The Bible
foretells a seven year tribulation period prior to Christ’s second coming. This
will be a time of unparalleled suffering for mankind.
Earthquakes
are a sure means to inflict this gory suffering, and the Bible includes
earthquakes as a part of the tribulation period. Hence some Christians were
quick to associate the recent earthquake in Nepal with the tribulation, thus
implying the rapid proximity of Christ’s second coming.
To be fair,
one cannot blatantly ignore these voices, for ‘Earthquaketrack.com’1
reported 109 earthquakes today (4th April 2015), 680 during the past
week, 2987 in the past month and 37, 655 in the past year. These large numbers could
easily validate these voices (this report includes earthquakes of magnitude 1.5
or greater).
Two
pertinent questions could be raised in the wake of natural disasters such as
the recent earthquake in Nepal:
1. If these
voices are valid, are we living in the tribulation period - are we experiencing
unparalleled suffering now? If not, when do we expect the great tribulation?
2. When
earthquakes (read suffering) destroy many lives irreparably, should Christians
shout loud to the world about the earthquake being a part of the tribulation
period or God’s judgment upon mankind etc.?
Are we
living inside the tribulation period? Matthew 24 outlines consecutive
tribulational events:
1. Deceptive
Messiahs: “Watch out that no one deceives
you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will
deceive many” (verses 4-5).
2. Wars: “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars,
but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is
still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom”
(verses 6-7).
3. Famines
& Earthquakes: “There will be famines
and earthquakes in various places” (verse 7b).
4.
Persecution & Martyrdom: “Then you
will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by
all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and
will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and
deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will
grow cold…” (verses 9-12).
5. Cosmic
Disturbances: “…the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the
heavenly bodies will be shaken” (verses 29).
6. Christ’s
Second Coming: “Then will appear the sign
of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn
when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and
great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they
will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the
other” (verses 30-31).
Various
other passages speak about the tribulation period (Daniel 9: 24-27; Jeremiah
30: 3-14; Revelation 6-18; Zechariah 12: 2-3, 8-9, 14: 1-5, 7-9; 2
Thessalonians 2: 1-10). However, the first event of the tribulation period, as
elucidated by premillenial scholars, is the arrival of antichrist.
Until now
there is no concrete sighting of the antichrist. Many rumors do circulate, but
they are unconvincing. Similarly, there are wars, famines, earthquakes and
cosmic disturbances, but is the unparalleled suffering of the tribulation period?
Let us
think this through by considering the factor of peace through the global peace index.
In other words, is the world at peace now?
Institute
for Economics and Peace’s (IEP) study2 reveals that only 11
countries in the world were not involved in conflict of one kind or another. Another
significant revelation of this study is that the world is becoming less
peaceful every year since 2008.
Having said
this, the world is not being traumatized by peacelessness. For instance, India ranks
143/162 in the global peace index (#1 ranked country is most peaceful and the
162nd ranked country is the least peaceful). According to this
statistic, India is not considered a peaceful country. However in reality,
barring instances of conflicts and violence, life is quite normal in most parts
of India.
If this is
the situation in India, 142 other countries do seem to enjoy a relatively
greater degree of peace. Hence a conclusion that we are not living in the
tribulation period, since suffering is not at its zenith in this world, is
reasonable.
When do we
expect the tribulation period to commence? Tribulation will surely occur in the
future, but since the Bible does not provide us with a specific date, it would
be unwise to propose a specific time frame.
When
natural disasters augment our suffering, should Christians make damaging
statements through social media forums equating natural disasters with God’s
judgment or as indicative of tribulation period? What purpose does this serve?
One blogger
had this to say, “Yet we know in the
Tribulation, all the mountains will be thrown down…. O, Nepal, your dead idols
cannot help you now! Turn from them and repent to the True and Living God!”3
A Christian
preacher tweeted, “Praying 4 the lost
souls in Nepal. Praying not a single destroyed pagan temple will b rebuilt
& the people will repent/receive Christ.”4 As one would
expect, there were a number of angry responses. This preacher then responded
with greater hostility.
Is this the
need of the hour? I do not think so.
Did the
earthquake in Nepal kill only the non-christians? No, many Christians died and church
buildings may have also been destroyed. 5
When this
act of God did not spare Christians, why make statements as if this was God’s
judgment upon non-christians?
How could we
be certain that God has allowed a natural disaster as a means of his judgment?
If we are not sure, then why make those statements? Wouldn’t we be better off
without such demeaning statements?
Since we do
not know the mind of God in the context of natural disasters, it is merely probable
that natural disasters could be God’s judgment upon mankind. Natural disasters could
include believers and unbelievers of Christ. Since believers of Christ who die during
natural disasters would be heaven bound, natural disasters are not a mechanism
of God’s judgment upon Christians. However, Christians cannot use natural
disasters as a means to pronounce judgment upon non-christians.
Pronouncing
judgment upon non-christians would not bring them to Christ. It is the love of
Christ, made perfect by HIS perfect sacrifice that draws people closer to HIM.
Endnotes:
1 http://earthquaketrack.com/recent,
last accessed on 4th April 2015, 10:20 AM, IST.
2http://www.visionofhumanity.org/sites/default/files/2014%20Global%20Peace%20Index%20REPORT.pdf
&
http://www.visionofhumanity.org/#/page/indexes/global-peace-index
3
http://the-end-time.blogspot.in/2015/04/nepals-large-quake-tragedy-and.html
4 http://spiritualsoundingboard.com/2015/04/26/open-air-preacher-tony-mianos-insensitive-tweets-after-nepal-earthquake-disaster/
5 http://www.charismanews.com/world/49454-a-nepal-pastor-s-spirit-inspired-last-words-before-dying-in-the-rubble
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