Recently on that other blog that rhymes with Ragu, someone pointed out the recent fires burning out of control in SoCal. It was suggested that it was punishment or the justice of God for the Prop 8 backlash against the Church. This suggestion was swiftly called out as ridiculous and overly judgmental. Ther were good people losing their homes.
But that leads me to ask....
Are the natural disasters we are seeing increase in frequency purely "signs" of the last days and not consequences of wickedness? The Brethren were quick to assert that the 2005 Hurrican Katrina disasater was not a punishment from God. So when is a natural disaster just that: natural? Do sins bring their own punishment as natural consequence? The Book of Mormon is replete with examples: Laman & Lemuel rebel; a storm ensues. The Nephites uphold secret combinatins; the Lord sends a famine. Abinadi warns of the "pestilelence...famine....east wind....hail.....insects" that will come upon the Nephites in Mosiah 12:4-7. Then there is the obvoius in 3 Nephi 8.
When is it fair to attribute some natural disaster or upheaval to sin? Or is it best left unsaid?
Well, I personally feel that many more external consequences are attributable to sin than most people seem to feel. I mean, why else would natural disasters of all sorts be increasing now in the last days? Some have always happened, but I think that the Lord is trying to get people's attention and turn them from their sinful ways. If nothing else, I attribute these fires to sin because bad stewardship is a sin. We have much more severe fires because the gubment, in all its wisdom, has decided to stop all forest fires. Periodic forest fires are a part of nature - they clear away dead brush. When you don't let that happen, the dead brush builds up. When you get enough of that, it can start a fire that gets big and hot fast enough that it can't be easily put out. When nature was allowed to run its course, forest fires usually weren't hot enough to actually catch the trees on fire. So anyway, if nothing else, the fire in So Cal right now is due to bad stewardship, which is a sin. So yes, it's due to sin.
__________________
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Said Elder Packer recently: If 9/11 (September 11, 2001) was a wake-up call, then the earthquake and tsunami in Southeast Asia (on December 26, 2004), was a kick out of bed. We need to pay attention to the signs of the times. (Boyd K. Packer, meeting of the Twelve and the Seventy, January 11, 2005).
Not to mention the geometrically increasing number of earthquakes, the signs in the heavens, etc. There's a lot of proof for those who are looking for it.
__________________
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Something to keep in mind, the end times prophecies aren't just about increasing bad events, but things being worse than they ever have in the past. So when you look into the history of natural disasters, it's incredibly comforting to see the miniscule impact compared to past events.
Events like the Spanish flu of 1918-19, that claimed somewhere between 50 and 100 million people. Or the 43 million people who died in China of starvation in 1961. Or the 2-4 million who died in a flood in China in 1931.
Yeah, AIDS has killed 25+million since it started, but Smallpox has killed 400 million in the 20th century alone. AIDS is also dwarfed by malaria, bubonic plague, measles, and tubuculosis.
We got a very long way to go, disasterwise, before end-times prophecies are fulfilled.
LM
__________________
And I'd discuss the holy books with the learned men, seven hours every day. That would be the sweetest thing of all.
You list the numbers who have died in China previously, but what about the unborn who are slaughtered in China? Or the US? We have genocide going on in Africa. Disease, far from being eradicated, is claiming more and more. Of course, I think it will get a lot worse as we get closer to the end.
__________________
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
BTW, one thing the Book of Revelations talks about is a flying mountain hitting the Earth. That sounds like an asteroid, and I bet that it would cause a lot of casualties.
__________________
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
It's all because of the plant Nibiru, that's heading back into the solar system. Says so right on this web page: http://www.december212012.com/index.shtml I saw it on the internet so it's gotta be true right?
I found the web site after watching the trailer for the movie "2012" pretty neat trailer BTW. I googled 2012 as the trailer instructed (I couldn't resist), and found a bunch of 2012 sites. Apparently, December 21, 2012 is going to be the end of the world as we know it because that's when the Mayan calender ends, but then there are the sites that claim we have been misreading the calender and the year is 2020 that something will happen to the earth.
I never realized there where so many doomsday web sites.
__________________
Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune--without the words And never stops at all.... --Emily Dickinson
You know, so many things are possible. In the 6000 years that the Earth has been around its seen a lot of cataclysm. But you can't worry about everything, even in the last days. For instance, I'm not too worked up about the possibility of a miniature black hole crossing the Earth's path.
__________________
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
I think it's reasonable to believe that calamities can be brought on by sin. "Judgments being poured out" and that type of thing. We, as saints, are instructed how to live through these cataclysms, not how to stop the cataclysms from happening. Right? I mean, we get food storage to possibly self-quarantine during a pandemic. We don't focus on praying away the pandemic altogether. Just because some "good people" lost their homes in California it doesn't mean these are not the judgments of God. Rains on the just and the unjust, y'know?
__________________
Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
Exactly, Coco. Calamities will hit the righteous as well. We just have more protection than your average bear.
__________________
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams