Ellen G. White's Warnings to Leave the Cities

“Out of the cities” is my message.

The time is near when the large cities will be visited by the judgments of God. In a little while these cities will be terribly shaken. No matter how large or how strong their buildings, no matter how many safeguards against fire may have been provided, let God touch these buildings, and in a few minutes or a few hours they are in ruins. The ungodly cities of our world are to be swept away by the besom of destruction. In the calamities that are now befalling immense buildings and large portions of cities, God is showing us what will come upon the whole earth. I said  that ‘the earthquakes will come; the floods will come;’ and that the Lord’s message to us is that we shall ‘not establish ourselves in the wicked cities. ‘What terrible scenes will take place when the Lord shall arise to shake terribly the earth! Then the words of Rev. 18:1-3 will be fulfilled.’

[“And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.  And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.] The whole of the eighteenth chapter of Revelation is a warning of what is coming on the earth.

But I have no light in particular in regard to what is coming on New York, only I know that one day the great buildings there will be thrown down by the turning and overturning of God’s power. From the light given me, I know that destruction is in the world. One word from the Lord, one touch of His mighty power, and these massive structures will fall. Scenes will take place the fearfulness of which we cannot imagine.

Let centers be no longer made in the cities. Let children no longer be exposed to the temptations of the cities that are ripe for destruction. The Lord has sent us warning and counsel to get out of the cities. “Out of the cities,” is my message at this time. Be assured that the call is for our people to locate miles away from the large cities.Proportionate to their sins will be their visitation. When one city is destroyed, let not our people regard this matter as a light affair, and think that they may, if favorable opportunity offers, build themselves homes in that same destroyed city. 

The end is near and every city is to be turned upside down every way. There will be confusion in every city. Everything that can be shaken is to be shaken and we do not know what will come next. The judgments will be according to the wickedness of the people and the light of truth that they have had. O that God’s people had a sense of the impending destruction of thousands of cities, now almost given to idolatry. 

The Protestant world have set up an idol sabbath in the place where God’s Sabbath should be, and they are treading in the footsteps of the Papacy. For this reason I see the necessity of the people of God moving out of the cities into retired country places, where they may cultivate the land and raise their own produce. As God’s commandment-keeping people, we must leave the cities. As did Enoch, we must work in the cities but not dwell in them.

Again and again [Yahuwah] has instructed that our people are to take their families away from the cities, into the country, where they can raise their own provisions; for in the future the problem of buying and selling will be a very serious one. We should now begin to heed the instruction given us over and over again: Get out of the cities into rural districts, where the houses are not crowded closely together, and where you will be free from the interference of enemies. “Said the messenger of God, ‘Shall not the cities be warned?  Yes, not by God’s people living in them, but by their visiting them, to warn them of what is coming upon the earth.’” “Leave the cities, and like Enoch come from your retirement to warn the people of the cities.”  

“Let children no longer be exposed to the temptations of the cities that are ripe for destruction. [Yahuwah] has sent us warning and counsel to get out of the cities. Then let us make no more investments in the cities. Fathers and mothers, how do you regard the souls of your children? Are you preparing the members of your families for translation into the heavenly courts? Are you preparing them to become members of the royal family? children of the heavenly King? “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” How will ease, comfort, convenience, compare with the value of the souls of your children?

“Out of the cities; out of the cities!”—is is the message [Yahuwah] has been giving me. The earthquakes will come; the floods will come; and we are not to establish ourselves in the wicked cities, where the enemy is served in every way, and where God is so often forgotten.  
One look at San Francisco as it is today would speak to your intelligent minds, showing you the necessity of getting out of the cities.  ”[Yahuwah] calls for His people to locate away from the cities, for in such an hour as ye think not, fire and brimstone will be rained from heaven upon these cities. Proportionate to their sins will be their visitation. When one city is destroyed, let not our people regard this matter as a light affair, and think that they may, if favorable opportunity offers, build themselves homes in that same destroyed city”  

Let all who would understand the meaning of these things. Read the eleventh chapter of Revelation. Read every verse, and learn the things that are yet to take place in the cities. Read also the scenes portrayed in the eighteenth chapter of the same book. The instruction is still being given, Move out of the cities. “Who will be warned?  We say again, Out of the cities.” (Based on the above statements, it should be quite obvious that it has been time to leave the cities for more than one hundred years.)

The time is not far distant, when, like the early disciples, we shall be forced to seek a refuge in desolate and solitary places. As the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman armies was the signal for flight to the Judean Christians, so the assumption of power on the part of our nation in the decree enforcing the papal sabbath will be a warning to us. It will then be time to leave the large cities, preparatory to leaving the smaller ones for retired homes in secluded places among the mountains.  

(It has always been the practice of Seventh-day Adventists to compare scripture with scripture and build our positions by harmonizing all of the Word of [Yahuwah].  We do not build our theology on a single statement— especially at the expense of a great weight of scriptural evidence.  We must follow this same principle if we would understand the signal to leave the cities.)

There was a coming out, a decided separation from the wicked, an escape for life. So it was in the days of Noah; so with Lot; so with the disciples prior to the destruction of Jerusalem; and so it will be in the last days.  Again the voice of God is heard in a message of warning, bidding His people separate themselves from the prevailing iniquity.” 

“I could not sleep past two o’clock this morning. During the night season I was in council. I was pleading with some families to avail themselves of God’s appointed means, and get away from the cities to save their children. Some were loitering, making no determined efforts. The angels of mercy hurried Lot and his wife and daughters by taking hold of their hands. Had Lot hastened as [Yahuwah] desired him to, his wife would not have become a pillar of salt. Lot had too much of a lingering spirit. Let us not be like him. The same voice that warned Lot to leave Sodom bids us, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean.” Those who obey this warning will find a refuge. Let every man be wide awake for himself, and try to save his family. Let him gird himself for the work. God will reveal from point to point what to do next.”  

