The Deluge by W. E. Videto

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jan 10, 1906

The Deluge

By W. E. Videto

"If ever there was a crisis, it is now," are the words of a well-known writer. Indeed there is a general impression that the present is a critical time; but as to what constitutes the crisis and what is to be the outcome, there is a wide divergence of opinion. If it be true that history repeats itself, we may get light on the present crisis by studying those of the past.

The first crisis of which we have any record occurred early in the history of the world. But a comparatively few centuries had passed, before the world became fearfully corrupt, so that every imagination of men’s hearts was only evil continually. There was danger that evil would hold undisputed sway over the whole earth unless the Lord should especially intervene.

The Deluge.

But the Lord will not pour out His judgments upon a people who are sinning in ignorance; before He punishes, He warns. He sent Enoch, whose pure life was a rebuke to the prevailing iniquity. He sent Noah, who for one hundred and twenty years preached of a coming Flood.

Noah’s preaching brought a crisis. It was light from heaven. The world had to take its stand for or against it, and its decision settled its fate. The message accomplished its purpose, it made clear and marked the division between the righteous and the wicked. Noah and his family, taking their stand against fierce opposition, developed in faith and strength of character.

Those who rejected the light were in a far worse condition than they were before the message came to them. Their hearts were hardened and more light would likewise have been despised. Infinite wisdom sees that nothing more can be done for them. Lust, violence, murder, and bold scoffing show that men have ceased to control themselves, and have become the slaves of demons.

Now that the decision has been made, and the world enlightened continues in and multiplies the sins of the world in darkness, Divine Justice tarries not, but speedily sweeps away the guilty race.

Out of Egypt.

Centuries passed, and the Lord was leading out of Egypt a people for His name. They

were full of sins and vices, ever ready to murmur and rebel. But how tender was the Lord with their faults. He passed over all their murmurings and unbelief. They had been for more than two hundred years in Egyptian bondage, and had fallen into almost heathen darkness.

The Lord instructed and led them step by step. But when He had enlightened them and set before them the principles of His government, He treated their sins in a sterner manner.

At Mount Sinai Israel was brought into the direct presence of God, and heard from His own lips the principles of His law. Then they beheld Moses ascend the mount at the call of God; and after waiting many days for his re-appearance, impatience filled their hearts. Those very men who have solemnly promised to know no God but the God of Israel, begin to turn their eyes toward Egypt. Aaron is persuaded to make a god for them to worship, and a golden calf is the result.

Moses, returning from the presence of the Lord, sees the people bowing before a senseless idol, dancing and singing, and engaging in all the abominable practises of the heathen.

A crisis has been reached. Israel, sinning in the face of great light, can not be dealt with as Israel emerging from the darkness of Egypt. Those who have not been advancing have been hardening their hearts. The time has come for vengeance, and three thousand of the leaders in the rebellion are speedily destroyed

At the First Advent.

Fifteen hundred years pass and the chosen people are in a condition worse than the heathen around them. There is not another nation in all the earth so full of corruption and hatred of the truth.

But divine Love can not leave the back-slidden nation. The Lord will make one last mighty effort to save Israel. He will not send simply another prophet, for prophet after prophet has been sent, only to be abused and stoned. The Lord will send one greater than a prophet into that cruel, hardened nation. He sends His own Son. The blessed light of truth, whose beams would have healed the nation, has been despised; now the very windows of heaven are opened and the light streams forth in a mighty flood.

As Jesus sets forth with such power and beauty the love and tenderness of the heavenly Father, men's hearts are warmed and drawn out after God. Priests and rulers hear and tremble. It is Israel's crisis, her opportunity. But the path of duty means self-denial, the rulers hesitate, selfish motives prevail, the light is rejected, and the very men whose hearts were pricked are the ones who head the mob and cry, "Crucify Him!"

One more effort is made to gather out the faithful. The chosen disciples linger at Jerusalem until the showers of Pentecost have fallen, and again, amid great power and mighty signs, the Gospel is proclaimed and the deluded nation bidden to turn and walk in the light. The word has gone forth and has not returned void. Here and there through the nation are scattered individuals who have forsaken all and followed Christ—precious jewels that shine all the more brightly in the surrounding darkness.

But the great mass of the nation have resisted all the loving entreaties of the Spirit of God, and now their darkness is in proportion to the light rejected. Infinite Love can do nothing more for them; they have trampled the Son of God underfoot, and there is no new Gospel.

As the rejection makes certain the doom of the nation, strange calamities, the first drops of the coming storm, are sent to warn them. What mean these things? they ask Jesus, as they hear of the Galilean peasants, being slain by Pilate, and of the men upon whom the tower of Siloam fell. Jesus replies, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

Unless there is a general turning to God, they may regard these violent deaths as an omen of what will befall the whole nation. When all have made their decision, the judgments can not long be delayed; for the whole nation, giving themselves completely into the hands of Satan, are in a dreadful state. A mad, Satanic fury has taken possession of the people; violence and murder are seen on every hand.

