The Angel of Death

Now the angel of death goes out, represented in Ezekiel's vision by the men with the slaughtering weapons, to whom the command is given: “Utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but do not come near anyone on whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary.” “They began with the elders who were before the temple,” those who professed to be the spiritual guardians of the people. (Ezekiel 9:6.)LF 264.2

False watchmen are the first to fall. “The LORD comes out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth will also disclose her blood, and will no more cover her slain.” “A great panic from the LORD will be among them. Everyone will seize the hand of his neighbor, and raise his hand against his neighbor's hand.” (Isaiah 26:21; Zechariah 14:13.)LF 264.3

In the wild strife of their own fierce passions and by the pouring out of God's unmingled wrath, wicked priests, rulers, and people fall. “At that day the slain of the LORD shall be from one end of the earth even to the other” (Jeremiah 25:33).LF 264.4

At the coming of Christ the wicked are destroyed by the brightness of His glory. Christ takes His people to the city of God, and the earth has no more inhabitants. “Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty and makes it waste, distorts its surface and scatters abroad its inhabitants.... The land shall be entirely emptied and utterly plundered, for the LORD has spoken this word.... Because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell in it are desolate. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned” (Isaiah 24:1, 3, 5, 6).LF 264.5

The earth looks like a desolate wilderness. Cities destroyed by the earthquake, uprooted trees, ragged rocks torn out of the earth, are scattered over its surface. Vast caverns mark the spot where the mountains have been torn from their foundations.LF 264.6