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THE Messiah warned that there would be plagues and Prophecy at the end of the age:

“And there will be mighty and violent earthquakes in various places, and plagues, (pestilences, malignant, contagious or infectious diseases, and deadly, devastating epidemics) ... And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and upon earth despair among nations, with perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men’s hearts will faint from terror, being apprehensive of what is coming upon the world; for the very powers of the heavens will be shaken.” (Luke 21:11, 25-26)

Today the world is afflicted by all types of Prophecy - earthquakes, cyclones, tsunamis, typhoons, extreme weather conditions, droughts and famines, and plagues of rampant creatures, from viruses and bacteria, to killer bees, killer ants, rodents and locusts.

Man is in a constant battle against bugs, the weather and the violent forces of environment. In fact, he has been battling hostile forces since the very day sin entered the world through Adam disobedience.

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12)

Throughout the millennia, generations of men have lived in fear of epidemics. Some of the past plagues have been beyond our imagination.

These include:

430 BC. The Plague of Athens. The disease and death toll is unknown, but it ended the Athenian rise as a world power.

165-180 AD. The Antonine Smallpox Plague left 5 million in the Roman Empire dead.

542-543 AD. The Justinian Plagues in Constantinople was the first outbreak of bubonic plague in Europe, and killed one third of the population of the eastern Mediterranean.

1330s. Bubonic Plague, along with civil war, halved the population in north China.

1347-50. The Black Death – Bubonic plague killed about 20 million – one third of the population.

1520-1618. Smallpox, introduced by the Spanish, reduced the Mexican population from 20 million to less than 2 million.

1618-48. During the “30 Years War,” the European population fell from 16 million to 6 million through disease and starvation.

1650-60s. Recurrences of bubonic plague in Europe killed 420,000.

1829-32. A Cholera epidemic in Europe killed 7000 in London alone.

1847-61. Cholera killed one million Russians.

1875. Measles killed one quarter of the population of Fiji.

1918-19. Spanish Influenza left 20 million dead worldwide.

1976-2000. Ebola virus in Africa killed 1000.

1984-2003. AIDS has already killed 30 million. And every year 2 to 3 million people die from AIDS. 40 million worldwide are now living with HIV.

ALTHOUGH medical science has made tremendous achievements, including the elimination of Smallpox, the battle against bugs has increased, and the world is held in the grip of fear - the fear of plagues.

In the 1960s the American surgeon-general optimistically announced the end of infectious disease in the Western World.

But with Heart Disease, Cancer, Cholera, TB and Sexually-Transmitted Diseases increasing; and with many of the regular killers like Malaria, Influenza, Dengue, Hepatitis, and Measles not conquered; and with diseases such as Foot & Mouth and Mad Cow Disease; and with new diseases such as Ebola, AIDS, SARS and BIRD FLU spread-ing, fear around the world is increasing.

We now have what some are referring to as the New World Biological Order.

With the mass media heavily reporting on biological weapons; with the nations’ buildup for germ warfare; and with the possibility of terrorists being equipped with weaponized plagues, the world is bordering on paranoia and panic.

Theories that diseases are being deliberately engineered, add to fears caused by the “natural phenomenon” of mutating, rampaging viruses.

There are also fears of chemical ‘diseases’ – Nerve Gas, deadly poisons like Ricin and Botulism, and of course, Nuclear Radiation - witness Hiroshima, and Chernobyl.

There are fears that our miracle medicines – antibiotics – are losing their power because of overuse, and due to the ability of the bugs to mutate and fight back.

Sensational stories of plagues in the newsmedia could well convince us that we are already as good as dead! But certainly the world is moving through a very dangerous stage in the war on disease - the world of the virus, the bugs, and bacteria.

There are now fears in the medical and scientific communities of a super epidemic of influenza – or some new disease (“the big one”) - that could spread around the world as fast as jumbo jets, and possibly wipe out hundreds of millions.

It’s true that the news media are inclined to exaggerate in their reporting – sensational news sells! But it’s also true the world is not about to be wiped out by disease – not at present.

It’s true that medical science is making amazing breakthroughs in some areas. But it is also true that plagues are scheduled for the endtimes – and the conditions in society, in the environment, and in the nations, indicate that the Day of the LORD is near. The prophetic scriptures warn of what is ahead.

2004 witnessed one of the worst locust plagues in modern times. A news report spoke of an invasion of north and West Africa that was “taking on biblical proportions.”

Large swarms of locusts were swarming across the Sahara desert, devouring crops that were already shriveled by years of drought - in many of the world’s poorest countries.

