As Wicked Today

Now I believe that the world today is just as wicked, just as corrupt as it was in the days of Noah. You know the Lord said that the days preceding His second coming would be like the days of Noah, that is, "all flesh has corrupted its way upon the earth." Naturally someone will wonder why, when in the days of Noah he and his family were the only ones saved and yet today there are thousands of people who have obeyed the commandments and come into the Church from all parts of the world, that I make a statement such as this. Let me call your attention to a condition which prevailed in the days of Enoch which makes all the difference in the world. In his day the Lord gathered together all the righteous and they with Enoch were taken from the earth, and later before the flood if any repented and accepted the truth they too were caught up to the people of Enoch, so that when the time came to cleanse the earth with water, only Noah and his family remained of the righteous, and they were left that the race of mankind might be perpetuated after the flood. This we learn from the record we have obtained.

The flood was nothing more nor less than the cleansing of the earth by baptism. Once again in the near future the earth will be baptised, not by water, for the Lord covenanted with Enoch that He would not again destroy the world by water, but at the coming of our Lord the earth is to receive a baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost.

If the Lord should do today what He did before the flood, and remove from the earth all the righteous, I am convinced that the condition would be just as bad as it was before, and that among the ungodly the wickedness is just as great as it was in the days of Noah.

History Revealed to Enoch

To get back to our story: The history of the world was revealed to Enoch from the beginning to the end. All the wickedness both in the days of Noah, in the Meridian of Time and in the last days, was shown to him. He saw all of the inhabitants of the earth. He saw the days of the flood and then again the earth peopled with inhabitants over all its face and again men forgetting God and rebelling against light and truth, setting up their own governments in defiance of the laws of God. The days of the Meridian of Time were shown to him, and he saw the Son of God lifted on the cross as a sacrifice for the transgression of Adam and for the redemption of all who were willing to accept the Gospel and endure to the end. When these things were presented before him, Enoch wept and he was greatly astonished to see the Lord weep and he said:

"How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains? How is it that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy and from all eternity to all eternity?"

The Lord answered him by saying that He and the hosts of heaven wept because of the rebellion of mankind. The Lord does not delight in seeing people suffer, but when they break the commandments of the Lord and rebel against all that is good, they must suffer, and this is the vengeance which is meted out to them all because of their own iniquity.