Preparation for Christ’s Coming
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In Noah’s day the inhabitants of the old world laughed to scorn
what they termed the superstitious fears and forebodings of the
preacher of righteousness. He was denounced as a visionary char-
acter, a fanatic, an alarmist. “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall
it be also in the days of the Son of man.” Men will reject the solemn
message of warning in our day, as they did in Noah’s time. They will
refer to those false teachers who have predicted the event and set the
definite time, and will say that they have no more faith in our warning
than in theirs. This is the attitude of the world today. Unbelief is
widespread, and the preaching of Christ’s coming is mocked at and
derided. This makes it all the more essential that those who believe
present truth should show their faith by their works. They should be
sanctified through the truth which they profess to believe; for they are
a savor of life unto life or of death unto death.
Noah preached to the people of his time that God would give
them one hundred and twenty years in which to repent of their sins
and find refuge in the ark, but they refused the gracious invitation.
Abundant time was given them to turn from their sins, overcome
their bad habits, and develop righteous characters. But inclination to
sin, though weak at first with many, strengthened through repeated
indulgence and hurried them on to irretrievable ruin. The merciful
warning of God was rejected with sneers, with mockery and derision;
and they were left in darkness to follow the course that their sinful
hearts had chosen. But their unbelief did not hinder the predicted event.
It came, and great was the wrath of God which was seen in the general
ruin.
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These words of Christ should sink into the hearts of all who believe
present truth: “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts
be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life,
and so that day come upon you unawares.” Our danger is presented
before us by Christ Himself. He knew the perils we should meet in
these last days, and would have us prepare for them. “As it was in the
days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” They
were eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying and giving
in marriage, and knew not until the day that Noah entered into the ark,
and the Flood came and swept them all away. The day of God will
find men absorbed in like manner in the business and pleasures of the
world, in feasting and gluttony, and in indulging perverted appetite in