“Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age? Mt.24:3
WASHINGTON/BERLIN – The mercury is rising to all-time highs across the globe, again. In the throes of a heat wave that gripped most of the countries, Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, hit 41.1 degrees Celsius (106 Fahrenheit) on Monday — Japan’s hottest temperature ever recorded. In the U.S., temperature records have been broken in parts of Massachusetts, Maine, Wyoming, Colorado, Oregon, New Mexico and Texas. And there is crazy heat in Europe, where even normally cool Norway, Sweden and Finland all saw temperatures they had never seen before on any date, pushing past 32 C (89.6 F).
So far this month, at least 118 heat records have been set or tied across the globe, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Meanwhile, Europe suffered its deadliest fire in more than a century in Greece taking 91 lives, and one of nearly 90 large fires in the U.S. West burned dozens of homes and forced the evacuation of at least 37,000 people near Redding, California. Canada has experience record-setting wildfires in the last couple of years. Flood-inducing downpours killed over 200 people in Japan last week and this week pounded the U.S. East.
Add to all this, the conflicts around the globe and current unrest is at an all time high, the constant threat of a nuclear holocaust is behind most of the rhetoric of nations who seem to be quick on the trigger with insults and threats.
I sometime feel like I am on a airline when the flight attendant is giving us instructions: “in case of a possible impact. put your head between you legs and kiss your asse good by” (ok the last part is mine).
Although the dooms day prophets are having a field day with current events, one can’t ignore the facts that there is something going on that is a little out of our control. As far as setting dates and speculating on the end of the world, we need to remember in the same chapter of the Bible that predicted the end, it closes with: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” Mt.24:36