![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/Pompeii-Crouchedbodyandpots-225x300.jpg\")
Over the holidays I was in the home of a dear friend who is in the publishing business. He showed me a beautiful volume on Pompeii that his firm was responsible for bringing into being. I marveled at its magnificent color photographs depicting the city’s ruins and fantasized over what the city must have been before that dreadful day in the summer of A.D. 79. What was once a showplace of culture was buried beneath tons of hot, wet ashes and cinders that were sprayed over it by the eruption of Vesuvius. For almost seventeen hundred years it was forgotten and its actual existence was questioned by many. Having been discovered, its testimonies to grandeur are ours to behold. The most important thing about Pompeii’s ruins is what they tell us about the people of that day. It is a fact that numerous individuals lost their lives in the destruction who needed not to have lost their lives.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/pompeii-300x224.jpg\")
Archeologists found that most who lost their lives at Pompeii did so because they lingered too long, trying to prolong the enjoyment of what they were doing or trying to salvage their valuables. One publication tells us, “The excavator’s shovels revealed all manner of family tragedies, scenes of mothers, fathers, and children caught in absolute extremity. Mothers were found still holding their children in their arms, protecting them with the last bit of veil as they both suffocated. Men and women were dug up who had gathered their valuables together, got as far as the city gate and there collapsed under the stony hail, still clinging to their gold and precious things. At the threshold of one house, two young women were found who had hesitated until it was too late, intending to go back into the house and salvage some of their treasures. Body after body was found at the Gate of Hercules, bodies all heaped together and still encumbered with the household gear that had grown too heavy to drag any further” (Gods, Graves, And Scholars). What a lesson to learn!<\/p>\n
God’s Word reveals a far greater destruction to come than that experienced by Pompeii, destruction involving those who obey not the gospel (II Thessalonians 1:7-9). The certainty of this destruction cannot be denied, yet rather than flee to the arms of safety, people linger in sin. The same things that caused many to perish in Pompeii, devotion to loved ones and earthly possessions, are causing people today to linger in disobedience to God’s Commands. They will die in the destruction of the world because they are outside of Christ (II Peter 3; Romans 6:1-6, 17). Nothing should keep us from obeying the gospel (Matthew 10:37-38; 6:19-20; 16:24-26).<\/p>\n
Learn a lesson from the destruction of the beautiful, proud city of Pompeii. Flee from a life of sin that you might escape the wrath of God upon the disobedient. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation?<\/em>” (Hebrews 2:3). “Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come<\/em>” (Matthew 24:42).<\/p>\n by Jimmy Tuten Truth Magazine Volume 24: Number 27, p. 433, July 10, 1980 Over the holidays I was in the home of a dear friend who is in the publishing business. He showed me a beautiful volume on Pompeii that his firm was responsible for bringing into being. I marveled at its magnificent color…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[410,1260,339],"class_list":["post-60351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-judgment","tag-judgment-day","tag-second-coming"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8813,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-is-the-ancient-city-of-babylon-located-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":60351,"position":0},"title":"Where is the ancient city of Babylon located today?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Where is the ancient city of Babylon located today? Answer: The ruins of Babylon are found in Iraq, in the Babil Province, about 80 miles south of Baghdad. You can find a map marking its location\u00a0here.","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19443,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/roman-catholic-quotes-regarding-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":60351,"position":1},"title":"Roman Catholic Quotes Regarding the Bible","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Bible Alone was Used in the Early Church There was far more extensive and continuous use of Scriptures in the public service of the early Church than there is among us. [Addis and Arnold,\u00a0Catholic Dictionary, The Catholic Publication Society, 1887, page 509] Our present convenient compendiums -- the Missal,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47473,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-judgment-of-babylon\/","url_meta":{"origin":60351,"position":2},"title":"The Judgment of Babylon","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 18, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford It seems like the farther we get into the book of Revelation, the more contentious it gets. Our reading concerns chapters 16 through 18, and the main character in this section is the wicked city of Babylon, personified as a prostitute. To say that the identity\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48789,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/sin-ruins-everything\/","url_meta":{"origin":60351,"position":3},"title":"Sin Ruins Everything","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 22, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton We had Paradise and God, and everything was good, beautiful, and perfect. Then sin entered the world, and we lost a perfect paradise, fellowship with God who is perfect, access to the tree of life, and were left to deal with a world of problems and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/ruin-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":26752,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-should-i-do-when-judgment-day-comes\/","url_meta":{"origin":60351,"position":4},"title":"What should I do when Judgment Day comes?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When Judgment Day comes, what should I do? Answer: \"And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment\" (Hebrews 9:27). \"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35730,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-deal-with-fears-of-suffering-before-i-die\/","url_meta":{"origin":60351,"position":5},"title":"How do I deal with fears of suffering before I die?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm afraid of the amount of suffering I might have to go through when I die one day. I wish God would let me die in my sleep so I don't have to be sick with something like cancer. I have depression over my fears. How do I deal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}“Careless soul, why will you linger, wandering from the fold of God?
\nWhy so thoughtless are you standing, while the fleeting years go by.”<\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"