Deliverance Comes!

At midnight God manifests His power for the deliverance of His people. The sun appears shining in its strength. Signs and wonders follow. The wicked look with terror on the scene, while the righteous behold the tokens of their deliverance. In the midst of the angry heavens is one clear space of indescribable glory whence comes the voice of God like the sound of many waters, saying, “It is done!” Revelation 16:17.GrH_c 44.5

That voice shakes the heavens and the earth. There is a mighty earthquake, “such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.” Revelation 16:18. Ragged rocks are scattered on every side. The sea is lashed into fury. There is heard the shriek of a hurricane like the voice of demons. The earth's surface is breaking up. Its very foundations seem to be giving way. Seaports that have become like Sodom for wickedness are swallowed up by the angry waters. “Babylon the great” has come in remembrance before God, “to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.” Revelation 16:19. Great hailstones do their work of destruction. Proud cities are laid low. Lordly palaces on which men have lavished their wealth crumble before their eyes. Prison walls are rent asunder, and God's people are set free.GrH_c 44.6

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.” “They also which pierced him,” those that derided Christ's dying agonies, and the most violent opposers of His truth, are raised to see the honor placed on the loyal and obedient. Daniel 12:2; Revelation 1:7.GrH_c 44.7

Fierce lightnings envelop the earth in a sheet of flame. Above the thunder, voices, mysterious and awful, declare the doom of the wicked. Those who were boastful and defiant, cruel to God's commandment-keeping people, now shudder in fear. Demons tremble while men are supplicating for mercy.GrH_c 45.1