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.

Sin cost everything that God intended creation to be. In the beginning, humanity was fashioned in a state of pure fellowship with God—radiant in innocence, unbroken in trust, and clothed in the light of His presence. Sin shattered that unity. It introduced separation, not merely as distance, but as rupture: a breaking of relationship, identity, and purpose. Where there had been harmony between God and humanity, sin brought alienation. Where there had been clarity of purpose, sin introduced confusion and self- centeredness. The cost of sin is the loss of what we were created to be in God. Sin also cost humanity its spiritual inheritance. We were made to reflect God’s character, to steward creation with love, and to live as children of His household. But with sin came the inheritance of suffering: death, decay, sorrow, fear, and all the cascading consequences of a world cut off from the Source of life. Our history is marked by the tragedy of what sin has stolen— lost cultures, broken families, corruption of power, oppression, slavery, pride, hatred, and the deep unraveling of conscience. Every tear cried in anguish, every act of injustice, every disease and hardship is part of the toll sin has exacted from humanity’s divine dignity. Most profoundly, sin cost the life of the Son of God. Christ’s sacrifice reveals the depth of sin’s devastation: that to redeem what was lost required not just divine intervention, but divine suffering. The cross shows that sin is not simply a mistake or moral misstep; it is a cosmic rupture so severe that only the infinite worth of God Himself could bridge it. The fact that God took on flesh, stepped into human pain, endured rejection, and submitted to death speaks to the immeasurable cost of restoring humanity. Our salvation was not purchased with silver, gold, or religious works, but with blood—innocent blood, willingly offered. Yet, even in the magnitude of what sin cost, God reveals the magnitude of His love. The restoration offered in Christ does not merely return us to Eden—it leads us beyond it. We are destined not just for innocence regained, but for glory revealed: a relationship with God formed not only by creation, but by redemption. The cost was great—greater than we can measure—but the outcome is beyond all comparison: that God will dwell with His people again, face to face, without sin, sorrow, or separation forever. The cost of sin is seen as spiritual death and eternal separation from God, which includes a corrupted conscience with consequences of grieving the Holy Spirit. While this has physical and emotional costs, the ultimate cost is spiritual. Sin is never free. It greatly offends God not because He loves His law…He is His law. Because He is Holy all-together, He is beautifully able to be offended. He is not an unfeeling God. When we sin we suspend the exercise of faith making it impotent and we often lose the awareness of grace for a time. It is a great wickedness when we sin against God. A world fashioned by a wonderfully holy God—whose nature is goodness, beauty, order, and love—presents a profound paradox when that same world becomes saturated with unrighteousness to a degree where sin not only exists but permeates every structure of human society. To understand how this happened, one must approach the question from the vantage point of God’s creative intention, the nature of beings endowed with free will, the subtlety of rebellion’s psychological influence, and the generational expansion of corrupted desire. It is not that the goodness of God failed, nor that creation was defective; instead, it reveals the immense dignity and risk embedded in the gift of freedom, and the deeply invasive nature of sin once it is chosen and nurtured. When God created the heavens and the earth, scripture testifies that everything was “very good”. This phrase does not simply mean morally pure, but whole, harmonious, balanced, and ordered to reflect God’s own character. Humanity, made in His image, possessed the capacity to know God intimately, to discern good, to express love, to cultivate creation, and to reflect divine attributes in relational oneness. Yet, to bear God’s image authentically requires more than existence—it requires volitional love. Forced obedience is not love, and programmed righteousness is not holiness. Therefore, humanity was created with the capacity to choose. Embedded within that choice was the possibility of refusing the Creator and asserting the self as final authority. From the beginning, the possibility of sin was not a flaw in God’s design but the necessary condition for love to exist in the creature. Without the possibility of rebellion, righteousness would be mechanical, not meaningful. The entrance of sin did not originate in humanity but in a higher order of being—Lucifer, the anointed cherub, whose beauty and exaltation gave rise to pride. His rebellion was the first assertion of self against God, the first inward turning of love from the outward orientation of