As the World shakes, what should we do?

The world has been shaken by increased disasters in the last two years. We saw a record breaking heat wave in Australia in 2019 leading to wildfires there. We also witnessed a locust outbreak which affected the Middle East and Africa in 2020 followed by the coronavirus pandemic in the same year. Natural disasters have always occurred throughout our history, but what is different about the ones happening now is the scale at which they are happening. This year, the natural disasters have increased in frequency and intensity like a woman’s contractions as she approaches the birth of her child.

The words “unprecedented” and “record breaking” have become normal when journalists are reporting about them, making them stand out as signs of the end times. Jesus commanded us to watch for these signs so that we could be aware of the time and respond appropriately.

“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap.  For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth.  Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

Luke 21:34-35

So we want to point out some of these recent mega signs we are now seeing and what we should do about them. In the last few weeks, we have seen the following events:

  1. A Volcanic eruption in Congo. Mount Nyiragongo in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo erupted on the 22nd of May for the first time in almost two decades. Although this was a relatively mild eruption, it led to the death of at least 15 people and forced thousands of people to flee the city of Goma which is in close proximity to the Volcano.
  2. Extreme heat wave in North America. During the middle of June, several states in the Western United States experienced the highest temperatures on record for several consecutive days, the highest being recorded in death valley California at 1280F or 530C! This was coupled with severe drought conditions in the same areas which also triggered wildfires.
  3. The rise of the Covid19 delta variant. This is a more contagious variant of covid19 than the original versions. It was first detected in India in December 2020 and by April of 2021, it was the most common variant in the country which led to a deadly second wave in the country. It rapidly spread around the world during the first half of the year and led to several countries having to re-impose strict measures to curb the disease.
  4. Black fungus disease outbreak in India. Once considered a very rare disease, there is now a surge in the disease in the country due the steroids used to treat covid19 which lower the immunity. Surgeons have been forced to remove eyes, the nose and jaw from patients to stop it spreading to the brain. The death rate is above 50 per cent. The country has recorded more that 45,000 cases of the disease and over 4200 deaths.
  5. Floods in Europe. On the 14th of July, parts of Germany, Netherlands and Belgium experienced record breaking rainfall that caused catastrophic flooding, several hundred deaths and large scale destruction of infrastructure. It was reported that a village in Germany’s mountainous Eifel region had received rainfall for 24 hours straight! Cologne, in North Rhine-Westphalia recorded twice the amount of rainfall it gets in one month falling in 24 hours!
  6. Floods in China. From the 17th of July, China’s province of Henan started experiencing “rare and severe rainfall” which also caused catastrophic flooding and destruction leading to deaths. In the provincial capital Zhengzhou, the equivalent of a year’s average rainfall fell in just three days!
  7. Floods in India. On the 22nd of July, Mahabaleshwar, a hill station in Maharashtra’s Satara district located in the Western Ghats, India recorded the highest rainfall ever in its history with almost 600mm in 24 hours! At least 110 people have been killed in landslides and flooding triggered by heavy rains.

What is immediately striking is that four of these “plagues” have hit India. These are the locust invasion, the coronavirus delta variant, the black fungus disease outbreak and flooding. The world sees that what is happening to the weather all around is not normal and have attributed it to climate change. Its true that the climate is changing, but the root cause is different from what the media is reporting. According the the bible, the cause of all these usual weather patterns is sin and God is using them to call the world to attention.

The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the heavens languish with the earth. The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant….The floodgates of the heavens are opened, the foundations of the earth shake. The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is violently shaken. The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls—never to rise again.

Isaiah 24:4-5,18-20

So how should we respond to these events as Christians? Understandably, many see what is happening and are scared. However, we should not allow the fear to incapacitate us. Our response should be to:

  1. Pray for Gods strength to not fear. We should also pray for those affected by these disasters and also ask God to open the eyes of the world to what God is saying through these events. We should also pray for Gods supernatural protection from these disasters for us and our loved ones.
  2. Listen to what God is saying through the current situations around us, i.e. Repent and prepare for the Lords Return.
  3. Act in response to what God is telling us and reach out to people around to talk to them about repentance and preparation for the Lords return. People are now more open to the Gospel more than ever before because of pressures these events have created around the world. Be creative, we have multiple tools at our disposal like social media, smartphones and tablets which we can harness to blast the warnings God is sending. The revelations God has given us are not a privilege but a responsibility to share in simple ways his love and warnings of coming judgment.

The word of the Lord came to me:  “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman,  and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people,  then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head.  Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.’

Ezekiel 33:1-7
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