The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

IN the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, we read how the Lord “rained brimstone and fire.... out of heaven” upon those cities, and perhaps in our childhood we tried to imagine what this meant. Added to the storm of fire, we read how the sun had risen upon the earth at the time when Lot entered the city of Zoar, and also how the smoke of the country," which "went up as the smoke of a furnace," was visible for many miles round. If we take a map of Palestine, and note the position of Hebron, we have before us the locality of the plains of Mamre, whence Abraham witnessed the desolation. He would not have been more than a few miles from the plain where the cities stood—a long and narrow plain, once like Paradise, well watered, and cultivated like Egypt. Into this plain numbers of little rivers ran, and its luxuriance filled Lot's eyes with satisfaction; and thither he went with his flocks and herds, to escape at last with life only, and even then that escape being due to the intercession of Abraham.
Some of the mysterious occurrences told in the Bible are explainable by simple natural causes. God used the waters above the earth and the fountains of the deep to effect the flood, and He may have used the fire within the earth and under the plain where the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah stood, to effect their overthrow. There is a certain resemblance in the country around Vesuvius to that of the plain where Sodom and the cities stood. And its extinct volcanoes, now lakes—well filled with water—and its fruitful soil, the result of volcanic action, assist in picturing to the mind that district, once so fruitful and populous, which is now silent, buried under the Dead Sea—the Sea of the Plain.
The destruction of the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, which flourished at the foot of Mount Vesuvius eighteen hundred years ago, affords striking suggestions as to the terror of the doom of Sodom. A great mass of sulfurous ashes from the mountain was suddenly cast up into the heavens, and, borne by a strong wind, it spread over Pompeii, and fell upon it, overwhelming and suffocating the inhabitants. Yet, still the rain of hot ashes fell, and then a storm of larger stones, until the whole of the city was completely buried. The bread was in baking, the food for dinner was being cooked in the bronze pots upon the oven, as the ashes from heaven fell. The prisoners were chained in the cell, awaiting the sentence of the Roman magistrate, when they were summoned to appear before the Judge of All. The sleeper Jay without a dream troubling his countenance, and died in his sleep, to awake in eternity; while some rushed into the cellars to escape the doom, but only to perish in despair. The spectator who walks through Pompeii today can see all these things before his eyes. They ate, they drank, they bought and sold, married and gave in marriage, until the terrible November day, eighteen hundred years ago.
The adjoining city of Herculaneum perished likewise, but by different means, for the mountain cast out a stream of hot liquid mud, which, pouring down its side, covered up that city; and the mud, subsequently hardening like stone, entombed Herculaneum in solid rock. The city was only re-discovered some hundred years ago.
At a distance from these cities, probably hardly further than that which separated Abraham from Sodom, when he pleaded for it, ashes fell like deep snow upon Puteoli. At Puteoli some seventeen years previously the Christians had cheered the heart of the apostle Paul on his way to Rome. We may infer that there were many Christians in that busy port when Pompeii was overthrown, and that they saw in the awful destruction the judgment of their holy God against the licentious inhabitants of the overthrown cities, and a terrible warning to the wealthy district around Puteoli. When the Cities of the Plain were consumed, Abraham worshipped Jehovah in Mamre, and Melchizedek was priest of the Most High in Jerusalem, and neither Mamre nor Jerusalem would be very much further off "the plain" than Puteoli was from Pompeii.
The opening chapter of the epistle to the Romans, read in connection with the objects dug out of Pompeii and Herculaneum, evidences a terrible moral similarity between the two groups of overthrown cities, "the men" of both of which "were wicked, and sinners before the LORD exceedingly." "Behold," says the prophet, "this was the iniquity of... Sodom.... fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness... neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before Me" (Jehovah). If we may wonder how all these sins expressed themselves in the Cities of the Plain, we can see how they expressed themselves in Pompeii and Herculaneum! The paintings of the goddess (or idea) of abundance are constant, and the baths and the Forum were the ideals of idleness and indulgence. Close by them the slaves were practiced in combat in order to amuse the citizens by slaying one another, or by encountering wild beasts in the arena, and also it was slave labor which made the traders rich. The evidences of the iniquity of selfishness and disregard of the poor and tried in those days of Rome's luxury and ease are numerous. In the times of the pride of Sodom, idolatry and its accompanying licentiousness—the worship of vice, personified by images of gods of drink or crime—was established on the earth. Pompeii abounded with these sins. Its houses were models of taste and art, and no less a very emporium of iniquity. We seem to learn what Sodom and Gomorrah and the corrupt district around them really were by studying the remains which have been discovered in Herculaneum and Pompeii.