giving to the inward orientation of possessing. Lucifer then became Satan—the adversary— whose strategy was not merely to disobey God but to reproduce his nature in others. What occurred in Eden was not merely the eating of forbidden fruit but the introduction of a new internal law governing perception: the belief that independence from God is freedom, that self-definition is enlightenment, and that moral truth can be determined apart from the Creator. The serpent’s seduction was psychological and theological: “You shall be as gods”. The moment humanity accepted this premise, the divine order inverted. Instead of God forming the human heart, the human heart began forming its own conception of meaning, purpose, identity, and morality. Sin became not just an act but a state of being. Once sin entered the world, it propagated not merely by imitation but by inheritance. The nature of humanity shifted; the inclination of the soul bent inward. This is why scripture describes the human heart as deceitful above all things. With the inward bent came disorder in relationships, desires, imagination, culture, and institutions. Sin is not simply personal; it is structural. It shapes how societies define power, pleasure, worth, justice, and truth. As generations multiplied, the distortion multiplied. Ancient civilizations built monuments not to God but to self-glory. Nations formed under the logic of domination rather than unity. Economic structures organized around exploitation rather than stewardship. Sexuality, created as a sacred expression of covenantal union, became driven by appetite and objectification. Even religion, designed to reveal God, became an instrument for control, superstition, division, and manipulation. Thus, sin became systemic—not because systems are inherently evil, but because systems are created and run by corrupted hearts. The reason sin permeates every aspect of society today is that sin is not a passive stain; it is an active force. Scripturally, sin is described as a law in Romans 7:23, as a power in Romans 6:12, and a kingdom in Colossians 1:13. It operates with intentionality, persuasion, and self-preserving logic. It seeks expansion, normalization, and justification. Society becomes immersed in sin not simply because individuals commit wrongdoing, but because sin rewrites cultural values. It shifts what is celebrated, admired, rewarded, and socially accepted. It trains the imagination to consider unrighteousness as normal, pleasurable, reasonable, and even virtuous. Modern expressions of sin—whether in entertainment, politics, relationships, identity, economics, or religion—are simply the matured fruit of the original lie: life apart from God is life fulfilled. Yet, one must understand: the presence of sin does not invalidate the holiness of God nor the goodness of creation. Rather, it reveals the seriousness of free will, the destructive weight of separation from God, and the power of rebellion once it becomes generationally embedded. However, God has never abandoned His creation to corruption. The entire arc of redemption—from the promise in Eden to the sending of Christ to the purpose of the elect—reveals God’s unwavering commitment to restore what was lost. Christ does not merely forgive individual wrongdoing; He restores the image of God in the human soul, breaks the power of sin, reorients desire, and inaugurates a new humanity capable of living in righteousness again. Therefore, a world created holy became corrupted not because God withdrew or failed, but because humanity, having abandoned the divine order, now lives under the influence of a rival kingdom. And the world continues in unrighteousness because it has not yet collectively returned to the knowledge of the One who created it. Yet, the story is not finished. God’s purpose is not simply to save individuals from sin but to restore creation to the holiness with which it began. The holy God who created the world is the same God who will purify it, judge unrighteousness, redeem His people, and bring all things back into unity with Himself. In the end, holiness—not sin— will have the final word. Social sin in a nation such as America does not emerge merely from the existence of individual wrongdoing but from historical, cultural, philosophical, economic, and spiritual forces that converge to shape how a society interprets identity, power, morality, success, and human worth. Social sin is the normalization of values and behaviors that contradict God’s righteousness yet are embedded into the life of a nation so deeply that they seem natural. In America, several key forces have contributed to the prominence of social sin: the elevation of individual autonomy as supreme, the legacy of racial and economic domination, the commodification of desire, the institutionalization of moral relativism, and the spiritual displacement of God from the center of culture. One significant factor is America’s foundational exaltation of personal independence. While freedom is a noble gift, the interpretation of freedom in America