Many of my friends may not like the answer I have to this question.
I do not believe any natural disaster the earth endures is a sign of the end times nor a wake-up call from God. I also do not believe that any of the famines or plagues humanity endures are. Save the Old testament plagues that were set upon Egypt in the times of Moses.
Biblically speaking, the signs came when the tomb was rolled away and was followed by miracles in God's name. While I am on the subject of God's name and miracles, God set plagues upon Egypt only after he sent His messenger to proclaim His word to the fallen (a wake-up call if you will) When the people of Egypt did not heed to his message, only then were the plagues set upon them. Well you may say that we have been sent messengers to us proclaiming the same but I do not believe so. Moses (God's messenger) gave specific demands followed by miracles to prove that he was in deed God's messenger. I have yet to witness this in my lifetime. God also gave the people of Egypt chance after chance to abide by His will, I have yet to witness this occurring. So this is the one instance I can recall where God gave humanity a wake-up call. Actually He gave Egypt several but each plague was preceded by a plea from His messenger. On the flip side of the coin there is Noah and the great flood however the great flood was not a wake-up call or a sign of the end times. It WAS the end time for humanity, save Noah and his family.
The natural disasters that have befallen our world are just that, natural and have been set in motion since the creation of our world. Many say that these disasters are getting worse and more frequent. I do not believe so. It is true however that we hear more and more about them. I believe this is due to better communication. A 100 years ago we did not hear what happened across the globe for perhaps years after it happened if we heard at all, now days we almost instantly find out about any catastrophe any where in the world. To think that these disasters are worse now than before is just not true. We talk about the tornadoes that have ravaged the midwest and southern United States killing over 200 people in a matter of a few weeks when just a year ago an earthquake hit Haiti killing over 200,000. 7 years ago a tsunami took over 230,000 lives in Indonesia, 34 years ago an earthquake took between 250,000 and 750,000 lives in China, 80 years ago the floods of 1931 in China are claimed to have killed up to 2,500,000 people. If you consider the last 80 years to be recent then I ask you to recall your history, from 1918-1920 the Spanish flu killed over 50 million people worldwide. Still to recent? From the 1300's to the early 1700's the Black death (bubonic plague) killed approximately 100 million people. These are only the recorded disasters in our history, we don't know how many more have befallen this home we call earth.
No, I do not believe that these disasters are wake-up calls from God or signs of the end times. We have heard this proclamation from pulpits scattered all over the world since pulpits were built and men and women could stand behind them to declare that the end is coming.
Not to say that I don't believe the end is coming and for that matter we may very well be the last generation to live upon this earth as we know it. The end may come tomorrow or it may come 1000 years from now. We simply do not know. The Bible does not tell us when nor does science. When the end comes I do not believe there will be any doubt. What I am saying is that these disasters are not signs of the end and they are not wake-up calls from God. These world disasters are not getting worse and I don't believe they are getting any more frequent. I believe the weather runs in cycles as does the earth's convulsions.
While natural disasters and plagues have killed countless millions, I believe mankind has killed just as many. So then, that brings me to my next thought. The Bible says that in the end times there will be many wars and rumors of wars. Since the world's population grows year after year a death toll would be inaccurate concerning the severity of mankind's historical obliteration of it's own kind. World War 2 saw the destruction of over 40 million people worldwide making it our greatest war in recent history. 40 million being somewhere between 1.5% and 3% of the world's population at the time. There is no other war to my knowledge that comes close to this number of deaths however that is not to say that as time goes by wars have become more frequent or more destructive. From 1616 to 1662 the Quing Dynasty's conquest of the Ming Dynasty destroyed just under 5% of the human population and if we go back farther to around the year 760 the Lushan rebellion in China took 14%-15% of the world population.
I suppose we can argue numbers all day but my point is from a historical view point, things are not getting worse and I see no Biblical precedence for the wake-up call from God or the sign of the end time theories
Of course this is just my personal opinion on matters and I welcome you to post yours in fact I encourage you to do so
John Pope May 30 2011