On the slopes of burning Vesuvius a vivid illustration of the world itself is presented, and of the apostle's words: "Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were"; for men build and plant as if the mountain had never overwhelmed man and never would again destroy. The cities turned into ashes, "condemned with an overthrow," made "an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly," seem to have no voice. The burning mountain is merely a question of nature! Yet nature is remarkably unstable when she pours forth fire and sulfur and trembles and burns under one's feet. Nature is but the servant of her Lord and Maker. The desolations nature has wrought are but the voices of nature's Lord, and they are a warning to sinful men of the judgment which shall yet befall an unbelieving world.
In this connection of thought, the position a man takes up to view the prophetic Word of God is most significant. If one looks up to the height of the burning mountain, towering into the heavens, its fiery summit, seems too far off to occasion any concern, and its lava-streaked sides seem but only memories of what can never occur again. But if one stands upon the summit of the mountain, feels its heat and trembling under one's feet, hears its thunders, sees its fire and smells its sulfurous smoke, and then looks down at the villages and towns in the plain, they seem so small, so insignificant, so utterly at the mercy of the mountain, that the wonder is the impetuous fire within is restrained and all are not swept away. Such as dwell on the heights regard the prophetic word as the Word of God, and such as dwell afar off from God regard it with small concern. Yet the Word of God, and not our view of it, is that which will be fulfilled.
The fire and the smoke are Scripture symbols of the judgment of God; and not only so, they are the natural servants of their Maker, who will use them to accomplish His Word, as in a former age He used water to fulfill His judgment. "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. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?"
Ex Cathedra
Chapter 2 (continued.)
THE illustration here given is taken from an ancient gem, and carries us back to a period before Constantine. The fish is perhaps the symbol that better than any other represents the Christianity of the catacombs. Indeed, it represents the creed of the catacombs, and the most ancient of Catholic creeds. The persecutions and general necessities of the times required that believers should put all distinctive truth into the briefest possible form. The result of continued effort in this direction was embodied in the symbol of the fish. Now the letters forming the Greek word fish, ΙΧθϒΣ furnish the initials to the five articles of their creed, namely,

Ιησους
Χριστος
Θεου
ϒιος
Σωτηρ|JESUS
CHRIST,
OF GOD,
SON
SAVIOUR.|
In this ancient gem, therefore, we have symbolized Christ, all Christ, and nothing but Christ, which is the essence of the Scriptures. This word engraven on the back of the chair proves that the seat belonged to and represented Christ, and could be occupied by no other person than Christ. Would that the Church had to this day maintained this glorious primitive Christianity.
The symbol of the fish in the hands of the Martyr Church seemed to lend itself to the expression of almost every Christian sentiment, and the symbol only fell into disuse when the Scriptures were no longer regarded as the source of life, and sacramentarianism had taken their place.
We give an illustration, representing a dolphin, the king of fish, with a trident, crushing the head of a polypus which has seven tentacles. Christ is thus portrayed in the power of His cross, triumphing over pagan Rome, the polypus, and its seven hills. On the right hand a small fish will be observed. This is the piscinculus of Tertullian. It rests in steady balance, and without a curve, the indication of fear, awaiting the end of the monster's agony. God had promised to bruise Satan shortly under the feet of believers, and this is the interpretation by the early Roman Church of the promise.
The year 325 A.D. is notable in Church history as that during which the first General Council, convened in Nicea, was held. The accompanying illustration is an enlargement of a part of a photograph of a painting in the Pope's library. The picture is interesting because of the position in it occupied by the "chair" or throne. This occupies its center, and in the chair is represented not the Bishop, or the Pope, but a volume of the. Scriptures! Other points of the picture are not according to history, but the position given to the throne and the Word of God is perfectly accurate.
Even to this day, before a General Council is opened, the Word of God is carried with great pomp to a throne placed in the center of the building in which the assembly is gathered. "Before the opening of the sittings one places the Book of the Gospels, which is the symbol of Jesus Christ speaking to men." Let the reader connect this with Fig. 4 on page 57. "Upon a throne covered with rich draperies, whence He seems to preside over the assembly, and to demand that judgment shall be dictated by justice."
