Part III — The Marked Contrast

Christ sets the type — the days of Noah are the last age — Luke 17:26-27; Matt. 24:37-39:

• Luke 17:26-27. "And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all" — the Lord Himself fixes the type: the last age is the antitype of Noah's day, an ordinary eating-drinking-marrying world swept off by sudden judgment. This is the master text governing the whole section.
  • the days of Noah = the antitype of the last age — an ordinary eating, drinking, marrying world, advanced in arts and industry yet morally corrupt, heedless and "knowing not" until sudden judgment falls; Christ Himself appoints it as the picture of the time of His coming (Luke 17:26-27; Matt. 24:37-39; Gen. 6:5; Gen. 4:17; Gen. 4:21-22).
• Matt. 24:37-39. "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be... they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage... And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away" — the parallel record. The fatal mark of the heedless stream is "knew not": not gross crime but unconscious absorption in the ordinary current of life — eating, drinking, marrying, all lawful — right up until the flood came and took them all away.
• WitnessDA 633.1. White: "Christ does not here bring to view a temporal millennium... He tells us that as it was in Noah's day, so will it be when the Son of man comes again" — Luke 17 and Matthew 24 are a direct type of the last age, not a coming golden age but a heedless world cut off by sudden judgment.
• WitnessCD 435.2. White: "The world's Redeemer, who knows well the state of society in the last days, represents eating and drinking as the sins that condemn this age... Just such a state of things will exist in the last days" — the very "eat and drink" clause of the type, applied to our own day: the ordinary current of life, not gross crime, condemns the heedless stream.
• WitnessEP 59.4. White: "In Noah's day philosophers declared it was impossible for the world to be destroyed by water. So now men of science endeavor to show that the world cannot be destroyed by fire. But when all regarded Noah's prophecy as a delusion, then it was that God's time had come" — the modern heedless stream, like Noah's contemporaries, dismisses the warning as delusion right up to the moment judgment falls.

The first stream — the line of Cain, the city-builders — Gen. 4:17, 21-22; 6:5:

• Gen. 4:17. "And Cain knew his wife... and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch" — the line of Cain is the city-builder. The first city in Scripture is built by the murderer's seed: the headwater of the stream that stays put and fortifies itself in the world.
• Gen. 4:21-22. "Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron" — Cain's civilization: music (harp and organ) and metalworking (brass and iron), the arts and industry of a culture advancing in skill while forgetting God — a society that "did eat and drink" with no thought of the LORD.
• Gen. 6:5. "And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" — the moral fruit of the Cainite stream: wickedness great, imagination only evil continually. This defines the spiritual condition of the eating-drinking world the days of Noah picture.

The second stream — the line of Seth, who call on the Name — Gen. 4:26; 5:24; 6:8-9:

• Gen. 4:26. "And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD" — the headwater of the other stream. The line of Seth marks itself off by open worship: the separation begins not with a wall but with a confessed allegiance to the Name.
  • calling on the name of the LORD = the dividing act of the faithful seed — open, avowed worship of and dependence on God, by which the line of Seth marks itself off from the line of Cain (Gen. 4:26; Gen. 5:24; Gen. 6:9).
• Gen. 5:24. "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him" — the Sethite stream's crown. Enoch "walked with God" in the midst of the corrupt age and was translated: proof that one can keep the upward current while the world keeps the downward one.
• Gen. 6:8-9. "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD... Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God" — Noah inherits Enoch's walk. "Found grace" and "walked with God" set him apart from a generation given to eating, drinking, and violence: the one through whom the faithful stream survives the flood.
• WitnessGW 51.2. White: of Enoch, "The infinite, unfathomable love of God through Christ, became the subject of his meditations day and night. With all the fervor of his soul he sought to reveal that love to the people among whom he dwelt" — Enoch walked with God in the heart of the corrupt age, the faithful current of those who call on the Name while the world flows the other way.
• WitnessGW 52.1. White: "In the midst of a life of active labor, Enoch steadfastly maintained his communion with God... He would withdraw, to spend a season in solitude, hungering and thirsting for that divine knowledge which God alone can impart" — Enoch's walk as a rhythm of separation, withdrawal from the world's current into communion with God: the inner form of the ark principle.

