“Vancouver, this is it! This is it!”
These were David Johnston’s last-known words. Mount St. Helens had erupted with the worst volcanic explosion in American history.
As a field volcanologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, David was stationed at a monitoring site six miles from the center of the blast. David had told his friends, “I’m sitting on a powder keg, but nobody knows how long the fuse is.”
He told his parents, “I’m convinced that it will erupt,” but to soothe their worries he added, “Oh, the volcano will give a warning before it erupts—enough time to evacuate the danger area.”
Helicopters were on standby at Vancouver, ready to come in to pick him up when the eruption would seem imminent. But there was no warning!
The mountain just exploded—not at the top, where it was expected—but on the side near David’s camp. He grabbed his radio and called the Vancouver rescue station, “Vancouver, this is it!”
Only silence followed. It was too late. A wall of suffocating gas and heat swept toward him, and the camp was wiped out. Trees were flattened, the trailer was demolished, and David’s body disappeared under the layers of ash.
You, too, are sitting on “a powder keg,” and no man knows how long the fuse is. God says, “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).
Just as certainly as Mount St. Helens blasted itself to pieces, this world is doomed to utter destruction. And it is all because of the sin of man.
Remember, “a thief in the night” gives no warning. David Johnston thought there would be a warning, a chance for escape. But there was no warning, and he died. Don’t be like David. “Flee from the wrath to come” (Luke 3:77Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? (Luke 3:7))!
God has provided a way of escape from the coming judgment. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)). Do not put off the salvation of your never-dying soul. Tomorrow may be too late!