SOMEWHERE ON THIS PLANET, about every 30 seconds an earthquake occurs. All of Japan’s 123 million citizens live atop a geoloical “Ring of Fire” that encircles the Pacific Ocean, subjecting the lands along its margin to periodic convulsions. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur there with terrifying frequency. The ring cuts through Java and Indonesia, the highlands of Central and South America, and up through Mexico and into California. A second seismic belt runs east through the Mediterranean and into the cradle of world civilization, striking across Italy and Greece, through Turkey and Central Asia, and as far east as China with its population of more than a billion souls. As history has proven on many occasions, no one in this vast expanse is safe.

One of the most brutal quakes ever recorded took place on September 1, 1923. The earth beneath Sagami Bay, 50 miles south of Tokyo opened up, unleashing a wave of destruction through Tokyo and Yokohama. The Richter scale registered 8.3! The initial shock lasted five minutes followed by a killer wave that devastated the coast, and swept people and homes out to sea. Hundreds of aftershocks kept survivors in a state of panic. Buildings collided with each other and fell to the ground.

Getting a foothold was impossible as the ground swayed and trembled. The air was darkened from the dust created by twisted buildings crumbling to the earth. Within minutes, thousands of Tokyo’s homes were ablaze. The city lost over 300,000 buildings. In a short time, 40,000 people crammed into Low City Park for refuge, only to have a fire-storm descend upon them, burning 30,000 people alive in a matter of seconds. So tightly packed were the victims, that they died standing up.

Afterwards the grim toll was taken. Over 100,000 people died, 43,000 others disappeared without a trace, 100,000 were seriously injured, and 1,500,000 were left homeless!

THE WORST IS YET TO COME!

Earthquakes play an important part in prophecy. The Book of Revelation, which tells us of future events, speaks more of earthquakes than the rest of all the Bible. It speaks of an earthquake “such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.” On that occasion, Babylon and the cities of the nations shall fall. Accompanied by this divine catastrophe will be “great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent”— 114 pounds! (Revelation 16:18, 21). This will take place seven years after the Rapture of the Church. The Lord is coming for His saints soon and it could take place today!

The Lord Jesus also prophesied of these coming quakes in the Gospels of Matthew, Ch.24; Mark, Ch. 13; and Luke, Ch. 21. From this we have the right to assume that earthquakes are created and controlled by the hand of God for a divine reason. Earthquakes are no accident!

In Macedonia, a cruel jailor, after mistreating two of God’s servants, was rudely awakened at midnight by a great earthquake. The ultimate result was, “he called for a light and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:22—31).

SPIRITUAL EARTHQUAKES

Sometimes God sends “earthquakes” of a spiritual nature into the lives of individuals to awaken them.

If you are a self-centered person, thinking little about God, here is an abrupt fourteen-worded quake for you. “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psalm 9:17). Shut God out of your life and you will eventually be in hell.

If you are a respectable citizen and self-righteous, this alarming quake is for you. “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).

If you are a devout churchgoer, God has a thirteen-word quake for you. “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

When the jailor cried out asking how to be saved, the answer came immediately! “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). Believing means the same as receiving. “But as many as received Him (Jesus), to them gave He power (the privilege) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:12). This is the only way of obtaining God’s salvation which delivers from hell and secures us for heaven!

TWO UNIQUE EARTHQUAKES

The moment Jesus yielded up His spirit on the Cross, an earthquake occured! “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent” (Matthew 27:51).

“In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week . . . behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.” (Matthew 28:1,2). Christ had already risen and the rolling away of the stone revealed an empty tomb.

Thus God announced the death and resurrection of His Son with earthquakes! God connects these two events in one statement for our benefit. “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for (because of) our justification” (Romans 5:25). In order to demonstrate God’s complete satisfaction with the work of Christ by which we are justified (declared righteous, saved), He “raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead”! Christ bore the sinner’s penalty. Righteousness “shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead” (Romans 4:24). Our justification is assured by Christ’s resurrection! He is worthy of your trust my friend. Why not receive Him now?