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Until the Day ..., January 31
Genesis 6:11-13
And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a
preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the
ungodly.
2 Peter 2:5
.
God warned the inhabitants of the old world of what He purposed to do in
cleansing the earth of its impurity. But they laughed to scorn what they regarded
as a superstitious prediction
Many at first appeared to receive the warning; yet they did not turn to God
with true repentance. They were unwilling to renounce their sins. During the
time that elapsed before the coming of the Flood, their faith was tested, and
they failed to endure the trial. Overcome by the prevailing unbelief, they finally
joined their former associates in rejecting the solemn message. Some were
deeply convicted, and would have heeded the words of warning; but there were
so many to jest and ridicule, that they partook of the same spirit, ... and were
soon among the boldest and most defiant scoffers; for none are so reckless and
go to such lengths in sin as do those who have once had light but have resisted
the convicting Spirit of God
They continued their festivities and their gluttonous feasts; they ate and
drank, planted and builded, laying their plans in reference to advantages they
hoped to gain in the future; and they went to greater lengths in wickedness, and
in defiant disregard of God’s requirements, to testify that they had no fear of the
Infinite One....
Had the antediluvians believed the warning, and repented of their evil deeds,
the Lord would have turned aside His wrath, as He afterward did from Nineveh.
But by their obstinate resistance to the reproofs of conscience and the warnings
of God’s prophet, that generation filled up the measure of their iniquity, and
became ripe for destruction
The Lord has sent us, by His ambassadors, messages of warning, declaring
that the end of all things is at hand. Some will listen to these warnings, but by
the vast majority they will be disregarded.
Thus will it be when Christ comes. Farmers, merchants, lawyers, tradesmen,
will be wholly engrossed in business, and upon them the day of the Lord will
come as a snare
[38]
64
Manuscript 161, 1897
.
65
Patriarchs and Prophets, 95
.
66
Ibid., 97
.
67
Manuscript 161, 1897
.
36