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warns us that we may look for wickedness to increase as the end draws
near: “The Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall
depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of
devils.”
1 Timothy 4:1
. The apostle says that “in the last days perilous
times shall come.”
2 Timothy 3:1
. And he gives a startling list of sins
that will be found among those who have a form of godliness.
As the time of their probation was closing, the antediluvians gave
themselves up to exciting amusements and festivities. Those who
possessed influence and power were bent on keeping the minds of the
people engrossed with mirth and pleasure, lest any should be impressed
by the last solemn warning. Do we not see the same repeated in
our day? While God’s servants are giving the message that the end
of all things is at hand, the world is absorbed in amusements and
pleasure seeking. There is a constant round of excitement that causes
indifference to God and prevents the people from being impressed by
the truths which alone can save them from the coming destruction.
In Noah’s day philosophers declared that it was impossible for the
world to be destroyed by water; so now there are men of science who
endeavor to show that the world cannot be destroyed by fire—that this
would be inconsistent with the laws of nature. But the God of nature,
the Maker and Controller of her laws, can use the works of His hands
to serve His own purpose.
When great and wise men had proved to their satisfaction that it
was impossible for the world to be destroyed by water, when the fears
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of the people were quieted, when all regarded Noah’s prophecy as a
delusion, and looked upon him as a fanatic—then it was that God’s
time had come. “The fountains of the great deep” were “broken up,
and the windows of heaven were opened,” and the scoffers were over-
whelmed in the waters of the Flood. With all their boasted philosophy,
men found too late that their wisdom was foolishness, that the Law-
giver is greater than the laws of nature, and that Omnipotence is at
no loss for means to accomplish His purposes. “As it was in the days
of Noah,” “even thus shall it be in the days when the Son of man is
revealed.”
Luke 17:26, 30
. “The day of the Lord will come as a thief
in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great
noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and
the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
2 Peter 3:10
. When the
reasoning of philosophy has banished the fear of God’s judgments;