{Chapter 40: God's People Delivered}
Please be advised to read the whole book of the Great Controversy to get Context.
#1
When the protection of human laws shall be withdrawn from
those who honor the law of God, there will be, in different lands, a
simultaneous movement for their destruction.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 635
#2
The people of God-some in prison cells, some hidden in solitary
retreats in the forests and the mountains-still plead for divine
protection, while in every quarter companies of armed men, urged
on by hosts of evil angels, are preparing for the work of death.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 635
+++++++ #3 +++++++
With shouts of triumph, jeering, and imprecation, throngs of evil
men are about to rush upon their prey, when, lo, a dense blackness,
deeper than the darkness of the night, falls upon the earth. Then a
rainbow, shining with the glory from the throne of God, spans the
heavens and seems to encircle each praying company.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 635-636
#4
By the people of God a voice, clear and melodious, is heard,
saying, "Look up," and lifting their eyes to the heavens, they behold
the bow of promise. The black, angry clouds that covered the firmament
are parted, and like Stephen they look up steadfastly into
heaven and see the glory of God and the Son of man seated upon His throne.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 636
#5
It is at midnight that God manifests His power for the deliverance
of His people. The sun appears, shining in its strength. Signs and
wonders follow in quick succession. The wicked look with terror
and amazement upon the scene, while the righteous behold with
solemn joy the tokens of their deliverance.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 636
#6
The sea is lashed into fury. There is heard the
shriek of a hurricane like the voice of demons upon a mission of
destruction. The whole earth heaves and swells like the waves of the
sea. Its surface is breaking up. Its very foundations seem to be giving
way. Mountain chains are sinking. Inhabited islands disappear.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 637
#7
Graves are opened, and "many of them that sleep in the dust of
the earth ... awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and
everlasting contempt." Daniel 12:2. All who have died in the faith
of the third angel's message come forth from the tomb glorified, to
hear God's covenant of peace with those who have kept His law.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 637
#8
Thick clouds still cover the sky; yet the sun now and then breaks
through, appearing like the avenging eye of Jehovah. Fierce lightnings
leap from the heavens, enveloping the earth in a sheet of flame.
Above the terrific roar of thunder, voices, mysterious and awful,
declare the doom of the wicked. The words spoken are not comprehended
by all; but they are distinctly understood by the false teachers.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 637-638
#9
Those who a little before were so reckless, so boastful and
defiant, so exultant in their cruelty to God's commandment-keeping
people, are now overwhelmed with consternation and shuddering in
fear. Their wails are heard above the sound of the elements. Demons
acknowledge the deity of Christ and tremble before His power, while
men are supplicating for mercy and groveling in abject terror.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 638
#10
Through a rift in the clouds there beams a star whose brilliancy
is increased fourfold in contrast with the darkness. It speaks hope
and joy to the faithful, but severity and wrath to the transgressors of God's law.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 638-639
#11
A marvelous change has come over those who have held fast their integrity in the
very face of death. They have been suddenly delivered from the dark
and terrible tyranny of men transformed to demons.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 638-639
#12
The glory of the celestial city streams from the gates ajar. Then there appears
against the sky a hand holding two tables of stone folded together.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 639
#13
It is impossible to describe the horror and despair of those who
have trampled upon God's holy requirements. The Lord gave them
His law; they might have compared their characters with it and
learned their defects while there was yet opportunity for repentance
and reform; but in order to secure the favor of the world, they set
aside its precepts and taught others to transgress.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 639
#14
They have endeavored to compel God's people to profane His Sabbath.
Now they are condemned by that law which they have despised.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 639
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The enemies of God's law, from the ministers down to the least
among them, have a new conception of truth and duty. Too late they
see that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is the seal of the
living God. Too late they see the true nature of their spurious sabbath
and the sandy foundation upon which they have been building.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 640
#16
Not until the day of final accounts will it be known
how great is the responsibility of men in holy office and how terrible
are the results of their unfaithfulness. Only in eternity can we rightly
estimate the loss of a single soul. Fearful will be the doom of him to
whom God shall say: Depart, thou wicked servant.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 640
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The voice of God is heard from heaven, declaring the day and
hour of Jesus' coming, and delivering the everlasting covenant to His people.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 640
#18
The wicked cannot look upon them. And when the blessing is pronounced on
those who have honored God by keeping His Sabbath holy, there is
a mighty shout of victory.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 640
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Soon there appears in the east a small black cloud, about half the
size of a man's hand. It is the cloud which surrounds the Saviour and
which seems in the distance to be shrouded in darkness. The people
of God know this to be the sign of the Son of man. In solemn silence
they gaze upon it as it draws nearer the earth, becoming lighter and
more glorious, until it is a great white cloud, its base a glory like
consuming fire, and above it the rainbow of the covenant. Jesus
rides forth as a mighty conqueror.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 640-641
#20
With anthems of celestial melody the holy angels, a vast, unnumbered
throng, attend Him on His way. The firmament seems filled with
radiant forms-"ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of
thousands." No human pen can portray the scene; no mortal mind is
adequate to conceive its splendor. "His glory covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of His praise. And His brightness was as
the light." Habakkuk 3:3, 4.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 641
#21
Before His presence "all faces are turned into paleness;" upon
the rejecters of God's mercy falls the terror of eternal despair. "The
heart melteth, and the knees smite together, ... and the faces of them
all gather blackness." Jeremiah 30:6; Nahum 2:10.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 641
#22
Nought now is heard
but the voice of prayer and the sound of weeping and lamentation.
