The Earthquake That Shook the World

This prophecy was fulfilled in 1755 in the most terrible earthquake ever recorded. (See Appendix.) Known as the Lisbon earthquake, it reached to Europe, Africa, and America. People felt it in Greenland, the West Indies, Madeira, Norway and Sweden, Great Britain and Ireland. It covered an area of at least four million square miles. In Africa the shock was almost as severe as in Europe. A major part of Algiers was destroyed. A huge wave swept over the coast of Spain and Africa, engulfing cities.LF 128.6

Mountains, “some of the largest in Portugal, were suddenly shaken, it seemed, from their very foundations; and some of them opened at their peaks, which were split and torn in an astonishing way, huge sections of them being thrown down into the nearby valleys. Some people say they saw flames coming from these mountains.”LF 128.7

At Lisbon there was “a sound of thunder underground, and immediately afterwards a violent quake threw down most of that city. In only about six minutes, sixty thousand people died. The sea first drew back, and left the sandbar dry. Then it rolled in, rising fifty feet or more above its usual level.”^{2Sir Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology, page 495.}LF 129.1

“The earthquake happened on a holy day, when the churches and convents were full of people. Very few of them escaped.”^{3Encyclopedia Americana, article “Lisbon” (edition 1831).} “The terror of the people was indescribable. No one wept; it was beyond tears. They ran here and there, frantic with horror and astonishment, beating their faces and chests, crying, ‘Mercy! The world's at an end!’ Mothers forgot their children and ran around loaded with crucifixed images. Unfortunately, many ran to the churches for protection; uselessly they sought to be near the bread and wine; in vain did the poor creatures embrace the altars. Images, priests, and people were buried in one common ruin.”LF 129.2