Record-breaking disasters

8/13/2019 Record-breaking disasters

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A new study found that people become more interested in

God when a natural disaster strikes. The study was

conducted just days after a powerful EF5 tornado ravaged

Moore, Oklahoma, on 20 May 2013. It has to take a natural

disaster to wake them up and make them sit up and think of

God. They dare not deny His existence. All agnostics (who

claim that people cannot know whether God exists or not),

atheists (who believe that God does not exist), freethinkers(who have their own opinions and beliefs), and others will

acknowledge His existence. As shown in Chapter 2, this will



only happen in the Great Tribulation.

The Great Tribulation is an event that has no parallel,

that is, what occurs during the Great Tribulation is

unparalleled. For example, the whole earth will be shaken in

the Great Tribulation, and this event so far has never

happened in the past. It is discussed under the heading

“Shaking of the Earth” in this chapter.

Natural disasters have increased in number, frequency

and intensity in recent years. At the dawn of the New Year2013, disasters struck Australia. The states of Tasmania and

New South Wales faced one of the “highest-risk fire days in

its history” as wild fires spread out of control destroying

homes. Much of the country experienced a record-breaking

heatwave, and temperatures in the Tasmanian state capital

Hobart reached a record high of 41°C. And a news report

had this headline: “Sydney sizzles on HOTTEST day on

record! Mercury soars to 46.4°C in Australia as heat triggers

massive bushfires.” Another danger was looming ahead: a

cyclone was approaching Australia's north-west coast and

“intensified into a category four storm, the second-highest

level” with wind gusts reaching 250kph near the cyclone's

centre. The Bureau of Meteorology confirmed that “the three

summer months ending 28 Feb 2013 the hottest season ever

recorded.” The report said: "The Australian summer over

2012 and 2013 has been defined by extreme weather events

across much of the continent, including record-breaking heat,

severe bushfires, extreme rainfall and damaging flooding."

Australia was not the only country struck by disasters. Heavy



snow fell in England causing chaos on roads, rail and

runways, grounding hundreds of flights and forcing

thousands of passengers to sleep on the floor at London's

Heathrow Airport overnight. Europe was also “hit by blizzards,

air traffic havoc, deaths.” “Temperatures drop to record low

as arctic blast sweeps Canada, US,” according to a news

report. Floods inundated the mega-city Jakarta of Indonesia

and caused many deaths. In the United States, a gigantic

storm “shattered homes and businesses around the Midwest

and South with tornadoes and high winds.” According to a

news report, arctic air swept through Canada and parts of

the United States and sent temperatures plunging to record

lows on Wednesday, 23 January 2013, with a wind chill of

minus 40°C. Public broadcaster CBC said Canada was the

coldest nation in the world at the start of the day with

temperatures as low as -43.1°C in the Northwest Territories.

All these disasters happened in the month of January

2013. Why did these disasters suddenly occur quite close to

each other? What do they signify? They are harbingers of

unparalleled disasters in the Great Tribulation and serve as

warning signs to the world that the Great Tribulation isapproaching.

On Friday, 15 February 2013, a rare event occurred. A

sizable meteor streaked across the sky and exploded over

Russia releasing shockwave with the power of an atomic

bomb. Buildings were damaged and glass windows were

shattered injuring more than a thousand people. Theshockwave was so powerful that it travelled twice around

the globe, scientists said.



On the same day, an asteroid DA14 approached so close to

the Earth — the closest ever recorded in history — but

missed the planet by 17,200 miles (27,700 kilometres).

However, in that day, meteors and asteroids will strike the

Earth, causing the Earth to shake. A news report stated

that the asteroid Apophis, 1000 foot wide (304.8 m) could

smash into Earth in 2036. It brushed past the Earth at a

distance of 30,000km in January 2013. Scientists claim

“little chance of it hitting us, but scientists warn of 'tiny but

real' likelihood it may in 2036.’” The date could be brought

forward sooner than scientists think in the Great Tribulation

once the heavens are shaken, sending Asteroid Apophis to

strike the Earth and the impact is so great that the Earth

shakes. There will not be only one asteroid but many

others hitting the Earth during the Tribulation. Already

scientists discovered a massive 200-kilometre impact zone

in the Australian outback they believe was caused by an

asteroid which smashed into Earth,” according to a news

report in February 2013.

