THE COMING EARTHQUAKE

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 14, 1869

THE COMING EARTHQUAKE.

§ VII. THE INCREASE OF EARTHQUAKES.

Earthquakes in divers places. Matt. xxiv, 7.

In entering upon an investigation of this question, we invite attention to a work entitled “Earthquakes and Volcanoes; Their History,” etc.,—by Mungo Ponton, Fellow of the Royal Society at Edinburgh, published at London, 1868. The author opens his interesting volume by observing that nothing is more remarkable than the extreme fewness of earthquakes on record before the beginning of the Christian era in comparison with those which have been registered since that time; and he allows that this fact is so striking as to fairly admit a physical interpretation of our Saviour’s prophecy in Luke xxi, 11. He further declares that, so far as our knowledge extends, such convulsions did begin to be more frequent after the utterance of our Lord’s prediction, and have continued since; and while yet admitting that the ancients perhaps failed to register many such occurrences, or were ignorant of their transpiring in other and unknown regions of the globe, in comparison with whom our means for obtaining information from all parts of the world are greatly enhanced; nevertheless, he observes, that while previous to A. D. 79, Vesuvius had been in repose for ages, but since then has been active at brief intervals, there are certainly also more earthquakes in Italy than before the Christian era, and he concludes that before that era the Roman world (then principally known) was seldom convulsed. “And it seems hard to believe,” says our learned author, “that, had there been as many great earthquakes before the Christian era, as there have been since its commencement, so few of them should have been recorded, or even transmitted by tradition.” Hist. p. 14.

Mr. Ponton then proceeds to demonstrate his position as follows: “Commencing with the age before the birth of Christ, it is found that according to the researches of Robert Mallet (with whom we believe agree Messrs. Austed and Perry) there can be counted during the seventeen hundred years B. C., but fifty-eight (58) earthquakes, only four of which were disastrous, i. e., those that overthrew buildings and destroyed life largely, being properly ‘great earthquakes:’ these four all occurring within the sixty-five years preceding the birth of Christ. Then omitting entirely those unknown portions of the globe outside the Roman Empire, there is found on record during the sixty-five years that elapsed preceding our Lord’s prediction, the occurrence of only nine earthquakes in all, distributed as follows: viz., three in Asia Minor, one in Palestine, one in Upper Egypt, one in Cyprus, one in the Greek Islands, and one in Italy. As we have said, four of these nine were great earthquakes. On the other hand, as exhibiting the large increase in modern times, in the sixty-five years that elapsed between A. D. 1800 and A. D. 1865, there occurred within the same limits, that is the old Roman Empire, no less than thirty-five great and disastrous earthquakes arresting the attention of the historian. These last were distributed thus:—eleven in Italy, eight in Asia Minor, five in Greece, three in Persia, two in Syria, two in Candia, two in Sicily, one in Egypt, and one in Spain.

“Now it is scarcely credible that had there been so many as thirty-five destructive earthquakes in the earlier of these two periods, only four of them should have arrested the attention of the historians of the time, while they registered other five of minor importance. There is thus established a strong probability that the number was in reality much smaller in the earlier than in the later interval. This probability will be strengthened when it is borne in mind that the ancient Greeks and Romans viewed earthquakes with superstitious dread, regarding them not only as evidences of the present anger of their gods, but also in the more important aspect of prognostics of calamities that were to follow.

“Thus Herodotus, in reference to the earthquake that happened at Delos, after the visit of the Persian fleet, says: ‘But after he (the Persian leader) had put to sea from thence, Delos was shaken by an earthquake, as the Delians say, the first and last time that it was so affected to my time. And the Deity assuredly by

this portent intimated to men the evils that were about to befall them. For during the reign of Darius, son of Hystaspes, of Xerxes, son of Darius and of Artaxerxes,—during these three successive generations, more disasters befell Greece than during the twenty generations that preceded the time of Darius—partly brought upon it by the Persians, and partly by the chief men among them contending for power. So that it is nothing improbable that Delos should be moved at that time, having been until then unmoved. And in an oracle respecting it, it had thus been written: ‘I will move even Delos, although hitherto unmoved.’ Herod. vi, 98, Cary’s Translation.

“Such a view as this was more likely to attract the attention of mankind to earthquakes than had they been regarded simply as natural phenomena. The idea of a portent was dear to the heathen mind, and this circumstance tends to establish the greater likelihood, that all the really important earthquakes of the period in question were registered, than that only so small a portion of them attracted the attention of any contemporaneous or later historian.