The ark — the act of separating faith that divides the streams — Gen. 6:14, 22; Heb. 11:7:

• Gen. 6:14. "Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch" — the command to build the ark. The ark is a divinely-appointed structure of separation, the visible act that will divide the two streams.
  • the ark = the God-appointed structure of separating faith that divides the two streams and saves the remnant; to build it is itself the act that "condemned the world," and to enter it is to be shut in by God before judgment — the pattern of every later call to "come out and be separate" (Gen. 6:14; Gen. 6:22; Heb. 11:7; Gen. 7:1; Gen. 7:16; 2 Cor. 6:17; Rev. 18:4).
• Gen. 6:22. "Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he" — faith that obeys to the letter. Noah's whole-souled compliance is the faith that works, building while the world ate and drank.
• Heb. 11:7. "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith" — the inspired interpretation of the ark: it is the act of separating faith. "By the which he condemned the world" — the ark-building itself is the dividing line that judges the heedless stream and saves the remnant. And the same act made Noah "heir of the righteousness which is by faith" — the faith-that-works of "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith," worn here as a coat of separating obedience.
• WitnessCTr 55.4. White: "If Noah had been like many in our day who say, 'Believe, believe; all you have to do is believe,' then he would not have condemned the world. But Noah had that genuine faith, that faith that works... he believed just what God had said, and carried it out by his works" — the ark is faith that WORKS; the building itself, not mere profession, condemned the world and divided the two streams.
• WitnessAG 132.3. White: "Noah was to preach to the people, and also to prepare an ark... He was not only to preach, but his example in building the ark was to convince all that he believed what he preached" — the ark as a visible act of separating faith; the example of building, while the world ate and drank, was itself the testimony.

The Lord shuts the door — probation closes while the world eats and drinks — Gen. 7:1, 16; 1 Pet. 3:20:

• Gen. 7:1. "And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation" — the call to enter. Separation is completed by a personal "Come" from the Lord to the righteous remnant, the household that came out of the heedless current.
• Gen. 7:16. "And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in" — "and the LORD shut him in." The day of separation closes; the ark seals off the saved remnant from the doomed world. Probation ends while the world still eats and drinks.
• 1 Pet. 3:20. "when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water" — confirms the smallness of the saved stream — "few, that is, eight souls" — and that the ark-building era was a probationary space of divine longsuffering before judgment.
• WitnessPP 95.2. White: "Many at first appeared to receive the warning; yet they did not turn to God with true repentance... Overcome by the prevailing unbelief, they finally joined their former associates in rejecting the solemn message" — many drifted back into the heedless current rather than separate, leaving only the small remnant in the ark.

The last-day antitype — "Come out of her, my people" — 2 Cor. 6:17; Rev. 18:4:

• 2 Cor. 6:17. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you" — the New Testament restatement of the same principle: "come out... and be ye separate." The ark-building separation of Noah is the abiding pattern for God's people.
• Rev. 18:4. "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" — the last-day antitype of "Come into the ark." The final call summons the faithful stream out of the doomed world-system before the plagues fall: the modern ark of separation, sounded today as the message of "Out of the Cities — the Message Refused."
• WitnessCH 268.1. White: "'Out of the cities,' is my message... I hope and pray and believe that they will now arouse to the importance of getting out into the country" — the modern application: "Out of the cities" is the present-day ark-building, the same call to come out of the heedless stream into a place of separation.
• WitnessCL 8.3. White: "The time is near when large cities will be swept away, and all should be warned of these coming judgments" — the cities (the modern line-of-Cain civilization) face being "swept away" by sudden judgment, and the warning is to be sounded as Noah sounded his.
• WitnessCL 5.2. White: "Parents flock with their families to the cities, because they fancy it easier to obtain a livelihood there... it will require a sacrifice to correct their error, and they stay where they are, until Satan gains full control of their children" — the modern heedless stream: like Noah's world, the multitude stays in the city-current pursuing livelihood, refusing the sacrifice of separation until it is too late.
• WitnessLDE 38.2. White: "Had the church of Christ done her appointed work as the Lord ordained, the whole world would before this have been warned and the Lord Jesus would have come to our earth in power and great glory" — the ark-building separation and warning is the appointed work that, had it been done, would already have brought the end; the delay belongs to the church, not to God (see “He Might Have Come — the Delay Was Ours”). This is why the world still eats and drinks.

