“Divers” Earthquakes and Roaring Sea Waves!
October 20, 2005
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
The following four paragraphs came from an Associated Press Article in the Jerusalem Post.
BEGAN FOUR PARAGRAPH EXTRACT
Hurricane Wilma strengthened into a Category 5 monster early Wednesday with 175 mph (282 kph) winds, and forecasters said a key reading of the storm’s pressure showed it to be the most powerful of the year.
The storm is the record-tying 12th hurricane of the season, the same number reached in 1969; 12 is the most in one season since record-keeping began in 1851.
On Monday, Wilma became the Atlantic hurricane season’s 21st named storm, tying the record set in 1933 and exhausting the list of names for this year.
The six-month hurricane season doesn’t end until November 30.
Any new storms would be named with letters from the Greek alphabet, starting with Alpha.
END JERUSALEM POST EXTRACT
For some thirty years I have listened to many scientists, particularly those of atheistic and agnostic persuasion, assure the world that earthquakes are not really on the increase, nor is the current hurricane outbreak a thing out of the ordinary. They simply say all of the current disasters are cycles in the normal evolutionary pattern of the earth’s history and future.
Unfortunately, some pastors are telling their congregations the scientists are correct, and the coming of Jesus is in the far distant future. The scientists are assuring the world population that these things have been going in cycles since the evolutionary beginning of the world, and they scoff at anyone stupid enough to believe the promise of the coming of Jesus Christ.
They assure us that since man was first placed on the earth, all of our forefathers who were formed by the evolutionary processes, but are now asleep in the earth, experienced these same cycles of disasters, and things are actually continuing as they were since man lost his ape like characteristics after the dawn of his creation. Sound familiar? Did not our God warn us this would be the case in the last days
? Did not he have the prophets write words to warn us this was going to happen just before the coming of his Son?
II Peter 3:1-4 – This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: [2] That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: [3] Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, [4] And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
I have never denied that the cycles, to which my fellow scientists refer, have occurred historically on this earth. They are quite correct about the cycles in earthquakes and hurricanes. I claim that God, who made all that is creation, controls these cycles to suit his own pleasure, and that
they are now occurring in synchronization to produce the final cycle of disasters that will eventually lead into the great tribulation period. All phenomena associated with these disasters will finally harmonize into one great ending cycle of terror like man has never experienced, that is, if one believes the word of God.
Matthew 24:21,22 – For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. [22] And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
Luke 21:25,26 – 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; [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.
We are definitely not in the tribulation period itself, but we have been in the beginning of sorrows since 1967, and I suspect we are approaching the end of it, at which time it will abruptly turn into the tribulation period when a great earthquake, in the Jordan River valley, produces a chain reaction series of energy releases along the entire length of the thousands of miles of interlinking tectonic plate boundaries.
I believe this is the first of all the earthquakes found in the book of Revelation.
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;
Israel recaptured the old city of Jerusalem and Temple Mount in 1967. Two years later in 1969, a total of 12 Hurricanes tied the old record number of 12 set in 1933, a year after I was born.
Hurricane record keeping began in 1851, which was two years before my great-great-great-great-great grandfather, Henry McElmurry, in the living room of his son Andrew, organized the Antioch Missionary Baptist church in Zion, Arkansas. So, both of these record tying numbers occurred in the last 36 years, one in 1969 and one in 2005.
I do not deny that hurricanes occur in cycles, but
I do claim that the cycles are controlled by God, and are getting closer together. And I do not deny that earthquakes run in cycles, but I do believe what the word “divers” means in Luke 21:10.
Luke 21:11 – And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
The Greek word translated “divers places” is made up of two words: “kata,” which means “down,” being used here in the distributive sense, “throughout, from one place to another,” and the word “topos, which means “places” in the earth’s topography. The inference is that earthquakes would be occurring down through the earth in many different places. The fearful sights and signs were to begin to appear more frequently in the atmosphere of the earth as smoke clouds, rising from volcanic eruptions, when the tribulation period drew closer.
Please consider what I wrote five years ago in Archive Prophecy Update 18, concerning the reasons for the increase in earthquakes, and the importance of the word translated “divers.”
