The Spirit of Prophecy in the Advent Movement

Scenes Of Destruction Pictured

Years before this, also, the burden of the Spirit of prophecy had evidently forewarned of just such times as came upon the nations with the great world conflict. Of a view of coming conflict which was caused to pass before her, Mrs. White wrote: SPIAM 110.5

“The tempest is coming, and we must get ready for its fury by having repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord will arise to shake terribly the earth. We shall see troubles on all sides. Thousands of ships will be hurled into the depths of the sea. Navies will go down, and human lives will be sacrificed by millions.”—The Signs of the Times, April 21, 1890. SPIAM 110.6

While this earlier view, untimed as it was by any expressions in the context, may refer to the closing conflicts also, it certainly described exactly what passed before the world in those days of 1914-18. “Thousands of ships” were “hurled into the depths of the sea.” The Encyclopedia Britannica, in its postwar volumes, wrote: “The dreary, dreadful tale of ships sunk and attacked is too long to give.” But under the heading, “Submarine Campaigns,” this authority carefully set down the loss of ships on the Allied side as 5,511. Another authority gave the number of ships of the Central Powers that went down as 482. Very nearly six thousand ships make up the casualty list of those four years of international storm and tempest. SPIAM 111.1

The forewarning described the situation accurately when it said, “The tempest is coming.” Thousands of ships were hurled into the depths of the sea. Navies went down. Human lives were “sacrificed by millions.” Some put the direct and indirect loss of life by the World War at twenty million. SPIAM 112.1

As we looked at these forewarnings casually in the years before the great conflict, this talk about thousands of ships going down and millions of lives being sacrificed, seemed evidently, to most readers, a description of the very closing scenes of earth’s history. Little did we appreciate, as we read these things, that so soon we were to pass through just such scenes of destruction. That is evidently why, in the messages just previous to the outbreak, it was emphasized that “soon” and “very soon” these experiences were to come upon us. Well would it have been for us had we realized how very soon indeed the storm was to break, for in some ways preparation might have been made that possibly would have helped greatly in the work. The words of warning were surely plain enough. SPIAM 112.2