In the formation of our world, God was not beholden to pre-existent substance or matter. “For the things that are seen were not made of the things which do appear” [Hebrews 11:3]. On the contrary, all things, ma terial or spiritual, stood up before the Lord Jehovah at His voice, and were created for His own purpose. The heavens and all the host of them, the earth and all things that are therein, are not only the work of His hand, they came into existence by the breath of His mouth.
The Lord had given evidence that by His power He could in one short hour
dissolve the whole frame of nature. He can turn things up side down, and destroy the things that man has built up in His most firm and substantial manner. He “removeth the mountains,” He “overturneth them in His anger,” He “shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.” “The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at His reproof.” “The mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence” [see Job 9:5, 6].
The Lord gives warnings to the inhabitants of the earth, as in the Chicago fire, and the fires in Melbourne, London, and the city of New York. When God’s restraining hand is removed, the destroyer begins his work. Then in our cities the greatest calamities will come….The Lord is slow to anger. This should inspire the heart with gratitude. [Nahum 1:3 quoted]. The Lord puts constraint upon His own attributes. Omnipotence is exerted over Omnipotence Himself. Notwithstanding the perversity of men who are cumberers of the ground, the Lord Jehovah bears with them because there are some in the wicked cities
who are within the possibility of forgiveness and acceptance with God. It is something that makes my heart sore and sad and at times in an agony, that those who have great light and knowledge should abuse the mercies of God….
Ere long there will be a sudden change in God’s dealings. The Lord is prepared to visit the earth, for the iniquity of men is swelling to terrible proportions. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” [Ecclesiastes 8:11]….
The Lord is teaching men that there are limits to His forbearance. In fires, in
floods, in earthquakes, in the fury of the great deep, in calamities by sea and land, the warning is given that God’s Spirit will not always strive with men. The times in which we live are times of great depravity and crime of every degree. Why?–because men, whom God has blessed and favored, have reduced His holy law to a dead letter, making void the law of God by the traditions and inventions of the man of sin….
In proportion as the commandments of God are despised and set aside for the
commandments of men, which bear not the least sanctity, the appreciation of those who have come out from the world, and have separa ted from it, is striki ngly developed. On the other side, Satan through his masterly power will seek to obtain the supremacy. It is the last of the great controversy and will end in his destruction. There is a point in the iniquity of men when it is necessary that God shall interfere, and this point is being reached; and those who are loyal to God’s commandments are more than ever bound to prize and love the law of God.
It is a terrible thing for a nation to wear out the patience of God. Each century of
profligacy has treasured up wrath for its iniquity against the day of wrath. Christ is now
bidding the abandoned of our day to fill up the measure of their fathers in their iniquity. When that time shall come, and their cup of iniquity is filled up, it will be demonstrated that to wear out the patience of God brings tremendous consequences to the disobedient. The nations of earth will act upon a shortsighted policy. Through their own course of action the priests and rulers will restore the lost ascendancy of the man of sin. Manuscript 127, November 22, 1897. (see also 3SM 311-12; UL 340)
Already the Spirit of God, insulted, refused, abused, is being withdrawn from the earth. Just as fast as God’s Spirit is taken away, Satan’s cruel work will be done upon land and sea. The air is filled with the poison malaria. Judgments by fire and flood will increase in fearfulness, for Satan claims his harvest of souls in the destruction. Manuscript 134, October 19, 1898.
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