Blog note. Jesus indicated that ‘fearful sights’ (various natural disasters) would occur leading up to the time known as the Tribulation and Great Tribulation (a combined seven year period of great destruction on earth). Although these types of things have occurred in the past for centuries and thousands of years, they could be identified as the ‘season of the times’ due to the ferociousness of these events. They would be occurring in greater intensity, severity, frequency, size, duration, scope … just like the pains that a woman experiences in labor the farther along she is in the labor process. We are in the ‘season of the times’ that comes just before the seven (7) year Tribulation/Great Tribulation period
… And great earthquakes shall be in diverse places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. (Luke 21:11).
… 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; (Luke 21:25)
… 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; (Luke 21:26)
… This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. (2 Timothy 3:1)
Jesus is giving a series of prophecies about what to look for as the age of grace comes to a close. These verses are several of many such prophecies from throughout the Bible. 2017 was the worst year in recorded history for the intensity, frequency, severity, duration and occurrence of a large number of severe natural disasters worldwide. Earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, torrential flooding, unprecedented wildfires in unusual places, devastating droughts, excessive/scorching heat setting records everywhere, record snowfalls in Europe and Russia. Snow in the Arabia. This list can go on. Most studied Eschatologists believe these ‘fearful sights’ and massive natural disasters are all part of the ‘CONVERGENCE’ of signs that this Biblical and prophetic age is closing. Most people who study prophecy are familiar with the routine reference(s) made that these things will be like a woman having labor pains, growing in intensity, frequency, size and duration.

Six dead endangered right whales found in Canadian waters

AFP•June 27, 2019

Ottawa (AFP) – Six critically endangered North Atlantic right whales have been found dead in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence this month, Canadian officials said Thursday.

As a result, Transport Canada has expanded a shipping speed limit of 10 knots in the Gulf and closed 16,000 square kilometers (6,200 square miles) to commercial fishing.

The animal carcasses were spotted drifting in the channel and tagged with satellite tracking devices, and on Thursday afternoon Fisheries and Oceans Canada said a plane had spotted another carcass adrift off a peninsula not far from the gulf.

Two of the bodies were towed to nearby beaches where necropsies were performed. A 40-year-old female, which was known to marine biologists and had been named Punctuation, was found to have likely died in a collision with a ship.

Official said they weren’t able to establish a cause of death for the second whale, a nine-year-old male named Wolverine.

More autopsies are planned or being considered for the remaining whales.

This month’s right whale deaths, as well as seven recent calf births, brings the total population estimate to 412.

The Canadian government stepped up local tracking of right whales — using aerial and marine surveillance, as well as ocean acoustic monitoring — after more than a dozen were found dead in 2017 in the busy seaway and off the coast of New England in the United States.

No deaths were reported in 2018.

Conservation officials say that North Atlantic right whales are among the most threatened species in the world.

About a third of them visit Canadian waters to feed each summer, with the number of visits increasing and the whales’ range in the Gulf expanding in recent years, amid changing oceans.