It is in a crisis that character is revealed.  When the earnest voice proclaimed at midnight, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him," and the sleeping virgins were roused from their slumbers, it was seen who had made preparation for the event.   Both parties were taken unawares; but one was prepared for the emergency, and the other was found without preparation.  So now, a sudden and unlooked-for calamity, something that brings the soul face to face with death, will show whether there is any real faith in the promises of God.  It will show whether the soul is sustained by grace.  The great final test comes at the close of human probation, when it will be too late for the soul's need to be supplied.  {COL 412.1} 

When our first parents fell from their high estate through transgression, God's law was made void.  Then Christ entered upon his work as our Redeemer, and probation was granted to the inhabitants of the world.  In Noah's day, men disregarded the law of God until almost all remembrance of him had passed away from the earth.  Their wickedness reached so great a height, violence, crime, and every kind of sin became so intensely active, that the Lord brought a flood of water upon the world, and swept away the wicked inhabitants thereof.  But mercy was mingled with judgment.  Noah and his family were saved.  In the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, we see that the Lord will interfere; fire came down from heaven, and destroyed those wicked cities.  {RH, June 15, 1897 par. 11} 

From time to time the Lord has made known his manner of working.  He is mindful of what is passing upon the earth; and when a crisis has come, he has revealed himself, and has interposed to hinder the working of Satan's plans.  He has often permitted matters with nations, with families, and with individuals, to come to a crisis, that his interference might become marked.  Then he has let the fact be known that there was a God in Israel who would sustain and vindicate his people.  When the defiance of the law of Jehovah shall be almost universal, when his people shall be pressed in affliction by their fellow men, God will interpose.  The fervent prayers of his people will be answered; for he loves to have his people seek him with all their heart, and depend upon him as their deliverer.  He will be sought unto to do these things for his people, and he will arise as the protector and avenger of his people.  The promise is, "Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him? . . . I tell you that he will avenge them speedily."  {RH, June 15, 1897 par. 12}