The cry bursts forth from lips so lately scoffing: "The great day of
His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" The wicked
pray to be buried beneath the rocks of the mountains rather than
meet the face of Him whom they have despised and rejected.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 642
#23
That voice which penetrates the ear of the dead, they know. How
often have its plaintive, tender tones called them to repentance. How
often has it been heard in the touching entreaties of a friend, a
brother, a Redeemer. To the rejecters of His grace no other could
be so full of condemnation, so burdened with denunciation, as that
voice which has so long pleaded: "Turn ye, turn ye from your evil
ways; for why will ye die?" Ezekiel 33:11.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 642
**** #24 ****
In the lives of all who reject truth there are moments when conscience
awakens, when memory presents the torturing recollection
of a life of hypocrisy and the soul is harassed with vain regrets.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 644
#25
Those who would have destroyed Christ and His
faithful people now witness the glory which rests upon them. In
the midst of their terror they hear the voices of the saints in joyful
strains exclaiming: "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him,
and He will save us." Isaiah 25:9.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 644
#26
Throughout the length and breadth of the earth the dead
shall hear that voice, and they that hear shall live. And the whole
earth shall ring with the tread of the exceeding great army of every
nation, kindred, tongue, and people.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 644
#27
All come forth from their graves the same in stature as when
they entered the tomb. Adam, who stands among the risen throng,
is of lofty height and majestic form, in stature but little below the
Son of God. He presents a marked contrast to the people of later
generations; in this one respect is shown the great degeneracy of the
race. But all arise with the freshness and vigor of eternal youth.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 644-645
#28
All blemishes and deformities are left in the grave.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 645
#29
Restored to the tree of life in the long-lost Eden, the redeemed will "grow up"
(Malachi 4:2) to the full stature of the race in its primeval glory.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 645
#30
Friends long separated by death are united, nevermore to part, and with songs of gladness
ascend together to the City of God.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 645
#31
On each side of the cloudy chariot are wings, and beneath it
are living wheels; and as the chariot rolls upward, the wheels cry,
"Holy," and the wings, as they move, cry, "Holy," and the retinue
of angels cry, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty." And the
redeemed shout, "Alleluia!" as the chariot moves onward toward the
New Jerusalem.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 645
#32
Before entering the City of God, the Saviour bestows upon His
followers the emblems of victory and invests them with the insignia
of their royal state. The glittering ranks are drawn up in the form of
a hollow square about their King, whose form rises in majesty high
above saint and angel, whose countenance beams upon them full of
benignant love.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 645-646
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Upon the heads of the overcomers, Jesus with His
own right hand places the crown of glory. For each there is a crown,
bearing his own "new name" (Revelation 2:17), and the inscription,
"Holiness to the Lord."
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 646
#34
Before the ransomed throng is the Holy City. Jesus opens wide
the pearly gates, and the nations that have kept the truth enter in.
There they behold the Paradise of God, the home of Adam in his innocency.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 646
#35
Now is fulfilled the Saviour's prayer for His disciples: "I will
that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I
am." "Faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy"
(Jude 24), Christ presents to the Father the purchase of His blood,
declaring: "Here am I, and the children whom Thou hast given
Me." "Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept."
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 646
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As they gather about the great
white throne, gladness unspeakable will fill their hearts, when they
behold those whom they have won for Christ, and see that one has
gained others, and these still others, all brought into the haven of
rest, there to lay their crowns at Jesus' feet and praise Him through
the endless cycles of eternity.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 647
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The two Adams are about to meet. The Son of God is standing with outstretched
arms to receive the father of our race-the being whom He created,
who sinned against his Maker, and for whose sin the marks of the
crucifixion are borne upon the Saviour's form.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 647
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As Adam discerns the prints of the cruel nails, he does not fall upon the bosom of his
Lord, but in humiliation casts himself at His feet, crying: "Worthy,
worthy is the Lamb that was slain!" Tenderly the Saviour lifts him
up and bids him look once more upon the Eden home from which
he has so long been exiled.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 647
#39
The Son of God redeemed man's failure and fall; and
now, through the work of the atonement, Adam is reinstated in his
first dominion.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 647-648
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The Saviour leads him to the tree of life and plucks the glorious
fruit and bids him eat.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 648
#41
In all ages the Saviour's chosen have been educated and disciplined
in the school of trial. They walked in narrow paths on earth;
they were purified in the furnace of affliction. For Jesus' sake they
endured opposition, hatred, calumny. They followed Him through
conflicts sore; they endured self-denial and experienced bitter disappointments.
By their own painful experience they learned the evil
of sin, its power, its guilt, its woe; and they look upon it with abhorrence.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 649-650
#42
Having been partakers of Christ's sufferings, they are fitted to be partakers with Him of His
glory.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 650
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In this life we can only begin to understand the wonderful theme
of redemption. With our finite comprehension we may consider
most earnestly the shame and the glory, the life and the death, the
justice and the mercy, that meet in the cross; yet with the utmost
stretch of our mental powers we fail to grasp its full significance.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 651
#44
The plan of redemption will not be
fully understood, even when the ransomed see as they are seen and
know as they are known; but through the eternal ages new truth will
continually unfold to the wondering and delighted mind.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 651
#45
The cross of Christ will be the science and the song of the redeemed
through all eternity.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 651
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The mystery of the cross explains all other mysteries.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 651