Earth void-judgment

Note on Earthquakes
In connection with the outpouring of the seventh vial upon the earth, Rev. 16: 18 speaks of a "great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, such an earthquake, so great." May it be gathered from these words that before men were upon the earth, there had been such an earthquake? Can the "without form and void" condition of the earth in Genesis 1: 2 be explained by the previous occurrence of such a catastrophe? The words tohu and bohu used in the verse referred to are found also in Isaiah 45: 18, and show that such was not the original condition of creation; and in Isaiah 25: 11, as also in Jer. 4: 23, the same words are employed as descriptive of judgment executed. That earthquakes are significant of judgment in its last development, is seen by their being also the outcome of the opening of the sixth seal and the sounding of the sixth trumpet, when God ariseth to shake terribly the earth. (Rev. 6: 14; 11: 13. See also Matt. 24: 7.) In Zech. 13 there is an earthquake preceding the judgment consequent upon the return of the Lord Jesus to this earth, when His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives. In this case He is, at the same time, manifesting Himself as the Saviour and Defender of those who in man's day of rebellion and apostasy have been true to His name. These two facts - the shaking of that which is of the earth, earthy, and the remaining of that which is heavenly, and which cannot be moved - appear to be always involved in the occurrence of earthquakes.