Beginning of the End - Ellen G. White

As the time for their salvation was closing, the people before
the Flood gave themselves up to exciting amusements, filling their
lives with mirth and pleasure. In our day the world is absorbed in
pleasure-seeking. A constant round of excitement prevents the
people from being impressed by the truths that alone can save them
from coming destruction.
In Noah's day philosophers declared that it was impossible for
the world to be destroyed by water. So now scientific minds try to
show that the world cannot be destroyed by fire. But when everyone
considered Noah's prophecy a delusion, it was then that God's time
had come. The Lawgiver is greater than the laws of nature. "As it
was in the days of Noah ... even so will it be in the day when the
Son of man is revealed" (Luke 17:26, 30). "The day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away
with a great noise ... both the earth and the works that are in it will
be burned up" (2 Peter 3:10).
When religious teachers are pointing forward to ages of peace
and prosperity, and the people of the world are absorbed in planting
and building, feasting and merrymaking, rejecting God's warnings
and mocking His messengers--then it is that "sudden destruction
comes upon them. ... And they shall not escape" (1 Thessalonians
5:3).
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