Chuck Roots
11 September 2017
www.chuckroots.com
End of the Age?
As typically happens whenever there
are natural catastrophes of immense destruction, there are those who come out
with doomsday pronouncements declaring the world is being judged, or the end of
the world is at hand.
As the 24/7 news cycle has so
breathlessly attempted to keep us up to date, we have watched as massively
destructive hurricanes ravage Texas along its Gulf of Mexico coastline, and now
Hurricane Irma is about to pounce on Florida from stem-to-stern. There is a
virtual national hysteria over the size and force of Irma as she bears down on
Sunshine State, having her way, disrupting all the inhabitants from Key West to
Jacksonville and beyond. This hurricane has already left in her wake death and
destruction, ripping through the Caribbean Islands. A retired Navy chaplain
friend who hails from Saint Thomas, the Virgin Islands, informed me that he
finally made contact with his brothers and sister back in St. Thomas. They are
all well, but one cousin was killed. And not a single roof survived the fury of
the storm.
I find myself getting really annoyed
by fools who decide to stay even after a mandatory evacuation has been called
for. I’m referring specifically to those who are very capable of leaving the
area, but choose not to for whatever foolish reasons they imagine. I heard of
one professional surfer who decided he would like to ride the wave produced by
Irma. I’m not sure where he did this, but the end result was his death. Others
are seen running around like frat boys acting stupidly in the face of certain
death. You would think that the horrors of Hurricane Harvey would have been
enough to convince folks that these storms are nothing to trifle with.
Mexico has had its own natural
disasters over the past couple of days. First, it was an 8.2 seismic reading some
60 miles off the western coast of Mexico now known as the Chiapas Quake. It is
listed as the strongest quake anywhere in the world during 2017. Last report
listed 61 people died. A day later, a hurricane hit the other side of Mexico
wreaking destruction and additional loss of life.
Back home in the western part of the
USA, we have experienced devastating forest fires in Washington, Oregon, California,
Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and Colorado. I looked at a map
on the Internet that showed where all the fires are. It’s frightful to
literally see ten of the western states going up in flames. A golfing buddy
just returned from Denver where he said they fires had created so much smoke
that you couldn’t see any blue sky. Another friend said the air quality in
Oregon and Washington was horrible, all due to out-of-control fires.
Add to these assaults by mother
nature a crazy man as the leader of North Korea, who seems to think it’s okay
to “beard the lion.” Kim Jung Un is doing his utmost to draw the US into a war.
This is lunacy! He threatens to use nuclear weapons against our allies, South
Korea and Japan, as well as nuke the US territory of Guam and even mainland
USA! What chutzpah! Can this madman actually cause destruction and death?
Certainly! Can the US wipe him and his nation out quickly? Yes. But only if we
are forced to do so. Let’s pray that this nut job will take a hiatus.
One more devastation is the
widespread famine that has affected significant portions of Africa. Famine is
nothing new on the African continent, but most of the time these famines are
caused by sparse rainfall. Two the worst famines in Africa at this writing have
been caused by warring factions, each destroying the fields and crops of the
other. Literally tens of thousands are dying due to lack of food.
It’s at times like this that I’ll
hear someone intone, almost as a prayer, “Jesus has to be coming back soon!
Things can’t possibly get any worse.” My response is, “Not so fast!” Does the
Bible have anything to say about this? Well, yes it does. In the 13th
chapter of the Gospel of Luke, we read, “When
you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must
happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and
kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and
famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.”
What does all this mean then? The
beginning of the End Times will be evident through earthquakes, wars and rumors
of wars, and famines, among other things. But this would only be the beginning
of that lengthy time period leading up to the triumphant return of Jesus.
You and I have no control over the
natural cataclysms that take place, nor do we have the power to prevent war and
its aftermath.
But we can decide whose side we’re
on. Joshua said, “But if serving the Lord
seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will
serve. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord!”
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