It was so foggy that I couldn’t see two inches in front of me. The road had vanished and even the taillights of passing vehicles were not visible. I thought to myself, “Should I turn around after only 20 minutes of driving?” My two-hour trip to a career fair where I would be an exhibitor was now weighing heavily on my mind. Was this worth my life? Praying, I asked the Lord to show me what to do. My knuckles were white with the intensity of keeping the vehicle on the road. I couldn’t even see an exit sign to turn around.
A Bomb Cyclone
But the Lord did turn me around and got me safely back to my office. It was a miracle that I did not continue. For that was the morning in March that the emergency crews began closing roads all over Nebraska due to flooding. The past winter had been unusually cold with forty inches of snow and most of it still on the frozen ground. Now there had been heavy rainfall and sixty-mile-an-hour winds. They called it a “Bomb Cyclone” where the barometric pressure drops dramatically in a 24-hour period. Over the course of three days temperatures rose to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. This quickly melted the snow, and the frozen ground was not able to absorb any meaningful amount, which led to unprecedented runoff into local streams and rivers. Massive chunks of ice traveled downstream acting like a plow. Devastation was massive!
The catastrophe ended with a 100-year flood. 81 of the 93 counties in Nebraska declared disaster areas. Countless levies and bridges were breached. Lives, homes, and livestock were lost. Within two days, the US President declared emergency funding to the regions which sustained over 1.3 billion dollars in damage. It would take months and possibly years to recover.
The Great Flood
The flood in Noah’s time was worse. It covered the entire surface of the earth with rains lasting forty days and nights. “The waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days” (Genesis 7:24). Noah and the members of his family were the only ones that remained alive. The Lord had seen that the wickedness of man was great and that every intent of his heart was only evil continually (see Genesis 6). He was so grieved that He was sorry that He had made man on the earth. He commanded Noah to make an ark of gopherwood and gave him every detail in the construction of it. The Lord saved Noah because He had seen that “you are righteous before Me in this generation.” Genesis 7:1
Yet the people of Noah’s day had been warned. In Patriarch and Prophets 95.2, Ellen White writes:
“Many at first appeared to receive the warning, yet they did not turn to God with true repentance. They were unwilling to renounce their sins. During the time that elapsed before the coming of the Flood, their faith was tested, and they failed to endure the trial. Overcome by the prevailing unbelief, they finally joined their former associates in rejecting the solemn message. Some were deeply convicted, and would have heeded the words of warning; but there were so many to jest and ridicule, that they partook in the same spirit, resisted the invitations of mercy, and were soon among the boldest and most defiant scoffers; for none are so reckless and go to such lengths in sin as do those who have once had light, but have resisted the convicting Spirit of God.”
What were those people thinking and doing as they watch for 120 years as Noah constructed the ark? Ellen White states:
“God bestowed upon these antediluvians many and rich gifts; but they used His bounties to glorify themselves and turned them into a curse by fixing their affections upon the gifts instead of the Giver. They employed the gold and silver, the precious stones and choice wood, in the construction of habitations for themselves, and endeavored to excel one another in beautifying their dwellings with the most skillful workmanship. They sought only to gratify the desires of their own proud hearts and reveled in scenes of pleasure and wickedness. Not desiring to retain God in their knowledge, they soon came to deny His existence” (PP 90.3).
Their period of probation had ended. Had they heeded the warning and repented of their deeds, the prophet says that the Lord would have turned aside His wrath, as He afterward did from Nineveh. PP97.2
Has anything changed since the flood? Jesus stated In Luke 17:27-28, “And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Will we act the same as the antediluvians of Noah’s day and reject the solemn messages that have been given to us?
The Time of The End
Do we comprehend the similarities? As we look around, we see:
1. that wickedness is great.
2. that every intent of the people’s hearts is evil continually.
3. that the Lord has blessed us with many and rich gifts, but we use them to glorify ourselves.
4. that we revel in scenes of pleasure.
5. that we seek the desires of our own proud hearts.
6. that we are unwilling to repent of our sins and turn away from evil.
7. that when the tests come, we will fail. Not only fail but take others down with us condoning our own mistrust and scoffing ways.
8. that we resist the convicting Spirit of God and His invitations of mercy.
9. that ultimately, we deny the very existence of God.
Conclusion
Yes, the End-Time Bomb Cyclone is upon us. Counsels for the Church, p. 37.1 states:
“We are living in the time of the end. The fast-fulfilling signs of the times declare that the coming of Christ is near at hand. The days in which we live are solemn and important. The Spirit of God is gradually but surely being withdrawn from the earth. Plagues and judgments are already falling upon the despisers of the grace of God.”
Trying to navigate in the fog is dangerous. But trying to navigate in the end times without a Savior will lead to eternal destruction. The world was dark in Ellen White’s time. Every time she came out of vision, she would repeatedly comment on how dark it was. Now, over 150 years later, the Light continues to be withdrawn from the earth. Before the Lord’s second coming, the devastation will be great. As the plagues in Egypt during Moses’ time caused catastrophes, there will be bowls of wrath poured out causing disasters never witnessed by man.
Just as I prayed for a miracle while driving in the intense fog, my prayer is that the Lord will turn us around.
He has already provided prophetic instructions to show us and others the way. May we heed it and not continue down the path of destruction as the people of Noah’s day. May we thank and praise Him each day for his great invitations of mercy and grace.
Come, Lord Jesus, come!
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Karen M. Phillips is happily married to her husband, John, and enjoys spending time with her children and grandchildren. She is a Human Resources Manager, an ASI Mid-America Officer, and a Bible teacher. Together they support their world-wide ministry – HeReturns. She writes from Omaha, Nebraska, USA.