We must show to the world that we recognize, in the events that are now taking place in connection with the National Reform movement, the fulfillment of prophecy. That which we have, for the last thirty or forty years, proclaimed would come, is now here; and the trumpet of every watchman upon the walls of Zion should raise the alarm. 

(By the way, we now hear the rumble of the return of the Roman armies.  But this will be the Second Siege!  The unabridged Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994 edition) calls for Sunday legislation.  The Lord’s Day Alliance is alive and well and announced just after 9/11 that we have entered a time of special opportunity to promote Sunday.  Incidentally, The Lord’s Day Alliance was another major backer of the Blair bill in 1888.  Still today their official letter head has the words, “Serving the Churches and the Nation since 1888”.  Indeed, the time has come!)

Whenever possible, it is the duty of parents to make homes in the country for their children. The children and youth should be carefully guarded. They should be kept away from the hotbeds of iniquity that are to be found in our cities. The time has come, when, as God opens the way, families should move out of the cities. For years we have been instructed that our brethren and sisters, and especially families with children, should plan to leave the cities as the way opens before them to do so.  Many will have to labor earnestly to help open the way. 

(Here we see that God must open the way, and yet the only way that we will know if it “Is possible” is if we are actually exerting efforts along those lines.  In fact, how can we expect to know we are moving “As fast as possible” unless we are earnestly seeking to find the way out of the city.)  

Let men of sound judgment be appointed, not to publish abroad their intentions, but to search for such properties in the rural districts, in easy access to the cities, suitable for small training schools for workers, and where facilities may also be provided for treating the sick and weary souls who know not the truth. Look for such places just out from the large cities, where suitable buildings may be secured, either as a gift from the owners, or purchased at a reasonable price by the gifts of our people. Do not erect buildings in the noisy cities. 

I am bidden to declare the message that cities full of transgression, and sinful in the extreme, will be destroyed by earthquakes, by fire, by flood. All the world will be warned that there is a God who will display His authority as God. His unseen agencies will cause destruction, devastation, and death. All the accumulated riches will be as nothingness.

Calamities will come—calamities most awful, most unexpected; and these destructions will follow one after another. If there will be a heeding of the warnings that God has given, and if churches will repent, returning to their allegiance, then other cities may be spared for a time. But if men who have been deceived continue in the same way in which they have been walking, disregarding the law of God, and presenting falsehoods before the people, God allows them to suffer calamity, that their senses may be awakened. The Lord will not suddenly cast off all transgressors, or destroy entire nations; but He will punish cities and places where men have given themselves up to the possession of Satanic agencies. Strictly will the cities of the nations be dealt with, and yet they will not be visited in the extreme of God’s indignation, because some souls will yet break away from the delusions of the enemy, and will repent and be converted, while the mass will be treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath.

There are reasons why we should not build in the cities. On these cities, God’s judgments are soon to fall. The time is near when large cities will be swept away, and all should be warned of these coming judgments. O that God’s people had a sense of the impending destruction of thousands of cities, now almost given to idolatry.

Parents flock with their families to the cities, because they fancy it easier to obtain a livelihood there than in the country. The children, having nothing to do when not in school, obtain a street education. From evil associates, they acquire habits of vice and dissipation. The parents see all this, but it will require a sacrifice to correct their error, and they stay where they are, until Satan gains full control of their children. The cities are filled with temptation. We should plan our work in such a way as to keep our young people as far as possible from this contamination. 

There is not one family in a hundred who will be improved physically, mentally, or spiritually, by residing in the city. Faith, hope, love, happiness, can far better be gained in retired places, where there are fields and hills and trees. Take your children away from the sights and sounds of the city, away from the rattle and din of streetcars and teams, and their minds will become more healthy. It will be found easier to bring home to their hearts the truth of the Word of God It is not God’s will that His people shall settle in the cities, where there is constant turmoil and confusion. Their children should be spared this, for the whole system is demoralised by the hurry and rush and noise.

To many of those living in the cities who have not a spot of green grass to set their feet upon, who year after year have looked out upon filthy courts and narrow alleys, brick walls and pavements and skies clouded with dust and smoke–if these could be taken to some farming district, surrounded with the green fields, the woods and hills and brooks, the clear skies and the fresh, pure air of the country, it would seem almost like heaven.

Instead of the crowded city, seek some retired situation where your children will be, so far as possible, shielded from temptation, and there train and educate them for usefulness. The prophet Ezekiel thus enumerates the causes that led to Sodom’s sin and destruction: “Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters; neither did she strengthen the hands of the poor and needy.”

All who would escape the doom of Sodom, must shun the course that brought God’s judgments upon that wicked city. The Lord desires His people to move into the country, where they can settle on the land, and raise their own fruit and vegetables, and where their children can be brought in direct contact with the works of God in nature. Take your families away from the cities, is my message. Again and again the Lord has instructed that our people are to take their families away from the cities, into the country, where they can raise their own provisions, for in the future the problem of buying and selling will be a very serious one. We should now begin to heed the instruction given us over and over again: Get out of the cities into rural districts, where the houses are not crowded closely together, and where you will be free from the interference of enemies.

Last Friday morning, just before I awoke, a very impressive scene was presented before me. I seemed to awake from sleep, but was not in my home. From the windows I could behold a terrible conflagration. Great balls of fire were falling upon houses, and from these balls fiery arrows were flying in every direction. It was impossible to check the fires that were kindled, and many places were being destroyed. The terror of the people was indescribable. 

—From the books: Last Day Events, Evangelism, Selected Messages, etc. & David Westbrook