even in this devastation, Jeremiah records God saying, “Yet will I not make a full end.” This restraint reveals mercy woven into judgment. God does not delight in destruction, but He will not indefinitely sustain a world that refuses correction. The persistence of mercy is meant to lead to repentance, not complacency. In our generation, prolonged grace has often been mistaken for divine approval. The absence of immediate consequence has emboldened rebellion, reinforcing the illusion that truth is optional and obedience negotiable. Scripture warns that such thinking is itself evidence of spiritual blindness. Jeremiah 25 intensifies this theme by broadening the scope from God’s people to all nations. The Lord’s voice is described as a roar that reaches “unto the ends of the earth,” signaling a universal accountability. No nation, system, or ruler stands outside this moral order. The passage describes a great controversy, not merely between nations, but between God’s truth and human defiance. The slain of the Lord are said to be “from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth,” underscoring the totality of the collapse that follows sustained rejection of divine governance. The shepherds and principal leaders are singled out for lamentation because they have destroyed the flock. This is especially relevant to nominal religion. Leaders who maintain outward forms of piety while accommodating injustice, pride, and falsehood are portrayed as accountable for the spiritual ruin of those entrusted to them. This applies not only to religious institutions, but to political, cultural, and intellectual leaders who shape the moral imagination of society. When truth is diluted to preserve influence, when righteousness is sacrificed for relevance, and when obedience is replaced with performance, the result is not peace but devastation. Jeremiah 25 also describes the Lord abandoning His covert, likened to a lion leaving its lair. This imagery communicates a sobering reality: there comes a point when God withdraws His protective presence and allows the consequences of rebellion to unfold. This is not divine cruelty; it is divine justice honoring human choice. A world that insists on autonomy from God must eventually experience what life looks like without His restraining hand. In our time, this withdrawal is sensed in the normalization of violence, the erosion of compassion, the celebration of confusion, and the hardening of conscience. These are not merely cultural trends; they are spiritual judgments. Revelation 19 brings these threads to their final convergence. Here, judgment is no longer prophetic warning but executed reality. The imagery of the supper of the great God, where birds consume the flesh of kings, captains, and mighty men, is intentionally shocking. It reverses the false feasts of human power and pride. Those who consumed the earth through exploitation, war, deception, and idolatry are themselves consumed. The beast and the false prophet—symbols of political power united with religious deception—are destroyed together. This union reflects the ultimate expression of nominal religion: faith used to sanctify rebellion rather than submit to truth. What is especially striking is that this judgment comes not upon ignorant pagans alone, but upon a world that had access to light. The New Testament repeatedly warns that deception in the last days will be religious in nature, capable of convincing even those who profess faith. Nominal belief—faith that is intellectual but not transformative, ceremonial but not obedient— becomes the most dangerous condition because it dulls the conscience while preserving the illusion of safety. Outward religion without inward surrender creates a people who believe they are aligned with God while actively resisting His will. These passages collectively reveal that the final crisis is not primarily about political alignment or technological advancement, but about truth received or rejected. God’s truth demands transformation. It reshapes character, reorders priorities, and produces obedience that flows from love rather than fear. Where this transformation is absent, religion becomes a performance, and performance cannot withstand judgment. When trials intensify, only faith rooted in genuine surrender will endure. Applied to our time, these texts warn that the world’s rejection of God’s truth will culminate in global collapse—not because God delights in destruction, but because truth is the sustaining fabric of reality. Remove truth, and systems implode. Remove obedience, and freedom decays into chaos. Remove humility, and power becomes predatory. The nominal people of God are especially warned, because their failure misrepresents God to the world and accelerates judgment rather than delaying it. Yet embedded within these warnings is a call. Jeremiah’s grief, God’s restraint, and Christ’s ultimate victory all testify that repentance remains possible until the end. The purpose of prophetic truth is not despair, but awakening. Those who respond now—who move beyond form into substance, beyond profession into obedience, beyond belief into surrender—become living witnesses of a different kingdom. They stand in contrast to the world’s trajectory, not by force, but by faith made visible through transformed lives. These scriptures ultimately declare that history is moral, not accidental. Choices matter. Truth matters. Obedience matters. And while judgment is real, it is never God’s first desire. The tragedy revealed in these passages is not that God judges, but that so many refuse the truth that would have healed them. In our time, as in Jeremiah’s and John’s, the call remains the same: “Hear, O earth.” The question is not whether the warning has been given, but whether it will be received. The prophetic testimony of Scripture presents the end of the age not merely as the judgment of nations or the exposure of human rebellion, but as a comprehensive unraveling of the created order itself. The earth is not a passive backdrop in the final crisis; it is an active witness. When Jeremiah declares that he beheld the earth “without form, and void,” he is not indulging poetic exaggeration, nor is he describing a localized devastation confined to Judah. He is deliberately invoking the language of Genesis in reverse, announcing a process of de-creation. What God once spoke into harmonious order is now permitted to collapse because the moral foundation upon which creation was entrusted to humanity has been irreparably corrupted. This is not the failure of God’s power, but the withdrawal of His sustaining restraint from a world that has persistently rejected His truth. The imagery in Jeremiah chapter four is arresting because it strips away every assumption of continuity. There is no man. The birds of the heavens have fled. The fruitful place has become a wilderness. The cities are broken down at the presence of the Lord and by His fierce anger. Each of these elements points to the same reality: the earth is no longer functioning as a habitat for life. Humanity’s absence is not merely physical extinction but covenantal severance. The Hebrew concept of “man” here is adam, the one through whom dominion was exercised and stewardship maintained. When adam is removed, the created order loses its appointed mediator. Without righteous governance, the land cannot remain stable. Creation was never designed to exist independently of moral alignment with its Creator. This theme is reinforced when Jeremiah speaks again, declaring that the beasts are consumed and the birds are gone because of the wickedness of those who dwell in the land. Scripture does not treat animal life as morally culpable, yet it does not insulate it from the consequences of human rebellion. The created order was subjected to humanity’s authority, and therefore it falls under the consequences of humanity’s collapse. The land mourns because it has been misused, violated, and compelled to sustain violence, deceit, and spiritual adultery. When God’s covenant is persistently rejected, creation is released from the obligation to uphold a corrupt order. Revelation chapter eight advances this same testimony with terrifying clarity. The apostle Paul provides the theological explanation for this reality in Romans chapter eight. Creation, he writes, was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of the one who subjected it, in hope. Creation groans, not because it is evil, but because it has been bound to a fallen steward. Its suffering is not meaningless; it is prophetic. When humanity’s rebellion reaches its fullness, creation’s groaning becomes creation’s testimony. The collapse of the natural world exposes the lie that humanity can sever itself from God and still retain stability, abundance, and life. This raises the question of divine intent. Is God destroying creation in anger, or is He allowing it to speak? Scripture consistently presents the latter. God does not delight in destruction, but neither does He perpetuate corruption indefinitely. The death of the present order is not the loss of creation but the end of a version of creation that has been thoroughly violated. The earth that emerges from judgment is not rehabilitated but replaced. The promise of Scripture is not environmental recovery but new creation. Behold, He says, I make all things new. The near-total collapse of animal life in this context is not an oversight or an act of indifference. It is the unavoidable consequence of a world whose sustaining moral and spiritual architecture has been dismantled. Animals were never promised preservation in a world God has declared finished. Realities are seen in judgment, silence, and desolation. This is why Revelation later describes the earth as desolate, empty, and uninhabited, a prison house for Satan himself. There are no nations left to deceive because there are no systems left to manipulate. There is no thriving creation to exploit. The planet stands as a scarred testimony to the truthfulness of God’s warnings. The earth, once commanded to bring forth life, now stands still under divine restraint, awaiting the word that will speak it into being again. The sobering truth is that the destruction of nature in Scripture is never presented as incidental. It is integral to the moral narrative. The earth agrees with God’s verdict. It withdraws its productivity. It ceases to cooperate with rebellion. It reflects outwardly what humanity has become inwardly. In this way, creation participates in the great controversy, not as a combatant, but as a witness. For the final generation, this reality sharpens the call. The remnant is not preserved to manage ecosystems or rebuild civilizations. They are preserved to bear moral testimony in a world that is coming undone. Their faithfulness stands in stark contrast to a collapsing planet, revealing that life is sustained not by soil, sea, or sun, but by the word of God alone. When that word is rejected, even the earth itself testifies against the rejecters. Thus the Scriptures leave us with a stark and holy silence. The land is desolate. The beasts are gone. The birds have fled. The seas are dying. Humanity’s defilement of creation stands at the edge of finality. And yet, hovering over this void is the same Spirit who once moved upon the face of the waters. Judgment is not the final word. De-creation is not annihilation. Itis preparation. From the ashes of a rebel world, God will again speak, and this time, what He creates will never fall away. The New Testament confirms and intensifies this testimony. In the eighth chapter of Revelation, the trumpet judgments are not symbolic abstractions detached from physical reality; they are progressive dismantlings of the systems that make life on earth possible. When the first trumpet sounds and all green grass is burned, the foundation of terrestrial life is struck. Grass is not incidental. It is the base of land-based food chains, the first link in a complex network of dependence. Its destruction initiates cascading collapse. Herbivores perish. Predators follow. Soil erodes. Oxygen production diminishes. What appears as partial judgment is in fact systemic destabilization. The second trumpet turns attention to the seas, converting a portion of the ocean into blood and destroying a third of its living creatures. The oceans are not merely habitats; they are regulators of climate, generators of oxygen, and stabilizers of the planetary system. Their corruption signals global unraveling. The death of marine life compounds atmospheric imbalance and removes a primary food source for both humans and animals. Commerce collapses, symbolized by the destruction of ships, revealing that economic systems cannot survive the breakdown of creation itself. The third trumpet poisons the freshwater sources, causing many to die from the