evolved into the belief that the individual self is the final authority. The cultural idea that one must “define oneself,” “create one’s own truth,” and “live one’s own reality” mirrors the original deception in Eden. When personal autonomy becomes sacred, moral boundaries appear oppressive, and righteousness becomes reinterpreted as limitation rather than life. This philosophical orientation makes sin not merely possible but socially celebrated because it aligns with the cultural belief that the self must have no higher master. Another contributing force is the historical legacy of slavery, racial hierarchy, and economic exploitation. Social sin embeds itself in a nation when its institutions are built upon the dehumanization of others. In America, entire political structures, educational systems, religious institutions, and market economies were shaped during centuries in which one group’s flourishing depended on the subjugation of another. Even after legal reforms, the value systems born from that hierarchy persisted culturally and psychologically. The desire for dominance, superiority, and control became normalized. This means social sin is not simply prejudice—it is the continued inheritance of distorted identity patterns that shape how power, privilege, value, and humanity are perceived across generations. Consumerism also plays a major role. America’s economic engine functions by nurturing desire—not satisfaction. The system thrives on creating discontent so that individuals continue to buy more, seek more, and want more. This produces a culture that commodifies everything: beauty, relationships, sexuality, spirituality, knowledge, and even the self. When desire becomes commodified, the human soul becomes governed by appetite rather than truth. A society shaped by appetite cannot sustain righteousness because righteousness requires moderation, humility, and self-control—virtues directly opposed by consumer culture. Additionally, moral relativism has become institutionalized—especially through media, education, and entertainment. Moral relativism teaches that truth is not objective but personal, shifting, emotional, and situational. Once a society loses the concept of a transcendent moral standard, it loses its ability to identify evil at all. What one generation recognizes as sin, the next generation celebrates as expression. Without objective truth, the conscience becomes dulled, then reprogrammed, then inverted—calling good evil and evil good. Finally, the spiritual displacement of God from public consciousness completes the foundation of social sin. When God is removed from the moral, educational, civic, and philosophical life of a nation, the vacuum does not remain empty—it becomes filled with self-worship, state-worship, pleasure- worship, or ideology-worship. Every society worships something. When God is no longer the center, idols take His place. Those idols then shape laws, priorities, values, relationships, aspirations, and identity. Social sin becomes not an accident but an inevitable result of a nation disconnected from the One who defines righteousness. Therefore, social sin in America is not the result of a single shift but the culmination of philosophical independence from God, historical systems of dehumanization, economic structures built on never-ending desire, intellectual frameworks that deny absolute truth, and a cultural imagination no longer rooted in reverence. The prominence of social sin is the outcome of a society that has replaced the Creator with the created, the eternal with the temporary, and divine reality with human self-definition. Until God is restored to the center, sin will continue to shape the very structure of the nation—because the heart of social sin is not merely immorality; it is misplaced worship.Deuteronomy chapter stands as one of the most sobering covenant chapters in Scripture, outlining blessings for obedience and curses for rebellion. Among the most striking of the curses is the prophecy found in Deuteronomy 28:68, which speaks of a people being returned to Egypt “in ships” and sold again as bondmen and bondwomen with no one to redeem them. Historically, ancient Israel did not return to literal Egypt in the form of mass enslavement by ship. The language is therefore both symbolic and prophetic, invoking Egypt not merely as a geographic location but as a condition—a system of bondage, dehumanization, exploitation, and the stripping of identity. Egypt here represents a social order structured around the reduction of a covenant people to property. The image of ships is a prophetic indicator of forced transport across waters, marking the transatlantic slave trade as the most visible fulfillment of this curse. Thus, the text does not merely describe historical judgment; it describes the reestablishment of the Egyptian social environment in a new land, far from the Nile but identical in function: a civilization built on the bondage of a chosen people. To connect this prophetic return to “Egypt by ships” with the darkness of sin rooted in