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From Eternity Past
were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and
giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and
knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also
the coming of the Son of man be.”
Matthew 24:38, 39
. God did not
condemn the antediluvians for eating and drinking. He had given the
fruits of the earth to supply their physical wants. Their sin consisted
in taking these gifts without gratitude to the Giver, indulging appetite
without restraint. It was lawful to marry. He gave special directions
concerning this ordinance, clothing it with sanctity and beauty. But
marriage was perverted and made to minister to passion.
Similar Conditions Today
A similar condition exists now. Appetite is indulged without re-
straint. Professed followers of Christ are eating and drinking with the
drunken. Intemperance benumbs the moral and spiritual powers and
prepares for indulgence of the lower passions. Multitudes become
slaves of lust, living for the pleasures of sense. Extravagance pervades
society. Integrity is sacrificed for luxury and display. Fraud, bribery,
and theft stalk unrebuked. The issues of the press teem with records
of crimes so cold-blooded that it seems as though every instinct of hu-
manity were blotted out. And these atrocities have become so common
that they hardly elicit surprise. The pent-up fires of lawlessness, having
once escaped control, will fill the earth with woe and desolation. The
antediluvian world represents the condition to which modern society
is hastening.
God sent Noah to warn the world that the people might be led
to repentance and escape the threatened destruction. As the time of
Christ’s second appearing draws near, the Lord sends His servants with
a warning to prepare for that great event. Multitudes have been living
in transgression of God’s law, and now He in mercy calls them to obey
its sacred precepts. All who will put away their sins by repentance and
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faith in Christ are offered pardon. But many reject His warnings and
deny the authority of His law.
Of the vast population of the earth before the Flood, only eight
souls believed and obeyed God’s word through Noah. So before
the Lawgiver shall come to punish the disobedient, transgressors are
warned to repent; but with the majority these warnings will be in vain.