Earthquakes

The powerful Wenchuan earthquake that struck on 12 May

2008 was China’s worst quake in a decade, and it claimed

more than 60,000 lives. Almost 30,000 people remained



missing and 300,000 others were injured. In the Great

Tribulation, millions of people will be killed and millions more

missing as they will have been swallowed up in the Great

Earthquake and their bodies cannot be recovered.

On 22 February 2011, New Zealand suffered its most

devastating earthquake in 80 years. It destroyed more than

100,000 homes, and the New Zealand prime minister said he

was “awe-struck” by the power of the earthquake and the

damage it had caused. In the Great Tribulation, people will

be not be awe-struck but terror-struck.

On 11 March 2011, a great Tohoku earthquake of

magnitude 9.0 in Japan was “so big its effects were even felt

at the edge of space,” according to a BBC news report. The

tremor sent sound waves through the atmosphere that were

picked up by a satellite. In the Great Tribulation, the tremors

of earthquakes can be heard around the world, strikingterror into the hearts of the people.

Over 110,000 people were killed in the Haitian

earthquake in January 2010, making it “the deadliest quake

on record in the Americas.” This Haitian quake was

considered as “the deadliest earthquake on record in the

Americas,” but the truly deadliest earthquake will occur inthe Great Tribulation and will break all records with a death

toll of millions, not hundreds of thousands, of people in

countries affected by this earthquake. Note what the

scripture say:

Revelation 16.18 And there were voices, and thunders,

and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, suchas was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty

an earthquake, and so great.



This earthquake is unparalleled: “such as was not since men

were upon the earth.”

Shaking of the Earth

A powerful earthquake struck Chile in March 2010 and

“probably shifted the Earth's axis by 8 cm and made days

slightly shorter,” a Nasa scientist said. It means the Earth

was shaken a bit but that shake pales into insignificance

when compared with the shaking of the whole Earth in the

Great Tribulation:

Hebrews 12.26 But now He [God] hath promised,

saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but

also heaven.

Hebrews 12.27 And this word, Yet once more,

signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken,

as of things that are made, that those things whichcannot be shaken may remain.

The shaking of the Earth and the heavens is literal. The

Greek word for “shake” in Hebrews 12, verse 26, is seio

(Eng., "seismic," "seismograph," "seismology"), meaning "to

shake, move to and fro," usually of violent concussion, is said

of the earth as destined to be shaken by God.” (Vine’sExpository Dictionary of New Testament Words) God has

promised to shake the Earth — “all that was of the old

creation, all that was and is corrupt and rebellious,” . . . but

this will be introduced by judgments which will dissolve all

that man leans upon.”

When the whole Earth is shaken, what will happen to allthe infrastructures in every country? What will happen to all

the buildings, no matter how quake-proof they are, how



shanty they are, how solidly built they are, how tall they are,

and how beautiful their architecture is? Most of all, when the

Earth shakes to and fro violently, what will happen to the

water in the seas, lakes, reservoirs and other large bodies of

water on land? It is just like swinging a basin of water

violently, and all the water in the basin is sent flying into the

air. Similarly, when the Earth is shaken, the seas, lakes, etc,

will also shake sending tonnes of water flying out of them far

and wide in every direction and hitting structures every

where around them. The impact of the water is so great (like

a super jumbo flying at high speed towards a tall building)

that it collapses buildings, bridges, flyovers, etc, and causes

floods. Many, many lives will be lost. The seas are shaken

triggering super tsunamis.

Haggai 2.6 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once,

it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and theearth, and the sea, and the dry land.

In March 2011, a powerful earthquake struck Japan so

much so it shifted the balance of the planet. “Japan’s

earthquake shifted balance of the planet. The devastating

earthquake and tsunami has actually moved the island closerto the United States and shifted the planet's axis,” said a

news report. The island has moved just very slightly but in

the Great Tribulation, mountains and islands will be moved

out of their places! The scriptures tell us so:

Revelation 6.14 And the heaven departed as a scroll

when it is rolled together; and every mountain andisland were moved out of their places.