America, one must recognize that slavery in the United States was not only an economic institution but a spiritual architecture. It reordered human identity by stripping a people of name, heritage, culture, language, and memory—the very elements by which God identifies His own. In Egypt, Pharaoh sought to erase Israel’s identity to prevent them from recognizing their covenant destiny. In America, the same system operated under a new Pharaoh, though wearing the faces of colonial power, plantation aristocracy, theology corrupted by racial hierarchy, and a legal framework designed to dehumanize. The transatlantic slave trade was not merely an event of human cruelty—it was the reactivation of the ancient spiritual machinery of Egypt functioning in a new empire. The horror described in Deuteronomy is not just physical suffering but the psychological and generational dismemberment of a people’s knowledge of themselves and their God. Once this system rooted itself in America, its logic did not dissipate even when legal slavery ended. The sin became cultural DNA. It shaped how power was defined, how bodies were valued, how justice was administered, how beauty was conceptualized, how worth was measured, and how truth was narrated. The land absorbed the blood of the enslaved, and the nation’s institutions absorbed the worldview that justified the bondage. Social sin became structural sin, and structural sin became national identity. This is why sin in America is not simply individual but foundational. It was laid into the blueprint of the nation—its agriculture, its economy, its religion, its politics, its social hierarchy, its cultural myths, and even its theological imagination. Egypt did not merely reappear geographically; it reappeared spiritually, architecturally, economically, and socially. Therefore, the darkness of sin that permeates this land is not accidental or recent. It is the matured expression of a curse pronounced for covenant disobedience, carried into history by the forced displacement of a people who were targeted because of who they were in God. The reason the social sin in America is so resilient, so deeply embedded, and so spiritually complex is because it did not originate simply through human evil, but through prophetic consequence. A people who bear divine election were placed into a system designed to erase that very identity. And the land that built itself upon that erasure continues to be shaped by its spiritual residue. To confront the darkness of sin in America, then, is not merely to confront injustice; it is to confront Egypt resurrected. It is to recognize that the covenant story is not over, that identity is being restored, and that the same God who delivered His people once will again arise to redeem, reveal, and restore the people who were cast into ships, hidden in plain sight, and marked for a future awakening. The sin of enslavement in this nation did not merely inflict suffering upon the oppressed; it inflicted a catastrophic loss upon the nation itself—spiritually, intellectually, culturally, economically, and morally. By enslaving an entire people, America severed itself from the very genius, creativity, resilience, and civilizational heritage that could have elevated it into a society reflecting true human excellence. Instead of receiving the full blessing of cooperative human contribution, it extracted labor while suppressing identity, innovation while denying self-expression, and productivity while erasing personhood. The nation attempted to reap the benefits of the enslaved body while rejecting the value of the enslaved soul. In doing so, it forfeited access to a treasury of wisdom, cultural sophistication, artistic mastery, spiritual depth, familial integrity, communal ordering, agricultural knowledge, and intellectual originality carried within a people whose ancestral line stretches back to civilizations predating Greece, Rome, and Western Europe. What might have been a nation of shared flourishing became a nation built upon theft— of labor, of heritage, of identity, and ultimately of its own spiritual integrity. More specifically, the genius held within the enslaved was systematically suppressed. This was not due to a lack of intellectual ability, but because the system could not allow brilliance from the oppressed to be acknowledged— it would have exposed the lie of racial hierarchy. Enslaved Africans and their descendants carried astronomical knowledge, agricultural mastery, metallurgical craft, architectural geometry, musical theory, spiritual cosmology, medicinal practice, and linguistic depth. Many of these were used to build America’s early industries, from rice cultivation to ironworking to navigation to engineering. Yet because these contributions were extracted under coerced labor, the enslaving nation could not consciously receive their influence as gifts. The result is cultural amnesia: a nation enriched by knowledge it refuses to admit it received. What could have been celebrated cultural exchange instead became institutionalized