bitterness of the waters. Here Scripture speaks with sobering clarity. If humans perish from poisoned water, animals perish sooner and in greater number. Freshwater contamination collapses entire regions at once. Migration fails. Reproduction ceases. The intricate interdependence of species disintegrates. What remains is not a struggling ecosystem but a dying one. The earth is no longer capable of sustaining complex life at scale. The fourth trumpet darkens the celestial lights, diminishing the sun, moon, and stars. This judgment strikes at the rhythms by which life is ordered. Light governs photosynthesis, seasonal cycles, migration, and reproduction. Its reduction accelerates collapse already underway. Temperatures destabilize. Agriculture fails entirely. Species that survived earlier devastation are driven beyond recovery. The planet enters a suspended state between existence and oblivion, a world still present but no longer fruitful. The repeated biblical emphasis on the absence of birds is especially instructive. Birds are among the most sensitive indicators of environmental health. Their disappearance signals not temporary disruption but terminal decline. Without birds, pollination collapses, seed dispersal ceases, insect populations surge briefly and then implode, and forest regeneration halts. When Scripture declares that the birds have fled, it is declaring that the earth’s regenerative capacity has been withdrawn. The land is no longer healing; it is testifying. The apostle Peter brings this entire prophetic witness into sharp eschatological focus. In his second epistle, he declares that the day of the Lord will come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth and the works therein shall be burned up. This is not metaphorical refinement; it is ontological dissolution. The very building blocks of the present order are unbound. Peter’s language reaches beyond ecological collapse to atomic unmaking. Creation is not merely failing; it is being unfastened at its foundations by divine decree. Peter then presses the moral weight of this revelation upon God’s people. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness. The destruction of the natural world is not presented as a spectacle for fear, but as a summons to holiness. The coming dissolution exposes the folly of attachment to a world that is passing away. It demands a people whose lives are anchored in what cannot be shaken. The apostle continues, declaring that God’s people look for and hasten unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The faithful are not merely waiting for this event; they are morally aligned with it. Their lives bear witness that the present order is not their home. Their obedience testifies that a new creation is already being anticipated in character and allegiance. The question of how the trumpets and the seven last plagues relate to one another is not a matter of prophetic curiosity, but of spiritual maturity. Biblically, they operate cooperatively but not identically. They are distinct judgments with different purposes, audiences, and timing, yet they belong to the same judicial arc. Scripture never presents judgment as spectacle; it presents it as revelation. When Paul exhorts the church to let the mind of Christ dwell within them, he is not calling for emotional softness divorced from truth, but for a holy willingness to carry the full moral weight of reality as Christ Himself bore it. To think with the mind of Christ is to take seriously both the cost of sin and the necessity of its final removal. It is in this light that the relationship between the trumpets and the plagues must be understood. Biblically, the trumpets and the plagues do not operate as parallel or competing judgments. They are successive movements within the same judicial process. The trumpets represent judgment restrained by mercy, while the plagues represent judgment released after mercy has finished its work. This distinction is not inferred; it is revealed. Under the trumpets, destruction is partial, measured, and repeatedly interrupted by calls to repentance. Scripture explicitly states that humanity still has opportunity, yet refuses to turn. The trumpets therefore function as God’s final warnings to a world already bent toward destruction but not yet sealed in its choice. The plagues, by contrast, occur only after probation has closed. Revelation declares that the heavenly temple is filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power, and that no one is able to enter until the plagues are fulfilled. This is not imagery of delay, but of completion. Intercession has ceased. The destiny of every soul has been fixed. The plagues are not corrective; they are declarative. They reveal what the world becomes when God no longer restrains the consequences of sustained rebellion. This distinction clarifies why the trumpets devastate the systems that sustain life, while the plagues target the unrepentant themselves. Under the trumpets, the earth groans. Vegetation burns, waters are corrupted, light is diminished, and ecosystems collapse. Creation itself testifies that it can no longer support a civilization that rejects its Creator. The trumpets affect fractions, strike both humanity and creation, occur while intercession is still active, serve as calls to repentance, and the trumpets say, “Turn while there is still time.” Under the plagues, however, judgment falls directly upon those who have aligned themselves fully against God. The plagues affect everything targeted, fall only on the unrepentant, those with the mark, occur after the temple is filled with smoke, no repentance is sought or possible. The plagues say, “It is finished.” So they are not parallel timelines. They are successive phases of judgment. Painful sores, blood-filled seas and rivers, scorching heat, and suffocating darkness fall only upon those who bear the mark of rebellion. The earth suffers because it is still carrying them, but the focus has shifted from warning to exposure. The trumpets dismantle the house. The plagues remove the occupants. The truths we are learning are not meant to be emotionally “felt” — they are meant to be borne. The seven last plagues are not an interruption in the prophetic narrative but its solemn completion. Scripture presents them as the final movement of divine judgment, occurring only after every appeal of mercy has been exhausted and every human destiny has been irrevocably fixed. They do not introduce a new phase of God’s dealing with humanity; they reveal the full moral outcome of choices already made. Revelation is explicit that before a single plague falls intercession has ceased. Christ’s mediatorial work is complete. What follows is not God persuading the world, but God honoring the settled will of humanity. This distinction is essential to rightly understanding the character of God. The plagues are not corrective, nor are they intended to awaken repentance. Scripture records repeatedly that those who experience them blaspheme God rather than humble themselves. This is not because the plagues harden the heart, but because they reveal what the heart has already become. The same sun that softens wax hardens clay. When divine restraint is withdrawn, the true alignment of the soul is exposed. The plagues are therefore revelatory before they are punitive. The first plague falls upon those who have received the mark of the beast, manifesting as grievous and painful sores. This is not arbitrary suffering. The body becomes the canvas upon which allegiance is revealed. Those who worshiped a false system that promised security now experience internal corruption and unrelieved anguish. The pain is personal, isolating, and inescapable. Humanity is confronted with the reality that false worship ultimately turns inward and destroys the very vessel that embraced it. The second and third plagues expand judgment outward to the seas and the rivers, turning them into blood. Under the trumpets, only a portion of the waters were affected; under the plagues, the judgment is complete. Life in the oceans dies. Freshwater sources become lethal. The angel declares God righteous for this judgment, because the world has shed the blood of saints and prophets. What humanity poured out upon the faithful is now returned in kind. The earth itself bears witness that moral violence cannot be sustained indefinitely without consequence. The fourth plague strikes the sun, intensifying its heat until humanity is scorched. This judgment dismantles one of the last remaining assumptions of stability: that the natural forces sustaining life are neutral and dependable. The same sun that once nourished crops and regulated seasons now becomes an instrument of suffering. Yet even here, Scripture records no repentance. Instead, humanity curses God. This reveals the depth of rebellion at the close of probation: suffering no longer produces reflection, only defiance. The fifth plague plunges the seat of the beast into darkness. This is not merely the absence of light, but the collapse of perceived authority. The system that claimed enlightenment and moral clarity is exposed as hollow and blind. Pain continues, compounded by confusion and despair. People gnaw their tongues in anguish, yet still refuse repentance. Darkness becomes both physical and spiritual, revealing that separation from God ultimately results in disorientation, fear, and loss of meaning. The sixth plague introduces the gathering known as Armageddon. The Euphrates dries up, symbolizing the removal of support from the powers that sustained spiritual Babylon. Demonic spirits go forth, working miracles to gather the nations, uniting political, religious, and military powers in open opposition to God. This is not God coercing rebellion; it is God allowing deception to reach its final, visible expression. This gathering is only possible because the world has already rejected every prior appeal. The world unites, not in peace, but in shared resistance to divine authority. Heaven does not provoke this gathering; it allows it, so that rebellion may be seen for what it truly is. Armageddon is the collective, global convergence of defiance, signaling that humanity will not submit, even when fully aware of whom it is opposing. It emerges naturally within this progression. Occurring under the sixth plague. At this moment, the voice of God is heard by His faithful people. The righteous dead are resurrected, and the living holy are transformed. They are sheltered in the heaven from the final violence of the storm. The wicked are slain by the brightness of Christ’s coming. The plagues have accomplished their work: rebellion has been fully revealed, and the presence of unveiled holiness can no longer be endured by those who rejected it. The seventh plague brings this exposure to its climax. The greatest earthquake in human history shatters the planet’s remaining stability. Cities fall, islands flee, mountains disappear, and massive hailstones descend. Before the hailstones, at the voice of God, the righteous are resurrected, the holy are changed and brought to the skies, while the wicked are slain by the brightness of Christ’s coming. This is not arbitrary destruction. It is the unavoidable result of a world that can no longer exist in the presence of unveiled holiness. The earth itself breaks apart under the moral and physical weight it has been carrying. What follows is not immediate renewal, but profound desolation, not annihilation, but suspension—a cosmic pause in which the universe stands as witness to the final outcome of sin. For one thousand years, the earth lies silent and broken. Humanity is absent. Creation is still. Satan and his angels are confined to a ruined world with no one left to deceive. Jeremiah’s vision of an earth without form and void reaches its fullest realization. This is not chaos without purpose, but judgment preserved as testimony. At the close of the millennium, the final resurrection takes place, and the narrative reaches its final moral resolution. All who rejected God from creation to the close of probation stand before Him. The New Jerusalem descends. The wicked are resurrected, not to probation, but to judgment. Ezekiel 28:18–19 becomes the interpretive lens through which this final scene is understood. When the prophet speaks of Satan being brought forth “fire from the midst of thee” that devours him, the language reveals more than external punishment—it describes an internal collapse. The fire originates within: the accumulated consequences of pride, deceit, and violence turning inward upon their source. The “many deaths” spoken of earlier in the chapter now culminate in a singular, irreversible end. Satan’s splendor, once derived from proximity to God, is reduced to ashes in the sight of all who behold him. The phrase “thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more” is fulfilled not through sudden annihilation alone, but through the public exposure of rebellion as utterly bankrupt and self- destructive. Revelation 20 expands this vision by placing it within the broader framework of final judgment. The wicked are raised, not to receive another probation, but to consciously acknowledge the justice of God’s verdict. What Ezekiel foresaw symbolically, Revelation records historically and cosmically. In this moment, the turning of the wicked and the fallen angels upon Satan serves a crucial revelatory purpose. Throughout the ages, Satan accused God of tyranny, injustice, and selfishness. Now those accusations are reversed. Every soul and spirit deceived by him recognizes that their suffering is not the result of divine oppression, but of satanic falsehood. This universal realization silences forever the charge that God is responsible for sin’s existence or persistence. The great controversy ends not merely with power, but with understanding. Heaven and earth alike see that God allowed rebellion to run its full course so that its true nature could be revealed beyond dispute. The wicked that rise and the fallen angels are filled with the same hatred of God that inspires Satan; but they see that their case is hopeless, that they cannot prevail against God. Their rage is kindled against Satan and in that final hour, the universe witnesses a scene no created mind was meant to behold. The wicked, raised to life only to face the verdict of truth, awaken not into hope but into clarity. Memory returns in full force. Every rejected warning, every resisted appeal, every moment when light pressed upon the conscience and was cast aside—now stands before them without distortion. Alongside the wicked are the fallen angels, ancient intelligences whose rebellion long preceded human history, now stripped of every illusion that once sustained their defiance. Together, they perceive the same unalterable reality: their cause is lost. God has not been overthrown, His law has not failed, and His character stands vindicated before all creation. The “deaths” spoken of in Ezekiel 28 take on their dreadful fullness here. This is not merely the cessation of life, but the complete collapse of purpose, identity, and false glory. Satan, once the anointed cherub that covereth, stands exposed before those he deceived. His promises of liberty are revealed as chains; his boasts of victory dissolve into impotence. The wicked and the fallen angels alike see that they have been instruments, not partners—used to advance a rebellion that never had the power to succeed. The realization burns more fiercely than any external flame. Hopelessness does not soften them; it hardens them. Knowing they cannot prevail against God, their fury seeks another outlet. The hatred that once unified them under Satan’s leadership now turns inward, recoiling upon its source. Rage ignites—not against heaven, which is now unmistakably beyond their reach—but against the one who led them into this abyss. Satan becomes, in their eyes, the embodiment of betrayal. The architect of their ruin stands before them, unable to shield himself from the consequences of his own lies. The scene erupts into chaos. With the fury of devils, they turn upon him— those he commanded now accuse, those he inspired now condemn. There is no loyalty left in rebellion when hope is gone. What once appeared as solidarity fractures into violent recrimination. Satan, who thrived on accusation, now stands accused by every soul and spirit he ensnared. The kingdom built on self-exaltation collapses under the weight of mutual hatred, consuming itself exactly as divine justice foretold. Yet even in this terrifying moment, God’s righteousness is unmistakably clear. He does not need to strike Satan down to prove His justice; rebellion destroys itself when fully exposed. The final destruction is not an arbitrary act of power, but the natural end of a will eternally opposed to love, truth, and life. The universe sees—and understands—that God has been just, patient, and true from the beginning. Sin is shown to be what it has always been: a fire that, once fully kindled, can only devour itself. The eternal security of the universe is sealed in this revelation. Sin is not merely punished; it is fully understood. No creature, in any future age, will desire to experiment again with self-exaltation or independence from God, because the memory of this final unraveling will stand as an eternal witness. Love is shown to be the only foundation of life, and God’s law the only framework in which freedom can exist. Obedience is no longer viewed as restraint, but as protection. The scars of rebellion become the safeguards of eternity. Thus, the destruction of Satan and all who align with him is not a dark conclusion, but a necessary one. The universe does not move forward in fear, but in peace—having seen both the patience and the justice of God fully displayed. Evil does not linger as a mystery or a threat. It ends exposed, exhausted, and consumed, while God’s character stands eternally vindicated, and His creation rests secure in unbroken harmony forever. Every life that rejected God from creation to the final plague stands before the throne. Judgment is executed. The lake of fire consumes sin, sinners, and death itself. This fire does not perpetuate suffering; it eradicates rebellion. It is the final act of divine justice, cleansing the universe of rebellion forever. The moral universe is cleansed. Evil is no more. Only then does God speak again with creative authority. A new heaven and a new earth are brought into existence, not as repaired remnants of the old, but as a wholly new creation in which righteousness dwells. The cost of redemption, measured in the suffering of Christ and the sorrow of judgment, has achieved its purpose. To carry the mind of Christ is to accept this entire testimony—not selectively, but reverently—trusting that love and justice were never in conflict, and that the God who warned, waited, and wept is the same God who finally brings sin to an end. The memory of the plagues, the trumpets, and the desolation remains as eternal testimony, ensuring that sin will never rise again. Mercy has finished speaking, justice has completed its work, and love stands vindicated before all creation. 📖 Applying the Study For ongoing spiritual encouragement and prophetical insights, visit Higher Learning.

Creation is the all-knowing, all-powerful expression of God’s sovereign purpose for eternity. Creation is not a simple act of God’s decree; rather, creation is a subject of consideration and discussion. God creates humanity in response to all other things made after their kind, rather than as a mere act of self-will. Even in the beginning there is already relation: there is no absolute beginning, not even in the beginning. God has no beginning...nothing caused God. When God reaches His crowning creative act - the formation of human life - His wording changes from the measured “let there be” to the deliberate and intimate expression, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” The plurality of majesty attests to the deliberation of the counsel of determination. God consulting with God. God’s plan for us was designed in the fullness of His divine creative power. Having the “image” or “likeness” of God means, in the simplest terms, that we were made to resemble God. The image of God refers to the immaterial part of man. That implies that man’s spirituality was centered in the deepest values of life and not upon materialism. The image of God embraces the idea of an ultimate reality enabling the discovery of the essence of being a created being of God. This is based in the qualities such as love, compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, responsibility, harmony, and a concern for others. These are aspects of life and human experience which go beyond a purely materialist view of the world. As in the image of God man can center his thoughts and hopes upon something transcending self and can find that certain peace without desiring to be ‘a god’. Man’s spiritual experiences include being connected to a larger reality, yielding a more comprehensive self; joining with other individuals of the human community; with nature and the omniverse; and with the divine realm wherein dwells all manner of God-created personalities. The image of God sets man apart from the remainder of creation, it fits him for the dominion God intended him to have over the earth and enables him to commune face to face with his Maker. It is a likeness mentally, morally, and socially. Mentally, man was created as a rational, volitional agent. In other words, man can reason and man can choose. This is a reflection of God’s intellect and freedom. Can the image of God primarily have to do with our spiritual and intellectual awareness? Morally, man was created in righteousness and perfect innocence, a reflection of God’s holiness. God saw all He had made (mankind included) and called it “very good”. Our conscience or “moral compass” is a vestige of that original state. Socially, man was created for fellowship. This reflects God's triune nature and His love. In Eden, man’s primary relationship was with God, implying fellowship with God, and God made the first woman because it is not good for the man to be alone. *“In the beginning”. What a powerful phrase. As we study the bible we can look back at the very beginning, before ever there was time and before there was anything existing with but one exception - God. “In the beginning God”. We know that God was before the beginning. In fact, we know that He thought up the beginning, and the beginning of all things were and are in Him. And it was not good for God to be alone. “Let us make man in our image”. God speaks and it is. But man was not spoken into being. Man was made in a very unique way; he was made in the image of God, formed with the hand of God and covered with the flesh capable to inhabit eternity, and kissed by the Spirit of God. Made in the concept of eternity. God the Father’s character, God the Son’s nature, God the Holy Ghost’s spirit. This is an astounding fact, for because we were made in God’s image, we understand that we were made to reflect God’s nature. Not His omni-allness. But His love, spiritual enlightenment, His truth. God is righteous and we can be righteous in a manner that is similar to how God is righteous and yet not identical with it. Out of His own fullness, He makes His people righteousness. We are to offer God a response of faith. The difference between righteousness in God and the righteousness that He shares with men and women exists in the infinitude of God and the finitude of man. God’s righteousness is not derivative. Christ is our righteousness. It is God’s satisfaction imputed to us. Adam was righteous before he sinned, but under probation to the law. He abided in truth that spring out of the earth which is the righteousness of heaven. And God’s righteousness is. An everlasting righteousness, and God’s law is the truth. How is it that we are still imaged in God? Our morality; our sense of right and wrong, our rationality; our ability to reason, our spirituality; our ability to relate to God. The comparison between Adam and Christ is that the guilt of Adam’s one act of disobedience is imputed to the elect and that the righteousness of Christ’s one act of obedience is imputed to the elect. We are created in the image of God, and the fall of man into sin did not destroy it, but defaced it. Even as we bear the image of God by nature, we do not do so perfectly. Sin distorts and disrupts it, but it does not destroy it. Instead, it reminds us of our need for the only one who perfectly represents God: Jesus, who is the image of the invisible God, the only one who perfectly reflects all of God’s attributes, fulfills His will, and enjoys a perfect relationship with the Father. We are being renewed in knowledge as we are growing in faith. God created us in his image so that we would display or reflect or communicate who he is, how great he is, and what he is like. We are to recognize that to be God’s image is to be embodied and to thereby represent the presence of God in the world. We are impressed with God’s authority. What a truly awesome purpose – to represent God’s presence in the human body. This purpose is not defined by our intellect, or ability to reason, or our emotions. Those encompass human capabilities. We are a spiritual people by nature. Created in God’s image and likeness in that we are persons, possessing wisdom and will, capable of knowing and worshiping God, and gifted with creative powers. Our kinship to God is implied in His command to cultivate creation. This gives us a unique privilege but also a serious responsibility