Revelation 16.20 And every island fled away, and the

mountains were not found.

The land shakes causing buildings to fall. Mountains skip,

and islands disappear into the seas. The heavens shake

causing the satellites and rocks to fall from outer space to

the earth. The ocean floors shake triggering super tsunamis.

People are terror-struck and die of heart attacks.

Super tsunamis

When the earthquake struck Japan in March 2011, the island

not only shifted towards the United States, it triggered a

giant tsunami that travelled as far as Thailand and India and

causing widespread destruction and loss of lives. A news

report mentioned: “The devastation is absolute, revealing

the utter force of the massive wall of water that struck

Japan's north-east Pacific coast on Friday, following a 9.0-magnitude earthquake − one of the biggest ever recorded.

Cars were thrown every where, crushed by the swirling

waves and then stuck incongruously into the few remaining

structures, or balanced on top of huge piles of wooden

debris that were once houses.” The tsunami was reported to

be 10-metre tall generated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquakethat struck off the coast of Northeast Japan and causing

massive devastation and thousands of deaths. This disaster

pales in comparison to the disasters that occur in the Great

Tribulation when tsunamis are much taller than 10 metres,

perhaps 30 to 50 metres tall, triggered by earthquakes of

magnitude much greater than 9.0, perhaps 18.0 and above.Nothing is impossible during the Great Tribulation. As stated

at the beginning of the chapter, all events are unparalleled.



Luke 21.25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in

the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress

of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves

roaring.

The “waves roaring” remind us of tsunamis that may strike

many coastal cities, archipelagos, and islands like Samoa

Islands, Baker Island, Canada’s Pacific islands, Vancouver

Island, Caroline Islands, Cook Islands, Fiji Islands, Hawaii

and its islands, French Polynesia, Society Islands, Galapagos

Islands, Solomon Islands, Japan and its islands, Philippines

and its islands, Malaysia and its islands, Sri Lanka, Indonesia,

Hong Kong, Singapore (a report said the island is not

immune from a tsunami), and many other islands, whether

big or small, in the world. People living on the thousands of

islands in the world are deceiving themselves if they think

tsunamis will never come to their islands just because theyhave never seen a tsunami hitting their countries. When the

whole Earth is shaken, all the body of water in the oceans

and seas will be sent flying far and wide in every direction,

racing like mad as the super tsunamis strike every coastal

city and island. Oh, believe it.

Most of the world’s populations are found in cities. Citiesare fascinating places to live and pass one’s time. They have

buildings with beautiful architecture, modern skyscrapers

zooming into the sky, infrastructures that power and sustain

the cities to make life comfortable and convenient: malls,

supermarkets, shops, cafes, bars, gaming centres, etc.

Entertainment centres, amusement parks, and suchlike offerpleasures galore — all will be destroyed in the earthquake.

Those who live in the cities perish in the earthquake. If they



escape destruction the floods and storms will come and

finish them off.

Revelation 16.19 And the great city was divided into

three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great

Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto

her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.

Shaking of the heavens

The heavens are beautiful to behold with a powerful

telescope but one can still see with a naked eye stars

twinkling in the dark blue canopy of the night sky. For too

long a time, men have taken the order in the heavens for

granted. They do not appreciate the beauty God had created

for them to see.

Psalm 19.1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and

the firmament showeth His handiwork.

But in the Great Tribulation, there will be no beauty but

chaos in the heavens.



Matthew 24.29 Immediately after the tribulation of

those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon

shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from

heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.

Mark 13.25 And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the

powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.

The shaking of the heavens causes celestial bodies, stars,

magnestars, rocks, asteroids, meteoroids, and other

extraterrestrial bodies to shake and go out of their courses.

