Jonah’s Day, and Ours

Like the people of Nineveh, the cities today are in need of knowledge of the true God. Christ’s ambassadors are to point sinners to the nobler world. According to the Scriptures, the only city that will endure is the city whose builder and maker is God. Through His servants the Lord is calling on men and women to secure the immortal inheritance.RR 103.3

Because of the steady increase of determined wickedness, an almost universal guilt is coming rapidly on the cities. Every day brings fresh revelations of strife, bribery, fraud, violence, lawlessness, indifference to human suffering, and brutal destruction of human life. Every day testifies to increasing insanity, murder, and suicide. People boast of our age’s progress and enlightenment, but God sees the earth filled with iniquity and violence. Many declare that the law of God has been done away with; as a result, a tide of evil is sweeping over the world. To gratify their lust for forbidden things, people barter away nobility of soul, gentleness, and piety.RR 103.4

With patience and tender compassion God deals with the transgressors of His law. And yet, we are rapidly approaching the end of God’s restraint concerning those who persist in disobedience.RR 103.5

Should anyone be surprised over a sudden change in the dealings of the Supreme Ruler with the inhabitants of a fallen world? Should they be surprised that God would bring destruction on those who have become rich through fraud? Many have chosen to remain under the banner of the one who started the rebellion against the government of heaven.RR 103.6

God’s patience has been so great that we marvel. The All-powerful One has been restraining His own attributes. God allows people a period of probation, but His patience is not unlimited. The Lord bears long with them, giving warnings to save them, but a time will come when He will blot out the rebellious element, in mercy to themselves and to those whom they would influence by their example.RR 103.7

God is withdrawing His Spirit. Disasters follow one another in quick succession—earthquakes, tornadoes, fire, and flood. Apparently these calamities are random outbreaks of disorganized, unregulated forces of nature, beyond human control; but they are among the agencies by which God seeks to awaken men and women to a sense of their danger.RR 104.1

God’s messengers in the great cities are not to become discouraged over the wickedness and depravity they face while proclaiming the good news of salvation. In wicked Corinth the Lord gave Paul a message: “Do not be afraid, ... for I am with you, ... for I have many people in this city.” Acts 18:9, 10. In every city there are many who with proper teaching may learn to become followers of Jesus.RR 104.2

God’s message for the inhabitants of earth today is, “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Matthew 24:44. The conditions in the great cities proclaim in thunder tones that the hour of God’s judgment has come and that the end of all things earthly is at hand. In quick succession the judgments of God will follow one another—fire, and flood, and earthquake, with war and bloodshed. The angel of mercy cannot shelter much longer those who do not repent. The storm is building; and those only will stand who respond to the invitations of mercy and become sanctified through obedience to the laws of the divine Ruler, as did the inhabitants of Nineveh under the preaching of Jonah.RR 104.3