 Luke  21

  25  And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in
 the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with
 perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
  26  Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after
 those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of
 heaven shall be shaken.

   THE POWERS OF THE HEAVENS ARE SHAKEN
                        BY Hal Lindsey

  - Hurricane Andrew ripped into southern Florida in August causing the
worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.  The toll:
Up to 30 dead, as many as 250,000 homeless and a rebuilding bill of $30
billion left for U.S. Taxpayers.  The storm also wrought havoc and
mayhem in southern Louisiana.

  - Hurricane Iniki leveled the Hawaiian island of Kuaui in September,
destroying as many as 10,000 homes, killing at least three and causing
more than 100 injuries

  - A tidal wave, caused by a major earthquake at sea, washed over a
200-mile-long strip of Nicaragua's coastline in September, killing
hundreds and leaving thousands homeless.

  - Avalances of volcanic debris caused by heavy rains roared down the
slopes of Mount Pinatubo in the Phillipines in September, causing
thousands to abandon their villages.

  - Gritty volcanic ash is covering Ancorage after a series of major
eruptions of Mount Spurr.  Residents of Alaska's largest city have been
forced to wear surgical masks or stay indoors.

  - Hundreds of thousands are starving in Somailia, the result of a
combination of severe drought and civil war.

   When asked why it was taking so long for the federal government to
respond to the health and safety crisis in southern Florida following
Hurricane Andrew, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management
Agency summed up the situation astutely:  "We have been faced in the
last couple of years with the greatest storms and natural disasters of
greater intensity and number than in all history."

   This is, of course, the precise pattern Jesus told us to look for
just before His return.  Interestingly, many of the deaths caused by
Hurricane Andrew weren't caused by Hurricane Andrew weren't caused by
drownings or by physical trauma.  A significant percentage of the deaths
were due to heart attacks, just as Jesus predicted in Luke 21.

   It doesn't take much imagination to envision how men's hearts might
fail them as they witnessed a 30-foot wave of water sweeping over the
coast in Nicaragua or the results of the 180-mile-per-hour gusts of wind
Hurricane Andrew brought to Florida's southern coast.  The video images
of roofs flying off buildings in Kuaui provided the world with a vivid
reminder of the destructive power unleashed by killer storms.

   "I don't know how we're ever going to get back to normal," said Kathy
Cabral of Kalaheo, Kuaui.  "I just don't know where to start."
Estimates are that it will take at least six months to restore power to
all parts of the island once considered "paradise on earth" by tourists.

   Director Steven Spielberg, on the island to shoot a movie, told ABC
News: "I couldn't believe the force.  We were watching trees fly out of
the sky and not come down.

   What follows a storm is sometimes worse for victims than the terror
of the storm itself.  In Dade County, Florida, officials are trying to
cope with a wave of increasingly violent abuse cases, as well as the
expected looting and price gouging.

   "I had a woman yesterday with a chunk taken out of her shoulder by a
machete," said acting Judge Linda Dakis.  "Machetes seem to be the thing
these days."  Most of the cases involve men with history of family
violence, often coupled with drinking.  But after a disaster like
Andrew, the cases are all showing up at the same time.  The violence is
also directed against children, many of whom were already traumatized by
the storm and have begun acting up at home.  Newly homeless fathers and
boyfriends, already pushed to the edge, are reacting violently.

   But the scariest aspect of the recent siege of natural disasters is
the idea that this is simply "a preview of things to come," as Newsweek
put it.  Many scientists are suggesting that the changing weather
patterns caused by global warming ant other factors may increase the
frequency of such storms and their magnitude - just as Jesus predicted
for the end times.

  Storms like Andrew were once called "hundred-year storms" because they
are so severe scientists didn't expect to see their kind more than once
every 100 years or so.  But the past three years have witnessed Andrew,
Hugo, Gilbert and now Iniki - not to mention some Asian typhoons that
have produced sustained winds of more than 150 mph.

   "It might be a horrible coincidence," concluded Newsweek. "Or it
might be a harbinger.  One predicted consequence of the greenhouse
effect - a global warming caused by the release into the atmosphere of
such heat-trapping gases as carbon dioxide and methane - is that we will
have severe storms.  If climatologists' computer models are right, a
hurricane that would otherwise have rated a 3 would be whipped up to an
Andrew-size 5."

   In addition, the same scientists predict that the frequency of those
storms -- not just the intensity -- will also increase dramatically.

   The ravaging storms, the increase in earthquake and volcanic activity
and other results of changing weather pattern should be seen for what
they are -- very clear signs of the times.  Jesus Christ's coming must
be very near indeed.
