“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth.” John 5:28, 29
“This voice is soon to resound through all the nations of the dead, and every saint who sleeps in Jesus shall awake and leave his prison house.
“The precious dead, from Adam down to the last saint who dies, will hear the voice of the Son of God and will come forth from the grave to immortal life.
“Amid the reeling of the earth, the flash of lightning, and the roar of thunder, the voice of the Son of God calls forth the sleeping saints. He looks upon the graves of the righteous, then, raising His hands to heaven, He cries: ‘Awake, awake, awake, ye that sleep in the dust, and arise!’ Throughout the length and breadth of the earth the dead shall hear that voice, and they that hear shall live. And the whole earth shall ring with the tread of the exceeding great army of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. From the prison house of death they come, clothed with immortal glory, crying: ‘O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’ (1 Corinthians 15:55).
“And the living righteous and the risen saints unite their voices in a long, glad shout of victory.
“The living righteous are changed ‘in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.’ At the voice of God they were glorified; now they are made immortal, and with the risen saints are caught up to meet their Lord in the air. Angels ‘gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.’ Little children are borne by holy angels to their mothers’ arms. Friends long separated by death are united, nevermore to part, and with songs of gladness ascend together to the city of God.
“We all entered the cloud together, and were seven days ascending to the sea of glass.
“And as the chariot rolled upward, the wheels cried, ‘Holy,’ and the wings, as they moved, cried, ‘Holy,’ and the retinue of holy angels around the cloud cried, ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!’ And the saints in the cloud cried, ‘Glory! Alleluia!’
“Oh, how glorious it will be to see Him and be welcomed as His redeemed ones! Long have we waited, but our hope is not to grow dim. If we can but see the King in His beauty we shall be forever blessed. I feel as if I must cry aloud, ‘Homeward bound!’
“In that day the redeemed will shine forth in the glory of the Father and the Son. The angels, touching their golden harps, will welcome the King and His trophies of victory–those who have been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. A song of triumph will peal forth, filling all heaven. Christ has conquered. He enters the heavenly courts, accompanied by His redeemed ones, the witnesses that His mission of suffering and sacrifice has not been in vain.
“With unutterable love, Jesus welcomes His faithful ones to the joy of their Lord. The Saviour’s joy is in seeing in the kingdom of glory the souls that have been saved by His agony and humiliation.
“In the results of His work Christ will behold its recompense. In that great multitude which no man could number, presented ‘faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,’ He whose blood has redeemed and whose life has taught us ‘shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.’”–Last Day Events, p. 276–277, 280–281
Ellen G. White