EarthQuakes and Praise

• Messages sorted by:[ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]

Hi Andy

> > Please don't tell me you believe we are living in the last days 
> > because there is "increase in wars, earthquakes, blablablah" to 
> > paraphrase one of the recent Watchtowers...
> 
> Why not? The bible said that in the last days, these things would 
> happen more often than they had before. Pretty simple, eh? Don't slam 
> the man of God just because he believes what the bible says! :)

I would not dream of slamming you. 

First, the Bible does not say anywhere there would be any *increase* in 
earthquakes, wars, pestilence, famine or violence at any time. When 
asked for the sign of his coming, Jesus said that there would be such 
calamities, but that they were not signs of any *immediate* coming. 
These words can be interpreted in two ways: 1) these were non-signs; ie 
these were things Jesus *warned* his followers against being mislead 
by; or 2) that these were signs that the parousia was drawing close, 
but were not immediately to follow.

Since I hold to a preterist position, there is no problem. The second 
interpretation is then the most likely.

If you hold a futurist interpretation of the so-called synopic 
apocalypse (Mt24/Lu21/Mk13), you will have to hold the *first* 
interpretation to avoid having Jesus' words contradicted by facts.

In our century, famine and pestilence has been virtually eliminated. We 
have had wars, but not to any greater extent than in previous times. 
After 1945, we have been living in a world more peaceful than any such 
period in recorded history, at least after Pax Romana. I have myself 
done a quite detailed study into historical earthquakes. My conclusion 
was clear and unambiguous: The chance of getting killed in an 
earthquake today is 1/4th of that of a person living in the 18th 
century. The risque of getting killed in an earthquake is much lower 
than in any period in history. There is, as *any* seismologist will 
tell you, no increase in frequency or strength of earthquakes in our 
days.

So, if your interpretation of Christ was correct, we cannot be living 
in the last days. But people living in several *earlier* periods 
-- like during the black death -- could claim that the "sign" was 
present, yet Christ did not come then (as you know, I do believe he 
came once and for all in 70AD).


Cheers,
- Jan
-- 
          http://home.sol.no/jansh/wteng/jwindex.html