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.

Measles Cases Continue to Rise Around the World.

Five (5) Countries including, DR Congo, Ukraine, Brazil, Philippines, United States. Brazil, 50,000 (5) suspected cases. DRC, 250,000 (5×5) suspected cases. Ukraine, 55,000 (5) cases. Democratic Republic of Congo, where nearly 5,000 (5) people with measles died in the first 10 (5+5) months of this year, spreading to over 25 (5×5) provinces. United States, over 1,200 (6+6) measles cases were confirmed in over 30 (6×5) states in 2019. 120 (6+6) people have been hospitalized. There has been a rapid increase in the global measles outbreak, with reported cases jumping (3) 300 percent in the first three (3) months of 2019 compared with the same period last year, according to the World Health Organization.

Nearly a 250,000 (5×5) people in the Democratic Republic of Congo are thought to have been infected by measles in 2019 alone, the World Health Organization said.

By Abdi Latif Dahir. Nov. 26, 2019. New York Times.

There has been a rapid increase in the global measles outbreak, with reported cases jumping (3) 300 percent in the first three (3) months of 2019 compared with the same period last year, according to the World Health Organization.

As reasons for the increase, the organization has cited a deep mistrust of vaccines, gaps in immunization coverage and lack of access to health care facilities or routine checkups.

This month, the W.H.O. sounded the alarm over the diseases’s grip on the Democratic Republic of Congo, where nearly 5,000 (5) people with measles died in the first 10 (5+5) months of this year.

The highly contagious disease is caused by a virus and typically begins with a high fever and rash that can lead to complications of deafness, pneumonia, diarrhea and encephalitis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And though measles has become largely preventable through vaccines administered during childhood, the W.H.O. estimated that 110,000 (5) people, most of them children under the age of five (5) and living in developing countries in Africa and Asia, succumbed to it in 2017.

The Democratic Republic of Congo

The world’s biggest measles epidemic is in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with over 230,000 (6×5) people infected this year alone, the W.H.O. estimated. A total of almost 5,000 (5) people died of it from January through October (10 5+5 months) as the disease spread to over 25 (5×5) provinces in the country.

The measles outbreak has gripped Congo even as it grapples with the Ebola epidemic, which has killed nearly 2,200 people.

Local and global health officials are undertaking tremendous efforts to contain both diseases amid political instability and insecurity. Yet even Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of W.H.O., has conceded that measles has received “little international attention” even though it has proved deadlier than Ebola.

Ukraine

From Britain to Romania, Germany to Italy, Europe has experienced a setback in its efforts to end measles, with the disease killing over 70 (7) people in 2018. Ukraine has been the epicenter of the measles surge, with doubts about child vaccinations leading to an increase in the number of suspected cases in 2019, to over 55,000 (5) people. Global health officials are currently investigating whether Orthodox Jewish pilgrims to a rabbi’s grave in the Ukrainian city of Uman may have carried measles to the United States via Israel.

Brazil

South America’s largest nation thought it had rid itself of measles in 2015. But the disease has taken root in the country yet again, with the total number of suspected cases this year reaching almost 50,000 (5) as of early November, according to the W.H.O.

Most of the measles cases were reported in the country’s most-populous state, São Paulo, with Brazilian officials worrying that the outbreak grew after cases were imported from neighboring Venezuela. There have also been concerns that the measles outbreak has reached members of an isolated tribe in the Amazon who have low resistance to diseases.

The Philippines

Vaccine confidence in the Philippines has plummeted following a controversy in which an anti-Dengue vaccine was linked to the deaths of several children in 2017. As a result, measles vaccination dropped from above 80 percent in 2008 to below 70 percent in 2017, according to the W.H.O., which calls for a 95 percent inoculation coverage to prevent outbreaks. Suspected measles cases in Manila, the capital, and nearby regions have increased to almost 44,000 as of November this year.

United States

Over 1,200 (6+6) measles cases were confirmed in over 30 (6×5) states in 2019 as of early November, with a majority of the new cases appearing in New York. The outbreak constitutes the greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since 1992, according to the C.D.C. More than 120 (6+6) people have been hospitalized from measles this year, with a majority of those who contracted the virus not vaccinated.