The Coming of Earthquake Swarms – An Engima I had never experienced an earthquake until I moved to Camarillo California in 1987. I was working in a warehouse at the time when shelves started to shake, clocks shook off the wall, the building swayed and yawed, and as I ran outside I witnessed the ground swell and undulate like a giant ocean wave as it rumbled past me on the parking lot. Hours of minor aftershocks followed leaving this Midwestern kid shaking in his boots.
Minor quakes There were numerous minor quakes that really did not cause much damage from 1987 until 1994 until the famous Northridge Quake that Wikipedia recounts as thus: “The Northridge earthquake was an earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 04:31 am Pacific Standard Time and was centered in the northcentral San Fernando Valley region of Los
Angeles, California. It had a duration of approximately 10–20 seconds. The earthquake had a "strong" moment magnitude (Mw) of 6.7, but the ground acceleration was one of the highest ever instrumentally recorded in an urban area in North America, measuring 1.8g (16.7 m/s2) with strong ground motion felt as far away as Las Vegas, Nevada, about 220 miles from the epicenter. The peak ground velocity in this earthquake at the Rinaldi Receiving station was 183 cm/s (6.59 km/h or 4.09 mph), the fastest peak ground velocity ever recorded. In addition, two 6.0 Mw aftershocks occurred, the first about one minute after the initial event and the second approximately 11 hours later, the strongest of several thousand aftershocks in all. The death toll was 57, with more than 5,000 injured. In addition, earthquake-caused property damage was estimated to be more than $20 billion, making
it one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.� Chaos & Confusion I remember it as a time a California Highway Patrol officer on his bike drove off a collapsing elevated highway slamming him to his death 60 feet below. An entire first floor collapsed in an apartment building in Northridge killing 16 apartment dwellers instantly. 57 died overall and 7,000 were injured causing much fear and confusion all the while. Meanwhile we made our plans to leave the state coming back home to Illinois to escape, what seemed to us, as the apocalypse. Nothing of much consequence has happened since.
Earthquake Swarms Meanwhile fast forward to mid-December 2013 in central Oklahoma where 4 earthquakes happened in 4 days one of them a 4.8 on the Richter scale felt across the whole state. This quantified a term to be dealt called earthquake swarms that recorded hundreds of small 2.5 or less quakes across the Midwest region in recent
years. Not really damaging but causing fear in the souls of those who had to endure it. Believers Alerted The faithful in Christ began to be alerted when their attention to his words in scripture read, “And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and EARTHQUAKES, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows� (Matthew 24:6-8).
Signs of the End of the Age Here we see Jesus showing us when these things begin to accumulate in abundance these are signs of the end of the age which is characterized by the Lord’s calling out his people by name to be lifted up for the rapture. He said to watch for quakes happening in “divers” places occurring frequently within short time spans or as they have defined it today as “earthquake swarms” as we are now experiencing! Quakes Associated with Significant Events In the Bible quakes occur at important times as signals to man. For instance: When Jesus dies on the cross, there was an earthquake and the tombs of the Old Testament saints were opened! Gentiles, observing these occurrences, concluding that they were cause by God, Himself:
“Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the EARTHQUAKE, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, truly this was the Son of God.” (Matthew 27:54). Three days later, there was another large quake when an angel rolled away the stone from the opening of Christ’s tomb. “And, 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 28:2) When Paul and his followers came to Macedonia they were falsely accused and thrown into prison. Their rescue involved an earthquake: “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great EARTHQUAKE, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all
the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.” (Acts 16:25,26) In the book of Revelation there occurs another great quake the focus of God’s power as he stands in judgment from the heavenly Temple: “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightning, and voices, and thundering, and an EARTHQUAKE, and great hail.” (Revelation 11:19)
The Point is This: Jesus told us what to look for and we have been looking. What we are seeing today is a
quickening of quakes or earthquake swarms, as the media likes to label them. Looking back we see such Biblical quaking is very often the result of something other than seismic faults. Earthquakes may be thought of as an expression of the Lord’s Power. The media did not report this but in Northridge California in 1994 the quake was centered in the nation’s kiddie & adult porn industry that completely destroyed it. What do you think he might have in store for San Francisco? Remember the Oakland Quake? Do you think he is done with that area yet? We are living in Biblically significant times. The Lord has indicated before he judges the nations he would shake the Earth! When Jesus returns in the second coming scripture states he will touch down on the Mount of Olives and there will be a quake unlike any other. It will shake all that man has built to the ground. The question is when will
the last great shaking occur and will you be able to survive it? Keep looking up for our redeemer draweth nigh!