Shades of the Dust Bowl
While attention has been diverted to these and the even more sensational upsets of the past few weeks, however, a much more serious and far-reaching situation is building up in America's Plains States.
The dust bowl is returning!
An ominous drought area is now covering parts of six states, approximately the area of the notorious "dust bowl" of the '30's. Some pockets within the bowl are even drier than in the '30's. Foolish optimists, thinking today's "better farming practices" will save the region, believe the problem will just "blow over." Instead, facts show that precious topsoil is blowing away.
Texas dirt recently has darkened skies as far away as Pennsylvania!
Government disaster loans and other subsidies are enabling many farmers to hang on. New techniques of farming (such as "emergency tillage" — plowing at right angles to the wind) have helped somewhat — for the time being. Soaring values for land capable of being irrigated are also encouraging others to "wait it out." But irrigation is no savior if it doesn't rain. Water tables throughout the area are falling from one to seven feet a year. Reservoir-irrigation projects are in danger. For example, the water level in the Conchas Reservoir north of Tucumcari, New Mexico, is so low that farmers will not be able to draw on it for irrigation.
Let's Understand Why
There is no need to go on listing tragedy after tragedy. What is important is that we understand what these totally abnormal conditions mean. Few people will admit that the Bible has anything to do with present-day world problems. Fewer still realize that Jesus Christ said these utterly chaotic weather upsets would be ONE OF THE MAIN SIGNS pointing to His return. His disciples knew that He was going to come again, unlike the vast majority today. They asked Him what conditions would prevail before His coming. "What shall be the sign of thy coming," they asked, "and of the end of the world?" — this age, this society of man governed contrary to the laws of God (Matt. 24:3).
Christ then proceeded to answer their question, to point out the major signs. Notice especially verse 7: "and there shall be FAMINES, and PESTILENCES, and earthquakes, in divers' places." Famines and pestilences are the direct results of disasters in the weather.
What we need to realize is that all these worsening, chaotic conditions — as bad as they are now — are still only the beginning of yet future imagination-defying catastrophic upheavals in nature. After Christ gave His warning signs He added "All these are the beginning of sorrows" (verse 8).
The worst is yet to come!
U.S., Britain Especially Affected
Bible prophecy speaks not only of this time of worsening worldwide weather chaos affecting all nations, but it specifically singles out the peoples of the United States, Great Britain and other areas of the English-speaking world, plus the lands of Northwestern Europe. We are to bear the fullest brunt of these natural calamities. (To see the clear, unmistakable proof of our national identity — where our people are mentioned in Bible prophecy — write for our free booklet, The United States and The British Commonwealth in Prophecy)
God, through the pen of the prophet Ezekiel, forewarned that fully one third of our people were to perish by catastrophic weather calamities and disease. Notice the startling words of Ezekiel: "A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with FAMINE shall they be consumed in the midst of thee; and a third part shall die of the sword round about thee [warfare] and I will scatter a third part into the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them [captivity and slavery]" (Ezek. 5:12).
Ezekiel never reached the peoples of ancient Israel with this prophecy. They had gone into captivity well over 100 years before this time. This prophecy is for our peoples, the descendants of the House of Israel, today!
Why is this complete national destruction, starting with the hammering blows of violent weather, to come upon our lands? "Because you have not lived by my laws nor followed my orders, but have followed the practices of the nations around you, therefore — it is the sentence of the Lord the Eternal — I am against you, I am; I will inflict punishment upon you before the eyes of the nations (complete ignominy that all of our enemies and hired "allies" will view in abhorrence) and do to you what I have never done before, a thing that I will never do again, owing to all your detestable misdeeds" (Ezek. 5:7-9, Moffat Translation).
God, who controls the weather, and would intervene on our behalf if we as a nation turned in utter repentance to Him, is going to allow weather disasters to hit us so hard that we learn once and fox all that it just doesn't pay to transgress the commandments and laws He gives us for our good.
With the weather God blesses or curses a nation (see Job 37:1-13, and Nahum 1:3-4). He told our forefathers after He had rescued them from the slavery of Egypt that if they were obedient to His laws, He would be with them in their national development — and the weather would be one of their greatest blessings. Disobedience on the other hand would bring nothing but drought, misery, hunger and every frightful curse under the sky. Read this for yourself in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.
These same promises apply to the descendants of Israel today. In fact, they hold true for all nations throughout all eras of history. God does not change. His laws stand fast forever (Heb. 13:8; Psalm 119:160).
Man Is Fighting Success
Our rebellious peoples, however, are paying increasing penalties for continuing to go their own way, apart from the righteous laws of God. The title of a recent article in a national news weekly showed this vividly. It read, "Man vs. Nature: Still a Losing Battle."
How true! Yet God never intended man to be versus — against, in pitched battle with — nature! God designed nature to be a blessing to man. He never intended people to have to spend sleepless nights sandbagging their communities against impending floods. He never intended whole villages to be sucked up into monstrous tornados.
Man has brought it all upon himself!
God is the Creator of nature. In addition to His supreme royal law — the 10 Commandments — He has set certain natural laws in motion, laws of the land, and laws dealing with our finances. Man has broken them all with impunity!
God created the world. He owns it. God, then, is the Landlord; we are the renters. Maybe we have not thought of it in that way before, but it is true. And what have we done with His property?
First, we have ruined it by overwork and exploitation. Wherever man has been he has finally turned a beautiful earth into a desolate wilderness or an arid desert. We have not learned to care for God's property. We have taken from the soil and given little to the soil in return. We have never allowed good farm land to rest — until it becomes too late to restore its fertility.
What fools men have been!
Second, we have not paid our rent to our Supreme Landlord. Yes, you owe God rent, whether you are a farmer, laborer, businessman or housewife. You are using His soil, dwelling on His land, spending His time for your own livelihood. For permitting you the use of everything He created on this earth, He demands only a fraction of the amount which human landlords demand. God gives you 90% of what you acquire, and He asks only 10% in return. That 10% He calls a tithe. The word tithe means a tenth.
Our people have been robbing God of His rightful rent. Says the Creator: "Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Mal. 3:9-10). This is God's promise.
God promises to bless any nation that trusts Him and faithfully obeys Him. Our nations have NOT done that, and for that reason we face a national catastrophe in a few short years!
But you as an individual can receive God's blessings and protection in the years ahead. For the truth about tithing, write for the free booklet, Ending Your Financial Worries.
Human Solutions Fail
Yes, unless our nations get in harmony with God's laws of success and abundance, we can expect no relief from our miseries. All of man's own attempts to harness the vagaries of the weather are doomed to failure.
God is in control!
Notice Amos 4:7-9: "And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city" — floods — "and caused it not to rain upon another city" — droughts" one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied" — No, our huge multibillion dollar projects now planned to transport needed water from rain-surplus to rain-short areas will not save US — "YET HAVE YE NOT RETURNED UNTO ME, saith the Lord."
No "improved tornado warning systems" can rescue us. No more dams or flood control projects will do the trick. What will happen to the billions of gallons of impounded water when the gigantic quakes prophesied in your Bible (Matt. 24:7) rip huge dams to their foundations?
These are things to think seriously about. The prophesied end of this age is at hand. Natural disasters are increasing — and their horrible crescendo is not far off. You need to see where your salvation lies. The puny efforts of man will be totally ineffective in the frightening years ahead. Turn to God, trust Him, and obey Him as He reveals His truth to you. Herein lies your only salvation — and it is a SURE salvation.