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THE WORLD ON FIRE

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 21, 1869

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 34, No. 13.

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THE WORLD ON FIRE.

While “the bow in the cloud in the day of rain” is the sure pledge of Jehovah’s covenant with Noah that “the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh,” the cry of “Fire” has rung along the ages from the days of Moses till the present time. God said by Israel’s lawgiver: “A fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains” (Deut. xxxii, 22), and Peter, fifteen centuries later, but echoed the strain when he said: “But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word [of God which brought the flood] are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Pet. iii, 7. The fire, of which the apostle here speaks, must be as literal as the water of the Noahic flood mentioned in the preceding verse. Consistency of interpretation requires that if we allegorize the “fire” of verse 7, we must do the same with the “water” of verse 6, and thus the flood becomes a fable, and the fire a phantom. But we have not so learned to set aside the plain, simple utterances of the Holy Spirit, whether made through the shepherd of Midian, or the fisherman of Galilee; and notwithstanding the world has been longer now without a visible manifestation of Deity than ever before, and the scoffer in his pride and prosperity may tauntingly inquire, “Where is the promise of his coming?” our faith grasps the announcements respecting the day that shall be “revealed by fire” (1 Cor. iii, 13; 2 Thess. i, 7, 8), and we confidently expect that “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the [atmospheric] 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.”
What a day that will be! A stately building wrapped in flames amid the silence and darkness of the night, with some of the inmates unable to escape, or a ship on fire at sea, with passengers left to choose between the fiery billows and a watery grave, must be terrific sights; but what is a burning building or vessel to a burning world? what the perishing of a few, to “the perdition of ungodly men” in the day of Judgment? Yet as sure as the Bible is the book of God, that day comes on apace when there will be seen “our God in grandeur, and our world on fire.”
Fellow Christian, say not that this subject is speculative and unworthy of serious consideration. That it is a fearful one to contemplate, we admit; and that there are things connected with it respecting which we now see as “through a glass darkly,” is undeniable; but the truth that there will be a dissolution of the heavens and earth by fire, is announced on the pages of inspiration in the simplest terms, and so thoroughly practical is it that the apostle inquires, “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” Oh, if we did but believe as we should in the fiery doom that awaits the world, what effect it would have on our thoughts, words, spirit, plans, and actions. How much less importance would we attach to earth’s glitter and glory! How its grandeur would fade before us, and its treasures sink into insignificance!
Reader, are you insured? As a man of business you attach importance to having your property insured against losses by fire. You seek the best company—the most reliable association, and take the necessary steps to obtain a policy. Why not act with equal wisdom in relation to the great future of eternity? God has given notice beforehand of what he intends to do. The land on which your house stands, or which constitutes your farm, is destined to the fiery flames; sooner or later it will share in the general dissolution. Whether you live to see that time or not, your interests will be affected by the day of doom. If you are among the wicked, you will be forever cut off from the earth; but if you are a child of God, you are insured against loss or damage, as Wesley expresses it, “Nothing has the just to lose By worlds on worlds destroyed; Far beneath his feet he views With smiles the flaming void,— Sees the universe renewed, The grand millennial reign begun, Shouts with all the sons of God Around the eternal throne.”
Seek, then, an interest in Christ, and though your body may be burned—like the martyr’s at the stake, and this mighty globe tremble and fall amid the fires of the day of God, yet are you secure; beyond the weakness and corruption of death will be found the glory of the resurrection, beyond the sorrow and sighing of time, the joy and praise of eternity,—beyond the losses of this life for Christ’s sake, the infinite gain of the life to come,—beyond the fiery storm of the millennial morning, the calm and sunshine of Immanuel’s land, the renewed earth. Oh! impenitent reader, haste to the Saviour by faith and prayer, and “give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while you look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.”—Advent Herald.