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The Beginning of the End
law is treated with indifference and contempt. “For as in the days
before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving
in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not
know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the
coming of the Son of Man be” (
Matthew 24:38, 39
). God did not
condemn the pre-Flood generation for eating and drinking. He had
given the fruits of the earth to meet their physical wants. Their sin
was in taking these gifts without gratitude to the Giver, indulging
appetite without restraint. It was lawful to marry. He gave special
directions concerning this relationship, clothing it with holiness and
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beauty, but marriage was perverted and made to serve passion.
Similar Conditions Today
A similar condition exists today. Appetite is indulged without
restraint. Professed followers of Christ are eating and drinking with
the drunken. Intemperance numbs the moral and spiritual powers and
prepares for indulgence of the lower passions. Multitudes become
slaves of lust, living for the sensual pleasures. Extravagance saturates
society. People sacrifice integrity for luxury and display. Fraud,
bribery, and theft go unrebuked. The media report many crimes so
cold-blooded that it seems as though every instinct of humanity were
blotted out. And these atrocities have become so common that they
hardly produce surprise. The pent-up fires of lawlessness, having
once escaped control, will fill the earth with woe and desolation. The
pre-Flood world represents the condition to which modern society
is rushing.
God sent Noah to warn the world, so that the people could be
led to repentance and escape the threatened destruction. As the time
of Christ’s second coming draws near, the Lord sends His servants
with a warning to prepare for that great event. Multitudes have been
living in violation of God’s law, and now in mercy He calls them
to obey its sacred commands. All who will put away their sins by
repentance and faith in Christ are offered pardon. But many reject
His warnings and deny the authority of His law.
Out of the vast population of the earth before the Flood, only
eight people believed and obeyed God’s word through Noah. In the
same way, sinners are warned to repent before the Lawgiver comes