The Great Earthquake
Daniel and
Revelation by Uriah Smith - Excerpt.
Revelation 6 -
Verse 12 And I
beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great
earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became
as blood; 13 and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree
casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. 14 And the
heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and
island were moved out of their places. 15 And the kings of the earth, and the
great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and
every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks
of the mountains; 16 and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide
us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the
Lamb: 17 for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to
stand?
The Sixth Seal.--
Such are the solemn
and sublime scenes which occur under the sixth seal.
A thought well
calculated to awaken in every heart an intense interest in divine things is the
consideration that we are now living amid the momentous events of this seal, as
will presently be proved.
Between the fifth
and sixth seals there seems to be a sudden and complete change from highly
figurative to strictly literal language.
Whatever may be the
cause, the change cannot well be denied. By no principle of interpretation can
the language of the preceding seals be made to be literal, nor can the language
of this any more easily be made figurative.
We must therefore
accept the change, even though we may be unable to explain it.
There is a
significant fact, however, to which we would here call attention. It was in the
period covered by this seal that the prophetic parts of God's word to be
unsealed, and many run to and fro, or give their attention to the understanding
of these things, and thereby knowledge on this part of God's word was to be
greatly increased. We suggest that it may be for this reason that the change in
the language here occurs, and that the events of this seal, taking place at a
time when these things were to be fully understood, are not couched in figures,
but are laid before us in plain and unmistakable language.
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The Great
Earthquake.--
The first event
under this seal, and perhaps the one which marks its opening, is a great
earthquake. As the most striking fulfillment of this prediction, we refer to
the great earthquake of November 1, 1755, known as the earthquake of Lisbon. Of
this earthquake, Robert Sears says:
"The great
earthquake of 1755 extended over a tract of at least four millions of square
miles. Its effects were even extended to the waters, in many places where the
shocks were not perceptible. It pervaded the greater portions of the continents
of Europe, Africa, and America; but its extreme violence was exercised on the
southwestern part of the former."
"In Africa, this earthquake was felt
almost as severely as it had been in Europe. A great part of the city of
Algiers was destroyed. Many houses were thrown down at Fez and Mequinez, and
multitudes were buried beneath their ruins. Similar effects were realized in
Morocco. Its effects were likewise felt at Tangier, at Tetuan, at Funchal in
the Island of Madeira; . . . It is probable . . . that all Africa was shaken by
this tremendous convulsion. At the North, it extended to Norway and Sweden;
Germany, Holland, France, Great Britain, and Ireland were all more or less
agitated by the same great and terrible commotion of the elements."
"The city of
Lisbon . . . previous to that calamity . . . contained about . . . 150,000
inhabitants. . . . Mr. Barretti says, 'that 90,000 persons are supposed to have
been lost on that fatal day.' "
Sir Charles Lyell
gives the following graphic description of this remarkable phenomenon:
"In no part of
the volcanic region of Southern Europe has so tremendous an earthquake occurred
in modern times as that which began on the 1st of November, 1755, at Lisbon. A
sound of thunder was heard underground, and immediately afterwards a violent
shock threw down the greater part of that
Page 440
city. In the course
of about six minutes, sixty thousand persons perished. The sea first retired
and laid the bar dry; it then rolled in, rising fifty feet above its ordinary
level. The mountains of Arrabida, Estrella, Julio, Maravan, and Cintra, being some
of the largest in Portugal, were impetuously shaken, as it were, from their
very foundations; and some of them opened at their summits, which were split
and rent in a wonderful manner, huge masses of them being thrown down into the
subjacent valleys. Flames are related to have issued from these mountains,
which are supposed to have been electric; they are also said to have smoked;
but vast clouds of dust may have given rise to this appearance. . . .
"The great area
over which this Lisbon earthquake extended is very remarkable. The movement was
most violent in Spain, Portugal, and the north of Africa; but nearly the whole
of Europe, and even the West Indies, felt the shock on the same day. A seaport
called St. Ubes, about twenty miles south of Lisbon, was engulfed. At Algiers
and Fez, in Africa, the agitation of the earth was equally violent, and at the
distance of eight leagues from Morocco, a village, with the inhabitants to the
number of about eight or ten thousand persons, together with all their cattle,
were [was] swallowed up. Soon after, the earth closed again over them.
"The shock was
felt at sea, on the deck of a ship to the west of Lisbon, and produced very
much the same sensation as on dry land. Off St. Lucar [s], the captain of the
ship 'Nancy' felt his vessel shaken so violently that he thought she had struck
the ground, but, on heaving the lead, found a great depth of water. Captain
Clark, from Denia, in latitude 36 degrees 24' N., between nine and ten in the
morning, had his ship shaken and strained as if she had struck upon a rock.
Another ship, forty leagues west of St. Vincent, experienced so violent a
concussion that the men were thrown a foot and a half perpendicularly up from
the deck. In Antigua and Barbadoes, as also in Norway, Sweden, Germany,
Holland, Corsica, Switzerland, and Italy, tremors and slight oscillations of
the ground were felt.
Page 441
"The agitation
of lakes, rivers, and springs in Great Britain were remarkable. At Loch Lomond,
in Scotland, for example, the water, without the least apparent cause, rose
against its banks, and then subsided below its usual level. The greatest perpendicular
height of this swell was two feet four inches. It is said that the movement of
this earthquake was undulatory, and that it traveled at the rate of twenty
miles a minute. A great wave swept over the coast of Spain, and is said to have
been sixty feet high in Cadiz. At Tangier, in Africa, it rose and fell eighteen
times on the coast; at Funchal, in Madeira, it rose full fifteen feet
perpendicular above high-water mark, although the tide, which ebbs and flows
there seven feet, was then at half ebb. Besides entering the city and
committing great havoc, it overflowed other seaports in the island. At Kinsale,
in Ireland, a body of water rushed into the harbor, whirled round several
vessels, and poured into the marketplace."
If the reader will
look in his atlas at the countries mentioned, he will see how large a part of
the earth's surface was agitated by this awful convulsion. Other earthquakes
may have been as severe in particular localities, but no other supplies all the
conditions necessary to constitute it a fitting event to mark the opening of
the seal.
*******
Revelation 6-
Verse 12 And I
beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great
earthquake…
Prophetic
understanding. It truly does make sense that in the same time the LITTLE BOOK
would be open-
Dan 12:4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and
seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and
knowledge shall be increased.
Rev_10:10 And I took the little book out of the angel's
hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I
had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
We KNOW that the
book of prophecy - Daniel was a CLOSED book, it was SHUT UP until the time of
the end. This book was OPENED to
comprehension in the 1700-1800's. Not
only was is opened so that one person was given comprehension, but several all
over the world. What was once hidden was NOW seen. THIS is TRUTH.
As the sixth seal
was OPENED, this was the same time frame as the book of Daniel was being
opened.
What an amazingly
wondrous and devastatingly awful opening it was. Talk about something to give
people pause, to get their attention, to draw them to comprehend their
mortality, to look to things eternal, this great earthquake did all that.
Time- history going
hand in hand with prophecy- this is undeniable proof.
All that has come to
pass means all WILL come to pass. WE will live through prophecy as the Savior
prepares to return for His elect.
By the grace of our
LORD may we be among HIS ELECT!
More tomorrow, by
His will.
In our Savior's
name, in His love always!
Amen!
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