Is it just me, but doesn't it seem that horrendous disasters have been more frequent in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries? The twentieth century saw a world wide flu epidemic, two world wars, the holocaust, mad dictators who murdered millions, the invention of the atom and hydrogen bombs, the brink of a full scale nuclear war, famines in Africa, pollution, global warming and much more, not to mention natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes. The first six years of the twenty-first century are not starting out much better.
Could it be that the End of Days is at hand? Prophets have been predicting it for a long time. How can we know when it near? Here is my interpretation of Christian Bible prophetic sources as related to current events.
The Bible contains many prophecies about the future. The New Testament in particular talks extensively about the return of Jesus Christ to this earth. This is usually called his "second coming." The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 24, is devoted to this topic, as is much of the book of Revelation, and Thessalonians 4:16-18.
Did this predict the two world wars, the famines in Africa and the many disastrous earthquakes in the past hundred years?
Is this about the recent spate of hurricanes?
I don't know about the first part, but doesn't it seem that there are a lot false prophets around. Preachers who pretend to be Christian but preach hate. Recently a famous televangelist told his listeners to pray for someone's death and later stated that a certain dictator should be assassinated. I haven't heard of any exceptions or clauses to the commandment "Thou shalt not kill."
Could the references to "the stars of heaven shall fall" be a reference to the collision by a giant meteor or comet that astronomers say is inevitable. In 2004, a small near-Earth asteroid (NEA), made the closest approach to Earth ever recorded. The object, designated 2004 FH, was roughly 30 meters (100 feet) in diameter and passed just 43,000 km (26,500 miles, or about 3.4 Earth diameters) above the Earth's surface on March 18th at 5:08 PM EST. On average, objects about the size of 2004 FH pass within this distance roughly once every two years. Most of these small objects pass by undetected. This particular close approach is unusual only in the sense that scientists knew about it.
A recently rediscovered 400-meter Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) is predicted to pass near the Earth on 13 April 2029. The flyby distance is uncertain and an Earth impact cannot be ruled out. The odds of impact, presently around 1 in 300, are unusual enough to merit special monitoring by astronomers, but should not be of public concern. In all likelihood, the possibility of impact will be eliminated as astronomers track the asteroid.
If an asteroid between 30 - 400 meters actually strikes earth, how much damage would cause? It is estimated that the object that leveled forests in Tunguska, Siberia in 1908 was of this scale. Imagine if it hit a populated area.
If an asteroid of size 200 meters hit the ocean (which covers 70% of the Earth), the tsunami would inflict catastrophic destruction of coastal cities and substantial worldwide human casualties along coastlines. An asteroid of one kilometer size striking the Earth would cause a dust cloud which would block out sunlight for at least a year and lead to a deep worldwide winter, exhausting food supplies. The latter is what caused the dinosaur extinction, as well as other major extinctions in geologic time scales. Two hundred meter asteroid hits, far more common than the one kilometer or more strikes, do not show up much in geologic histories since over time their craters are obliterated by erosion.
On March 23, 1989, an asteroid with a kinetic energy of over 1000 one-megaton hydrogen bombs (i.e., about 50,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima) was passed very close to Earth. It was discovered by equipment that uses new technology. Named 1989FC, this asteroid was detected after its point of closest approach. Astronomers discovered it had passed as close as it did only after they calculated its orbital path backwards in time. This event brought near Earth asteroids into the political arena.
Just think about what is happening in the Mideast these days, and the prophesy seems to refer to current and possible future events in that region. Also note the following prophesy:
Although there is some disagreement among scholars exactly which modern nations this refers to, all the nations in the area where these ancient nations existed in Ezekial's time have mostly Muslim populations today, the extremists of which hate Israel and wish it destroyed.
Joel 3:14-15: The sun and the moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness
Matthew 24:29 The sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky
Mark 13:24 But in those days, after that tribulation, The sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven
These verses seem to refer to nuclear winter, a condition caused by great clouds of dust to form that block out the sun for years, which in turn would cause plant life to fail. This condition could come about from either a full-scale nuclear war or a collision by a large asteroid.
Despite all of the above, the prophesies may not be referring to our modern era at all or may be referring to some future period. After all, Jesus told his disciples, "The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of."
The sixth, seventh and eighth Ebooks in my Morgaine series are about a fictional Armageddon. They are Morgaine and Armageddon, Morgaine and Moonwood and Morgaine and Nicholas. They can be obtained at Fictionwise.
Introduction to Papa Joe
I call myself Papa Joe. But who is Papa Joe? First I'll give you the bio I usually send to publishers and then expand on that. Here it is:
I've loved science fiction and fantasy from the time I learned to read. My hobbies, besides writing, are traveling, adventure game playing and do-it-yourself projects. Before I retired, I was a technical writer at a major computer manufacturer. Several short stories of mine have been published in E-zines, and I've sold two series of dark fantasy novels called The Morgaine Chronicles and Raven Lenore, Psychic Investigator to Renaissance E Books. These novels may be purchased from Renaissance's Page Turner Editions site or at Fictionwise E-Books. Renaissance has also published collections of my short stories, The Sands of Time, Mordrake's Apprentice, and Love Among the Stars, two SF novels, Star Tower and The Bagod and a dark fantasy called The Laws of Magic . Mundania Press has published The Book of Retslu, a humorous fantasy.
I was born and raised in a working class neighborhood in Chicago. I think my love of reading stems from my parents and grandparents, who were all avid readers. As a child, one of my favorite things was hanging out at the library or browsing in flea markets for books I could afford. One day my parents took me to see a most wondrous movie, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It made me a believer. From that time on, I read every Oz book I could get my hands on. I also loved comic books, especially the ones in the SF genre, Planet Comics, Superman, Captain Marvel, etc. I also liked mathematics and science, especially astronomy.
When I was twelve or so, I discovered the pulp magazines. They had garish covers and were printed on blotting paper, but the insides were marvelous. Even the letter columns were interesting. In these magazines, and the slicks and paperbacks that followed a few years later, I learned to love such writers as Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Robert Silverberg and so many others. About that time I decided I wanted to write in the genre, but never got started until many years later.
I was drafted into the army at the end of the Korean War and was sent to Germany, where I worked as a microwave repairman. Also, I married a girl who went to the same high school as I did, who I met at a party after I graduated high school. We've been married over fifty years now. We have four wonderful girls, ten grandchildren (most whom are adults now) and one spunky six-year-old great-granddaughter.
For most of my working life, I was a technical writer for a major computer firm. I learned many things there about computers, about writing and about people and corporations. I lived the Dilbert cartoon. Because of my work, my wife and I moved to a small town in upstate New York where the manufacturing plant was located. We still live there, although the company has since closed the plant.
In 1993, I retired. That's when my fiction writing career started. First I sold a few short stories to E-zines. (I use "sold" loosely. I've seldom got a paycheck .) Then I sold a novel to a POD publisher and another to an E-book publisher. The pay is meager, but I enjoy writing so much that I'd probably do it even if they paid nothing (which is the standard with most E-zine publishers).
Well, that's the encapsulated version of my autobiography.