At the very time when the Roman armies are at the gates of Jerusalem and its fall seems certain, the Jews in their blind rage are slaughtering each other. Armed bands are thus wasting their strength in internal strife. The time has come when God in mercy must cut off the unhappy people. The Romans gain the walls, and thousands perish in the flames or by the sword. Hundreds of thousands more perish miserably on crosses that are erected on almost every hill-top. Thus was the nation that rejected light destroyed, and the remnant scattered.

The Dark Ages.

Do we see evidences that the history of the crises of the past is being repeated? Six or eight hundred years ago, the world was in what is known as the Dark Ages. Disputes between nations, tribes, and men were settled by the sword; there was bloodshed, robbery, intolerance, and intemperance.

But men sinned in ignorance. Europe, the most enlightened of the continents, knew but little of the rest of the world; for she was under the dominance of Rome whose proud pontiffs had stamped out light and truth with merciless severity. The Bible was almost an unknown book. Ignorance was so great that scarcely one of the rulers could write his name; men depended upon charms in the treatment of disease. It would have been contrary to all God's dealings in the past to bring the terrible judgments of the last days upon such a people.

The Gospel of the kingdom must first go to all the world. A divine hand has been shaping human affairs so that for centuries there has been a steady increase in knowledge. First, the Waldensian missionaries traveled over Europe carrying a few pages of the blessed Word of God. How eagerly men listened! Tears flowed in love and gratitude as the Gospel story was heard for the first time.

Other influences were at work; the schools of the Moors, the educated Jews, even the bloody Crusades were means in the hands of God to hasten the movement for the world's enlightenment. Navigation received a great impulse from the discovery of America, and bold explorers in every part of the world gave men broader ideas and paved the way for the world-wide spread of the Gospel.

Books had been exceedingly rare; a Bible cost a fortune, for it must all be written by hand. But now the printing-press comes just in time to assist the Reformation, which turns men's minds to the neglected truths of God's Word. Universal education follows and places the Bible within the reach of all. The masses are raised out of feudal slavery that they may have a better opportunity to think and act for themselves.

A World's Crisis.

But the movement is not confined to Europe and America, it is a world's crisis. A little more than a century ago began the movement to carry the Gospel to heathen lands, and to-day the light is penetrating earth's darkest places. Foreign missionaries number more than eighteen thousand. Hundreds of millions of Bibles have carried the truth to many nations and many tongues. In various countries slavery has been destroyed that men might have liberty to hear and obey. Great light is shining upon the Word of God, especially upon the prophecies. This generation has had light beyond all that have gone before, but have men walked in the light?

Years ago men were intemperate, but they were largely in ignorance of the evil effects of narcotics upon the human system. To-day, every schoolboy knows the effect of these poisons. Is intemperance decreasing with the advancing light?—No; everybody knows that it is increasing year by year. If men, with all the light that this generation has had, are doing worse than generations that were in darkness, what more can be done for them?

Years ago, bloodshed was common, for men were taught that it was noble to kill an enemy. This generation has learned from the Gospel the value of human life, yet we find violence and murder increasing at a fearful rate. A record of from 8,000 to 10,000 men, in the United States alone, stricken down each year by the hand of the assassin, reveals a terrible condition of society.

Will the great light which is shining upon this generation bring the "millennium" in which everybody will be righteous? Great light has sealed the doom of the vast majority of every people to whom it has been sent, because the multitudes love the broad, easy way. They love darkness rather than light. They are not willing to deny self to obey the truth.

Light brings responsibility; it either ennobles or hardens. See the crime, drunkenness, revelry, murder, lust, scoffing, unbelief, and indifference to God's Word that everywhere abound. Then read Matt. 24:37, and the evidence is overwhelming that the history of the past is being repeated. You who say God is too kind to punish the ungodly, look to the past with its bloody record. He is too kind to allow such a condition to go on unchecked. Look around you at the fast-multiplying calamities on land and sea, and behold the first drops of the coming storm. Hear the words of the Saviour, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

The great movement that has been ripening the vast world-harvest is fast coming to a climax. Suppose you stand over a deep chasm and drop a stone into the abyss below. At first it starts slowly, but each second it dashes on with accelerated rapidity until it speeds to its destination with terrible velocity. So with the great movement to lift the world out of darkness and prepare for the coming of the Son of Man. It started slowly at first, it took centuries to mark much advance; but for the last one hundred years things have been moving faster, faster with each succeeding decade, until such intensity has seized every earthly element that everything is moving with the velocity of lightning.

How much longer can the world speed on even at the present rate before the crash

comes? But the movement will be accelerated year by year. The world will move faster and faster in the rejection of light, and the Lord will cut short the work in righteousness.

How great will be the catastrophe that marks the close of the present crisis! When in the past a nation has turned from the light, even tho its beams were but feeble compared with the strong, steady beams that have shone on this generation, how terrible has been the result!

What will be the culmination of a movement that has been growing and swelling for so many years; that has reached out until it has encircled the earth in its grasp. Language can not describe it. All the terrible scenes of the past are but types of that “day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness,” “where the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; and the Lord alone shall be exalted.”

Alma, Mich.