Manuscript Releases, vol. 4 [Nos. 210-259]

66/69

MR No. 257—God Has Not Restrained the Powers of Darkness

There are soul-destroying superstitions in our world in 1890. When Christ shall come the second time, the whole world will be represented by two classes, the just and the unjust, the righteous and the unrighteous. Preceding the great sign of the coming of the Son of man, there will be signs and wonders in the heavens. 4MR 444.1

I expect that during the year 1890 there will be great mortality. There will be crimes greater than any now on record. There will be weeping and lamentation and woe. During the past year, 1889, there has been brought to us almost daily the news of disasters by sea and by land—unusually destructive fires; earthquakes burying cities and villages with their inhabitants; railway accidents most terrible; tornadoes and floods that destroyed an immense amount of property, including the terrible Johnstown and Williamsport floods, which destroyed more than two thousand lives. 4MR 444.2

The disasters of the past year [1889] in America have caused hearts to tremble, and similar disasters have fallen upon other countries. Already sprinklings from the vials of God's wrath have been let fall upon land and sea, affecting the elements of the air. The causes of these unusual conditions are being searched for, but in vain. 4MR 444.3

God has not restrained the powers of darkness from carrying forward their deadly work of vitiating the air, one of the sources of life and nutrition, with a deadly miasma. Not only is vegetable life affected, but man suffers from pestilences. Cholera and unexplainable diseases have broken out. Diphtheria raging to a limited extent, is gathering its harvest of precious little ones, and seems to be almost uncontrollable. 4MR 444.4

These things are the result of the drops from the vials of God's wrath being sprinkled on the earth, and are but faint representations of what will be in the near future. Earthquakes in various places have been felt, but these disturbances have been very limited. This year we may expect to have more. During the year that has just closed, whole cities have become nearly extinct. Thousands of people have been buried in the bowels of the earth. Premonitory convulsions have been felt in many places, giving warning of what may come as a surprise when the earth shakes and opens. Terrible shocks will come upon the earth, and the lordly palaces erected at great expense will certainly become heaps of ruins. The earth's crust will be rent by the outbursts of the elements concealed in the bowels of the earth. These elements, once broken loose, will sweep away the treasures of those who for years have been adding to their wealth by securing large possessions at starvation prices from those in their employ. And the religious world, too, is to be terribly shaken; for the end of all things is at hand.—Manuscript 24, 1891. 4MR 445.1