in our relationship with God, with other people, and with the rest of creation. In our likeness with God we have a reasoning mind, our free will, and our capacity to relate. With our understanding we are able to think in spiritual ways and acquire knowledge and wisdom; we have the ability to ponder the true essence of our existence in the world and to distinguish right from wrong, making intelligent choices without allowing selfish motives to consume us. Because of sin, the image of God is no longer a pure quality possessed by man; it is a condition in which we live, it is a condition of confrontation established and maintained by the Creator. The image of God is that in man which constitutes us as “him-whom-God-loves”. Therefore we love God in an intentional way. Expressed and developed through virtue, whereby we perform good deeds, grow in love, and become ever-greater participants in the divine life of God. We must be prayerful with these distinctions. On the level of likeness we are called to surpass the angels, since it is given to humans alone to “become partakers of the divine nature”. Unlike every other creature, the image of God is what makes man human; man could not lose the image without ceasing to be what he is. Moreover, it’s only because man keeps his image of God - even in a broken or distorted form - that man is redeemable and worth redeeming. Without it, God would have had no reason to send His Son to die on our behalf. Every single human being, no matter how much the image of God is marred by sin still has the status of being in God’s image and therefore must be treated with the dignity and respect that is due to God’s image-bearer. This has profound implications for our conduct toward others. It means that people of every race deserve equal dignity and rights and honor as human beings. Being in the image of God brings man not to define himself too significant or to lessen his significance. Either action would be a matter of depreciating God’s glory and distorting His relation to creation. The truth is, we gain our identity, and it is a satisfying one when we relate our very essence to the source of all things. We acknowledge God as Creator, as the origin not only of the universe but of ourselves as well. And in this acknowledgment, we are to understand our purpose and function as we come to further understand the image of God. We must learn of the form, content, and function of the image and how and why we bear this image. In God’s likeness means man will continually grow. Being born again is that act of God redeeming an individual. He begins to restore the original image of Himself, creating a new self in man, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness through reconciliation. That redemption and reconciliation is only available by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior from the sin that separates us from God. Through Christ, we are made new creations again in the likeness of God. What is the ‘form’ of God’s image? God is spirit; both formless and uncreated. To call God a spirit is to state the most decisive and determinative thing we can say about God. The fact that God is uncreated makes Him qualitatively different from any and all created reality, both spirit and material. Isaiah 45:5 tells us that God is prime reality. And “spirit” is His form. How is this? God’s personhood is His chief characteristic and function. All of creation was made through the personhood of the Godhead: God commanded, the Word, Jesus, was the agent through whom all things were created, and the Spirit was the energizing work which breathed life into creation. In fact, God’s image is both based and explained on the ground of His personhood. Both His form and His act of creation made through His personhood gives us knowledge that His is an infinite, transcendent, sovereign and good moral being. To be uncreated, is to purely “be”. God represents Himself by the term “I AM,” which alludes to how He is both a self-conscience and infinite being. God is not limited by anything outside Himself. He is, therefore, both eternal and transcendent. God is not simply the Creator of the heavens and the earth and all that is, He is also the one who summons, orders, sustains, and governs all of reality. God’s creation act not only signifies His creativeness, infiniteness, and his freedom of will, but also His sovereignty. Creation is an expression of His sovereignty as He both commanded and established the purpose, direction and goal of creation. In likeness, so is God’s nature which is love and goodness. God always acts in the most important evidence of Himself…the law of love. So God acted freely and in love to make beings in His own image and to give them free will. The creation of man was an act of love, as God sought a non-compulsory fellowship with man which bears His image. Man being in the image of God gives man his identity as a special creature, as he shares, in part, in God’s nature. Man has been made in both God’s image and likeness. This likeness means something that man must continually grow into and this likeness alludes to the spiritual attribute. And so in Christ man is built for a spiritual function though not of the same essence as is God, but in a real sense of His spirit. As God is aware of Himself, so man is a self-conscious being; aware of his existence. A solitary human being cannot reflect the image of God, because God is community; Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Man was created for community and God placed the vitality for life within us. The first element of man’s consciousness is that by his intellect he is capable of knowing God. And by this consciousness man can be spoken to by God. In all creation what is spoken of as being God’s pleasure is the creation of man. The work of creation was not finished until man was placed in it and even the sabbath was made for man. Everything that God created was preparatory for man. Dominion is an image of God. Man and woman as one is an active creator. Understanding of image proposes that mankind reflects God’s image in the union of relationship. As mankind becomes aware of relational identity between male and female, an awareness of the concept of relationship with God becomes reality. The image of God then is essentially a relational identity - our ability to relate to God and one another. This shows that male and female are gender distinctions within a sub-category of mankind created in God’s image and likeness. Relational union between men and women is not a definition of what it means to be made in the image of God but is a result of bearing the image of God. We have the wisdom to understand the reasoning of God in His design. “In our image” is a profound determination of the Godhead. It depicts the standard or pattern in which God created: God created man in the pattern of His image. Everything that follows this statement including the distinctive male/female relationship, is a secondary element to the fact that man and woman each already bear the image of God and reflect the nature of God. When God said “Let us make,” the declaration of mankind in God’s image was made before the man and the woman were alive to experience relationships as image bearers. God created mankind - both male and female - in His image and then described the things that mankind is to do. God first declared mankind in His image and then in sequence gave us instructions for living. The first pair were already in God’s image and likeness before they were given instructions for dominion, replenishing, and multiplying. These instructions seem to be a result of being an image-bearer and not a statement of actual being. We are not God, but we are of God. We are able to stand back from ourselves. We can place ourselves ‘above’ the here and now. We can reflect on ourselves and scrutinize ourselves as living persons. The spiritual view of the image of God impacts how one understands sin and salvation in our restoration to what was “in the beginning”. The atoning sacrifice of Christ suggests that Jesus’ purpose in becoming human was not only his sacrificial death but to be the ultimate example of human life. While as the very image of God, Jesus shows us how to live, the bible explicitly teaches that He came to die in order that we might be transformed in our very beings as He substituted His righteousness for our sinfulness. The new man and old man give us great insight into what it means to be created in the image and likeness of God. It is an image that bears the righteousness and holiness of God. Scripture describes the attributes of God that are revealed to us in our finiteness. It is in the context of God being the perfection of such attributes. God is love, and God’s love is perfect. We share many of God’s attributes, and we were originally created to reflect God’s perfect character in righteousness and holiness. While God has character traits that He does not share with humanity, we can still see His shared attributes in humanity today, even though they are distorted by sin. Love, self-awareness, justice, grace, and mercy are distinct attributes. They are part of the very being of humanity. Today, we see a great difference between the holiness of God’s character and human character. We have distorted the very nature of God’s character in humanity because of our rejection of God’s holiness and rule in our lives. Being the bearer of the image of God also shows man to be self-determined. This means that man has free-will in which God allows man to accomplish what he has chosen to do. God has called to purpose His election. This is a unifying truth. The bible teaches that even after sin, mankind is still created in God’s image. Sin has devastatingly affected the image of God in man. And it is only through Jesus Christ’s substitutionary atonement and resurrection that mankind can be forgiven, transformed, and conformed to the image of Christ. Because we possessed the characteristic capacities for dominion and relationship that make us function as God’s image-bearers, our greatest need is to continue evolving such capacity that is ultimately seen in the pattern of Jesus Christ. This expresses God’s sovereignty which is not in conflict with man in his sinless condition. God’s intent was for each man to be found in the image of God and is therefore also found responsible to reciprocate God’s divine love by actively obeying him and becoming His likeness in the form of His morality; ye shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy. We are uniquely made in the image of God as part of His original “very good” created order, then our sin problem is a reality that is only solved by the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ who is the very express image of God. Through Christ alone we can be made right before God and conform to the image of His Son that we were originally created to be. God’s called purpose is for those of us who have been born again by the seed of Christ and have been re-made in the image of God. We are regaining all that was lost in the fall of Adam and Eve. Everything they gave up is being restored to us. While we know that we are not divine, we are a reflection of who God is, we are His offspring just as a child is a reflection of his parents. Following God may sound like a difficult task, but it’s not because every commandment comes with a divine provision which makes it possible for us to fulfill it. God gave us the power to fulfill every promise and every commandment in the bible as He transforms us in our born again lives. We are not called to live in this world as those who depend on their own ability, but we are called to live in God’s image, just as it was in the very beginning. And as such we must rediscover who we are in Christ. Having been renewed in the spirit of our mind we have been reborn in His image. God expects us to act like He would in every situation. We have His attributes and characteristics inside of us. We have everything we need, so we are to reflect the One who made us. Reflections have no choice about what they are. Our essense is now to be motivated by divinity rather than humanity. In God’s image we have something greater than our own strength to depend on. This is that wherein our faith is as that faith of Jesus. We can love...we can forgive...we can suffer...we can sacrifice...and whether we live or die we can be saved. His faith is a faith which was forged out of experience. His faith is tried and true. His faith took Him to the cross, and then it raised Him up to God. We must use our faith. We must have faith that sees what we say. And what we must say is truth. There is only one thing we can say that will carry the power of God as if God spoke it Himself, and that is God’s Word. The Word of God is the most powerful thing on earth. God’s