The Great Earthquake by L. L. C.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 9, 1916

The Great Earthquake

By L. L. C.

Signs of Christ’s Coming — No. 1

THE SCRIPTURES make it plain that Christ will come back again. They are equally clear in pointing out signs by which we may know approximately the time of the event.

It is our duty to study that we may know whether we are yet nearing the time of the end of this world’s history and the beginning of the eternal kingdom. As one writer has said:—

“All will admit that time is not eternity; that this current which we call time, this streamlet, this tiny streamlet, which we think so mighty, but is really so minute in relation to the infinite space, will one day merge in the eternal main. If God has given hints of the when, and indications of the places that we have reached in the course of its flow, can it be irreverent to study them? or rather, is it not infidel to refuse to read and study what God has written?”—“The End,” by John Cumming, D. C., F. R. S. E., Boston, John P. Jewett & Co., 1855, p. 3.

The Great Earthquake

In the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew we find recorded Christ’s answer to his disciples’ inquiry as to the signs of his coming. After speaking of the persecution of the Middle Ages, he says:—

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”

These same signs are given in the words of Rev. 6: 12-17:—

“I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”

Here we find mention of a great earthquake as taking place before the darkening of the sun and of the moon, and the falling of the stars. And history records the occurrence of a great earthquake at just the time indicated. The great Lisbon earthquake occurred as the period of papal persecution drew to a close.

The author of the following quotation considers that in some respects this earthquake takes first rank among all recorded earthquakes:—

“Among the earth movements which in historic times have affected the kingdom of Portugal, that of Nov. 1, 1755, takes first rank; as it does also, in some respects, among all recorded earthquakes. The first shocks of this earthquake came without other warning than a deep sound of rumbling thunder, which appeared to proceed from beneath the ground, and it was immediately followed by a quaking which threw down almost the entire city. In six minutes sixty thousand persons perished.”—“Earthquakes,” by William Herbert Hobbs, D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1907, p. 143.

Of the extent of its effects, J. Nourse says:—

“The effects of the earthquake of the first of November, 1755, were distributed over nearly four million square English miles of the earth’s surface; a most astonishing space! and greatly surpassing anything of this kind ever recorded in history.”—“The History and Philosophy of Earthquakes,” London, 1757, p. 334.

James Parton, in his “Life of Voltaire,” tells of the widespread alarm which this caused:—

“The Lisbon earthquake of Nov. 1, 1755, appears to have put both the theologians and philosophers on the defensive. . . . At twenty minutes to ten that morning, Lisbon was firm and magnificent, on one of the most picturesque and commanding sites in the world,—a city of superb approach, placed precisely where every circumstance had concurred to say to the founders, Build here! In six minutes the city was in ruins. . . . Half the world felt the convulsion. . . . For many weeks, as we see in the letters and memoirs of that time, people in distant parts of Europe went to bed in alarm, relieved in the morning to find that they had escaped the fate of Lisbon one night more.”—Vol. II, Houghton, Mifflin Company, N. Y., 1909, pp. 208, 209.

Thus we see the fulfilment of this first sign given in the series of signs of the approaching day of the Lord. We will next consider the darkening of the sun and moon. L. L. C.