Cyril of Alexandria, who presided at the Council of Ephesus, writes: "The Holy Synod, assembled in the church, called Mary, constituted Christ its Head. The venerable Gospels were placed upon the sacred throne, thus suggesting to the fathers to judge justly." Thus was the presence, the lordship, and the government of Christ, by means of His own Word, expressed with unmistakable clearness. Such were the ideas of the early Church. Those present at the Council of Nicæa had heard the supremacy of the Scriptures preached not only in their own churches, but also in the catacombs. It is said in a legend of that time, that three hundred and eighteen delegates were present at that Council, but that when the counting took place, there was always found to be three hundred and nineteen, and that they never succeeded in getting a sight of the unseen presence, whom they were, never the less, obliged to reckon of their number.. Thus Christ was recognized to a large extent by the early Church as its Ruler, though mist was rising which was to obscure the unseen Shepherd of the Christian flock.
The Bible in the chair, as represented in the illustration, is possibly the Codex Vaticanus, and probably the most ancient copy of the Bible in existence. The vellum on which it is written is the best that imperial command could procure, and the workmanship is of the highest quality that was then available. Not only in later Councils, but also in earlier ones—and, judging from the proportions of the sacred volume in the picture above-mentioned, perhaps in that of Nicæa itself—this copy was placed on the throne in the center of the assembly, and revered as the throne of Christ, the Head of the Church, Who ruled in their midst from this chair or seat of righteous judgment.
But how sadly has Rome forsaken the true position of the Church. The real chair of the apostles—that is, the platform and basis of their doctrine—the true chair, or seat of Christ, the only Head and Ruler of the Church—that is, the Scripture—has been long since hidden away in the Vatican Library, while the place of honor which belongs to it among Christians has been usurped by a meaningless and corrupting piece of furniture! What awful departure is witnessed by these facts from the principles of the early Church and those of modern Rome. The early Church recognized Christ in its midst, and the teachings of the Word of God as its authority. Papal Rome has substituted for these realities—a literal chair!
The crown which is represented on the chair signified the Savior's royal right to reign, and His present spiritual reign over His people.
Thus we have been led into a sphere of Christian experience and testimony in which the heresies which cluster round the Papal symbol—the old chair in St. Peter's—have no existence. In proportion as we raised the dark medieval veil which obscured the ideal chair, its outline, if faint, was nevertheless discernible, and at last we saw the written volume of Christ reappear in central and truly Catholic authority, which the unanimous voices of General Councils saluted as the throne of the present, governing Christ, the Head of the Church.
In our next article, leaving behind basilicas and councils, we shall descend into the heart Of the catacombs of Rome and gather evidence of the power and virtue of the Word, which to those Christians was not only letter, but also life and spirit—indeed, the eternal Logos.
Hints for the Bible Class
2. Consider the... High Priest of our profession (Heb. 3:1) in His grace towards us.
(a)It behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren (ch. 2:17), so that He might be our Priest. And having become a man, He was when on earth tempted (5:18; ch. 4:15), so that in heaven He can feel for us and succor us. Thus the Lord's heart is to be fully trusted, for though He be exalted, yet He "can have compassion on the ignorant" (ch. v. 2).
(b)He is Priest after the power of an endless life (ch. 7:16). His office does not pass from one to another, as is the case with priests of earth (ch. 7:24). He is the perfect repository for all our needs; we can tell Him our secrets, and repose our whole burden on Him alone, for He is able to save to the uttermost (ch. 7:25).
(c)He is the only Intercessor, and He ever lives to make intercession for all who come to God by Him.
3. Because we have such an High Priest
(a) Our privilege is to come boldly to the throne of grace (ch. 4:16)—to draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith (ch. 10:22).
(b) And our responsibility is to hold fast our profession (ch. 4:14), part of which is that Christ Himself is our great High Priest. Also the profession of our hope (R.V. ch. 10:23) that is, the fulfillment of the promises of God through Christ. Our calling is heavenly—we are going to heaven (ch. 3:1). Christ—our Aaron—will bring us there safely; we are therefore to run with patience the race that is set before us (ch. 12:1).