Word is also His will. If we will simply believe we have been made in God’s image, and begin to act like we see Him act in every situation, we will begin to get the same results that He gets. We are made in His image. We are His reflections. We have His attributes and abilities, and we have God’s Word on it. That is the very depth of His covenant promise. A covenant where God says, “I will do all My word at the cost of My own account.” That is His sworn oath. God’s covenant is His creation continued. It is His spoken word seen. It is His image in us. How so? A covenant is an agreement in which two become one. The weaknesses of the weaker are swallowed up by the strengths of the greater. Here’s how His image is our image. The word covenant means “to cut”, so every time God entered into a covenant of any kind, it was ratified by the shedding of blood. Whose blood is represented here? When blood was shed an exchange was made. Remember the cross? God is saying, “Everything I have is yours, and everything you have is mine. My strengths will swallow up your weaknesses, and your life will be infused with My power.” Blood was shed to ratify an agreement, and two became one in thought, action, provision, and strength. God made us in His image and placed us here to carry out a divine decree. He gave us the scriptures as an authoritative guide and He gave us His Son to reveal the Father, to redeem us from sin and to furnish in His life and teachings an inspiring example by the following of which, we may grow in grace and in the knowledge of God. Let us make man in our image. This gives us the full explanation of our presence on earth. Without revelation we would not understand how we came to be. We know we came into being without our own volition. We had no choice in the race, the gender, the family we were born into. Without the revelation of truth, we would think all was by chance. And yet, by revelation we know that God created us in His image supremely above all other things brought forth. In His image renders the truth of what an inestimable worth we are to God. We know we are part of God’s plan and purpose. To do God’s will becomes our highest duty as well as His greatest pleasure. We learn that obedience links happiness to virtue. God made us for a purpose, placed before us infinite possibilities and revealed to us responsibilities commensurate with the possibilities. God beckons us upward and the bible points the way. We can obey and travel toward perfection by the path that Christ revealed. Looking heavenward we can find inspiration in our lineage; looking about us we are impelled to kindness by a sense of kinship which binds us to our brothers. “In Our image” expresses God’s confidence that we are prepared for the work of His calling in Christ through the indwelling of His Spirit. His is a high purpose that is a necessary part of our preparation. It is for us to approach more and more unto perfection. Our faith in God, therefore, to strengthen us in our hours of trial. And we need both faith and trial to give us courage to do the work of life. How can one fight for a principle unless he believes in the triumph of right? How can we believe in the triumph of the right if we do not believe that God stands back of the truth and that God is able to bring victory to His side? We know not whether we are to live for the truth or to die for it, but if we have the faith we ought to have, we are as ready to die for it as to live for it. We are to image the very faith of Jesus. Faith will not only give us strength when we fight for righteousness, but our faith will bring dismay to our enemies. There is power in the presence of a faithful man who does right because it is right and dares to do the right in the face of all opposition. We are made in the image of God. Called, purposed, and prepared to proclaim the Word of God by voice as well as with pen. We have a mighty message for a waiting world - a message worthy of all our powers of heart and mind and tongue. Referenced testimony… Genesis 1:26, 27 SOP - When Adam came from the Creator’s hand, he bore, in his physical, mental, and spiritual nature, a likeness to his Maker. “God created man in His own image” (Genesis 1:27), and it was His purpose that the longer man lived the more fully he should reveal this image—the more fully reflect the glory of the Creator. All his faculties were capable of development; their capacity and vigor were continually to increase. Vast was the scope offered for their exercise, glorious the field opened to their research. The mysteries of the visible universe—the “wondrous works of Him which is perfect in knowledge” (Job 37:16)—invited man’s study. Face-to-face, heart-to-heart communion with his Maker was his high privilege. Had he remained loyal to God, all this would have been his forever. Throughout eternal ages he would have continued to gain new treasures of knowledge, to discover fresh springs of happiness, and to obtain clearer and yet clearer conceptions of the wisdom, the power, and the love of God. More and more fully would he have fulfilled the object of his creation, more and more fully have reflected the Creator’s glory. {Ed 15.1} SOP - Man was created upright. Ecclesiastes 7:29. He was possessed of rational capacities, of moral powers; but he must yet have an opportunity to develop a moral character. Powers and capacities may be conferred, but character can be formed only by the free action of moral agents. Unfortunately for Adam and for his race, he did not stand the trial; he fell from the gracious position in which he was placed by his Creator, and lost his dominion, for he lost his life. {FEE 15.3} Had Adam not sinned he would have the ability to move among all heaven. He would have been positioned to learn with and from those who had observed the works of God. Adam learned about but had not seen God’s works for he was created on day six and God gave him dominion and Adam was in perfect compliance with God’s will. The loyalty of the angels and the unfallen had been tested, now must Adam’s and Eve’s. Job 1:6, 7; Job 38:4-7 SOP - The First Students.—The holy pair [Adam and Eve] were not only children under the fatherly care of God, but students receiving instruction from the all-wise Creator. They were visited by angels, and were granted communion with their Maker, with no obscuring veil between. They were full of the vigor imparted by the tree of life, and their intellectual power was but little less than that of the angels. The mysteries of the visible universe—“the wondrous works of Him which is perfect in knowledge” [Job 37:16.] afforded them an exhaustless source of instruction and delight. The laws and operations of nature, which have engaged men’s study for six thousand years, were opened to their minds by the infinite Framer and Upholder of all. They held converse with leaf and flower and tree, gathering from each the secrets of its life. With every living creature, from the mighty leviathan that playeth among the waters, to the insect mote that floats in the sunbeam, Adam was familiar. He had given to each its name, and he was acquainted with the nature and habits of all. God’s glory in the heavens, the innumerable worlds in their orderly revolutions, “the balancings of the clouds,” the mysteries of light and sound, of day and night,—all were open to the study of our first parents. On every leaf of the forest, or stone of the mountains, in every shining star, in earth and air and sky, God’s name was written. The order and harmony of creation spoke to them of infinite wisdom and power. They were ever discovering some attraction that filled their hearts with deeper love, and called forth fresh expressions of gratitude. {CE 207.1} SOP - The creation was now complete. “The heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” “And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Eden bloomed on earth. Adam and Eve had free access to the tree of life. No taint of sin or shadow of death marred the fair creation. “The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Job 38:7. {DG 23.1} Our first parents, though created innocent and holy, were not placed beyond the possibility of wrongdoing. God made them free moral agents, capable of appreciating the wisdom and benevolence of His character and the justice of His requirements, and with full liberty to yield or to withhold obedience. They were to enjoy communion with God and with holy angels; but before they could be rendered eternally secure, their loyalty must be tested.... {DG 23.2} Man became sin…in the flesh…and in the spirit. Genesis 3:6, 7 Adam was created perfectly, and had no inward tendency to sin, as we now have. God created Adam as a moral being (capacity to choose good or evil)and this is called “FREE WILL.” And God had given man even something greater; He gave man conscience. In the Garden of Eden, man had a perfect relationship with God. Man chose God and goodness. The entire nature of man; mentally, morally, spiritually, physically, is affected by sin. The understanding is darkened. Ephesians 4:18; I Corinthians 2:14 The heart is deceitful and wicked. Jeremiah 17:9-10 The mind and conscience are defiled. Genesis 6:5; Titus 1:15 SOP - Think of Christ’s humiliation. He took upon Himself fallen, suffering human nature, degraded and defiled by sin. He took our sorrows, bearing our grief and shame. He endured all the temptations wherewith man is beset. He united humanity with divinity: a divine spirit dwelt in a temple of flesh. He united Himself with the temple. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,” because by so doing He could associate with the sinful, sorrowing sons and daughters of Adam (The Youth’s Instructor, December 20, 1900). {4BC 1147.4} Jesus came in sinful flesh… Romans 8:3 SOP - Jesus is the perfect pattern, and it is the duty and privilege of every child and youth to copy the pattern. Let children bear in mind that the child Jesus had taken upon Himself human nature, and was in the likeness of sinful flesh, and was tempted of Satan as all children are tempted. He was able to resist the temptation of Satan through His dependence upon the divine power of His heavenly Father, as He was subject to His will, and obedient to all His commands. He kept His Father’s statutes, precepts, and laws. He was continually seeking counsel of God, and was obedient to His will. {SD 128.2} Jesus rose with incorruptibility because there was no sin in him… Acts 13:33-35 Job 17: 13, 14 Lazarus came forth from the grave still attired in grave clothing indicating that he would again have to return to the grave. But Jesus having no more occasion for them, left them behind. John 11:43, 44 John 20:1-9 Man, changed, no sin will be in him (the 144000)… SOP - Unless there is genuine conversion of the soul to God; unless the vital breath of God quickens the soul to spiritual life; unless the professors of truth are actuated by heaven-born principle, they are not born of the incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth forever. Unless they trust in the righteousness of Christ as their only security; unless they copy His character, labor in His spirit, they are naked, they have not on the robe of His righteousness. The dead are often made to pass for the living; for those who are working out what they term salvation after their own ideas, have not God working in them to will and to do of His good pleasure. {4BC 1166.2} SOP - The parable of the wheat and the tares shows the mystery of the divine and the satanic agencies working in direct opposition, in vital conflict. The conflict continues till the close of this earth’s history. The incorruptible seed is the living Word of God, which works in the personal sanctification of the receivers, elevating them by bringing them into the participation of the divine nature. {CTr 236.3} God is spirit…Jesus is God in the flesh eternally… John 4:24 John 20:24-28 Luke 24:36-45 Man change in the twinkling of an eye is the completion of the imaging of God. Jesus in the flesh can enter at will through solid objects…ascend, descend. Can the completion of the plan of redemption be man obtaining spiritual glorified flesh as that of Jesus? I Corinthians 15:33-58 Revelation 14:4 Our coming together, in company with Christ. A mind endowed with the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual growing always into the personality, the nature, the disposition, the constitution, the makeup, the mold, the spirit ethos of Christ. A flesh and bone body; incorruptible, immortal, celestially spiritual. Speculatively, having no need of organs; no digestion for all is life and assimilation is complete; no need for breath for God’s spirit is the life; a heart…we will be filled with glory always entreating one another with meekness, gentleness, and tenderness in communion with Christ.

