SDA Sabbath School Lessons
Tuesday September 24, 1996


What does Jesus do when He comes?
(Matt. 24:31)

What happens to the living unbelievers, including those who will be raised in the partial resurrection?

What happens to those who died as unbelievers before Jesus' second advent? Rev. 20:5.

What happens to the millions who died as believers?

What happens to the living believers, including those who have just been raised in the partial resurrection? 1 Thess. 4:16-18.

What happens to Satan and his demons? Rev. 20:1-3.

When Jesus arrives with the hosts of His angels, He remains in the sky above the earth. The saved will "meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thess. 4:17). Jesus does not come down and walk on earth as He did when He came the first time. This is why Satan's impersonation of Christ before the advent will not deceive God's people. (See Matt. 24:23, 24; 2 Thess. 2:8-12.)

Those who have neither believed in Jesus nor followed His truth as it is taught in Scripture will be destroyed by the glory of His presence. Those who crucified Him, who were raised shortly before His appearing, will be put to death again with the hosts of the lost who have received the mark of the beast. Those who had previously died in sin will remain in their graves for another 1,000 years. When the heavenly trumpet sounds, the many who through the ages of human history died believing in Jesus Christ are raised from their graves and caught up into the sky to meet Jesus. Then the living believers are caught up to be with them. They are not brought back to this earth again. They are taken to heaven to be with Christ and the angels for 1,000 years. (See John 14:1-3; Rev. 7:13-17; 20:4-6.) Satan and his demons are bound to this desolate earth ("the bottomless pit"--Rev. 20:1). The earth will be divested of its inhabitants. All the saved will be in heaven; all the lost in their graves.