Douglas S. Winnail

Three different gospel writers record Jesus' warnings that many false teachers will deceive many people as the end of the age approaches (see Matthew 24:3–5, 11, 24; Mark 13:5–6; Luke 21:7–8).

Billions of people are caught up in Christmas celebrations each year, thinking “Jesus is the reason for the season” and telling everyone, “Merry Christmas,” but do they really understand the truth about Christ's birth? The answer is right in the pages of your Bible!

What "progressive" social reformers do not seem to understand is that God predicted in the pages of the Bible what is actually happening today in the modern Israelite nations.

A "famine" of hearing the truth occurs when the nations of Israel are taken over by a foreign power that prohibits the proclamation and practice of the true biblical faith. This happened around 720bc when Assyrians carried the northern 10 tribes of Israel into captivity. It will happen again during the Tribulation, when the modern descendants of ancient Israel are punished for their sins (Matthew 24:9; Hosea 5:5; Jeremiah 22:5–9).

As Australians search for the causes of the sudden firestorm catastrophe and as they attempt to understand why they are being shaken by earthquakes, it is instructive to see what is mentioned and what is ignored.