The magnestars that are usually some 20,000 light years

away in our Milky Way galaxy are now sent nearer to the

Earth. They have a magnetic field thousands of millions of

times stronger than that of Earth and so powerful that it can

even tear atoms apart. The Earth’s own magnetic field is

overwhelmed by the magnestars that it could cause Earth to

spin upside down, North Pole becomes South Pole and SouthPole becomes North Pole. There will be catastrophic

consequences that words cannot describe. On 27 August

1998, a wave of radiation from a magnestar hit the upper

atmosphere of Earth, disrupting radio station transmissions

and causing two spacecraft orbiting Earth to stop for a while.

In the Tribulation, the consequences will be catastrophic.

Earth ‘flipping upside down’

A news report in October 2012 quoted scientists as saying:

“Earth's magnetic field is weakening and could all but

disappear in as little as 500 years as a precursor to flippingupside down.” The Earth’s magnetic field could disappear in

the Great Tribulation. According to one Earth scientist,



“"Magnetic north has migrated more than 1,500 kilometres

over the past century.” In the Great Tribulation the magnetic

north could migrate many thousands of kilometres. Migratory

birds, bees, and ocean fish that use the magnetic field could

be greatly disoriented and confused. It would throw the

Earth into total disarray or turn it topsy-turvy. It could make

the Earth spin out of control — it is waiting to happen. Men

will die of heart attacks!

Luke 21.26 Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for

looking after those things which are coming on the

earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.”

Global warming

Two research papers published in the journal Nature warned

that global warming could exceed safe levels in this lifetime.

The Earth is getting warmer and warmer. The sea levels arerising. There are more severe floods and droughts. But wait

till the Great Tribulation comes when the Earth is scorched

with fire:

Revelation 16.8 And the fourth angel poured out his

bowl upon the sun; and power was given to him to

scorch men with fire.Revelation 16.9 And men were scorched with great

heat, and blasphemed the Name of God, Who has

power over these plagues: and they repented not to

give Him glory.”

Men are such that if they do not repent today they will never

repent in the Great Tribulation. They just perish in the greatfire. Global warming is a good indicator that the Earth is



heading for the baptism of fire. The Lord Jesus Christ is

coming. The Great Tribulation is coming!

The earth will not only experience baptism of fire, but

also baptism of water in some places. According to the

report released by the Organisation for Economic Co-

operation and Development (OECD) in December 2007, of,

“as many as 150 million people in the world's big coastal

cities are likely to be at risk from flooding by the 2070s, more

than three times as many as now. That 150 million would

increase manifold during the Great Tribulation.

World on the verge of a climate catastrophe

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has

warned that the world is on the verge of a climate

catastrophe. He gave the warning in his commentary in the

International Herald Tribune. He noted “recent accelerationin the melting of glaciers and polar ice, and pointed out that

the collapse of an at-risk Antarctic ice shelf could raise sea

levels by up to six metres, inundating costal cities New York,

Mumbai and Shanghai.” As Earth is becoming warmer,

climate zones may shift away from the equator and towards

the poles. This could result in “catastrophic floods anddroughts, rising sea levels and heat-wave deaths and

diseases.”

The climate change taking place in the world today is

the harbinger of the catastrophes — they are unparalleled —

that will strike the Earth in the Great Tribulation. It is coming!

Already “hurricanes, floods and other natural disastershit a growing number of people worldwide and are on the

increase due partly to global warming,” said the United



Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction

(UN/ISDR) in September 2004. A recent report pointed out

that natural catastrophes in 2007 were more frequent and

costlier than a year earlier. It said there were 950 natural

catastrophes in 2007 compared with 850 in 2006, the highest

number since 1974. It is a warning sign of greater impending

catastrophes.

Storms

Superstorm Sandy struck north-eastern United States without

mercy in October 2012. It caused billions of dollars of

damage, US$42 billion in New York alone. It caused more

damage than the notorious Hurricane Katrina.

We have seen land storms, windstorms, ocean storms

but rarely solar storms. On 23 January 2012, the biggest

solar storm since 2005 pummelled the Earth and could havedisrupted some satellite communications. The radiation storm

was caused by a flare shooting out of the sun but did not

cause any damage to the Earth. The flare “sent off a very

fast coronal mass ejection travelling 6.4 million kmh,”

according to a report. It caused flights to be rerouted. It is a

warning sign to the world that there will be upheaval in theEarth’s atmosphere when it is hit by a super solar storm in

the Tribulation. Planes shall crash.

