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From Here to Forever
Egypt would voice a similar denial of God and manifest a like spirit
of defiance.
“The great city” is also compared, “spiritually,” to Sodom. The
corruption of Sodom was especially manifested in licentiousness.
This sin was also to be a characteristic of the nation that should
fulfill this scripture.
According to the prophet, then, a little before 1798 some power
of satanic character would rise to war upon the Bible. And in the
land where the testimony of God’s “two witnesses” should thus be
silenced, there would be manifest the atheism of Pharaoh and the
licentiousness of Sodom.
A Striking Fulfillment of Prophecy
This prophecy received a striking fulfillment in the history of
France during the Revolution, in 1793. “France stands apart in the
world’s history as the single state which, by the decree of her Leg-
islative Assembly, pronounced that there was no God, and of which
the entire population of the capital, and a vast majority elsewhere,
women as well as men, danced and sang with joy in accepting the
announcement.
France presented also the characteristics which distinguished
Sodom. The historian presents together the atheism and the licen-
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tiousness of France: “Intimately connected with these laws affecting
religion, was that which reduced the union of marriage—the most sa-
cred engagement which human beings can form, and the permanence
of which leads most strongly to the consolidation of society—to the
state of a mere civil contract of a transitory character, which any
two persons might engage in and cast loose at pleasure. ... Sophie
Arnoult, an actress famous for the witty things she said, described
the republican marriage as ”the sacrament of adultery.’
Enmity Against Christ
“Where also our Lord was crucified.” This was also fulfilled
by France. In no country had the truth encountered more cruel
1
Blackwood Magazine, November, 1870.
2
Sir Walter Scott, Life of Napoleon, vol. 1, ch. 17.