Tremors

The sudden surge of interest nowadays in prophecies about the end times will again be stirred and shaken with the apparent rise in earthquakes all over the globe such as the recent killer quake in the Tibetan region of China that as of the latest reportedly killed almost 600 people, wounded more than 10,000 and flattened 85% of the structures there. (Source: Yahoo! News) There are those who would even conjure a “science fiction’s ultimate doomsday scenario: A large earthquake in another part of the world ignites a long seismic fuse that races around the globe” (http://www.mercurynews.com/). But according to the US Geological Survey (USGS), this is just “an average year for earthquakes… The USGS found that since 1900, the annual average for magnitude 7.0 or higher earthquakes is 16, putting 2010 on course for a fairly normal year, with six so far. …A lot of the quakes this year have unfortunately happened in populated areas, and as a result casualties and damage are in the news… The variability year to year is very large, but the rate this year is not higher than normal. …big earthquakes don’t trigger other big earthquakes.” (Ibid)

Keep in mind that our Lord Jesus assured us, “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.” (Matthew 24:6-8, ESV)

Sadly, even believers tend to cause frenzy instead of faith in view of such global events. One recent prophecy conference here featured as its main speaker a best-selling fiction writer. The promotional materials about this writer made much of the fact that what he described in his novels happened. For example, he wrote about a hijacked aircraft that was on a suicide mission in an American city. The promo pointed out that he wrote it nine months before the September 11 attacks. But even Tom Clancy wrote about such kamikaze jet scenarios in his best-selling thrillers, “Debt of Honor” (1994) and “Executive Orders” (1996). So, what’s so prophetic about that? We must be careful not to interpret the Bible using news clippings or current political events. That’s one rule of interpretation, especially when it comes to Bible prophecies.

Brethren, God’s news is the Good News, not the newspapers.

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