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.

Coronavirus global death toll overtakes Sars epidemic. Further 81 deaths confirmed in China’s Hubei province, taking global total past 800. Now, 37,000 confirmed cases.

The Guardian. February 8, 2020

The number of people killed by the coronavirus outbreak has overtaken the global death toll of the Sars epidemic, with at least 800 deaths now confirmed.

A daily update from Hubei province’s health commission said a further 81 people had died since Friday. The majority of people who have been killed, 780, are from the province. It includes a doctor, Li Wenliang, who died last week and was one of the first people to raise the alarm.

More than 37,100 people are now confirmed to have been infected worldwide, with a jump of 2,147 in Hubei since Friday. The World Health Organization said the number of cases being reported in China was “stabilising” but warned it was too early to say whether the virus had peaked.

The only people to have died outside the Chinese mainland are a Chinese man who died in the Philippines and a 39-year-old in Hong Kong.

The Sars outbreak killed 774 people worldwide in 2002-2003. The new virus is believed to have emerged in 2019 in a market that sells wild animals in Hubei’s capital, Wuhan, before spreading across the country. In response to the outbreak, the Chinese government sealed off the city in late January.

On Saturday the final UK evacuation flight left Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, the Foreign Office said.

The plane, which was carrying more than 200 passengers including British government staff and military medics, was expected to arrive at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire at around 5.30am on Sunday with evacuees to be taken to Kents Hill Park, a conference centre and hotel in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. Returnees would be quarantined there for 14 days.

Anyone displaying symptoms would not have been permitted to board the plane in Wuhan, and those on board the flight would be assessed again on landing, UK authorities said. Anyone developing symptoms on the flight would be taken to a separate cabin on the plane.

The UK government has also increased the number of laboratories that can test for the disease, from one to 12.

Brazil also evacuated nationals from Wuhan on Saturday, with 34 people flown from China to an airforce base in Anápolis, 150km from the capital, Brasília, where they will remain in isolation for 18 days.

Also travelling on the two planes from Wuhan were four Poles and a Chinese national, who disembarked during refuelling in Warsaw, Poland.