Steven Collins
September 18, 2008
The recent decade has seen a clear trend toward more frequent and deadlier hurricanes. Could this have been prophesied for the latter days as well? The answer is Yes.
In responding to his disciples inquiry about the signs that would signal that the end of this age had arrived and that the return of Jesus Christ was imminent, Jesus offered many answers to their question. Jesus’ answers are preserved for us in Matthew 24-25 and Luke 21. Believers usually look most at Matthew’s account, but Luke’s version has a piece of information not included in Matthew’s account. Luke 21:25 includes this statement in Jesus’ prophesied signs of the latter days; “…distress of nations, with perplexity: the sea and the waves roaring” (KJV).
When the “sea and waves” are “roaring,” you have destructive events coming on land from the oceans and seas. This would include hurricanes and such events as the very destructive and deadly Indian Ocean Tsunami of a few years ago. Scientists tell us that we have entered a period of increased hurricane activity. Some will say it is a result of global warming and some will say global warming is not a factor. I’m not addressing that debate. The key point is that we are seeing an upswing in the number and destructiveness of hurricanes. The power of hurricanes is also increasing. Category 4 and 5 hurricanes used to be rare events, and now they happen with much greater frequency. Hurricanes Andrew and Hugo devastated Florida and the American Southeast a few years ago. Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans in 2005 and a “mere” Tropical Storm caused much damage in Florida this year with excessive rainfall as it made four separate landfalls on the Florida Peninsula. Hurricane Ike has just devastated the cities of Galveston and Houston. The pictures of the destroyed regions of Galveston and the skyscrapers of Houston (with innumerable windows blown out and drifts of glass on the streets) make those cities look like war zones. Millions are still without power on the date of this blog and significant portions of the USA’s oil-production and refining facilities have been disabled. There have also been very destructive hurricanes in the Pacific Region, but Americans pay little attention to such events in other parts of the world. As readers know, the greatest loss of life in recent times due to the “sea and waves roaring” was the Indian Ocean Tsunami.
The Bible contains many prophecies about what will happen on the earth in the latter days just before Jesus Christ returns (Jewish readers would see Old Testament prophecies as indicating the advent of the Messianic Age was nearing). The founding of a Jewish nation in the old Promised Land, the explosion in scientific knowledge, the invention of technologies that would permit mankind to destroy all life on earth, worldwide video and communications technologies, etc. were all prophesied in the Bible as signs that would indicate the end of our age had arrived. These prophecies have been, without question, contained in the Bible centuries and millennia prior to their fulfillment in our modern time. Even the trend of increased hurricanes and tsunamis were forecast in the Bible. Only a fool would ignore this stunningly accurate record of prophetic accuracy. The precise accuracy of the Bible’s prophecies for the latter days displays openly the fact that only a Creator God could have both authored these prophecies so long ago in ancient times and be bringing them all to pass at the same time in our modern world. Isaiah 41:21-26 contains a challenge by the God of the Bible to all others to see that his ability to fulfill his prophecies proves his existence and sovereignty over the course of human history.
If you wish to examine a thorough discussion of the Bible’s “latter day” prophecies which are being fulfilled in the modern world, you are invited to read the article “Are We Living in the Biblical “Latter Days?” which is available at this website. We are living in the biblical “latter days” of this current age and you can prove it to yourself.
