The Natural Disasters Page

Present Situation

There has been an unusual amount of interest in catastrophic disasters that would cripple or destroy cities and even whole countries. A selection of Hollywood movies that either reflect or cause public fear/paranoia/concern includes Volcano, Dante's Peak, Deep Impact, and Armageddon. The first two movies listed have the common theme of a volcano eruption in the U.S.A. (Volcano occurs in heavily populated Los Angeles and Dante's Peak is set in a small town). The last two movies listed have the common theme of a large meteor strike. The meteor strikes envisioned in the movies and also predicted by NASA and others are large enough to affect whole continents, even the whole planet.

Predictions

Are Hollywood's the-sky-is-falling shows and scientists' asteroid-on-a- collision-course-with-earth predictions to be taken seriously? Or are they just entertainment and shock news to get attention? Better yet, how does this relate to Christianity? After all, is not this supposed to be an Overview of Christianity page?

As the Bible says, in Ecclesiastes 1:9, there is nothing new under the sun. The recent headlines about global scale asteroid attacks are old news. The current predications that the earth will end in that manner are wrong. The earth will be severely damaged, and there will be a lot of problems because of the meteor strike, but the earth will not end at that disaster.

Revelation 8:8-10 - And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters.

That passage in Revelation comes after the four horsemen in chapter 6, where another interesting story happens. There are six events in that chapter. The first four are the four horsemen. The sixth event consists of disasters. It says that the stars of heaven will fall to the earth and that all the islands and mountains will be moved. The stars of heaven falling to the earth could very well be a meteor shower on the earth, which would explain why everybody will try to hide in caves (that is also found in chapter 6). Then in chapter 7, there is the calm before the storm, where the wind does not blow. And then comes chapter 8, which was described above.

Preparation

In chapter 8, there was the "great mountain burning with fire", which could be a volcano or a giant asteroid. Here, in order to fit with the Hollywood application, it is called a volcano. So Hollywood was able to use some of the Bible and make successful movies. Volcano and Dante's Peak do not go far enough, because their volcanos do not affect a third of the earth, only relatively small sections. Deep Impact and Armageddon did not correctly portray the asteroid collision, because of the same reason (and in the movie, the collision was successfully averted). There is no averting God's judgment on the earth.

The government's funding of research and development for a defense system to prevent a catastrophic meteor/asteroid/comet hit on the earth is a waste of money. It will happen, regardless of man's attempt to thwart it. Why? It will happen because God said it will happen. He also said that no one knows when the end will come. The Bible does not give a date for these judgments. It does say to be prepared for that day. How does one prepare? Preparing for the coming judgment does not mean stocking up food and water; it means making sure your spiritual life is in order (are you ready to go to heaven or hell?) and living your physical life as God would have you to live it (as a faithful and wise servant). In the book of Matthew, chapters 24 and 25 are good ones to read for this subject.

It will be intersting to see if Hollywood realizes what it has done, as far as taking movie themes from the Bible. If the volcanoes and asteroids make good movies, they should try the other judgments in Revelation, such as hail and fire mixed with blood (that causes significant forest fires) and the dimming of the sun, moon, and stars.