Someone in my class today said that all the natural disasters that are happening right now, like mudslides, the snow, the Tsunami, things like that, are all a sign of the world ending. From what you told me, no one knows when the world is going to end and God never left any signs of when it should end. Is this true? But as before, there have been many natural disasters. So why are they now saying it is a sign of the end of the world?
Answer
Yours is a very good question. If there have always been tsunamis, earthquakes, and wars, why do people say now that they are signs of the end of the world? All I can say is that they have been taught a new doctrine (dating back to the 1800s) that ignores what Jesus says.
“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” (Matthew 24:6-8) Jesus clearly says here that wars and natural disasters will continue while the world exists, “but the end is not yet.” Primitive people thought that solar and lunar eclipses and comets were portents of the end of the world. Clearly the world has continued since then. The recent tsunami, the destruction of the World Trade Center, massive earthquakes in Japan—these can not be signs of the end. There have always been earthquakes. San Francisco has had several serious ones within the last hundred years. Buildings are made by men and subject to falling. Since the invention of gunpowder people have been blowing them up. The recent tsunami in the Indian Ocean killed a lot of people and did a lot of damage. So did the one that resulted from the volcanic destruction of the island of Krakatoa in the same area in 1883.
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” (2 Peter 3:10) Does a thief give signs of his coming? If he did, would not the owner of the house have the police waiting for him? As the thief gives no sign of his coming, so God gives no sign of the end of the world. If he were to give signs, they would be unique and easily recognizable, not natural disasters and man-made destructions that have been going on for hundreds or thousands of years. What kind of sign would that be?