erasure—and erasure always limits growth. A society cannot expand in wisdom while denying the source of the wisdom it has taken. In addition, the nation permanently damaged its own moral identity. To enslave is to distort one’s perception of God, humanity, and self. A society must suppress conscience to maintain domination. Thus, systems of theology, science, law, and education were bent to justify injustice. This produced a national mind that became incapable of perceiving truth clearly. The cost was not only ethical clarity but intellectual honesty. Racism required a continual rewriting of history, the invention of false anthropology, the construction of mythic racial narratives, and the justification of cruelty through religious language. The nation not only sinned—it trained itself to love the sin and defend it. Once a people defend sin as virtue, moral decay becomes generational, and the ability to repent becomes fragile. Moreover, the loss of cultural exchange stunted the nation’s spiritual development. The enslaved carried profound ancestral memory of God—an instinctive orientation toward the divine rooted in communal worship, rhythmic prayer, and an understanding of suffering as a sacred pathway to endurance and revelation. Instead of allowing this spiritual depth to inform the moral formation of the nation, America attempted to replace it with a religion of control—Christianity stripped of Christ’s justice, love, and truth. The result was not a godly nation but a religious nation cloaked in contradictions. Had the spiritual richness of the oppressed been welcomed rather than exploited, America’s churches could have become sanctuaries of unity and healing rather than pillars of segregation and doctrinal division. Finally, the greatest cost is the present inability of the nation to heal. Because the sin was never confessed at its spiritual root—identity theft, covenant disruption, and generational rejection of a people chosen for divine purpose—the wound remains open. A nation cannot reconcile what it refuses to acknowledge. America did not simply lose wealth or culture; it forfeited wholeness. It traded the possibility of shared greatness for the temporary power of domination. It exchanged the blessings of brotherhood for the curse of separation. And now the residue of that choice still shapes law, opportunity, imagination, and collective memory. Thus, the sin of slavery did not merely harm the enslaved—it impoverished the enslavers. The nation’s potential for true greatness was never destroyed by lack of resources or intellect, but by the deliberate denial of the humanity, dignity, and divine identity of a people whose presence here was not accidental but prophetic. What was taken will be restored—but the restoration will not come through political revision or historical apology. It will come through awakening. There are paths toward healing in this nation, but none of them can be accomplished through human will alone. The dilemma we are dealing with is not simply political or social, but spiritual. The wound at the root of this land is not only historical injustice—it is covenant disruption, identity theft, and the institutionalization of a lie about human worth. Because the damage is spiritual in nature, the remedy must also be spiritual. Yet Scripture and history demonstrate that while Jesus’ return is the final and ultimate restoration, God does provide space for repentance, reformation, and awakening in a nation before the end. The question is not whether there is a remedy, but whether the nation is willing to embrace the cost of that remedy. First, any meaningful remedy must begin with truth. A nation that has built its identity on historical distortion cannot heal until it confronts reality. This requires more than acknowledging slavery or racism as “regrettable chapters.” It requires recognizing how the identities of both the oppressed and the oppressor were spiritually altered. The oppressed were made to forget who they were, and the oppressor was taught to believe a lie about superiority. Healing cannot begin while deception remains foundational. Therefore, the first remedy is national truth-telling—not for accusation, but for revelation. Second, there must be genuine repentance—not simply apology. Repentance means turning away from the structure of sin, not merely the memory of it. This includes addressing the present systems shaped by the past: economic disparities rooted in generational theft, educational inequities born from enforced ignorance, legal systems descended from slave codes, and cultural narratives that still assign value unevenly. Repentance does not mean guilt—it means restoration. It means returning what was taken: dignity, identity, opportunity, and narrative. Third, there must be the restoration of identity to the people whose identity was taken. The tragedy of enslavement was not only physical bondage—it was the severing of memory. The forced forgetting of name, origin, language, culture, and divine heritage fractured the soul of a people. Any healing