What does it mean, "Biblical proportions"? It is refer-ring to the worst locust plague ever - the plague in Egypt, in about 1445 BC, during the time of Moses:

“The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled everywhere within the borders of Egypt; they were very severe. There had never been locusts like them, nor would there be such locusts again, for they covered the surface of the whole land, so that the land was darkened. They ate every plant of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left, and there was nothing green left on the trees or on the plants of the field in all the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 10:14-15)

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that the first swarms of desert locusts were abandoning their spring breeding areas and heading into Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal and Mali.

The swarms spread right across the north of Africa, through Chad, Algeria, Sudan to Egypt, and then headed north to Israel and to Cyprus.

Entire fields of maize, cassava and other staple crops for the region were razed to the ground by the pests’ insatiable appetites.

(A single locust will consume its own weight in food every day. A swarm can devour in minutes enough food to feed 2,500 people.)

In Senegal, children fled in terror as swarms of ravenous locusts invaded the capital, Dakar, devouring every patch of greenery in their path.
Countless insects attacked trees and lawns, enveloping them in a crawling, yellow carpet. Flying locusts hurtled into the windscreens of the city’s drivers and enmeshed themselves in the clothes and hair of any-one caught outside.

President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal likened the crisis to a war between mankind and the locusts. “Without urgent and sustained attention to the problem,” he warned, “the locusts could sound a death knell for millions of people in a region already plagued with rampant malnutrition.”

Such plagues are a foretaste of what is to come in the endtimes, as Y’shua the Messiah warned :

“And there will be … in various places plagues, (pestilences, infectious diseases, epidemics), and famines.” (Luke 21:11)

The Bible clearly prophesies that plagues are some of the judgments that the Almighty will send upon the world during the period of Great Tribulation in the endtimes.

That day is drawing near, and what we see today, in epidemics like SARS, Ebola, and Flu, is a foretaste, and a warning of the Day of the Plagues of Revelation.
In the days of Moses, plagues and diseases were connected to man’s disobedience to the Word of God.

“If you are not careful to observe all the words of the teaching which are written in this book, to reverence this glorious and awesome Name, Yahweh your God, then Yahweh will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses.

“He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. Also every sickness, and every plague which is not written in the book of this Law, Yahweh will bring on you until you are destroyed. And whereas you were as the stars of heaven for multitude, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of Yahweh your God.” (Deuteronomy 28:58-62)

Disease entered the world because of man’s sin and corruption. And it has multiplied until today when we have a ferocious, unending battle against disease.

A recent report from the UK says:

SOARING rates of sexually-transmitted infections are overwhelming the British National Health System and are threatening the health of a generation of young people.

Pressure on the sexual health services has intensified in the last decade, fuelled by changing sexual behavior. Cases of Gonorrhea have risen 86 per cent in five years, and those of Chlamydia have doubled. Syphilis is making a return, and the rate of HIV infection has risen to its highest level.

The impact of the rise in diseases has been seen in a doubling of the number of people attending clinics in the last decade to more than one million a year.

Traditionally, patients receive immediate treatment to minimize the risk of passing their infections on to new sexual partners, but the “open access” service has collapsed in parts of the UK. The average waiting time for an appointment nationwide is now two weeks. In that time a disease can be passed on.

The Commons Health Select Committee has concluded that it is in crisis, with a shortage of resources, facilities and staff. The committee chairman, said: “Frankly, the whole sexual health service is a shambles.”

We are living in a generation when most people are shocked by rape and sexual abuse of youngsters, but they are quite accommodating of other forms of immorality. We are now living in much the same way as the people of 3000 years ago did …

“In those days there was no king in Israel; and every man did as he himself saw fit.” (Judges 17:6)

Do not doubt for a moment that God looks down, and sees our corruption and wickedness today. The LORD said to the ancient King Asa:

“For the eyes of Yahweh search the whole earth to manifest His strength on behalf of those whose hearts are in right relationship with Him. But you have acted foolishly in this; therefore, from now on you will have wars.” (2 Chronicles 16:9)

And the Almighty is sending us warnings today, in the form of wars and terrorism; bush fires and drought - as in Australia; great hurricanes, and 298 tornadoes in one week in the US; the tsunami in the Indian Ocean; and elsewhere, by floods, earthquakes, cyclones, storms, pestilences on crops and cattle, plagues and epidemics.

His word to every one of us, is …

“Believe in the Master, Y’shua the Messiah (that is, trust in Him and embrace Him as your personal Saviour), and you will be saved; and this applies both to you and your household.” (Acts 16:31)

Many may have been ignorant in the past, but …

“Having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent (that is, to change direction, and to believe in the Saviour, Y’shua, who has already paid the penalty of our sins), because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through the Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts17:30-31)