Floods

Read the following news headlines:

“Floods paralyse Philippine capital Manila. BBC News,7 August 2012.

“Floods in UK: More than 800 homes flooded as



storms hit.” BBC News, 26 November 2012/

“Australia floods: Thousands evacuate NSW town.”

BBC News, 6 March 2012.

“Beijing chaos after record floods in Chinese capital.”

BBC News, 23 July 2012.

“Devastating India floods leave 95 dead, millions

Homeless." CNN, 4 July 2012.

What do these headlines tell us? The weather is getting

wetter. “2012 was the second wettest year on record in the

UK and the wettest ever in England,” said the UK Met Office.

It also suggested that “the UK may be getting increasingly

wetter.” A scientist at the Met Office said: “"The trend

towards more extreme rainfall events is one we are seeing

around the world, in countries such as India and China, and

now potentially here in the UK." In 2012, floods also hit the

United States, Malaysia, and other countries.There will definitely be floods occurring in the Great

Tribulation, but they will be more severe than those occurred

in 2012 but not to the extent of the Flood that covered the

whole earth in Noah’s time. God spoke to Noah and his sons

with him:

Genesis 9.11 “And I will establish My covenant withyou; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the

waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a

flood to destroy the earth.

Genesis 9.12 And God said, This is the token of the

covenant which I make between Me and you and every

living creature that is with you, for perpetualgenerations:



Genesis 9.13 I do set My bow [rainbow] in the cloud,

and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me

and the earth.

Genesis 9.14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a

cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the

cloud:

Genesis 9.15 And I will remember My covenant, which

is between Me and you and every living creature of all

flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to

destroy all flesh.

Genesis 9.16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I

will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting

covenant between God and every living creature of all

flesh that is upon the earth.”

Catastrophes are more frequent

A British report published in March 2011 stated that “majordisasters like the Japanese earthquake and tsunami or

Pakistan's floods are likely to become more frequent, and

global governments must prepare for an uncertain future.”

There is no uncertain future in God’s plan as the whole earth

will be entering the Great Tribulation at the coming of the

Lord Jesus Christ. These natural disasters today areharbingers of unparalleled disasters and weather conditions

in the Great Tribulation. They will inflict maximum damage

and the greatest loss of lives that the world has ever known.

There are other phenomena waiting to occur.

Revelation 6.12 And I beheld when he had opened

the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake;and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the

moon became as blood;



Isaiah 13.10 For the stars of heaven and the

constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun

shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall

not cause her light to shine.

The disasters that have occurred in recent years are nothing

when compared with those in the Great Tribulation. They

serve as warnings to the people of the world of impending

doom. But people just take these disasters today in their

stride and think such occurrences are usual and they should

not worry about them. For those affected by disasters, it is

no laughing matter but cause for concern. Many have been

awakened to turn to God and the Lord Jesus Christ Who died

on the cross to save them. In the aftermath of the Haitian

earthquake, people started to flock to churches; many came

to Christ.

In Noah’s days, the people were warned of theimpending flood but the people just ignored the warning and

perished. And people today are like those people in Noah’s

days: they do not want to come to the Lord Jesus Christ to

be saved, and as they read the pages of this book, may the

Holy Spirit of God open their eyes to see their sins, and that

they are in great danger of perishing.With all these catastrophes and topsy-turvy in weather

conditions, living conditions, travel, business, work, e-

commerce, etc will be severely affected. There will be no

more carnivals, sambas, and festivities. People will be

mourning and feel frightened.

After writing this, a powerful tornado on 21 May 2013struck and pulverised an Oklahoma City suburb of Moore

with winds of up to 320kmh wiping out block after block of



homes and affecting 33,000 people. 1,200 homes were

damaged or destroyed.

Photo: AFP

Central Europe was hit by floods after days of heavy rain.

The statue of world harmony leader Sri Chinmoy is partially

submerged in water from the rising Vltava river in Prague,

June 2, 2013. Photo: Reuters These disasters pale in comparison to those that occur in the

Great Tribulation.

Record-breaking disasters

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