And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. “All these are the beginning of sorrows. [Matt 24:4-8 NKJV].
Whatever people might tell you, as we have to base our information on reality, the number of earthquakes have not increased dramatically since 1900. However they are becoming more common in built up areas and are increasing in size. On the Richter scale the numbers are based on a Logarithmic scale For example, a magnitude 5.3 might be computed for a moderate earthquake, and a strong earthquake might be rated as magnitude 6.3. Because of the logarithmic basis of the scale, each whole number increase in magnitude represents a tenfold increase in measured amplitude; as an estimate of energy, each whole number step in the magnitude scale corresponds to the release of about 31 times more energy than the amount associated with the preceding whole number, so an earthquake of 7 is 31 times more violent than one of 6. The earthquakes are getting bigger. The Bible states that “there will be earthquakes in various places” not that there will be more, but we will be more aware of them. Let’s read the Bible accurately. The world has a very much better monitoring system than it did in times past and their size can be measured more accurately. The destruction in several cities has been immense and it has alerted our awareness to the terrible destruction that can be occasioned by an earthquake in a built up area. During the Tribulation we are told there will be some terrible earthquakes destroying many cities and moving islands out of their place.
However let us look at the battles going on at present. There have been local battles since man sinned but only in the last 100 years have they become worldwide. The Bible refers to nation against nation. The last few years have involved many rebellions and civil unrest. The French revolution and the Russian uprising were bad but it seems that today it is not a case of kingdom against kingdom as it was at the beginning of the last century but now total unrest by ideologists and religionists such as ISIS and others within their own nations and now their cause becoming worldwide. The root Greek for nation is “ethnos” from which the Bible has translated nation, and from which we get “ethnic”. Many of the conflicts going on are racial, civil war or religious rather than Countries fighting each other no doubt this is why the Bible passage refers to Kingdom against Kingdom and Nation against Nation. In some translations, such as the NIV, in Luke Chapter 21 and verse 9 it is translated revolutions.
Also in Luke we are told about the terrible storms, famines and pestilences that will at the end times hit our planet. Never have there been, in spite of medical knowledge, so many unknown illnesses, plagues and untreatable illnesses in the world. Epidemics in various countries have stretched medical knowledge. Infections such as bird flu transferring to humans. And Ebola, have swept like wildfire through areas, totally out of control at first with scientist’s frantically trying to find cures. The illnesses are being spread by the number of people travelling from place to place. Daniel in chapter 12 has a glimpse of the future but is told not to record it, all he says is what he is told; “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”[Dan 12:4 NKJV]. If ever in this day and age when these words might be fulfilled, it is now, with computers, email, and google with their sources of reference, Plus airline travel indicate that these words are being revealed before us. Never before has so much been known and travel so widely performed. Taking the total passengers who fly each day listed by the top four airline alliances the number is approximately 8.2 million. Just another prophecy being fulfilled at this present time.
As mentioned before there is a movement towards a cashless society with only cash cards, and direct cash transfer being used. We have seen this movement widespread amongst us already in general shopping, and there is active encouragement from the banks and financial institutions to move towards this method of payment. Sweden is leading the elimination of using cash and every pressure to use cards or direct electronic payment is progressing very fast to fulfilment. The illegal and theft of people’s cash cards, credit cards and the invasion of people’s bank accounts is promoting ways around this problem. The banks and others are advocating the use of RFID [Radio-frequency identification chips] in the hand or forehead to act as identification and in place of cash and bankcards and of course cash and cheques. This seems similar to that future information prophesied in the Bible “He [The Antichrist or Beast] causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. [Rev 13:16-17 NKJV].
How long we may be away from these things being fulfilled remains to be seen but the lot of the Christian in this future world we are heading into, will mean that if these chips are going to be implemented very soon, we may not be here for long. Are you ready for that meeting in the clouds? I pray that you are.
Brian D. Papworth
Representative for the Prophetic Witness Movement International in the South Pacific.