We are well aware of the very last words spoken of by the God-man Jesus as he hung dying on the cross as the sacrifice for all of our worldly sins…it is finished. What do those words mean? How those gathered at the cross, witnessing the crucifixion of the one they had put their hope must have wondered. How can it be finished? There was so much yet to do. But the life that Jesus was to live and die for us was finished. The sacrifice was accomplished. All the sins of the world had been symbolically placed on the lamb that was killed to pay the price of our sins. Atonement for the sins of the world was made. We must also be aware of the words spoken by God in preparation for our return to the new earth following the one-thousand-year period in heaven…it is done. Both the God Son and the God Father are identified as the Alpha and the Omega. What Jesus was telling us is how temporary this life is and the inevitability of death. Yet, the fulfillment of God’s plan for mankind’s salvation was finished. But the hope of glory was made sure in his finishing his earthly work. The words of the Son meet the words of the Father in that we are not to be conformed to this age, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. And that renewing means conformed to the newness of the age to come, because God says, "Behold I make all things new". God’s invincible purpose determined in the counsel is done. It is in knowing that in Christ our destiny is glorious and certain and because of that we are free to live the most radical life of love and sacrifice here on earth completing the life work of Jesus. Colossians 1:4, 5 When Jesus uttered His proclamation “it is finished” he was dying on the cross at Calvary. When the great voice said “it is done”, we see the very last wrath from God toward the unbelieving world who rejected the offer of salvation. Things are not done until the author of sin and all its following are cast into the lake of fire. That event is certain as we descend to this earth to view the panoramic scene of rejection chosen by the wicked. Let’s hear from the Spirit of Prophecy… SOP - Chapter XLII - The Controversy Ended, pages 662-678 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 life-time 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 the world, and whose inheritance has been unlawfully wrested from him. He represents himself to his deluded subjects as a redeemer, assuring them that his power has brought them forth from their graves, and that he is about to rescue them from the most cruel tyranny. The presence of Christ having been removed, Satan works wonders to support his claims. He makes the weak strong, and inspires all with his own spirit and energy. He proposes to lead them against the camp of the saints, and to take possession of the city of God. With fiendish exultation he points to the unnumbered millions who have been raised from the dead, and declares that as their leader he is well able to overthrow the city, and regain his throne and his kingdom. In that vast throng are multitudes of the long-lived race that existed before the flood; men of lofty stature and giant intellect, who, yielding to the control of fallen angels, devoted all their skill and knowledge to the exaltation of themselves; men whose wonderful works of art led the world to idolize their genius, but whose cruelty and evil inventions, defiling the earth and defacing the image of God, caused him to blot them from the face of his creation. There are kings and generals who conquered nations, valiant men who never lost a battle, proud, ambitious warriors whose approach made kingdoms tremble. In death these experienced no change. As they come up from the grave, they resume the current of their thoughts just where it ceased. They are actuated by the same desire to conquer that ruled them when they fell. Satan consults with his angels, and then with these kings and conquerors and mighty men. They look upon the strength and numbers on their side, and declare that the army within the city is small in comparison with theirs, and that it can be overcome. They lay their plans to take possession of the riches and glory of the New Jerusalem. All immediately begin to prepare for battle. Skillful artisans construct implements of war. Military leaders, famed for their success, marshal the throngs of warlike men into companies and divisions. At last the order to advance is given, and the countless host moves on,—an army such as was never summoned by earthly conquerors, such as the combined forces of all ages since war began on earth could never equal. Satan, the mightiest of warriors, leads the van, and his angels unite their forces for this final struggle. Kings and warriors are in his train, and the multitudes follow in vast companies, each under its appointed leader. With military precision, the serried ranks advance over the earth's broken and uneven surface to the city of God. By command of Jesus, the gates of the New Jerusalem are closed, and the armies of Satan surround the city, and make ready for the onset. Now Christ again appears to the view of his enemies. Far above the city, upon a foundation of burnished gold, is a throne, high and lifted up. Upon this throne sits the Son of God, and around him are the subjects of his kingdom. The power and majesty of Christ no language can describe, no pen portray. The glory of the Eternal Father is enshrouding his Son. The brightness of his presence fills the city of God, and flows out beyond the gates, flooding the whole earth with its radiance. Nearest the throne are those who were once zealous in the cause of Satan, but who, plucked as brands from the burning, have followed their Saviour with deep, intense devotion. Next are those who perfected Christian characters in the midst of falsehood and infidelity, those who honored the law of God when the Christian world declared it void, and the millions, of all ages, who were martyred for their faith. And beyond is the “great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues,” “before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.” [Revelation 7:9.] Their warfare is ended, their victory won. They have run the race and reached the prize. The palm branch in their hands is a symbol of their triumph, the white robe an emblem of the spotless righteousness of Christ which now is theirs. The redeemed raise a song of praise that echoes and re-echoes through the vaults of heaven, “Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” And angel and seraph unite their voices in adoration. As the redeemed have beheld the power and malignity of Satan, they have seen, as never before, that no power but that of Christ could have made them conquerors. In all that shining throng there are none to ascribe salvation to themselves, as if they had prevailed by their own power and goodness. Nothing is said of what they have done or suffered; but the burden of every song, the key-note of every anthem, is, Salvation to our God, and unto the Lamb. In the presence of the assembled inhabitants of earth and Heaven the final coronation of the Son of God takes place. And now, invested with supreme majesty and power, the King of kings pronounces sentence upon the rebels against his government, and executes justice upon those who have transgressed his law and oppressed his people. Says the prophet of God: “I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” [Revelation 20:11, 12.] As soon as the books of record are opened, and the eye of Jesus looks upon the wicked, they are conscious of every sin which they have ever committed. They see just where their feet diverged from the path of purity and holiness, just how far pride and rebellion have carried them in the violation of the law of God. The seductive temptations which they encouraged by indulgence in sin, the blessings perverted, the messengers of God despised, the warnings rejected, the waves of mercy beaten back by the stubborn, unrepentant heart,—all appear as if written in letters of fire. Above the throne is revealed the cross; and like a panoramic view appear the scenes of Adam's temptation and fall, and the successive steps in the great plan of redemption. The Saviour's lowly birth; his early life of simplicity and obedience; his baptism in Jordan; the fast and temptation in the wilderness; his public ministry, unfolding to men Heaven's most precious blessings; the days crowded with deeds of love and mercy, the nights of prayer and watching in the solitude of the mountains; the plottings of envy, hate, and malice which repaid his benefits; the awful, mysterious agony in Gethsemane, beneath the crushing weight of the sins of the whole world; his betrayal into the hands of the murderous mob; the fearful events of that night of horror,—the unresisting prisoner, forsaken by his best-loved disciples, rudely hurried through the streets of Jerusalem; the Son of God exultingly displayed before Annas, arraigned in the high priest's palace, in the judgment hall of Pilate, before the cowardly and cruel Herod, mocked, insulted, tortured, and condemned to die,—all are vividly portrayed. And now before the swaying multitude are revealed the final scenes,—the patient Sufferer treading the path to Calvary; the Prince of Heaven hanging upon the cross; the haughty priests and the jeering rabble deriding his expiring agony; the supernatural darkness; the heaving earth, the rent rocks, the open graves, marking the moment when the world's Redeemer yielded up his life. The awful spectacle appears just as it was. Satan, his angels, and his subjects have no power to turn from the picture of their own work. Each actor recalls the part which he performed. Herod, who slew the innocent children of Bethlehem that he might destroy the King of Israel; the base Herodias, upon whose guilty soul rests the blood of John the Baptist; the weak, time- serving Pilate; the mocking soldiers; the priests and rulers and the maddened throng who cried, “His blood be on us, and our children!”—all behold the enormity of their guilt. They vainly seek to hide from the divine majesty of His countenance, outshining the glory of the sun, while the redeemed cast their crowns at the Saviour's feet, exclaiming, “He died for me!” Amid the ransomed throng are the apostles of Christ, the heroic Paul, the ardent Peter, the loved and loving John, and their true-hearted brethren, and with them the vast host of martyrs; while outside the walls, with every vile and abominable thing, are those by whom they were persecuted, imprisoned, and slain. There is Nero, that monster of cruelty and vice, beholding the joy and exaltation of those whom he once tortured, and in whose extremest anguish he found Satanic delight. His mother is there to witness the result of her own work; to see how the evil stamp of character transmitted to her son, the passions encouraged and developed by her influence and example, have borne fruit in crimes that caused the world to shudder. There are papist priests and prelates, who claimed to be Christ's ambassadors, yet employed the rack, the dungeon, and the stake to control the consciences of his people. There are the proud pontiffs who exalted themselves above God, and presumed to change the law of the Most High. Those pretended fathers of the church have an account to render to God from which they would fain be excused. Too late they are made to see that the Omniscient One is jealous of his law, and that he will in nowise clear the guilty. They learn now that Christ identifies his interest with that of his suffering people; and they feel the force of his own words, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” [Matthew 25:40.] The whole wicked world stand arraigned at the bar of God, on the charge of high treason against the government of Heaven. They have none to plead their cause; they are without excuse; and the sentence of eternal death is