April 3, 2025 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Ted N.C. Wilson, President, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
Greetings, friends. In our previous video we saw how Satan and his angels will be bound to a desolated earth for a thousand years. During this time Satan will have time to contemplate the results of his rebellion against the law of God, and all the pain and suffering he has caused. He will also look forward with trembling and terror to the dreadful future that awaits him.
In the meantime, however, God’s people will be in heaven at this time, rejoicing that they are no longer under the oppression of the evil one. Looking forward to this time, the prophet Isaiah wrote:
“It shall come to pass in the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve, that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon [which is here representing Satan], and say:
‘How the oppressor has ceased . . . The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked. . . He who struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he who ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted and no one hinders” (Isaiah 14:3-6, NKJV).
But there is more. During these thousand years, also known as “the millennium,” the judgment of the wicked takes place. The apostle Paul points to this judgment as an event that follows Christ’s second advent. He wrote: “…judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts” (1 Cor. 4:5, NKJV).
This important point is supported throughout the Bible. The prophet Daniel declares that when the Ancient of Days came, “judgment was given to the saints of the Most High” (Daniel 7:22, KJV).
Amazingly, at this time, God’s people will “reign as kings and priests unto God.” In the book of Revelation, John wrote: “I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. . . . They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years” (Rev. 20:4, 6, KJV).
\In The Great Controversy we read, “It is at this time that, as foretold by Paul, ‘the saints shall judge the world.’ [1 Corinthians 6:2.]”
The inspired author continues: “In union with Christ they judge the wicked, comparing their acts with the statute book, the Bible, and deciding every case according to the deeds done in the body. Then the portion which the wicked must suffer is meted out, according to their works; and it is recorded against their names in the book of death” (p. 661).
But there is still more. Did you know that Satan and his evil angels will also be judged by Christ and His people? Paul writes, “Do you not know that we shall judge angels?” (1 Cor. 6:3, NKJV). And Jude declares that “the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6, NKJV).
And what will happen at the end of these thousand years? The second resurrection will take place, which will include all the wicked people who have ever lived. We know this because, after describing the resurrection of the righteous, John the Revelator writes: “But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished” (Rev. 20:5, NKJV).
And after they are resurrected, the wicked will appear before God for the execution of the judgment that has been written. How this takes place we will see in our next video as we continue to read what the Bible has to say on this important subject.
Friends, we can rest assured that God is just and fair. Only those who choose to be lost will be raised in the second resurrection. Today, however, is the day of salvation. If you have not yet accepted this marvelous gift offered to you by our Savior, Jesus Christ, I urge you to accept Him into your life today.
Let’s pray together just now.