The drift INTO the city — toward, in, gate — Gen. 13:10-13; 14:12; 19:1:

• Gen. 13:10-11. "And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where... Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan" — the drift begins with the EYES; Lot chooses the well-watered plain for ease and profit.
• Gen. 13:12. Lot "pitched his tent toward Sodom" — step one: the half-measure, a tent that merely FACES the city.
  • Sodom = the doomed city whose ease and plenty entangle the righteous who linger in it; Scripture defines its iniquity not first as gross crime but as the comfortable city-life that snares — "pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness" (Eze. 16:49) — and its end as fire and brimstone (Gen. 19:24-25), set as an "ensample" to the last ungodly age (2 Pet. 2:6), the city out of which God's people must come (Rev. 18:4; 2 Cor. 6:17). Defined in full in the Symbol Dictionary.
• Gen. 13:13. "But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly" — the text brands the place before Lot ever moves in; the drift runs toward a city already condemned.
• Gen. 14:12. "And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed" — step two: the tent that faced Sodom is now a house IN Sodom; the half-measure has become full residence, and Lot is swept up with the city's spoil.
• Gen. 19:1. "And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom" — step three: the gate was the seat of the city's elders and judges; the man who once faced Sodom from a tent now governs in it. The drift is complete — toward, in, gate.
• WitnessPP 168.1. White: "Lot had chosen Sodom for its pleasure and profit. Leaving Abraham's altar and its daily sacrifice to the living God, he had permitted his children to mingle with a corrupt and idolatrous people; yet he had retained in his heart the fear of God, for he is declared in the Scriptures to have been a 'just' man... How terrible were the results that followed one unwise step!" — the drift named: pleasure and profit chosen, the fear of God kept, ruin reaped from one unwise step.

The inspired key — "just Lot," vexed yet lingering — 2 Pet. 2:6-9:

• 2 Pet. 2:6. God turned "the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes... making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly" — the inspired verdict: Sodom's ashes are an "ensample" to the last ungodly age.
• 2 Pet. 2:7-8. "And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them... vexed his righteous soul from day to day...)" — here is the type: Lot is "just" and "righteous," his soul tormented day by day — yet he STAYED. God's people caught in the city, vexed yet lingering.
• 2 Pet. 2:9. "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations" — the deliverance is God's to work; the righteous man could not extract himself.

Mercy must HASTEN the lingering man — body AND heart — Gen. 19:15-17:

• Gen. 19:15-16. "And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife... lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife... the LORD being merciful unto him; and they brought him forth, and set him without the city" — the angels must HASTEN him; "while he lingered" they seize his hand. Mercy drags out the man whose feet would not move.
• Gen. 19:17. "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain" — the command is total: body AND heart must come out; not behind, not even in the plain.
  • the backward look = the divided heart that forfeits the kingdom, the exact opposite of the ark-builder's forward faith; not the eyes only but the heart still tethered to what was left behind (Gen. 19:17; Luke 9:62; Heb. 10:38-39; Luke 17:31-32). Defined in full in the Symbol Dictionary.
• WitnessPP 160.1. White: "Stupefied with sorrow, he lingered, loath to depart. But for the angels of God, they would all have perished in the ruin of Sodom. The heavenly messengers took him and his wife and daughters by the hand and led them out of the city" — confirms Gen. 19:16 exactly: the lingering, and the hands that had to lay hold and lead them out.
• WitnessPP 160.2. White: "Hesitancy or delay now would be fatal. To cast one lingering look upon the devoted city, to tarry for one moment from regret to leave so beautiful a home, would have cost their life. The storm of divine judgment was only waiting that these poor fugitives might make their escape" — confirms the deadly weight of the backward look: one glance, one moment of regret for the home, was fatal.

The wife — feet out, heart in — Gen. 19:24-26:

• Gen. 19:24-25. "Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities" — the literal sentence falls, the very judgment Luke will quote.
• Gen. 19:26. "But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt" — her feet had left the city but her heart had not; she "looked back from behind him" and froze into a pillar of salt — lost in sight of refuge.
  • Lot's wife = the half-separated soul — body out of the city but heart still in it — lost in sight of refuge; her feet left Sodom but she "looked back from behind him" and became a pillar of salt, named by Christ as the standing warning to the last generation (Gen. 19:26; Luke 17:32; Luke 17:31). Defined in full in the Symbol Dictionary.
• WitnessPP 161.2. White: "But one of the fugitives ventured to cast a look backward to the doomed city, and she became a monument of God's judgment... While her body was upon the plain, her heart clung to Sodom, and she perished with it... Instead of thankfully accepting deliverance, she presumptuously looked back to desire the life of those who had rejected the divine warning" — the centerpiece: "while her body was upon the plain, her heart clung to Sodom" — the half-converted move named exactly.
• WitnessHvn 106.2. White: "If Lot himself had manifested no hesitancy to obey the angels' warning, but had earnestly fled toward the mountains, without one word of pleading or remonstrance, his wife also would have made her escape... But his hesitancy and delay caused her to lightly regard the divine warning. While her body was upon the plain, her heart clung to Sodom, and she perished with it" — Lot's own lingering bred his wife's ruin; the divided heart in sight of refuge.

