SUMMARY:
THE signs of the End Time predicted by Christ include EARTHQUAKES (Matt 24:7). Interestingly, natural disaster is the third of the major signs that our Lord mentioned (c/f vs 5 to 7), the first being SPIRITUAL DECEPTION and the second WARFARE.
Famines, pestilences, and earthquakes are among the most dramatic and observable and, like WAR and DECEPTION, have occurred throughout history. So what is Christ really saying? Obviously, His prediction has something to do with increased frequency and intensity.
Last Boxing Day’s natural disaster (Dec 26, 2004) may have caused more destruction and death than any one other single event throughout recent history.1 At least 160,000 lives were lost, (SBS News recently put it at 300,000) and some countries are still counting.
Tremors, some quite severe, are continuing with ominous indications that are making people fiee their homes in places such as the Andaman islands to safer locations.
So what do we learn from this?
Firstly, that Christ and the Bible are correct:
Religious leaders have reacted oppositely.
The archbishop of Canterbury said the tsunami made some people doubt the existence of God.
The archbishop and/or Dean of Sydney said it was a judgment from God.
An Imam in Indonesia said Allah was punishing Muslims for fighting each other.
Few seem to have grasped the truth!
Christ and His Word are right and it’s going to get worse. Punch the words “earthquake” and “earthquakes” into a search engine of the New Testament and read the relevant passages, especially those in REVELATION.
The devastation and horror that are in store for this world are overwhelming. Our Lord’s response to disaster was unequivocal
“except you repent you will ALL likewise perish” (
Luke 13:3-5)
— read on at: http://www.desiringgod.org/library/fresh_words/2005/010505.html
Secondly, that Satan will try to preempt God:
Satan is the archenemy and he’s after the souls of men, not their mere bodies.
Christ told us that the principal and predominant sign of the End Times would be DECEPTION. Have you noticed how the tsunami has caused added spiritual confusion and deception within the Church?
Dr Rowan Williams, a known heretic and a druid, has confused the issue by suggesting that an agnostic approach is acceptable.
This man is the international head of the Anglican Church — INCREDIBLE.
Bad as that is, a potentially worse development relates to the boost that the disaster has given to ecumenism especially on the socialwelfare front.
Here in Australia, Tim Costello was a strong voice against the evils of gambling and of the faith-prosperity message of groups like Hillsong. The tsunami changed all that.
As a well-known former Baptist minister, and brother of the high profile treasurer of the Australian government, he was an obvious choice for the vacant position of head of World Vision.
Sadly, his balanced, sound and godly evangelical voice has now been drowned out by the clatter of the social-welfare chariot wheels. Millions of dollars have rolled into World Vision’s coffers.
Few wonder where those dollars end up and the devil does NOT care.
Recently there have been ominous pro-Arab and anti-Israel sounds emanating from World-Vision that we as Christians should not ignore. Satan is after the souls of men.
The tsunami and its aftermath have become cogs in the great wheel of deception.
Thirdly, that we all have a personal responsibility:
We can all pontificate on the pros and cons, the good and evil and tell our favourite stories of what happened to prove our view of the tsunami, but unless we are very careful we will miss the personal application.
In Sri Lanka, so I heard, a group of Christians sheltered in a church while another group sought protection in a wealthy man’s home.
The home was swept away while the church and those within stood firm and safe.
On the other hand Muslims, tell of their own people being protected within a mosque while all around was destroyed.
Both stories may be true.
Others have emerged about persecuted Christians being chased from their homes to higher ground before the tsunami hit and wiped out all their enemies.
Here’s a particularly moving true story out of Aceh where the devastation was among the greatest.
On December 22, the military issued an order forbidding churches to conduct Christmas services.
Included were five churches that had prepared choir pieces, dramas and their pastors’ sermons.
They were upset and angry when they received the prohibition.
The five groups decided to go to the mountains to conduct their Christmas celebrations. Leaving on Christmas morning, they held their services that evening.
It was far from the city so they had taken tents to camp overnight.
The next morning December 26th, the tsunami hit.
All those in the mountains were saved. 2
Here’s another from the Bible League-Australia.
In terms of physical damage and loss of human life, the Acehnese were hit harder by the earthquake and tsunami than any other area in the affected region, with the death toll rising everyday.
But reports from the region indicate {that} … Christians are setting their own needs aside to reach out to the very people who have persecuted them so severely
Bible League’s Director of Southeast Asia Ministries says, “The Christian community is going to come in there, in the name of Christ and minister to the very people that burned their churches.”
Pray that Christian believers will find openness among their neighbours as they reach out with the love of God. Uphold Bible League-trained Bible study leaders and Church Planters who will give spiritual support to those who continue to live in fear and distress at this time.3
That prayer suggested by Southeast Asia Bible League Director brings us to the crux of the matter — How should we then live?
I counted the late Dr Frederick Tatford of Brethren fame a personal friend.
His writings and preaching on the Return of Christ were incredibly challenging.
He would conclude most messages something like this: “Christ is coming.
It might be tonight.
Will you be ready?” You could cut the air.
The conviction was so great.
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It might be tonight. Will you be ready? |
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His was precisely the same as the New Testament appeal in respect of the Second Coming of Christ.
It is always directed to us personally.
“Take heed, watch and pray: for you do not know when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man going to a far country, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch therefore: for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, at evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning: And what I say to you I say to all, Watch!” (Mark 13: 33-37).
“And every man who has this hope in him purifies himself, even as He is pure” (1 John 3:3).
“But if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord is delaying his coming; And shall begin to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards. The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he was not looking for him, and at an hour that he is not aware of and shall cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 24: 48-51).
As Christians, we are held accountable both to the Lord and to and for our Christian brother or sister.
This is the motivation for some of the work that we do within CWM.
Many misunderstand this. Personally I think God is grieved and even angry at those who “beat their fellow-servants” with financial, spiritual or psychological cons. They are accountable and should be warned against and named where necessary.
These “leaders” trade in human lives. They elevate themselves and others by claims about being “anointed”.
They are the very men that Jesus called “false christs” (i.e. anointed ones). They and the end time doctrines that they promote should be exposed.
“And Jesus answered and said to them, take heed that no one deceive you.
For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and will deceive many. (11) And many false prophets shall rise up, and deceive many” (Matthew 24:4-5,11).
That is a bigger TSUNAMI than the physical one that hit the world on Boxing Day 2004.
Watch, purify yourself and don’t beat your fellow-Christian.
This issue of CETF, as always, includes good biblical teaching by a number of authors plus a balance of warning articles and the usual Letters with an expanded News and Views section on account of the interesting Daniel Scot and Catch-the-Fire versus the Muslims issue in Australia and the Hate Speech link in UK.
Happy reading.
God bless you.
Footnotes:
1 Time magazine claimed 300,000 died in the Bangladesh fioods of 1970, 140,000 in the Japanese earthquake of 1923 and 145,000 in the Yangtze River fiood of 1931 with 3 million dying during the famine and disease that followed.
2 Source: held in CWM files but withheld on account of sensitive anti-Christian concerns.
3 Source: Australian Bible League.
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Appeared in Issue CETF NR 32 2005
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-Last revised-
Monday, October 09, 2006
