The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | 页面 239

The European Union in Prophecy
O Lord, this blessed day!"-- Ibid., vol. 17, pp. 182, 183. Such was the hope of the
apostolic church, of the "church in the wilderness," and of the Reformers.
Prophecy not only foretells the manner and object of Christ's coming, but
presents tokens by which men are to know when it is near. Said Jesus: "There shall
be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars." Luke 21:25. "The sun shall be
darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall,
and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son
of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory." Mark 13:24-26. The
revelator thus describes the first of the signs to precede the second advent: "There
was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon
became as blood." Revelation 6:12.
These signs were witnessed before the opening of the nineteenth century. In
fulfillment of this prophecy there occurred, in the year 1755, the most terrible
earthquake that has ever been recorded. Though commonly known as the earthquake
of Lisbon, it extended to the greater part of Europe, Africa, and America. It was felt
in Greenland, in the West Indies, in the island of Madeira, in Norway and Sweden,
Great Britain and Ireland. It pervaded an extent of not less than four million square
miles. In Africa the shock was almost as severe as in Europe. A great part of Algiers
was destroyed; and a short distance from Morocco, a village containing eight or ten
thousand inhabitants was swallowed up. A vast wave swept over the coast of Spain
and Africa engulfing cities and causing great destruction.
It was in Spain and Portugal that the shock manifested its extreme violence. At
Cadiz the inflowing wave was said to be sixty feet high. Mountains, "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 adjacent valleys. Flames
are related to have issued from these mountains."-- Sir Charles Lyell, Principles of
Geology, page 495.
At Lisbon "a sound of thunder was heard underground, and immediately
afterwards a violent shock threw down the greater part of that city. In the course of
about six minutes sixty thousand persons perished. The sea first retired, and laid the
238