pronounced against them. It is now evident to all that the wages of sin is not noble independence and eternal life, but slavery, ruin, and death. The wicked see what they have forfeited by their life of rebellion. The far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory was despised when offered them; but how desirable it now appears. “All this,” cries the lost soul, “I might have had; but I chose to put these things far from me. Oh, strange infatuation! I have exchanged peace, happiness, and honor, for wretchedness, infamy, and despair.” All see that their exclusion from Heaven is just. By their lives they have declared, “We will not have this Jesus to reign over us.” As if entranced, the wicked have looked upon the coronation of the Son of God. They see in his hands the tables of the divine law, the statutes which they have despised and transgressed. They witness the outburst of wonder, rapture, and adoration from the saved; and as the wave of melody sweeps over the multitudes without the city, all with one voice exclaim, “Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints;” and falling prostrate, they worship the Prince of life. Satan seems paralyzed as he beholds the glory and majesty of Christ. He who was once a covering cherub remembers whence he has fallen. A shining seraph, “son of the morning;” how changed, how degraded! From the council where once he was honored, he is forever excluded. He sees another now standing near to the Father, veiling his glory. He has seen the crown placed upon the head of Christ by an angel of lofty stature and majestic presence, and he knows that the exalted position of this angel might have been his. Memory recalls the home of his innocence and purity, the peace and content that were his until he indulged in murmuring against God, and envy of Christ. His accusations, his rebellion, his deceptions to gain the sympathy and support of the angels, his stubborn persistence in making no effort for self- recovery when God would have granted him forgiveness,—all come vividly before him. He reviews his work among men and its results,—the enmity of man toward his fellow-man, the terrible destruction of life, the rise and fall of kingdoms, the overturning of thrones, the long succession of tumults, conflicts, and revolutions. He recalls his constant efforts to oppose the work of Christ and to sink man lower and lower. He sees that his hellish plots have been powerless to destroy those who have put their trust in Jesus. As Satan looks upon his kingdom, the fruit of his toil, he sees only failure and ruin. He has led the multitudes to believe that the city of God would be an easy prey; but he knows that this is false. Again and again, in the progress of the great controversy, he has been defeated, and compelled to yield. He knows too well the power and majesty of the Eternal. The aim of the great rebel has ever been to justify himself, and to prove the divine government responsible for the rebellion. To this end he has bent all the power of his giant intellect. He has worked deliberately and systematically, and with marvelous success, leading vast multitudes to accept his version of the great controversy which has been so long in progress. For thousands of years this chief of conspiracy has palmed off falsehood for truth. But the time has now come when the rebellion is to be finally defeated, and the history and character of Satan disclosed. In his last great effort to dethrone Christ, destroy his people, and take possession of the city of God, the arch-deceiver has been fully unmasked. Those who have united with him see the total failure of his cause. Christ's followers and the loyal angels behold the full extent of his machinations against the government of God. He is the object of universal abhorrence. Satan sees that his voluntary rebellion has unfitted him for Heaven. He has trained his powers to war against God; the purity, peace, and harmony of Heaven would be to him supreme torture. His accusations against the mercy and justice of God are now silenced. The reproach which he has endeavored to cast upon Jehovah rests wholly upon himself. And now Satan bows down, and confesses the justice of his sentence. “Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.” [Revelation 15:4.] Every question of truth and error in the long-standing controversy has now been made plain. The results of rebellion, the fruits of setting aside the divine statutes, have been laid open to the viewof all created intelligences. The working out of Satan's rule in contrast with the government of God, has been presented to the whole universe. Satan's own works have condemned him. God's wisdom, his justice, and his goodness stand fully vindicated. It is seen that all his dealings in the great controversy have been conducted with respect to the eternal good of his people, and the good of all the worlds that he has created. “All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee.” [Psalm 145:10.] The history of sin will stand to all eternity as a witness that with the existence of God's law is bound up the happiness of all the beings he has created. With all the facts of the great controversy in view, the whole universe, both loyal and rebellious, with one accord declare, “Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.” Before the universe has been clearly presented the great sacrifice made by the Father and the Son in man's behalf. The hour has come when Christ occupies his rightful position, and is glorified above principalities and powers and every name that is named. It was for the joy that was set before him,— that he might bring many sons unto glory,— that he endured the cross and despised the shame. And inconceivably great as was the sorrow and the shame, yet greater is the joy and the glory. He looks upon the redeemed, renewed in his own image, every heart bearing the perfect impress of the divine, every face reflecting the likeness of their King. He beholds in them the result of the travail of his soul, and he is satisfied. Then, in a voice that reaches the assembled multitudes of the righteous and the wicked, he declares, “Behold the purchase of my blood! For these I suffered; for these I died; that they might dwell in my presence throughout eternal ages.” And the song of praise ascends from the white-robed ones about the throne, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.” [Revelation 5:12.] Notwithstanding that Satan has been constrained to acknowledge God's justice, and to bow to the supremacy of Christ, his character remains unchanged. The spirit of rebellion, like a mighty torrent, again bursts forth. Filled with frenzy, he determines not to yield the great controversy. The time has come for a last desperate struggle against the King of Heaven. He rushes into the midst of his subjects, and endeavors to inspire them with his own fury, and arouse them to instant battle. But of all the countless millions whom he has allured into rebellion, there are none now to acknowledge his supremacy. His power is at an end. The wicked are filled with the same hatred of God that inspires Satan; but they see that their case is hopeless, that they cannot prevail against Jehovah. Their rage is kindled against Satan and those who have been his agents in deception, and with the fury of demons they turn upon them. Saith the Lord: “Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down to the pit.” “I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. . . . I will cast thee to the ground. I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.” “I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. . . . Thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.” [Ezekiel 28:6-8, 16-19.] “Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. “The indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.” “Upon the wicked he shall rain quick burning coals, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.” [Isaiah 9:5; 34:2; 11:6 (MARGIN).] Fire comes down from God out of Heaven. The earth is broken up. The weapons concealed in its depths are drawn forth. Devouring flames burst from every yawning chasm. The very rocks are on fire. The day has come that shall burn as an oven. The elements melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein are burned up. [Malachi 4:1; 2 Peter 3:10.] The earth's surface seems one molten mass,—a vast, seething lake of fire. It is the time of the judgment and perdition of ungodly men,—“the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.” [Isaiah 34:8; Proverbs 11:31.] The wicked receive their recompense in the earth. [Isaiah 34:8; Proverbs 11:31.] They “shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts.” [Malachi 4:1.] Some are destroyed as in a moment, while others suffer many days. All are punished “according to their deeds.” The sins of the righteous having been transferred to Satan, he is made to suffer not only for his own rebellion, but for all the sins which he has caused God's people to commit. His punishment is to be far greater than that of those whom he has deceived. After all have perished who fell by his deceptions, he is still to live and suffer on. In the cleansing flames the wicked are at last destroyed, root and branch,—Satan the root, his followers the branches. The full penalty of the law has been visited; the demands of justice have been met; and Heaven and earth, beholding, declare the righteousness of Jehovah. Satan's work of ruin is forever ended. For six thousand years he has wrought his will, filling the earth with woe, and causing grief throughout the universe. The whole creation has groaned and travailed together in pain. Now God's creatures are forever delivered from his presence and temptations. “The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet; they [the righteous] break forth into singing.” [Isaiah 14:7.] And a shout of praise and triumph ascends from the whole loyal universe. “The voice of a great multitude,” “as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings,” is heard, saying, “Alleluia; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” While the earth was wrapped in the fire of destruction, the righteous abode safely in the holy city. Upon those that had part in the first resurrection, the second death has no power. [Revelation 20:6; Psalm 84:11.] While God is to the wicked a consuming fire, he is to his people both a sun and a shield. [Revelation 20:6; Psalm 84:11.] “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.” [Revelation 21:1.] The fire that consumes the wicked purifies the earth. Every trace of the curse is swept away. No eternally burning hell will keep before the ransomed the fearful consequences of sin. One reminder alone remains: our Redeemer will ever bear the marks of his crucifixion. Upon his wounded head, upon his side, his hands and feet, are the only traces of the cruel work that sin has wrought. Says the prophet, beholding Christ in his glory, “He had bright beams coming out of his side; and there was the hiding of his power.” [Habakkuk 3:4 (MARGIN)] That pierced side whence flowed the crimson stream that reconciled man to God,—there is the Saviour's glory, there “the hiding of his power.” “Mighty to save,” through the sacrifice of redemption, he was therefore strong to execute justice upon them that despised God's mercy. And the tokens of his humiliation are his highest honor; through the eternal ages the wounds of Calvary will show forth his praise, and declare his power. “O Tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion.” [Micah 4:8; Ephesians 1:14.] The time has come, to which holy men have looked with longing since the flaming sword barred the first pair from Eden,—the time for “the redemption of the purchased possession.” [Micah 4:8; Ephesians 1:14.] The earth originally given to man as his kingdom, betrayed by him into the hands of Satan, and so long