Eye-Witness Account
Here, from one of our own PLAIN TRUTH readers living in Central America in the country of Costa Rica, is an eyewitness account of the presently erupting volcano, Irazu. Even though this volcano has not been, so far, as destructive as the volcano in Bali, the account that Mrs. Manolo de Rojas gives, and the on-the-spot picture that she sends, as well as clippings from the local newspapers, describes for us the multiple problems of volcanic eruption. Not all suffering is caused by being burned to death by hot lava!
Here's the report in Mrs. Rojas' own words: "You mentioned the volcano. Please! I don't even want to think about it! I'm so sick of that monster that I don't know what to do — life is impossible as a result of its constant eruptions of ash and sand . . . San Jose is literally buried under it — and San Jose is only a mile or two away from where I live.
"Here are some facts in regard to it: The volcano began erupting about a month and a half ago, about the beginning of March. [Shortly before Agung on Bali erupted.] It wasn't much at first and nobody paid much attention to it. But then it increased in intensity, and the pasture lands for dairy cattle located near the volcano were being destroyed.
The day President Kennedy came to Costa Rica, ash began to fall. It was impossible to go outside, because the stuff filled your eyes, nose and mouth. It made the whole air smell like sulphur. That day I closed the windows and doors but still it got in. I cleaned the house four or five times that day.
"About two weeks ago it started erupting in such a way as never seen before. As many as twenty-five eruptions in one day, casting ash and rocks and sand thousands and thousands of feet into the air!"
The newspaper, La Nacion, in Costa Rica confirms this statement made by Mrs. Rojas — it states that on one day, April 26, there were seven eruptions each of which sent up ten-thousand-foot clouds.
Our Spanish Department here at Ambassador College translated the articles Mrs. Rojas sent us, and the essence of the news we found was that the eruption of the volcano Irazu is presently threatening the economy of the entire nation!
By April 23 three hundred cattle had died. There is a death zone twenty miles in radius surrounding the volcano, covered with twelve inches of volcanic ash. "Very frequently, now, the following is heard: 'If this continues, I am leaving San Jose with my family. I can no longer endure the cloud of ash. It is driving me out of my mind!" (La Nacion, p. 21, April 27, 1963, translation).
Personal Account Continues
Continuing Mrs. Rojas' account — "The eruptions get more and more violent. And about three days ago, the volcano began spewing out fiery substances. San Jose is one big mess — in three days the National Guard cleaned up six hundred tons of ash from the streets of San Jose. You can't see the sidewalks downtown, they are completely buried.
"The ash is seriously affecting the people's health. In areas near the volcano almost everyone is very ill. And in the area of San Jose, there have been many cases of serious bronchial and skin afflictions. Practically everybody is complaining either of headaches or sores or coughing.
"When you wash your clothes they come in dirtier than before you washed them, and the ash rots the clothes. How long a person can go on breathing in such quantities of volcanic ash containing sulphur and magnetic particles I don't know. If it eats clothes what must it do to a person's lungs?
"You can see the volcano very clearly from our house. This morning at 6:00 I was watching it erupting. It is very beautiful to see the big cloud coming out of it, it looks like an atomic explosion! The question everyone is asking is, 'Hasta cuando?' (How long will it last?)
"It is seriously affecting the economy of the country; much farm land has been lost; many cattle have died; the dairy industry is greatly in danger.
"Only God knows when this will end, if it ends. There are experts who say it could easily go on for a year or two. If so it could ruin this little nation — may God have mercy on us."
La Nacion goes on to describe how beautiful botanical gardens with trees from all around the world have been destroyed. How pasture lands, vineyards and coffee plantations have been destroyed, business affected because nobody wants to get out and shop in the sulphurous atmosphere — nobody leaves his house — things are nearly at a standstill in San Jose!
Yet if it were not for the pages of The PLAIN TRUTH would you hear this news? Would you be watching for these things yourself?
