Earthquakes and Bible prophecy connection (1)

Today, earthquake is being talked about here and there. The repeated announcement over the radio and the television of a big earthquake that is expected to hit certain parts of Metro Manila is timely public service to calm us down and encourage all of us instead to concentrate on safety measures to take. Rather than immersing ourselves in self-pity and hysterical mood.

***

Indeed, today is a perfect time for us to reflect on the significant role of earthquakes in Bible prophecy. Many of us are wondering and asking: do earthquakes have a significant role in Bible prophecy? Are the two interconnected? From the standpoint of the Holy Bible – yes, earthquakes and Bible prophecy are interconnected, intertwined, and interrelated. From beginning (creation) to the end of the Bible story (end times), we see earthquakes “highlighting” the happening of important Biblical events.

***

Let me share with you some awesome information about earthquakes in the Bible (References: The Holy Bible and Internet reports):

• The Holy Land has been a region frequently visited by earthquakes. And more. It is a region in the world with a long and documented record of big earthquakes;

• Earthquakes that have been reported in the 21st century are not unique considering that there have been recorded many earthquakes before the 21st century. French Count F. Montessus de Ballore, considered the greatest student of earthquakes, studied and catalogued earthquakes during the period from 1885 to 1922 and came out with the astonishing finding that there were 171,434 earthquakes from the earliest recorded times. His report is stored in the library of the Geographical Society in Paris where it occupies 26 meters (over 84 feet) of bookshelves;

• One of the deadliest – if not the deadliest – earthquakes occurred in 2004 in the Indian Ocean in Indonesia with a 9.1 magnitude that triggered a tsunami. This earthquake combined with tsunami has been described as the world’s deadliest natural disaster since 1976. Though the Chile earthquake (1960, 9.5 magnitude, deaths – 1,700) and the Great Alaskan earthquake (1964, 9.2 magnitude, deaths -131) had greater magnitude than the Indian Ocean earthquake – the people who died in the Indian Ocean earthquake reached the staggering number of 180,000, which was more than those who died in the Chile or the Alaskan earthquakes.

• In Genesis 1:9-10, we find our Lord (on the 3rd day of creation week) creating land out of the waters that had earlier been occupying the whole earth. In the words of a writer, “continents seem to have been uplifted and the ocean floor was depressed during a great faulting process that established the foundations of the earth”:,

• The year-long global flood during Noah’s days is considered by many as the greatest sedimentary and tectonic event in our history since creation. The faulting of seafloor springs triggered the year-long global Noah’s flood (See Genesis 7:11);

• Was the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah recorded in Genesis 19:24-28 accompanied by an earthquake? Yes… a terrifying manifestation of God’s righteous anger due to the immorality of the people then. The archeological sites southeast of the Dead Sea (Bab edh-Dhra and Numeira) believed to be the remains of Sodom and Gomorrah are evidence of the catastrophic collapse and burning along the border fault of the Dead Sea Transform Fault;

• Remember the awesome shaking of the mountain before God spoke and gave the Ten Commandments to Moses? Or the splitting of the land where Korah and his men (rebellious to Moses) were encamped –before the “earth closed upon them.” (Numbers 16:31-33);

• When our Lord Jesus was crucified and exclaimed, “It is finished” as He died, “the veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to the bottom and the earth did quake…” (Matthew 27:51, KJV). Again, at the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus, there was a great earthquake (Matthew 28:2).