2 PETER III | AdventAI

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 24, 1857

2 PETER III.

Internal Heat of the Earth.—Prof. Silliman takes a decided position in favor of the theory that the center of the earth is a fused mass of mineral matter. His chief argument is the phenomenon of volcanoes, which he calls the earth's chimneys and escape pipes. There are hundreds of them always in operation—hundreds are always dormant; they are all over the earth and the sea's surface, and they come from the bowels of the earth. The fiery sea in the centre of the earth—says the Professor, boils over the tops of her chimneys, and when these chimneys become choked, it forces new vents, breaking out even under the sea.

Taking the above fact in connection with the declaration of Peter that "the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men," and we see how the agency is prepared and kept in readiness for this event.

The elements, says Peter, shall melt with fervent heat. And if, as the fountains of the great deep were broken up in the days of the flood, so the fountains of the great sea of internal fire should now be broken up, and pour their molten flood over the surface of the earth, and that slight change take place in the atmosphere which only is necessary to render it one sheet of lurid flame, how long before the elements would melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the things therein be burnt up? Who can but be impressed with the designs of Providence, when he sees the agencies all prepared and only waiting the fiat of the Almighty to accomplish that work of destruction which he has said shall surely come to pass? We have an interest in these things.

Dr. Clarke has the following note on 2 Pet. iii, 10: "The heavens shall pass away with a great noise. As the heavens mean here and in the passages above, the whole atmosphere, in which all the terrestrial vapors are lodged; and as water itself is composed of two gases, eighty-five parts in weight of oxygen and fifteen of hydrogen, or two parts in volume of the latter, and one of the former; (for if these quantities be put together, and several electric sparks passed through them, a chemical union takes place, and water is the product; and vice versa, if the galvanic spark be made to pass through water, a portion of the fluid is immediately decomposed into its two constituent gases, oxygen and hydrogen,) and as the electric or ethereal fire is that which in all likelihood, God will use in the general conflagration; the noise occasioned by the application of this fire to such an immense congeries of aqueous particles as float in the atmosphere, must be terrible in the extreme. Put a drop of water on an anvil, place over it a piece of iron red hot, strike the iron with a hammer on the part above the water, and the report will be as loud as a musket; when, then, the whole strength of these opposite agents is brought together into a state of conflict, the noise, the thunderings, the innumerable explosions, (till every particle of water on the earth, and in the atmosphere is, by the action of the fire, reduced into its component gaseous parts,) will be frequent, loud, confounding and terrific, beyond every comprehension but that of God himself."