“They Took No Note”

LIGHTLY brushing aside warnings can result in disaster.

Darwin, Australia, was in the midst of preparations for holiday festivities in 1974 when sirens warned of an approaching cyclone. But Darwin had not been damaged by a cyclone in some 30 years. Why now? Most of the residents did not view the danger as truly serious until savage winds began to rip off roofs and peel away walls of the houses in which people huddled. By the next morning, the city was a desolate waste.

In Colombia in November 1985, a volcano erupted. Melting snow and ice unleashed a mudflow that entombed more than 20,000 of the inhabitants of the town of Armero. Was there no advance warning? The mountain had trembled for months. However, accustomed to living alongside a volcano, most people in Armero were unconcerned. Officials received warning that disaster would soon strike, but they did little to warn the public. Radio announcements were made in an effort to reassure the populace. The public-address system at the church was used to urge people to remain calm. During the evening, there were two spectacular explosions. Would you have abandoned your possessions and fled? Few people made any effort to do so until it was too late.

Often geologists predict with considerable accuracy where earthquakes will occur. But they can seldom predict exactly when they will strike. In 1999, earthquakes around the world claimed some 20,000 lives. Many of those who died had thought that it would never happen to them.

How Do You React to Warnings That Come From God Himself?

The Bible vividly described long in advance the events that mark the last days. In connection with that, it urges us to consider “the days of Noah.” “In those days before the flood,” people were busy with the customary activities of life, though they were no doubt concerned about the prevalence  of violence. As for the warning that God gave through his servant Noah, “they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away.” (Matthew 24:37-39) Would you have heeded the warning? Do you do so now?

What if you had lived in Sodom, near the Dead Sea, in the days of the man Lot, a nephew of Abraham? The countryside was like a paradise. The city was prosperous. The people were carefree. In the days of Lot, “they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building.” The society in which they lived was also grossly immoral. Would you have taken to heart the warning when Lot spoke out against bad practices? Would you have listened when he told you that God had determined to bring the city of Sodom to ruin? Or would you have treated it as a joke, as did Lot’s prospective sons-in-law? Might you possibly have begun to flee but then turned back, as did Lot’s wife? Though others did not take the warning seriously, on the day that Lot came out of Sodom, “it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed them all.”​—Luke 17:28, 29.

The majority in our day take no note. But these examples have been preserved in God’s Word as a warning to us, to encourage us to KEEP ON THE WATCH!

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Was There Really a Global Flood?

Many critics say No. But the Bible says Yes.

Jesus Christ himself spoke of it, and he was alive when it occurred, viewing it from the heavens.

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Were Sodom and Gomorrah Actually Destroyed?

Archaeology testifies to this event.

Secular history makes mention of it.

Jesus Christ verified the event, and what occurred is referred to in 14 separate books of the Bible.