Imagine a sound so loud it could be heard distinctly thousands of miles away—an explosion generating pressure waves that circled the earth at least four times.
At 10:02 a.m. local time, August 27, 1883, the island of Krakatoa in Indonesia experienced a cataclysmic eruption, losing two-thirds of its mass and creating an explosion estimated to be 310 decibels at the source. This would be lethal at close range and is way beyond the 130-decibel pain threshold for humans.
Even 3,000 miles away on Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean, people thought they were hearing distant cannon fire. This is roughly the distance between New York City and San Francisco.
Now imagine another sound—the Loud Cry—that will reverberate around the world with an impact far exceeding the eruption of Krakatoa. This will be a solemn warning to everyone that the final moment has come to make an eternal choice.
Ellen White, commenting on the Loud Cry, wrote: “Servants of God, endowed with power from on high, with their faces lighted up, and shining with holy consecration, went forth to proclaim the message from heaven” (Early Writings, pp. 278, 279).
Now is the time to prepare ourselves and the world for momentous events to come.