Earthquakes - sign of times? (page 2)

Qcmbr

TD where did you get the additional figures - I got mine from http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqsmosde.html

TD

TD where did you get the additional figures

My primary source was The Sign of the Last Days --When?, Carl Olof Jonsson, Wolfgang Herbst, Commentary Press 1987 p.80

The authors in turn were quoting from, Catalog of Significant Earthquakes 2000 B.C. -- 1979, Robert A Ganse, John B Nelson, Boulder, Colorado 1981, pp 3-33

City Fan

Wouldn't more deaths simply be due to population growth?

For a moment try to mentally escape the Adventist interpretation of Mark 13, et al. and consider the Jewish apocalyptical significance of the words. The writer has Jesus say with forcefulness that that the return of Jesus was to be accompanied by OT style theophanic events. Earthquakes everywhere, pagan's attacking and killing each other, pestilences from heaven, moon turning to blood and sun turning dark etc.... All these things are drawn from OT passages that refer to the day of Judgement by God. These things were assumed by the author to be immanent, in his 'generation', hence the need to stay awake. It was only later when the expectations failed that creative Christians thought that by compiling and collating statistics that these would somehow indicate the secret time of the return of Jesus.

Leolaia

If you read Jonsson & Herbst, you will discover that the science of seismology only really took off in the late 1800s, and before that many earthquakes went unrecorded. And of course, before the 1500s, nearly all earthquakes in the Americas went unrecorded as well. Similarly, old records do not give any representative death tolls and so forth. So there is nothing surprising at all about seeing more reported earthquakes in the 20th century; it is simply due to better reporting and study. This is confirmed by earthquake data from Japan which, unlike most other places, has accurate historical records of earthquakes going back many hundreds of years. And Japan is one of the seismically most active places on earth. The data from Japan show clearly that earthquakes in Japan were no worse in the twentieth century than in centuries before; in fact, there were other worse centuries of earthquake activity.

Leolaia

In short, your list is highly selective, incomplete, and is biased towards representing twentieth-century earthquakes over earlier ones.

Cygnus

It really doesn't matter. Earthquakes and so forth are things Jesus said would not be signs. The only sign to watch for is "the sign of the Son of Man" in Matthew 24:30. Remember that when the disciples asked for a sign Jesus' first words were "Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say 'I am he!' and, 'The time is near!' Do not go after them. When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately." - Luke 21:7-9 RSV

So I think a careful examination of the synoptic apocalypse shows that the "composte sign" JWs ramble on about, including earthquakes, has nothing to do with the end times. Even Chuck Russell recognized this point as he applied Matthew 24:1-14 to the entire gospel age and not any "sign" that Jesus was present or the great tribulation was about to begin.

peacefulpete

Well, it's difficult to be definitive about what the original form of the apocalypse of Mark 13 was. But as it reads is seems the author was trying to differentiate the wars and troubles that were a part of all history and especially the writer's time from the unique, theophanic, startling, unmistakable, events that would immediately preceed Jesus's coming. He was doing this because of the historical context of mid to late first century was filled with would be Jewish Messiahs and revolt. he was trying to separate his belief that Jesus was not going to arrive through sly political intrigue or insurrection but he would be heralded by supernatural manifestations of spectacular OT style showstoppers.

Earthquakes - sign of times?

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