In 1883, the greatest volcanic explosion in modern history took place.

Krakatoa, an island volcano along the Indonesian arc, shot six cubic miles of soil, rock, vegetation, and animal and human life twenty-four miles up into the stratosphere. Its shock wave traveled around the world seven times, and its debris fell as far as Madagascar—more than 2,000 miles away!

At the time of Krakatoa’s explosion, Captain Sampson of the British vessel Norham Castle was nearby and wrote in his log: “I am writing this blind in pitch darkness. We are under continual rain of pumice-stone and dust. So violent are the explosions that the ear-drums of over half my crew have been shattered . . . I am convinced that the Day of Judgment has come.”

Captain Sampson believed that the world was coming to an end. The explosion does seem to fit 2 Peter 3:10: “The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.” As terrible as Krakatoa was, though, it did not signal the end of the world.

Crisis has a way of shaking us out of complacency. It reminds us this world is not our home and encourages us to be godly (2 Peter 3:11). —Dennis Fisher