Christ makes Sodom the second age-end type — Luke 17:28-32:

• Luke 17:28-29. "Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all" — Christ Himself makes Sodom the second great age-end type, set beside the days of Noah (see “As in the Days of Noah — the Two Streams”). The sin named is not gross crime but ORDINARY commerce — bought, sold, planted, builded — life so absorbed in the city that the fire finds them at home in it.
• Luke 17:30. "Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed" — "even thus" = the day He is revealed; the type reaches to the advent.
• Luke 17:31. "In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away... let him likewise not return back" — the housetop man is forbidden to come down for his "stuff"; the man in the field is forbidden to "return back." The peril is the backward reach for what was left behind, the heart still tethered to it.
• Luke 17:32. "Remember Lot's wife" — the Lord crowns the whole warning with three words. Remember HER: she perished within sight of safety.
• WitnessCTr 79.5. White: "What shall worldly pleasures avail you when all the world shall be overwhelmed as was Sodom and destroyed like Gomorrah? These cities are set forth as examples to other sinners that they may know that their day is coming" — confirms 2 Pet. 2:6 and Luke 17:29-30: Sodom and Gomorrah are examples that the world's day of fire is coming.

The principle — forward faith vs. the drawing back — Luke 9:62; Heb. 10:38-39:

• Luke 9:62. "And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" — the principle behind "Remember Lot's wife": the hand on the plough must drive forward; the eye that turns back disqualifies. To leave the city in body but keep it in heart is to be unfit for the kingdom.
• Heb. 10:38. "Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him" — the "just" man (like "just Lot") lives by faith — FORWARD faith. To "draw back" is the wife's sin written as doctrine — the same righteousness by faith of "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith," here in its backward shadow.
• Heb. 10:39. "But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul" — the two ends laid bare: drawing back is unto perdition, believing is unto the saving of the soul. The forward look of the ark-builder against the backward look of Lot's wife.

Why the city is doomed and the call is to come OUT — Eze. 16:49-50; 2 Cor. 6:17; Rev. 18:4:

• Eze. 16:49-50. "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters... And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away" — Scripture defines Sodom's iniquity not first as vice but as the EASE and plenty of the city; the very things that entangle the righteous who linger in it — the same self-sufficient ease exposed in "Rich and Increased with Goods — the Laodicean Refusal."
• Witness5T 232.3. White: "Instead of the crowded city seek some retired situation where your children will be, so far as possible, shielded from temptation... The prophet Ezekiel thus enumerates the causes that led to Sodom's sin and destruction: 'Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness...' All who would escape the doom of Sodom must shun the course that brought God's judgments upon that wicked city" — ties the Sodom symbol straight to the country-living call: to escape Sodom's doom one must leave the crowded city and shun its course.
• 2 Cor. 6:17. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you" — the standing command the Lot-type illustrates: come OUT and be SEPARATE; not a partial move but a whole separation — the opposite of body-out, heart-in (see “Out of the Cities — the Message Refused”).
• Rev. 18:4. "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" — the last-days antitype of the angels hastening Lot: "Come out of her, my people," the final call to leave the doomed city in body AND heart before the fire (the plagues) falls. To linger is to share her plagues.
• WitnessCH 268.1. White: "'Out of the cities,' is my message. Our physicians ought to have been wide-awake on this point long ago. I hope and pray and believe that they will now arouse to the importance of getting out into the country" — the last-days antitype of Rev. 18:4 stated plainly: "Out of the cities is my message."
• WitnessCL 13.3. White: "In country places abundant useful exercise will be found in doing those things that need to be done, and which will give physical health by developing nerve and muscle. Out of the cities is my message for the education of our children" — reinforces that the message is not merely to move but to come WHOLLY out of the city.