held by the mighty foe, has been brought back by the great plan of redemption. All that was lost by sin has been restored. “Thus saith the Lord . . . that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited.” [Isaiah 45:18.] God's original purpose in the creation of the earth is fulfilled as it is made the eternal abode of the redeemed. “The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever.” [Psalm 37:29.] A fear of making the future inheritance seem too material has led many to spiritualize away the very truths which lead us to look upon it as our home. Christ assured his disciples that he went to prepare mansions for them in the Father's house. Those who accept the teachings of God's Word will not be wholly ignorant concerning the heavenly abode. And yet, “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” [1 Corinthians 2:9.] Human language is inadequate to describe the reward of the righteous. It will be known only to those who behold it. No finite mind can comprehend the glory of the Paradise of God. In the Bible the inheritance of the saved is called a country. [Hebrews 11:14- 16.] There the heavenly Shepherd leads his flock to fountains of living waters. The tree of life yields its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the service of the nations. There are ever-flowing streams, clear as crystal, and beside them waving trees cast their shadows upon the paths prepared for the ransomed of the Lord. There the widespreading plains swell into hills of beauty, and the mountains of God rear their lofty summits. On those peaceful plains, beside those living streams, God's people, so long pilgrims and wanderers, shall find a home. ”My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places.” “Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.” “They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: . . . mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.” [Isaiah 32:18; 60:18; 65:21, 22.] There, “the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.” “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree.” [Isaiah 35:1; 55:13.] “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; . . . and a little child shall lead them.” “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,” [Isaiah 11:6, 9; 33:24; 62:3; 65:19.] saith the Lord. Pain cannot exist in the atmosphere of Heaven. There will be no more tears, no funeral trains, no badges of mourning. “There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, . . . for the former things are passed away.” [Revelation 21:4, 11, 24, 3.] “The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” [Isaiah 11:6, 9; 33:24; 62:3; 65:19.] There is the New Jerusalem, the metropolis of the glorified new earth, “a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.” [Isaiah 11:6, 9; 33:24; 62:3; 65:19.] “Her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” “The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it; and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it.” [Revelation 21:4, 11, 24, 3.] Saith the Lord, “I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people.” [Isaiah 11:6, 9; 33:24; 62:3; 65:19.] “The tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” [Revelation 21:4, 11, 24, 3.] In the city of God “there shall be no night.” None will need or desire repose. There will be no weariness in doing the will of God and offering praise to his name. We shall ever feel the freshness of the morning, and shall ever be far from its close. “And they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light.” [Revelation 22:5; 21:22.] The light of the sun will be superseded by a radiance which is not painfully dazzling, yet which immeasurably surpasses the brightness of our noontide. The glory of God and the Lamb floods the holy city with unfading light. The redeemed walk in the sunless glory of perpetual day. “I saw no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.” [Revelation 22:5; 21:22.] The people of God are privileged to hold open communion with the Father and the Son. Now we “see through a glass, darkly.” [1 Corinthians 13:12.] We behold the image of God reflected, as in a mirror, in the works of nature and in his dealings with men; but then we shall see him face to face, without a dimming veil between. We shall stand in his presence, and behold the glory of his countenance. There the redeemed shall “know, even as also they are known.” The loves and sympathies which God himself has planted in the soul, shall there find truest and sweetest exercise. The pure communion with holy beings, the harmonious social life with the blessed angels and with the faithful ones of all ages, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, the sacred ties that bind together “the whole family in Heaven and earth,” [Ephesians 3:15.]—these help to constitute the happiness of the redeemed. There, immortal minds will contemplate with never-failing delight the wonders of creative power, the mysteries of redeeming love. There is no cruel, deceiving foe to tempt to forgetfulness of God. Every faculty will be developed, every capacity increased. The acquirement of knowledge will not weary the mind or exhaust the energies. There the grandest enterprises may be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations reached, the highest ambitions realized; and still there will arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of mind and soul and body. All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God's redeemed. Unfettered by mortality, they wing their tireless flight to worlds afar,—worlds that thrilled with sorrow at the spectacle of human woe, and rang with songs of gladness at the tidings of a ransomed soul. With unutterable delight the children of earth enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings. They share the treasures of knowledge and understanding gained through ages upon ages in contemplation of God's handiwork. With undimmed vision they gaze upon the glory of creation,—suns and stars and systems, all in their appointed order circling the throne of Deity. Upon all things, from the least to the greatest, the Creator's name is written, and in all are the riches of his power displayed. And the years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of his character. As Jesus opens before them the riches of redemption, and the amazing achievements in the great controversy with Satan, the hearts of the ransomed thrill with more fervent devotion, and with more rapturous joy they sweep the harps of gold; and ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of voices unite to swell the mighty chorus of praise. “And every creature which is in Heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” [Revelation 5:13.] The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love. When Jesus said “it is finished”, he was describing what God would proclaim when He said “it is done”. For God’s determination concerning sin to be complete it ultimately required the finished death of Jesus on the cross as a sacrifice for God’s ultimate plan to eventually be done! Christ’s purpose for being sent and his sacrifice still impact and create new lives today. It is done says the unbelievers time is up. These people did not receive the gospel or the testimony of Jesus carnally or spiritually. They will suffer for their own sins. Jesus fulfilled God’s plan with his death and resurrection. Only later, at the end of the one-thousand-year period following the seven last plagues, when judgment of the wicked is complete by those redeemed from earth, mankind’s rejection of God’s gift, will receive the just verdict and God finally says, “it is done.” This is the highest court to ever be. The gift not accepted…the execution takes place. Fire from heaven will fall upon the wicked. The fire will completely eradicate sin and those who cherish it from the universe forever. This will be a time of deep sadness and trauma for God’s people. Virtually every person will have a loved one or friend in the fire. Guardian angels will weep over the loss of the people they protected and loved for years. Christ will doubtless weep over those he loved and pled with so long. At that awful moment, the anguish of God, our loving Father, will defy description. 📖 Applying the Study For ongoing spiritual encouragement and prophetical insights, visit Higher Learning.

OnlineBibleCourse: Deepen your search for truth in the bible and learn about Christ. Sounds of Manna -Hymn 10 - Jesus Paid It All Play Video Free books! Play Video Be Transformed Play Video The Truth Watch Now Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied Close DISCLAIMER: PLEASE NOTE ALL INFORMATION PROVIDED ARE EXTRACTS, EXCERPTS, OR COMPILATIONS AND ARE NOT COPYEDITED. MANY WORKS OF VARIOUS AUTHORS ARE USED. THERE IS NO AUTHOR HERE…IT IS A COMPILATION FOR YOUR LEARNING Schedule Learn at your own pace. Grade your own quizzes. No schedule. No deadline. Contact He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone , and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. Revelation 2:17 KJV Online Bible Courses No Cost *New Blog Entries Added Weekly* Bible Prophecy Charts & Maps Learn where we are in the stream of time Bible Helpful Links From reputable sources About About White Stone Bible Study Online/OnlineBibleCourse Have you had questions about the Bible? Perhaps you just want to know more about the life of Jesus or how to become a better person. Or, rather, you have come here to learn more about prophecy and the events that are coming upon this earth. Well, put on your seatbelt, because you are about to have a bumpy ride; these studies may cause you to question long-held church traditions that might make you ponder and wonder...

Bible Courses - 70 Core Classes - 1 2 3 4 5 1 ... 1 2 3 4 5 6 ... 6 Introduction Isaiah 28:10 Price Duration $0 13 Minutes Read More What is Truth? 1 John 4:16 Price Duration $0 9 Minutes Read More Father, Word, and Holy Ghost - Part 1 Matthew 13:45, 46 Price Duration $0 5 Minutes Read More God, the Father - Part 2 Proverbs 1:7 Price Duration $0 12 Minutes Read More Creation of Time - Part 3 Galatians 4:4 Price Duration $0 20 Minutes Read More The Son, Jesus' Name - Part 4 Psalms 138:2 Price Duration $0 9 Minutes Read More The Son, the Creator - Part 5 John 1:1-5 Price Duration $0 9 Minutes Read More The Son, who is Michael? - Part 6 Exodus 3:2 Price Duration $0 33 Minutes Read More The Son, the Angel of the Covenant - Part 7 Malachi 3:1-3 Price Duration $0 15 Minutes Read More Who the Holy Spirit is, Active Agent - Part 8 Hebrews 11:3 Price Duration $0 6 Minutes Read More Who the Holy Spirit is, the Breath - Part 9 Psalms 104:30 Price Duration $0 9 Minutes Read More Who the Holy Spirit is, Baptism - Part 10 Luke 2:40 Price Duration $0 9 Minutes Read More 1 2 3 4 5 1 ... 1 2 3 4 5 6 ... 6 Download

Course Overview Welcome to the White Stone Online Bible Course! Our mission is to provide a comprehensive online learning experience that deepens your understanding of the Bible. Whether you're curious about the teachings of Jesus or seeking insights into biblical prophecy and current events, our seventy courses are designed to enlighten and empower. Join us on this spiritual journey to explore the riches of God's Word. White Stone Online Bible Course At White Stone Online Bible Course, we believe in the transformative power of Scripture. Founded on the principles of faith and community, our course offers a unique blend of biblical teaching and personal growth. We invite you to share in our journey—one that is filled with learning, exploration, and connection to the divine. Through engaging lessons and heartfelt stories, we aim to foster a deeper relationship with God and understanding of His Word. Join us as we navigate the life-changing truths of the Bible together. Start Here Call 1-832-786-9086 Email contact@whitestonemountain.com