Steven Collins
May 11, 2008
As all readers no doubt know, the reclusive nation of Myanmar (Burma) has been hit by Cyclone Nargis, a storm of historic proportions. Americans call such oceanic storms “hurricanes,” but in Asian regions they are called “cyclones.” The link below from the BBC states that while the official death toll now stands at 28,000, at least another 33,000 people were known to be missing and independent aid agencies estimate 100,000 people may already have perished.
Myanmar’s military junta has been slow to allow international relief supplies into its reclusive nation so many more people will die due to the neglect of Myanmar’s own rulers. The BBC link notes that as many as 1.5 million people may die unless the clean water and sanitation needs of the wounded and displaced survivors are met swiftly. The UK’s Foreign Minister, David Miliband, is quoted as saying this cyclone is turning into “a humanitarian catastrophe of genuinely epic proportions.” A side-effect of this tragedy is that Cyclone Nargis struck the rice-producing region of Myanmar, so the current global rice shortage will no doubt worsen.
Could any of this be prophesied? I think the answer is “yes.” Matthew 24 and Luke 21 contain parallel accounts of a famous prophecy Jesus Christ made concerning the latter days of this age. Matthew’s account receives most of the attention, but Luke’s account contains some information not found in the Matthew narrative. One such item unique to Luke’s account is in Luke 21:25. Included among the signs that the end of the age is drawing near is a prophecy about the “sea and the waves roaring.” Such oceanic weather disasters would include hurricanes, oceanic cyclones and tsunamis.
Consider that the world is experiencing a rising crescendo of very severe oceanic storms. The city of New Orleans will never fully recover from Hurricane Katrina, which struck that city in August, 2005. It also caused mega-billions in damages and unleashed one of the largest wave of weather-related refugee migrations in US history. The epic Indian Ocean tsunami on December 26, 2004 killed an estimated quarter-million people in 11 nations and caused historic damage and numbers of refugees. That tsunami was caused by an undersea earthquake which was, according to Wikipedia, the 4th strongest earthquake on the earth since 1900. While many Pacific Rim nations (the Philippines, Taiwan, China, Japan, etc.) have experienced many damaging tropical cyclones in recent years, those nations suffered much less damage and loss of life than the current Myanmar cyclone because the other Asian governments warned their populations in a timely manner when storms were imminent. The Myanmar disaster apparently was so costly in loss of life because the Myanmar government reportedly didn’t adequately warn its people that a killer storm was approaching.
All these recent and epic oceanic weather disasters fulfill Luke 21:25’s prophecy about the “sea and waves roaring” in the latter days of this age. We can add this prophetic fulfillment to many other fulfilled biblical prophecies about events that would occur in the latter days of our age. The prophecy of Luke 21:25 indicates that we should expect other oceanic storms to strike various places around the globe as we progress deeper into the latter day fulfillments which will climax with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
Other biblical prophecies foretold such latter-day events as the founding of the Jewish state of Israel, the development of atomic bomb technology, an incredible increase in mankind’s knowledge and technological development, satellite TV networks, global diseases and pestilences, food shortages and high food prices, etc. A detailed examination of biblical prophecies being fulfilled in our modern times is found in my article “Are We Living in the Biblical Latter Days?” which is available at the articles link at this website.
