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Hurricanes, Earthquakes and Tsunamis: Signs of the Times?
The past eighteen months have seen a devastating tsunami,
numerous hurricanes and earthquakes which have resulted in casualties numbering
in the hundreds of thousands. Many prophecy pundits are quick to point to these
as “signs of the times,” indicating that the Second Coming of Christ is
surely drawing near. Even those within Christianity who avoid the often
confusing arena of Bible prophecy are sitting up and taking notice. Are these
catastrophes, which seem to be increasing in intensity, really “signs of the
times?” Are they evidence of what the Bible calls “the last days?”
Certainly, by considering these events in light of Bible
prophecy, we do not intend to minimize or ignore the tragedy wreaked by them.
The loss of life, the resulting homelessness of tens of thousands, the orphans,
etc. are almost beyond comprehension. Whether or not these events fulfill Bible
prophecy, there are certainly passages which we can apply to them as we
demonstrate the love of Christ by comforting those who sorrow (2 Cor. 1:3-4) and
sharing with those in need (1Jn. 3:17-18).
Associating natural disasters with what the Bible calls
“the last days” is not unwarranted, as the following passage from Jesus’
discourse on the end of the age reveals:
For nation will rise against
nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines
and earthquakes. (Mt. 24:7)
While it is certainly scriptural to link natural disasters
to the last days, it is noteworthy that throughout history there are examples of
natural disasters being interpreted as a sure sign of Christ’s soon return. In
The Day And The Hour, Francis Gumerlock chronicles many instances in
which the people of a particular era were sure that Christ was about to return
because of the “signs of the times:” an earthquake in A.D. 3631;
an eclipse and drought in 4182; the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 9933;
a famine in 10334; famine and pestilence in 12595;
earthquake and the Bubonic plague ca. 13486; an epidemic in 13697;
an earthquake in 15808; and the list goes on.
For those who would say that, although these things have
existed throughout history, they are increasing like birth-pangs (Mt. 24:8),
Gumerlock records the following observation:
English Baptist John Gill preached between 1750 and 1752
that signs of the End were occurring more and more frequently, and that the
final slaying of the Two Witnesses would take place shortly.9
In 1999 Steven A. Austin and Mark L. Strauss posted a
technical paper on the Institute for Creation Research web site titled Earthquakes
and End Times: A Geological and Biblical Perspective. They open the paper
with the following: According to a number of Christian writers and teachers
on Bible prophecy, Jesus predicted in the Olivet Discourse that a pronounced
increase in the frequency and intensity of earthquakes would occur just prior to
His return to the earth. Many of the same writers and teachers claim that the
decade of the 1990s has experienced a pronounced increase in both frequency and
intensity of earthquakes as compared to earlier decades of the twentieth century.
The authors then list no less than nine well-known prophecy teachers who made
such claims.
After analyzing the technical data from several earthquake
databases, they state the following in their conclusion: A number of prophecy
teachers say that a pronounced increase in frequency and intensity of
earthquakes has occurred in the latter part of the twentieth century, a
worldwide trend fulfilling a prophecy made by Jesus. Contrary to these prophecy
teachers, no obvious trend is found indicating an abnormal increase in the
frequency of large earthquakes during the last half of the twentieth century.
Neither is there a noteworthy deficiency of earthquakes in the first half of the
century. Graphical plots of global earthquake frequency indicate a decreasing
frequency of earthquakes through the century. The decades of the 1970s, 80s and
90s experienced a deficit of larger earthquakes compared to earlier decades of
the century. The 70s, 80s and 90s are precisely those decades that many prophecy
teachers suppose, erroneously, show a dramatic surplus of larger earthquakes.
It would appear that, by claiming the recent disasters are
“signs of the times,” our generation runs the risk of adding our names to
the growing list of those who felt likewise and were proven wrong. The key to
the natural disasters of the “last days,” which always seems to be
overlooked, is found in the following verse from Jesus’ discourse:
Truly I say to you, this
generation will not pass away until all these things take place. (Mt. 24:34)
While we acknowledge that there are “devices” used
which render “this generation” as some generation other than the one which
Christ was addressing, isn’t it interesting what His generation experienced?
Then one of them, named
Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great
famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius
Caesar. (Acts 11:28)
and suddenly there came a
great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and
immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's chains were unfastened.
(Acts 16:26)
Josephus also records the following, which occurred during
the siege of Jerusalem: “But the famine was too hard for all other passions,
and it is destructive to nothing so much as to modesty; for what was otherwise
worthy of reverence was in this case despised; insomuch that children pulled the
very morsels that their fathers were eating out of their very mouths, and what
was still more to be pitied, so did the mothers do as to their infants; and when
those that were most dear were perishing under their hands, they were not
ashamed to take from them the very last drops that might preserve their
lives.”10
. . . for there broke out a prodigious storm in the night,
with the utmost violence, and very strong winds, with the largest showers of
rain, with continued lightnings, terrible thunderings, and amazing concussions
and bellowings of the earth, that was in an earthquake. These things were a
manifest indication that some destruction was coming upon men, when the system
of the world was put into this disorder; and any one would guess that these
wonders foreshowed some grand calamities that were coming.11
Instead of adding our names to the end of a growing list
of those who have mistakenly believed they were seeing the “signs of the
times,” perhaps it is time to look at the other end of the list—to the very
people who heard Jesus speak the words, “this generation will not pass
away.” They experienced earthquakes, famine and more during their lifetimes,
culminating in the destruction of 1.
Francis X. Gumerlock, The Day And The Hour, 24
2. Ibid, 28
3. Ibid, 50
4. Ibid, 58
5. Ibid, 72
6. Ibid, 84
7. Ibid, 86
8. Ibid, 134
9. Ibid, 207
10. Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book 5 chapter 10
11. Ibid, Book 4 chapter 4 |
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