that does not restore identity is incomplete. This is why awakening movements among descendants of the enslaved—those seeking their origin, spiritual lineage, and divine assignment—are not incidental; they are prophetic. The remedy requires the reconstitution of a people who know who they are before God, and who stand healed in the fullness of the identity that was stripped from them. Fourth, the nation would need to embrace the spiritual wisdom, resilience, creativity, and moral clarity of the very people it once oppressed. God often places the healing of a nation in the hands of the ones it wounded. This is a biblical pattern—from Joseph in Egypt, to Daniel in Babylon, to the early church in Rome. The people who have suffered and survived oppression carry a revelation of God that the dominant culture does not have. But this requires humility on the part of the nation—and humility is the hardest remedy of all. Finally, the greatest remedy before Christ returns is spiritual revival—not emotional worship, not political realignment, not cultural rebranding, but true Holy Spirit transformation. A revival that restores conscience. A revival that exposes deception. A revival that heals identity. A revival that unites what was divided. This would not be a revival of spectacle but of remembrance— a return to the God who created all humanity in His image and who called a covenant people to bear His name in the earth. So yes—there is a possible remedy before Jesus’ return. But it requires: truth instead of denial; repentance instead of defensiveness; restoration instead of token gestures; identity healing instead of assimilation; spiritual revival instead of religious performance. In other words, the remedy requires the nation to do what it has not yet done: bow. Bow to truth. Bow to righteousness. Bow to the God who formed humanity as one. If it does not bow, it will break. If it bows, healing is still possible. And if the nation refuses, then Christ’s return will be the healing— and the judgment—at the same time. Here is the wholeness of the living story – The words written will honor the prophetic seriousness of the subject and speak with care. Inflammatory language or casting blame on living individuals will be avoided, but the writing will show the spiritual, historical, and prophetic parallels that many have recognized as the experience of Black descendants. If the people once called by God to be His treasured possession had continued to walk in covenant loyalty, the world would have witnessed a nation lifted high, radiant in wisdom, noble in character, flourishing in prosperity, and admired for its closeness to the living God. The blessings of obedience were not merely material—they described a people functioning as a light among nations, where identity, heritage, land, and dignity were secure. Knowledge would flow from them, industry would be fruitful, family structures would be strong, children would rise confident with no shame in their ancestry, and peace would overshadow their dwelling places. The nations would look upon them and see a people stabilized by divine favor, with no need to struggle for place or acceptance, for God Himself had appointed their honor. The covenant meant wholeness: spiritually, socially, economically, and generationally. The head, not the tail; the lender, not the borrower; a people who could not be erased, for God was their keeper and their identity was a divine inheritance. Yet the covenant warned that if they turned from the One who had shaped their history, delivered them from bondage, given them law, identity, and memory, they would lose more than prosperity—they would lose the memory of themselves. Without the Most High as the center, enemies would gain advantage, confusion would fill their thoughts, and the blessings that once adorned them would unravel thread by thread. Foreign domination would enter, cultural unity would fracture, and the inner strength of identity would fade. In place of communal joy, there would be sorrow; in place of security, fear; in place of honor, humiliation. The houses built would be inhabited by others, the fields labored in would be enjoyed by others, and the fruit of genius, creativity, and innovation would nourish societies that did not bear the wound nor carry the history of the people whose hands produced it. A people once destined to be set apart would find themselves scattered among nations that did not understand them, did not value their story, and did not acknowledge their God. Their sons and daughters would be taken from them, not simply by distance but by systems designed to uproot and reframe identity. Families would be destabilized. Mothers would weep. Fathers would endure a silent pain that words could not express. The labor of hands that should have built wealth for generations would instead build the prosperity of others, and those who benefitted would deny the debt. The history, inventions, cultural gifts, spiritual depth, and intellectual brilliance of the people would be extracted, used, erased, and