13 Nov 2020

Last Day Events: Chapter 19—Christ's Return (Part 3)

 The Reaction of Those Who Pierced Him

Those who have acted the most prominent part in the rejection and crucifixion of Christ come forth to see Him as He is, and those who have rejected Christ come up and see the saints glorified, and it is at that time that the saints are changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and are caught up to meet their Lord in the air. The very ones who placed upon Him the purple robe and put the crown of thorns upon His brow, and those who put the nails through His hands and feet, look upon Him and bewail.—Manuscript Releases 9:252 (1886). 

They remember how His love was slighted and His compassion abused. They think of how Barabbas, a murderer and a robber, was chosen in His stead, how Jesus was crowned with thorns and scourged and crucified, how in the hours of His agony on the cross the priests and rulers taunted Him, saying, “Let Him come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He saved others, Himself He cannot save.” All the insult and despite offered to Christ, all the suffering caused to His disciples, will be as fresh in their recollection as when the satanic deeds were done. 

The voice which they heard so often in entreaty and persuasion will again sound in their ears. Every tone of gracious solicitation will vibrate as distinctly in their ears as when the Saviour spoke in the synagogues and on the street. Then those who pierced Him will call on the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.—Letter 131, 1900. 


“Awake, Ye That Sleep, and Arise!”

The clouds begin to roll back like a scroll and there is the bright, clear sign of the Son of man. The children of God know what that cloud means. The sound of music is heard, and as it nears, the graves are opened and the dead are raised.—Manuscript Releases 9:251, 252 (1886). 

“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth” [John 5:28, 29]. This voice is soon to resound through all the nations of the dead, and every saint who sleeps in Jesus shall awake and leave his prison house.—Manuscript 137, 1897. 

The precious dead, from Adam down to the last saint who dies, will hear the voice of the Son of God and will come forth from the grave to immortal life.—The Desire of Ages, 606 (1898). 

Amid the reeling of the earth, the flash of lightning, and the roar of thunder, the voice of the Son of God calls forth the sleeping saints. He looks upon the graves of the righteous, then, raising His hands to heaven, He cries: “Awake, awake, awake, ye that sleep in the dust, and arise!” 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. From the prison house of death they come, clothed with immortal glory, crying: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). And the living righteous and the risen saints unite their voices in a long, glad shout of victory.—The Great Controversy, 644 (1911).

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