Is today’s Japan quake a harbinger of worse to come?
March 11, 2011 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Like the rest of world, I am horrified by the the damage and death being reported in Japan after today’s mega-quake which devastated the central island of Honshu. And I join countless others around the world who are praying for the Japanese people in an especially fervent way. Who knows what will happen next? Hopefully, the worst is behind them, but it’s quite possible that more quakes will rock Japan and other seismically active areas of the earth, including likely areas in the U.S. such as California and the St. Louis/New Madrid quake zone, etc. The Lord’s words, “Watch and pray,” are reverberating in my mind right now.
Watch this video and, if you think it has merit, plan accordingly. Personally, I find the information presented here (2 days ago!) to be very thought provoking, to say the least. Do let me know what you think, whether positive, negative, or indifferent.
Lastly, this Bible verse seems particularly appropriate for today’s meditation:
As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?” And Jesus answered them, “Take heed that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: all this is but the beginning of the birth-pangs. (Matt. 24:3-8)
Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
Live each day as if it were your last day in this world.
There but for the Grace of God go I; my heart is broken for the Japanese people. Praying without ceasing!
When Christ uttered the Olivet prophecy, he was primary speaking about events leading up to the destrction of the temple. His own coming was to be like a thief in the night, totally withot warning. Most Catholic and Protestant commentators agree with this idea, the only people who say otherwise are outright kooks like Camping and the late Herbert Armstrong, and dispensationalists gurus like Linsday and LaHaye.
We are just in tears watching what’s going on on the NE coast here – we have a little summer cabin that is right near the epicenter, so we know that area very well. My family and I are fine, but we are aching for those who have lost so much – everything. Such utter devastation!
Preparing some stores of food and water, etc., is just a given over here in Japan – there is always the awareness that the “big one” could come at any time, particularly for those of us in the Tokyo area. Yet, look at those people who got washed away – no provision or food store could have helped them. To me, this whole disaster makes me want to get on my knees. If nothing else, God is calling us to be a people of prayer.
Facing my own mortality also just reminds me that I shouldn’t take a single day for granted. Rather than looking ahead to what could happen tomorrow, I want to live the way God is calling me to live right now! (Please know that I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be prepared or plan at all, of course).
Thanks to every one who has been praying for Japan! Please pray that He will use this situation to draw hearts to Himself. God bless you!!
As we are told in the Bible “Maidens keep your lamps lit, you know not the hour.”
Coupled with all the floods and fires of last year, we could indeed see a world wide famine like we have never seen before.
Pray.
Patrick,
I like the fact that you posted that Bible passage, but I have a very different take on it than the way people tend to take it. The common interpretation is that Jesus was giving us signs to look for as harbingers of the end of the world. I don’t think that this is correct.
For one, it would be very inconsistent with His firm, explicit instructions from the same discourse *NOT* to worry about or to look for when the end is coming. In fact, in the section you quoted He actually seems to be cautioning His listeners against being led astray by these kinds of events.
Yet another interpretation of His words exists which *is* consistent with these messages, namely, that He’s telling His disciples precisely that these kinds of events *aren’t* signs of the end. Remember, He is speaking here to a group of mainly Jews living in an age and with a theological outlook wherein every negative event was taken as a sign of God’s anger. These are the people who asked Jesus whose sin was responsible for a man’s blindness, and who assumed that the fall of the tower in Siloam was yet another punishment. Moreover, He knows that within a generation the terrible disasters of Nero and the destruction of the Temple were to come. It is this people to whom He’s trying to give the messaGE not to see the end of the world behind every falling rock or crashing tower.
Thus, it seems probable to me that His message was, rather than that the terrible events He lists are signs of the end, that they are just simply everyday events which will happen time and time again as the years carry on. “Over the thousands of years until my return,” He says in a sense, “there will be many earthquakes, wars, and famines. These are normal. They don’t mean the end is near.”
And indeed history has been filled with wars, famines, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other such events. Are there more now than in the past. I do not know. If so, so what? Geology and climatology are defined by long cycles of increased and decreased activity. If we are in a cycle of increased activity, all the more reason to pray and be vigilant for our souls – but no reason to read in these things that the end is near. I dare say Christ told us not to.
I took a real quick look at the US gov’t data (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqstats.php), and it looks like we’re tracking pretty much dead even with previous years. Same number of big quakes that you would expect for being about 1/4 through the year; maybe fewer little quakes.
It’s my daily habit to check out iris.edu/seismon. I’m not a geologist – but changes in activity are pretty obvious… You don’t have to be an expert to detect patterns in the data.
I started checking the Seismic Monitor shortly after Hurricane Katrina, Patrick. We were caught by surprise by that disaster (details are on my old blog starting in October 2005) and it changed our lives forever. Your most recent posts here hit home for me in a lot of ways. Your dream involving the storm and devastation – and the untouched Bible was particularly riveting. Your dream got it right.. We experienced that.
I realize that I’m a kook in all sorts of ways – but I just have to tell you that ever since our experience here in 2005 we have felt that what happened here was coming to the rest of the world.. soon. Over the years I’ve met countless people from all walks of life who have said that the storm was a blessing — that we were blessed to be given a taste of what was to come and some time to get our priorities straight.
Thanks for posting, Patrick. Oh – and the new blog format is great. 🙂
One thing is for sure, it will only help convince more people that Harold Camping knows something (although, I don’t..)..
http://www.familyradio.com/index2.html
Watching and praying is always good! But here’s what geologists say on the subject: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/faq/?faqID=110
This guy’s a quack. He gives no historical data indicating that the level of activity is unprecedented. He uses vague terms like “huge” and “words can’t describe”. No data. Quack.