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.

Fire and Ice: California’s new normal: evacuating wildfires yet again while other states get buried in record snow and hit with blizzards.

By Alex Dobuzinskis. Reuters•October 11, 2019

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – It’s part of California’s new normal – year-round fire seasons, planned electricity blackouts and, for retired couple Bhagvei and Paresh Badreshia, sudden evacuations in the middle of the night. Again.

They were among 100,000 residents forced to flee a fierce, wind-driven wildfire that swept foothills and canyons along the northern edge of Los Angeles on Friday, engulfing homes, closing roads and devouring acre upon acre (hectare upon hectare) of dry brush and chaparral.

The evacuations in Southern California came after the state’s largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), switched off the power to nearly 800,000 homes and businesses in northern and central California to prevent its transmission lines from sparking wildfires under gusting dry winds.

It was the second time in less than four years the Badreshias have been forced by an emergency to flee their home in Porter Ranch, a plush suburb where some scenes for the 1982 movie “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” were filmed.

In 2015, a massive, four-month-long methane leak from a ruptured wellhead in the nearby Aliso Canyon gas storage field drove thousands to seek shelter from the stench of odorized fumes with friends or at hotels.

“It’s like a little scary. You have to come here and you don’t have anything,” said Bhagvei Badreshia, 64, as the couple stood outside the Red Cross evacuation center near Porter Ranch.

HILLS BURNING

The couple were awakened at 3 a.m. by their adult daughter, who had been up watching news on television about the fire and alerted her parents when evacuation orders were issued.

Paresh Badreshia, 73, said he looked out his window and saw flames burning in the hills a couple miles (km) away. A police officer had parked his patrol car out front, making sure everyone in the neighborhood got out, so the couple gathered a some clothes, grabbed their small dog and left, the husband said.

“Here we feel like we are on a slumber party,” Bhagvei Badreshia said of the shelter, adding that her dog was running around and had been fed.

The couple recalled the 2015 gas leak ordeal being more difficult than the fire evacuation. Back then, residents were forced to stay with relatives and at hotels and were never properly compensated for their displacement, they said.

Aliso Canyon was evacuated as a precaution on Friday, but fire officials and the Southern California Gas Company, a unit of Sempra Energy, which operates the storage field, said there appeared to be no immediate threat to the facility.

Fire officials blame a warming climate for a longer, drier wildfire season that now stretches virtually year-round in parts of the state.

Governor Gavin Newsom, who has called it a “new normal,” this week signed 22 pieces of legislation that build on $1 billion in the state budget devoted to preparing for wildfires and other emergencies.

California has endured two of its worst wildfire seasons in recorded history in the past two years, forcing the evacuation of millions.

In November 2018, the Camp Fire became the deadliest wildfire in California history, killing 86 people and virtually destroying the town of Paradise.

PG&E filed for bankruptcy in January 2019, citing potential civil liabilities in excess of $30 billion from the Camp Fire and a separate flurry of wildfires that swept California’s wine country north of San Francisco Bay in 2017. Both of those disaster were linked to PG&E transmission wires and other equipment.