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.
Ottawa Syphilis Cases Take 400 Percent Jump in 5 Years. Canada. What do we know about the number Five (5)?
By Editor on September 3, 2019. Christian News.
Syphilis is making a comeback in Ottawa, with a 400 per cent increase in cases in the city over the past five years.
The sexually transmitted disease, which is treatable with penicillin, is both highly contagious and easy to miss because patients are sometimes asymptomatic, or have symptoms that last only a short time or can resemble another illness.
In Ottawa, cases increased from 30 in 2013 to 159 in 2018. As recently as 2000, there was only one case in the city.
The article notes that syphilis rates have increased substantially around the world, mostly affecting men who have sex with men and people affected with HIV, but increasingly spreading to the heterosexual population as well. There have been numerous cases reported of babies infected with syphilis because their mothers are infected, Manitoba officials have reported. Part of the outbreak there has been linked to the methamphetamine and opioid epidemic.
Ottawa is not alone in seeing a recent spike in the STI, which has a transmission rate of 60 per cent per contact, compared to a rate of one to two per cent per contact for HIV.
Alberta’s chief medical officer declared an outbreak there earlier this year, saying rates in the province were the highest since 1948. Countries around the world are seeing a similar comeback of the historic disease.
That is what sparked Patrick O’Byrne, a nurse practitioner at the Ottawa Public Health sexual health clinic and associate professor at the University of Ottawa’s school of nursing, and Dr. Paul McPherson, an infectious disease specialist at The Ottawa Hospital and associate professor at the University of Ottawa, to write an article for the British Medical Journal about syphilis.
Anonymous sex and condomless sex are the most common risk factors among Ottawa residents diagnosed with infectious syphilis, Ottawa Public Health said.
O’Bryne and McPherson recommend that people who have new sexual partners or multiple sexual partners get tested.
One reason for its spread, said McPherson, is the continuing stigma around sexual activity.
“One of the things that drives epidemics is the whole shaming around sex. People are made to feel like they have done something bad, driving sex almost underground, which allows these things to go on.”
The spike in syphilis cases comes at a time when chlamydia and gonorrhoea rates are also spiking.
Chlamydia is the most frequently reported of all reportable infections in Ottawa, with rates increasing since the late 1990s. Rates of chlamydia were 350 per 100,000 as of 2017.