drunken man, and the sun shall hide his
face, and shall refuse to give light, and the moon shall be
bathed in blood, and the stars shall become exceeding angry, and
shall cast themselves down as a fig that falleth from off a fig
tree. And after your testimony cometh wrath and indignation upon
the people; For after your testimony cometh the testimony of
earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and
men shall fall upon the ground, and shall not be able to stand.
And also cometh the testimony of the voice of thunderings, and
the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the
voice of the waves of the sea, heaving themselves beyond their
bounds. And all things shall be in commotion; and surely, men's
hearts shall fail them; for fear shall come upon all people; And
angels shall fly through the midst of heaven, crying with a loud
voice, sounding the trump of God, saying, Prepare ye, prepare
ye, O inhabitants of the earth; for the judgment of our God is
come: behold, and lo! the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet
him."[1576]

A characteristic of present-day revelation is the reiteration of the
fact that the event is nigh at hand, "even at the doors." The fateful
time is repeatedly designated in scripture, "the great and dreadful day
of the Lord."[1577] Fearful indeed will it be to individuals, families,
and nations, who have so far sunk into sin as to have forfeited their
claim to mercy. The time is not that of the final judgment--when the
whole race of mankind shall stand in the resurrected state before the
bar of God--nevertheless it shall be a time of unprecedented blessing
unto the righteous and of condemnation and vengeance upon the
wicked.[1578] With Christ shall come those who have already been
resurrected; and His approach shall be the means of inaugurating a
general resurrection of the righteous dead, while the pure and just who
are still in the flesh shall be instantaneously changed from the mortal
to the immortal state and shall be caught up with the newly resurrected
to meet the Lord and His celestial company, and shall descend with Him.
To this effect did Paul prophesy: "Even so them also which sleep in
Jesus will God bring with him.... For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the
trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are
al