renamed. The prophecy spoke of a yoke of iron, of chains, of bondage that crosses waters. A journey not of immigration but of forced removal, stripped of homeland, language, and remembered destiny. A place described as Egypt again by ships—not the geography of ancient Egypt, but the condition of bondage, servitude, and identity dislocation, transported across seas. There, they would be sold as commodities, inspected like livestock, priced according to physical attributes, and stripped of the right to self-define. A people once royal would become a proverb and a byword, mocked, misunderstood, misrepresented, and told they were worth less than what God Himself proclaimed over them. Their genius would build nations that would call them uneducated. Their labor would enrich economies that would deny their humanity. Their music, language, creativity, athletic ability, and spiritual insight would shape global culture while the world insisted they were inferior. Their presence would be essential, yet their worth denied. This contradiction would be the lived wound of many generations. And yet, even in the longest night of sorrow, the covenant never ended. For God did not erase the promise, nor did He forget the bloodline, nor did He abandon the inheritance. The same prophecy that described scattering held within it the promise of awakening. A remembering. A restoration not merely political, but spiritual—identity rising from beneath oppression, dignity returning to a people who rediscover the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob not as a distant deity but as their Father, their ancestral covenant, their Name. The awakening would not be forced by human strategy nor political power, but by the Spirit of God stirring the descendants to remember who they are, and to return to Him with a broken and humbled heart. This story is still unfolding. The world sees the struggle; few see the prophecy. The world sees the pain; few see the promise. But the Most High sees the remnant rising. He sees the ones hearing His call. He sees the identity returning. He sees the covenant reawakening. He sees the sealing of a people who will again stand as a witness to His glory—not through superiority or domination—but through restored love, restored intimacy, restored remembrance, and restored holiness. The same God who allowed the scattering now promises the gathering. The same God who permitted the silence now breathes the remembrance. The same God who saw the tears now prepares the joy. And the people long despised will again stand, not in pride, but in truth: A chosen people, remembering their God, and remembered by Him. Sin did not simply lead to hardship or suffering—it reached into the very core of identity, unraveling the sacred thread that bound a people’s heart to their God and their homeland. It was not merely land that was lost, but remembrance. When the covenant was broken, the mind no longer recognized its inheritance; the heart no longer recognized its home. A people descended from kings, prophets, priests, poets, and wise ones became strangers to their own glory. The memory of origin was buried beneath oppression, redefined by foreign voices who told them they were less than what God created them to be. Over generations, the disconnection deepened—not just geographically, but spiritually—until many no longer knew who they were, and therefore could not know whose they were. They were made to see themselves through the eyes of their captors rather than through the eyes of the One who called them chosen, beloved, and set apart. This is the most devastating cost of sin: not merely suffering, but the loss of identity, dignity, purpose, and spiritual belonging. Yet the covenant promise remains that what was severed will be restored, and what was forgotten will be reawakened. God has not abandoned His intention, nor relinquished His claim, nor withdrawn His love. For the work He began in His chosen ones is destined to be made perfect—not without them, not apart from them—but in them, when they stand in the fullness of redeemed identity. This is the cost of sin to those whom God purposes to be perfected in the promise spoken of in Hebrews, where the completion of His plan waits for His people to remember, return, and rise.

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

A Word for His Servants Only, Rome Unveiled - Part 6 Price $0 Duration 15 Minutes < Back About the Course A Word for His Servants Only, Rome Unveiled - Part 6 1 John 4 [ 3 ] And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. A Word for His Servants Only, Rome Unveiled - Part 6 .pdf Download PDF • 115KB Your Instructor White Stone Learn more and more about Jesus

1st Angel's Message - Part 1 Price $0 Duration 15 Minutes < Back About the Course 1st Angel's Message - Part 1 Revelation 14 [ 6 ] And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, [ 7 ] Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. 1st Angels Message - Part 1 .pdf Download PDF • 231KB Your Instructor White Stone Learn more and more about Jesus