On Earth

While in heaven above the saved are with Christ and the holy angels before the throne, and follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, it is to be remembered that on earth all is desolation and emptiness. The wicked have been slain by the glory of Christ's coming. By the quaking of the earth the cities of the nations have fallen in ruin, islands have been removed, and mountains cast into the depths of the sea. The condition of the earth during this time of desolation is thus described by the prophet:

"I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger." Jer. 4:23-26.

"Without form, and void," said the prophet. This is the same phrase that is used in the opening verses of Genesis to describe the chaotic state of the earth in the beginning. At the beginning of creation week the earth was in a state of emptiness and chaos—an "abyss," as it is called in the Greek translation of Genesis. Again, during this thousand-year period, the earth is an "abyss," or a desolate waste. "Abyss" is the meaning of the word translated "bottomless pit" in the text telling of the binding of Satan by the mighty angel of God:

"He laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit." Rev. 20:2, 3. The Revised Version says, "And cast him into the abyss."

Confined to this pit or abyss of desolation, as a prisoner in a prison house, with none to tempt, the author of sin has a thousand years in which to view the ruin that sin has wrought in the earth that once left its Maker's hand beautiful and perfect, unmarred by any curse.