Suddenly the manager comes forward. Speaking calmly, not wanting to panic the
patrons, he says, “Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to inform you that the theater
is on fire. Please get up and move in an orderly fashion to the exits. There is
plenty of time for you all to leave safely, but please do so at once.”
The audience think this is the most amusing act of the evening, and again
cheer wildly, thinking the manager is a comedian! He again implores them to
leave the burning building, but he is again applauded vigorously.
Even when smoke and flames appear at the back of the stage, the audience
thinks it is part of the act done for special effect. The manager soon realizes
he can do no more, so he runs off the stage and out of the building. The
audience, meanwhile, whistles and cheers and claps in appreciation of the
manager’s “performance.”
“And so,” concluded Kierkegaard, “will our age, I sometimes think, go down in
fiery destruction to the applause of a crowded house of cheering
spectators.”
And so it is today. Those who attempt to warn others of the impending doom
to come are laughed at as part of “the show.” The prophet has become a
comedian, like someone out of a Monty Python skit. The cynical world laughs at
the message, believing it is all a joke.
Yet the world indeed is on fire; the whole theater is destined to be turned
to ash – and one day soon. Despite the witnesses God has faithfully called —
including the message of His Son – the canned laughter of the world, the
mindless cheering, and the idiotic applause will continue, right up to the end
of the age….
As it was in the days of Noah…. until the flood came and swept them all
away….