“The comparative fewness of the earthquakes recorded during the sixty-five years that preceded our Lord’s prediction, may have therefore had quite as much foundation in fact as in historical negligence. It may be really true that the number of earthquakes within the limits of the old Roman Empire may have greatly increased since that time, and that our Saviour may have foreseen this increase when he said that, among the signs, ‘there should be earthquakes in divers places.’”

Mr. Ponton then sums up the whole number of earthquakes given in the tables of Mr. Mallet, as follows: “Regarding them chronologically, Mr. Mallet distinguishes the registered earthquakes into five periods, thus:

	Total.	Disastrous.	No. of Years.
Those recorded before A. D.,	58	4	1700
Thence to end of 9th century,	197	15	900
Thence to end of 15th century,	532	44	600
Thence to end of 18th century,	2804	100	300
Thence to 1850,	3240	53	50
	6831	216	—

“It will thus be perceived how very great has been the increase since the beginning of the Christian era; and although much of this increase is due partly to more perfect registration, and partly to there being a larger portion of the earth’s surface comprehended in the records, still there are good reasons, as already indicated, for suspecting that there has been a gradual augmentation in the number of earthquakes themselves, more especially of the more disastrous kinds.” Ponton’s Hist. p. 21.

It is seen that Mallet records more than six thousand down to the year 1850, but it is believed that Mr. Austed, the English geologist, and M. Alexis Perry, of France, have, by latter researches, tabulated over seven thousand previous to that date. The immense number on record since the epoch of the Reformation, about A. D. 1500, is very striking, and challenges solemn attention. The occurrence of three thousand two hundred and forty (3240) in a period of only fifty years gives an average of nearly sixty-five each year. Supposing this to be the number annually occurring, we have then in the sixteen years elapsing between 1850 and 1866 over one thousand more, which added to those previously recorded would swell the whole number from B. C. 1700 to A. D. 1866 to over eight thousand (8000) earthquakes. ‘Of destructive, or great, earthquakes,’ writes Ponton, ‘such as have overthrown cities and destroyed many lives, the total number registered up to 1850 is two hundred and sixteen (216), and other fifteen have happened up to the end of 1865—making in all two hundred and thirty-one (231), and of these only four occurred before the birth of Christ.’ Hist., p. 17. To this number of destructive earthquakes must be added at least fifteen more which have occurred during the past three years, registered in the following order: viz., Algiers, in Northern Africa, Mitylene, West India Islands, Formosa, Sandwich Islands, Northern Ecuador, Peru, Chili, and Ecuador, California, Jalisco in Mexico, Tebrees in Persia, Bengal in Asia, and Santander in South America, all of which were destructive of cities, villages, and human life, with numerous ships.

How fearful is the thought of so many of these awful calamities transpiring on man’s earth, his native home! Eight thousand, and doubtless very many more, in less than six thousand years since man lost Eden, since the curse fell crushingly upon our world and the Evil One began his sway. Job ix, 24; Luke iv, 5, 6. So many spasmodic beats,—so many convulsive throbs,—so many deep shudderings of poor “Old Mother Earth,” since the sin and fall of man, and at man’s perpetual and persistent rebellion against his Maker. So many signals of sure and of final dissolution. So many audible, agonizing groans for the promised redemption. So many throes and pangs presaging the birth of a new and better world. And oh, how many hundreds, and thousands, and hundreds of thousands of stately dwellings, and lovely villas, and fair green fields, and brave men, and beautiful women, and sweet babes—and how much of human splendor, wealth, and pride, have been rocked to ruin, or gone down to sheol, when the earth, like some angry demon, shook its ponderous sides, belched out its deadly, sulphurous gases, lashed its gigantic inward forces, and vomited forth its volcanic fires, that far beneath our feet burn, and burn unceasingly! And who can but shudder at the bare thought of the possibility that the four hundred burning mountains on the surface, that emit two thousand eruptions every hundred years, which is twenty each year, or nearly one every fortnight, at night,—should Deity so will it,—at once cease to flow, and the pent-up Titanic forces, finding no vent, angrily shake the whole globe, occasioning that ‘great EARTHQUAKE such as never was since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great,’ causing the vast planet, in the Scripture language of the ancient prophet, to reel to and fro like a drunkard, and be removed out of its place like a cottage” (Rev. xvi; Isa. xxiv). That such an event is possible, nay, highly probable, is the admission and opinion of the wisest of divines, philosophers, geologists, and men of science.