How About You
Will you take measures to protect yourself? God Himself warns of unparalleled volcanic action to take place within your lifetime! When Jesus Christ answered the question concerning what signs and events would take place before His return to this earth, one of the main warning events He gave was concerning "earthquakes in divers places" (Matt. 24:7). Other scriptures plainly show that with these earthquakes, there would also be volcanic action unparalleled in the memory of mankind! Earthquakes have certainly been increasing with intensity and number in just the last few years; if you don't have our booklet on earthquakes write immediately for it; it's absolutely free!
"Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire" (Isa. 29:6).
Even Moses, speaking prophetically, forewarned of this time — "They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities . . . For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains!" (Deut. 32:21-22).
The inhabitants of all the earth for nearly six thousand years have rejected the God Who created them and refused to obey His commands and live as He required. Their sin — the transgression of the basic laws of life and happiness — has caused them individual untold pain and grief and suffering. Their collective sin has caused the very earth itself to suffer, and the whole creation to groan and cry out for the return of its Creator (Rom. 8:22).
The day of Jesus Christ's return is marked by political, ecclesiastical and physical catastrophes. He is returning to restore peace, the Truth, and safety!
"Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and round an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness" (Joel 2:1-2).
This general time is again described in the book of Revelation.
"And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood . . . And every mountain and island were moved out of their places." (Rev. 6:12, 14)
Be Prepared
In the book of Luke where the same warnings are given regarding the return of Jesus Christ, a direct admonition is given. "Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man" (Luke 21:36). Your merciful Creator has given you adequate warning of these catastrophes to come.
Break the record of history — and heed the warning!
There are many theories as to what causes volcanic action, but no scientist understands or knows the principles that cause volcanic action any more than he knows the principles that cause earthquakes! In the case of the recent eruption of the volcano on the island of Bali, the natives fell down and worshipped the very mountain itself — importuning it to cease its eruptions — and the only answer they got was sudden, hot death! The One responsible, the One who causes these things to happen, is the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth! That Creator at His return to a rebellious earth is going to seize the entire globe and shake it like a terrier shakes a rat! (Isaiah 2:19)
God's warning is to watch. And He tells us what to watch for. He even takes the pains to explain very plainly, that just as when we see the leaves beginning to turn green on the trees we realize summer is coming, so we should realize that when these events He prophesied begin to come to pass that His return is near! (Matt. 24:32-33)
So let's not scoff at the warnings of these beginning, menacing, volcanic explosions, as did the inhabitants of Pompeii in 79 A.D.! Don't just ignorantly enjoy hearing about it as a thing to satisfy curiosity — like the inhabitants of Saint Pierre did just before forty thousand people perished! Don't bow down and worship nature whose very mountains spew forth death — like the inhabitants of Bali did just a few weeks ago, and perished in their prayer!
What You CAN Do
With such violent and overwhelmingly gigantic catastrophes such as earthquakes and volcanic action there is little a human being can do but flee. However, Jesus Christ describes a day soon coming when the entire earth will be a shuddering and boiling mass of trouble with so many eruptions taking place that the entire atmosphere will be clogged with thick, black, dark clouds, surrounding the entire earth — and there will be no place to flee!
Man feels quite vain and proud and capable — but when the very, solid earth beneath him heaves and churns — when great white-hot masses the size of entire mountains explode before his eyes, he feels very insignificant and helpless!
The only One who can protect you from these things to come is God Himself! So take this warning and turn to Him. Ask Him in prayer, just as He advised in Luke 21:36, for escape and safety — that He might grant you mercy and allow you to "stand" in the day when all the rest of the inhabitants of the earth are fallen flat in abject terror — when the entire earth convulses at the return of its blasphemed and forgotten God!
"For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" (Rev. 6:17)
Yes, the Ring of Fire is aflame again! The island of Bali on the far eastern side of the Ring is an island of death — and on the far western side, the volcano Irazu is in the process of destroying the economy, and perhaps the lives, of an entire nation! And to the north of us in Alaska there is yet another volcano active now.
These are only warning signs — feeble mutterings advertising an end-time roar prophesied by Jesus Christ.
Take this warning — find out what life is all about — ask God to open your mind and your eyes so that you can see — BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!