Basic HTML Version
one every three or four years,
there
were three such quakes in oneyear!
They were accompanied by another
1
O
quakes of 7
+
on the Richter
scale.
• The most devastating earth–
quake of modero times struck
Tangshan, China, on July 28,
1976. Somewhere between
650,000 and 800,000 people
died.
• Europe as a whole suffered
the "drought of the century."
France had its worst 9rought in
250 years. England had its worst
drought in 250 years. Water was
rationed in many areas.
• Northern Ttaly had its worst
drought in 30 years . Eastern
Europe also suffered.
• Western Canada had its low–
est rainfall in a century.
• Mexico suffered severe
drought in the states of Sonora
and Sinaloa.
• There were further drought
areas as widely scattered as Bra–
zi l, the Caribbean, Australia,
Southeast Asia, China, North
Korea, Tanzania and Kenya.
• California was hit by its
worst drought in history, and
~
much of the rest of the United
States also suffered abnormal
dryness.
• East of the Rocky Mountains
the United States suffered one of
the coldest winters in history. All
time low temperatures were regis–
tered in many American
ci~ies.
• Snow fell in normally sunny
Miami, Florida, while Alaska, in
the dead of winter, enjoyed com–
paratively warm temperatures.
• There were freak hot spells in
thedead ofthe Brazilian winter.
• There were record hea t
waves in Northern American cit–
ies in the summer of 1977.
• "Natural " heat lightning
started an unusually large number
of forest fires in the dry forest of the
American West and Alaska.
• Heat lightning, striking not
once, but severa! times, struck
crit ica! transmitters in New York
state and caused the blackout of
New York City in July, 1977.
• Lightning pulsated in a per–
fect pattern-a 360-degree cir–
cle-creating a strange aurora
borealis effect for more than an
24
hour in Timmons, Ontario, in
March, 1977.
• The Soviet Union enjoyed
unusually good winter weather.
What happened? Why so
many extremes all at the same
time-and worldwide?
Parallels in Bible Prophecy
Bible prophecy reveals that upset
weather-particularly earth–
quakes and droughts-would
·abound in the period just befare
the return of Jesus Christ to
reestablish the Kingdom of God
over this sin-sick, Satan-deceived
world.
Listen to this remarkable
prophecy, written for our time:
"And a lso I [God] have with–
holden the rain from you, when
there were yet three months to the
barvest: and 1 caused it to rain
upon one city, and caused it not to
rain upon another city: 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: yet ye have
not returned urito me, saith the
Lord" (Amos 4:7-8).
Furthermore, God's revealed
Word makes it abundantly clear
that such drought is the result of
sin! " Yét ye have not returned
unto me."
King Solomon, when he prayed
at the consecration of God's
Temple, said: "When the heaven
is shut up, and there is no rain,
because they [the people of
Israel] have sinned against thee;
yet if they pray toward this place,
and confess thy name, and turn
from their sin, when thou dost
affiict them; then hear thou from
heaven, and forgive the sin of thy
servants, and of thy people Israel,
when thou hast taught them the
good way, wherein they should
walk; and
send rain upon thy
/and,
which thou hast given unto
thy people for an inheritance"
(11
Chronicles 6:26-27).
And in Leviticus, God Himself
made plain the connection be–
tween sin and drought:
"But if ye will not hearken
unto me, and will not do a ll these
commandments ... I [God] will
máke your heaven as iron, and
your earth as brass" - unyield–
ing elements, i.e. no rain coming
from the skies, hence hard, untill–
able a nd non-productive earth -
Leviticus 26:14, 19.
But
how
does God bring about
such punishment? Sometimes,
He brings about weather upset
directly, through His own super–
natural power. Thus God de–
clared through His prophet Eli–
jah that there would be no rain or
even dew on the land because of
the sins of the house of Israel at
that time (I Kings 17:1).
But sin can bring about weath–
er upset in other ways. Greedy,
warring man, having rejected
God' s Way of giving and !ove,
will try, if he has the power, to
force the weather to do bis bid–
ding! Havi.ng rejected God's
Way, men are sorely tempted to
tamper with the weather-even if
it means havoc for others!
Is it possible that man him–
self- going the way that seems
right in bis own eyes-was the
cause of the terrible period of
upset weather in 1976-1977? Is it
possible that God allowed sinful
man to experiment in dangerous
new areas of knowledge that
made the weather go berserk?
Are new experimental weather
superweapons in the making,
which will have the power to a lter
world weather patterns?
New Weather Superweapons
The Plain Truth
first broached
the possibility of a new kind of
superweapon about five years
ago- just befare the unprece–
dented world upset weather. In
the August 2, 1975, edition of
this magazine, Editor Herbert
W. Armstrong revealed to his
readers:
"Soviet leader Leonid Brezh–
nev recently broke out in five–
column frontpage news headlines
urging the worldwide ban on cre–
ation of new weapons of mass
destruction even more terrible
than the hydrogen bomb and
other nuclear . weapons. Modero
technology, in his view, now has
the power to create new systems
of mass destruction not yet cov–
ered in any international arms
control pact.
The
PLAIN TRUTH