[585]The first few years of restitution blessings will find multitudes of people diligently seeking to be restored to health and strength; and as they grow strong themselves and prepare homes for themselves and their families, they will be thinking of their beloved dead. Naturally they will want to see them again, and they will pray to the Lord to restore them. And the Lord will hear their prayers and answer them. "It shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." (Isaiah 65:24) Jesus declared that "all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment". (John 5:28,29) "They that have done evil" here means the entire human race aside from the church. They were born evil, born sinners. (Romans 5:12) They are coming forth to judgment, to a trial; and this is the great trial time spoken of by the Apostle, in which all men shall have an opportunity. (Acts 17:31) "There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust."—Acts 24:15.

[586]St. Paul then produces his wonderful and beautiful argument on the resurrection, saying, "If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Corinthians 15:16-22) Then the Apostle shows that after the resurrection of the church in the beginning of the kingdom every man must come forth in his own order. Jesus declared: "Many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first". (Matthew 19:30) This principle may be properly applied to the resurrection of the dead. Those who died last will be the first to be awakened; while those who died centuries ago will be among the last to be awakened.

[587]In the World War millions of men died upon the battlefield. That was indeed the land of the enemy, the land of death. The Lord gives us a picture through the Prophet as to the coming days of blessing, saying to the woman who wept for her children, and thus illustrating all who weep for their dead: "Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border." —Jeremiah 31:16,17.

[588]As the dead come back from the tombs, provision will be made for them by their friends who are living on the earth. Families long broken up will be again united; and sadness will give way to joy. The whole human race, ransomed by the Lord, will have this opportunity; and the Prophet describes it thus: "The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away". (Isaiah 35:10) Gradually, throughout the thousand years of Messiah's reign, will the human race march up over the highway of holiness, until all will have had a full and fair opportunity, the willfully wicked destroyed and the obedient ones restored to perfection of body and mind and heart.

[589]The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire. It does not mean, however, that they went into an endless torture, as we have heretofore been led to believe. On the contrary, the Lord plainly states that they shall be brought back to their former estate; that is, as human beings on the earth, for the purpose of being given a trial. "When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate." (Ezekiel 16:55) While the Lord will rule with an iron hand, compelling obedience, yet his rule will be a righteous one, and he will reprove with justice. He is pictured by the Prophet as ruling in faithfulness and righteousness, thus: "With righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins."—Isaiah 11:4,5.

[590]The beneficial effect of his righteous reign is also pictured by the Prophet, in the passage which shows how that the wild beasts of the earth will become subject to man, and how a little child shall direct them. "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den."—Isaiah 11:6-8.

[591]All must come to a knowledge of the truth; and those obeying it will have their sins and iniquities wiped out for ever. Thus says the Prophet: "They shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jeremiah 31:34) When the Lord remembers their iniquities and sins no more, then it must be that they are restored. When John the Baptist announced the approach of Jesus, he exclaimed: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world". When the sin of the world is gone, when there is a world without sin, then it must be a world with perfect people.

[592]That the people will be brought to a condition of health and be cured of their sickness the Lord assures us through his Prophet. "Behold, I will bring in health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth." (Jeremiah 33:6) "And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity."—Isaiah 33:24

PARADISE RESTORED

[593]The restoration means the bringing back to earth of the Edenic condition for man's benefit. Some may think there will be not sufficient room upon the earth for all the restored ones. According to the best authority, there have lived and died about 20,000,000,000 people. There are now on earth approximately 1,700,000,000 persons. This is a total of 21,700,000,000. In order to be liberal, let us suppose that all the human race will total 50,000,000,000. As a suggestion that there will be ample room for all on the earth, let one take his pencil and divide the area of the state of Texas by 50,000,000,000; and he will find that that number of people could be placed in the state of Texas alone, giving each one about 146 square feet of land upon which to stand. Of course it is not to be expected that the earth will be crowded thus; but when we remember that only a small portion of the earth's surface is now inhabited, that a great portion of it is desert, and when this desert shall become productive and all parts of the earth habitable, then we may see that 50,000,000,000 of people could comfortably be taken care of in the earth and have plenty of room to spare.