As we continue our study from Last Monday, This is Your Sign, Part 1, we want to be clear, the reason we are sharing this information is to bring a better understanding to why things are happening in the world from a Biblical viewpoint, and that we can have great hope that God is still in control and there is a reason and purpose for the apparent state of worldly chaos. But the chaos will not last forever.
In part 1, we discovered Jesus’ paramount concern for the last days was that we be not deceived (Matthew 24:4-5, 11, 24-25). Christ warns us about false teachers, false prophets, and false “christs” three times in one chapter (Matthew 24) and many times throughout the Bible.
Now we will pick up our study and answer the question, what did Jesus say would become more intense and frequent as we near the end of time?
Matthew 24:6-8 tells us: “And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that you are not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.”
Wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes… haven’t we always had these? Indeed, we have, but are these signs pointing to the end or the beginning of sorrows according to verse eight? The beginning. What does Jesus mean by sorrows? The words “sorrows” as translated in the King James Version of the Bible does not catch the meaning of the original Greek word, odin, (o-deen). According to Strong’s concordance (G5604) Odin is a pain, a travail as in childbirth. And that is exactly how Paul described the destruction at the end times in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, “For when they shall say, ‘Peace and safety:’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail (G5604 odin) upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” How do labor pains begin? They gradually get more intense, more frequent, and longer in duration. Likewise, the signs of Christ’s return will also get more intense, more frequent, and longer in duration. In other words, wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, etc. will increase in frequency and intensity the closer we come to Christ’s return until it finally culminates with seeing Jesus coming in the clouds with all of Heaven! Just as you see labor contractions coming closer and closer and more intense when the baby is about to enter the world, likewise, when we see wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes and other natural disasters becoming more frequent with an increasing intensity we know our world is waxing old and we will soon be going to Jesus’ home with many mansions (John 14:1-3) for each one of the redeemed. Are these signs happening right now?
WARS:
You can check out the number of wars and intensity by clicking Outline of war - Wikipedia
Notice the list per page begins with a 300-year period, but the first one and half decades of the 21st century takes three pages. Indeed, they are getting more frequent and what about the intensity? It is estimated, that there were more deaths from war in the 20th century than all previous wars COMBINED. Between the two World Wars the conservative number killed is 70+ million.
FAMINES:
You can check out how the number of people affected by famine each year is on the rise. List of famines - Wikipedia
In the 1700s there were 27 famines recorded, in 1800s 31, in 1900s 40, in 2000-2017 already 17 countries have been affected by famines. Between 40-60 million people starve to death each year, many of them children. A person dies from starvation every other second. About 840 million, or one out of every 14 people on the earth, do not have enough to eat, according to the United Nations.
PESTILENCES:
AIDS, Swine Flu (H1N1), Ebola, MRSA, hanta virus, COVID-19 are a few pestilences that have rocked our world. Tuberculosis (TB) is back on the rise. COVID-19 is resurging as I write.
EARTHQUAKES:
The following graph is from http://earth.webecs.co.uk/ (this link does not work anymore.)
DATES FROM & TO PERIOD # EARTHQUAKES (Mag. > 6.99)
1863 to 1900 incl 38 yrs 12 1901 to 1938 incl 38 yrs 53 1939 to 1976 incl 38 yrs 71 1977 to 2014 incl * 38 yrs 164 (to Mar. 2011) predict >190 in total. * The earthquake (OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN) - incidentally one of the largest in recent decades - on 11th March 2011 is the last included in these numbers. It is predicted that there will be more than 190 earthquakes in the 38-year span from 1977 to 2014. I was unable to find the update to this chart.
I did find on List of earthquakes 2021–2030 - Wikipedia showing the number of 6.0 or greater earthquakes is 341 at the time of this writing since 2021.
It is important for us to remember that Jesus said it would get worse before it gets better, and He added, “I have told you before it comes to pass, so that when it does come to pass, you might believe.” John 14:29.
What else did Jesus tell us we should expect? We will find out next Monday. Stay tuned.
Would you like to learn more about God?
Join us Wednesday evenings at 5:30 pm CT at
Abundant Health Wellness Center, 240 Huntsville Rd., Eureka Springs, AR 72632
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