The Beginning of Sorrows

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places”.  Matthew 24:7

Many Christians believe we are now in that time which Jesus referred to as “the beginning of sorrows”.  The disciples had asked Jesus what the signs of His return would be.  He listed several events that would occur before He came back to the earth again.  He said there would be those who claimed to be Christ, and many folks would be deceived into believing these false Christs.  He said that there would be wars and rumors of wars, but to not get upset about hearing those rumors because these things would happen, but those rumors would not signal His return.  Jesus went on to say that nations would rise up against other nations, kingdoms against kingdoms, and there would be famines, pestilences (epidemics and pandemics of contagious diseases), and earthquakes would happen in various places.  All of these are what He called “the beginning of sorrows”.

If you have been on this earth for several years, you have already heard about folks claiming to be Christ or at least heard or read about the preaching of false doctrines that have had many folks to fall for the lies of Satan rather than the true gospel message.  Those of us who are baby boomers were taught in school about the Civil War, or as some call it, the War Between the States, World War I and World War II, lived through the Korean War, the Viet Nam conflict, the war with Iraq and Afghanistan, and other not as well-known conflicts.  At the present, the war between Ukraine and Russia is being waged, and some news outlets and politicians say that Ukraine is winning while others say Russia is winning.  That war has been going on for over a year and a half with no end in sight.  The point is that there have always been wars.  Just read the history of Israel in the Old Testament.  It seems that Israel was at war for about half of their existence, and bombing and fighting keeps cropping up every so often with their enemies still today.

Nations have been in conflict with other nations, perhaps not physical war, but a cold war where there is tension between nations for different reasons.  Having been a child of the 1950’s, we were in fear that Russia would bomb us any day, and, in school, we had to practice going out in the hallway, getting down on our knees and covering our heads with our hands as though that would protect us from an atomic blast or the radioactive fallout.  Living near a major aircraft manufacturing plant, we were in particular danger.

We have heard about famines in Africa, much of it due to wars between tribes.  Famine is usually a byproduct of wars.  I remember seeing pictures on television of little children with swollen bellies from lack of food.  There have been several serious pandemics throughout history:  the Black Plague in the 14th century which was the bubonic plague which killed up to 200 million people by some estimates, the Spanish flu in the early 20th century which killed up to 100 million people, the Hong Kong flu in the late 1960’s which killed somewhere between one and four million, and the COVID pandemic, the most recent outbreak of a deadly disease which began in 2020, blamed for the death of millions across the globe and still keeps going with variants.  These are just a few of the pestilences that have occurred on this planet.

Just recently there was a large earthquake in Morocco, and thousands of people were killed.  In February of this year, there was an earthquake in Turkey and Syria which killed over 20,000 people.  In researching, I found that it is not unusual for there to be 30 or more earthquakes, magnitude 2.5 or more, in a 24-hour period.  I had no idea there were that many earthquakes on a daily basis.  We usually just hear about the really giant ones.  There was one where I live several years ago.  It happened around 5 a.m. and shook our bed.  It was centered about 500 or so miles away.  A huge earthquake hit Indonesia in 2004 triggering a tsunami which was reported to have killed over 200,000 people in five countries.  Earthquakes are the most dangerous of all weather events because they cause so many deaths.

As far as “climate change” is concerned, if the climate seems to be getting more volatile, it is not because of man’s influence on the environment, but, I believe, it is caused by man’s sinfulness.  I believe that God is trying to wake us up to the fact that He is the all-powerful God who will have no other gods before Him, and that includes the gods of climate change, whatever they may be.  If these times are truly the beginning of sorrows, and God is using the weather to usher in the time of the end, then no amount of cutting back on emissions, fossil fuels, carbon, gas stoves, air conditioning, etc. will change anything.  It is good to conserve the natural resources that we have and not waste them.  God gave us these natural resources and the knowledge of how to use them to better our lives on earth.  Thus, we should be environmentally conscience of how we use and conserve them, but not abandon what God has provided for us.  After all, this earth belongs to Him, and He just lets us live here until such time as we enter eternity.