BEGIN EXTRACT FROM UPDATE 18
In 1967 Israel recaptured the Old City of Jerusalem and her Temple Mount and, for the first time since she lost it to the Romans in A.D. 70, she regained sovereignty over it. During the 19 year period that followed, from 1968 to 1986, there were 125,011 earthquakes reported across the earth. In just 14 years, from 1986 to 2000, we had 247,347 earthquakes reported on this globe. I assure you that they will continue to accelerate, but if they were simply to continue at this static rate of 17,688 per year then, by the time that the 19 year cycle is completed in 2005, there will have been 335,687 reported across the earth. The average number reported per year since 1948 has increased, in 19 year cycles, from 1,726 to 6,579 to 17,688. I realize that a large part of the increase is due to better seismological equipment, a better reporting system, and an increase in the density of population, but it cannot be attributed to these factors alone. And, after all, Jesus simply said, for all practical purposes, that more and more would be reported in many different (divers) places just before he came again. And, in say
ing they would be in many different places, one would have to surmise he knew man would spread across the earth and that technology would rapidly increase in the last days. In any case, it demonstrates he is who he claimed to be, the Son of God, who knows the future. Did not the Spirit, in Daniel 12:4, indicate that man would spread across the earth, and technology would bring a literal knowledge and capability explosion: “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Could Jesus have known less?
END EXTRACT FROM UPDATE 18
In Archive Prophecy Update Number 206, you can see that when the last 19 year cycle was completed, the actual number of reported earthquakes had increased from the estimate of 17,668 to 20,061.
Also, please consider the following extract regarding the importance of Jesus saying that more earthquakes were going to be reported just before his coming, without giving the specific reason as to why.
BEGIN EXTRACT FROM UPDATE 162B
Man has indeed run to and fro in the earth, under the earth, and above the earth, and experienced an unbelievable knowledge explosion in the last 100 years. We now know what produces earthquakes, and all the other things associated with the earth’s functioning parts. Jesus walked on this earth as its creator.
He knew everything there was to know about it. He knew its past and its future. He knew that man would eventually discover the rest of the world, and then spread across it. He knew the world’s population would pass six billion in 1999. He knew that man’s immorality in sexual conduct would cause 40 million cases of HIV to exist on the earth in 2003. He knew seismic tomography would be able to photograph the earth to its core before the dawn of the twenty-first century. He knew that a very efficient worldwide seismological system of reporting earthquakes would come into being, and that earthquakes would be reported in places they had never been reported before, because of the new system and man spreading into many areas that had never felt a human foot. He knew that many more earthquakes would be reported than ever before, and that t his would continue right up to the time of
his coming. He also indicated that just before his coming the whole tectonic structure was set for a massive readjustment, which geologists have labeled as a period of “isostasy” that occurs between long intervals of time. I believe it is what the Bible identifies as the tribulation period. So, with all this in mind, let’s take a look at what Jesus said about the pattern earthquakes would follow in the beginning of sorrows, which was to eventually lead into the tribulation period.
Matthew 24:7,8 – For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in DIVERS places. [8] All these are the beginning of SORROWS.
There are two key words in this verse we must take into account concerning earthquakes.
(1) DIVERS, meaning many different places,
(2) And SORROWS, meaning the pains of a woman giving birth.
The Lord indicated that earthquakes would be on the increase like a woman’s birth pains. He did not say WHY they would increase in number. He just said they would be increasing in number. He was the only man on earth at the time that knew WHY!
Now, because of our knowledge explosion, we know WHY, or at least PART of WHY! There is no way an atheistic scientist can prove they aren’t, and there is no way a Christian scientist can prove they are – Why? Because the atheistic will normally tell you the increase in earthquakes is due totally to all the reasons I listed previously, and a Christian will normally tell you the increase is not totally due to all the reasons I gave earlier. Quite frankly, I am convinced that, while most of the unbelievable increase is due to those reasons listed, some of it is due to
the hand of the Lord in his creation. But the question of WHY is mute because the increase in the number reported is fantastic, and Jesus did not say WHY, he just said it would happen, and IT IS!
END EXTRACT FROM UPDATE 162B