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.

Ebola appears contained in Goma, but flares in other parts of Congo – WHO

By Stephanie Nebehay Reuters•August 23, 2019

GENEVA, Aug 23 (Reuters) – Ebola appears to be under control in the city of Goma in Congo but it has flared in other parts of the country, where aid workers are combating insecurity and disinformation on social media, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

The latest infections include the mysterious case of a woman in her 70s with no known history of travel or visitors, said Dr. Michael Ryan, head of WHO’s health emergencies department.

The woman, in the remote village of Pinga in the northeast of Democratic Republic of Congo, may have caught the deadly haemorrhagic fever by eating bushmeat or from another animal source, he said.

Nearly 3,000 cases have been confirmed, including 1,965 deaths, since the outbreak began a year ago, the second biggest toll in the disease’s history, the latest figures show.

“Over the last couple of weeks we have seen worrying extensions of the disease…we have had a cluster of cases in Mwenga, to the south of Bukavu, we have a case in Pinga – which is very difficult and inaccessible area to the northeast of Goma,” Ryan told a news conference.

The case in Pinga, announced earlier this week by the health ministry, is in a militia-controlled territory of Walikale, hundreds of kilometres from where previous cases near the border with Uganda and Rwanda occurred.

“The challenge is this case has no apparent epidemiologic links to other cases or no recent travel outside or visitors from outside,” Ryan said.

“We obviously need to ensure that we haven’t had another spillover from the forest or from a zoonotic or animal source. That is currently under investigation and there is further testing going on and genetic sequencing,” he said.

Goma, a lakeside city of nearly 2 million people on the Rwandan border, has been on high alert for weeks after a gold miner with a large family contaminated several people before dying himself last month.

There are currently no cases in Goma, where four cases have been recorded, without further spread, Ryan said.

“We haven’t seen secondary transmission in Goma – and it represents a huge credit to the teams on the ground in a city the size of Goma that we are approaching the end of the observation period for all of the contacts with no evidence of further transmission within the metropolitan area,” he said.

Monitoring of 232 contacts of infected people will end in coming days, he said.

A vaccine and two experimental drugs, which have showed survival rates of as much as 90% in a clinical trial, are effective tools, but face some opposition, he said.

“There are negative social media campaigns, people who have tried to convince populations that the vaccine is used to infect you and the therapeutics are used to finish you off,” Ryan said.