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Christ's Return: Hallelujah or Ho-hum?

© Richard Maffeo

They first knew something was wrong on March 20. Low magnitude earthquakes rumbled across the region with such frequency that scientists stopped counting them. Seismologists pinpointed the epicenter below Mount Saint Helens. They warned government officials that such activity usually foreshadows an eruption.

When the mountain belched ash and rock a few days later, the Governor declared a state of emergency. Police and Forest Service personnel closed access roads and campgrounds in and around the danger zone. Many local residents packed themselves into vehicles and fled to safe areas. Meanwhile, experts warned a more powerful eruption could occur at any time.

A second minor eruption rocked the mountain a week later. Yet, despite the volcanic activity, some families grew tired of being away from their homes. They argued that, like the minor quakes which frequently rattle the San Andreas fault along the coast of California, St. Helens could continue rumbling for years and never do more than pollute the air with a little ash and pumice.

When the mountain remained relatively quiet through the following two weeks, their impatience evolved into frustration. After the third week of silence, the evacuees had enough. They insisted on returning home.

On May 16, government officials permitted residents back to their homes. Within hours, the towns surrounding the volcano hummed once again with the sounds of 4-wheel drive vehicles, music and laughter. Men, women and children picked up where they left off -- happy in the belief the seismologists were wrong.

Then it happened. At 8:32 in the morning of May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens exploded with the force of 1500 atomic bombs. One eighth cubic mile of what used to be the mountain-top blew apart. Within moments, day turned to night as ash and pumice obliterated the sun. Steaming ash-flows, some traveling 200 mph, roared down the volcano, snapping trees like toothpicks. The torrent drove one-hundred and fifty square miles of timber into nearby Spirit Lake. In a matter of minutes the lake's water level surged 200 feet, overflowing its banks and joined the ever increasing waves of mud racing toward surrounding towns. The blast obliterated virtually every trace of plant and animal life within 250 square miles. Some reports placed the human death toll at 63.

Why did so many people reject the warnings of seismologists? Why did they cast caution aside and return to homes nestled in the ominous shadow of a volcano? Perhaps it was for the same reason men and women reject the warnings of another kind of "seismologist" -- God's prophets. Like those who grew skeptical of geologists after three weeks of relative calm, many have grown skeptical of the Old and New Testament Scriptures which call men and women to repentance, warning of impending judgement and Christ's return to establish His kingdom on earth. "What's all the fuss about?" they challenge. "Throughout recorded history, things have continued as they were from the beginning" (see 2 Peter 3:1-7).

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