What a year it has been! How many upheavals around the world—how much "distress of nations" and how many "wars and rumors of wars." The prophecies of the Bible are being fulfilled around us every day, but we are becoming so accustomed to startling and shocking events that we lose sight of the great events that are so near at hand.
Even in this favored land, with its persistent feeling that "it can't happen here!" can we deny that God's Word has correctly foretold that "in the last days perilous times shall come"? We hear daily more of crime, corruption in high places, riots, unemployment, inflation—are these not perilous times?
Some try to "get away from it all." What could be further removed from the polluted air of the over-crowded cities than a campground high up in Gifford Pinchot National Forest by beautiful Spirit Lake? But on May 18 Mount St. Helens erupted, spreading devastation over 150 square miles. Spirit Lake, campground, visitor center—all were buried under tons of ash and mud.
That same month, in the opposite corner of the country, people were going about their ordinary affairs: driving across the Florida Sunshine'
Skyway to work—to a new job—to a school vacation to join a cruise in the Caribbean—to a reunion with family and friends. Without warning a freighter struck a bridge support, and a quarter of a mile of steel and concrete fell 150 feet into the stormy waters of the Bay. No warning, and—no hope of rescue. Thirty four lives were lost in one crashing disaster.
But surely one can be safe at home? Many did not find it so this year. How many people closed their houses tightly for protection from thieves, only to be listed among the more than 1000 who died of heat exhaustion in the terrible summer of 1980?
With the heat came drought. "Corn crop fair to poor," "grain one third spoiled," "soy beans lost"—all in confirmation of the prophecy that "there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes... all these are the beginning of sorrows." Matt. 24:7, 87For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 8All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:7‑8).
Is it not time to wake out of sleep, to discard our complacent belief that "it can't happen here," and turn instead to the only source of safety? "Whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe." No one else can guide and keep us through these perilous times, these last days before the Lord shall come again.