News and Prophecy Staff

The 22 million people of Sri Lanka are suffering from a “full blown political and economic crisis” (The Conversation, May 11, 2022). Violence, starvation, and severe disruptions are rampant as the nation suffers its worst financial crisis in 70 years. Sadly, the government, unable to protect its people, has resorted to violence against them to quell the civil unrest.

United Nations secretary general António Guterres recently expressed grave concern over world food shortages in the wake of the Ukraine conflict (EU Observer, May 11, 2022). Prices for grains, cooking oils, fuel, and fertilizer are rising steeply. “For the first time ever, farmers the world over—all at the same time—are testing the limits of how little chemical fertilizer they can apply without devastating their yields come harvest time.

The Guardian reports that the Environmental Working Group, an American activist organization, has found that about 20 million acres of U.S. farmland may be contaminated with PFAS, a class of substances known as “forever chemicals,” that include about 9,000 compounds used to make substances resistant to fire, water, or heat (May 8, 2022).

The book of Revelation prophesies that, prior to the return of Jesus Christ, animals will cause death and devastation. The four prophetic seals opened by Jesus Christ, picturing the famous “four horsemen of the apocalypse,” will bring death to up to one-quarter of mankind. This death will come through warfare, hunger and disease, and from “the beasts of the earth” (Revelation 6:1–8). But how might animals cause such widespread death and destruction?

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, more than a million acres of land in the U.S. have burned so far in 2022—more than double the acreage that saw fires by this time in 2021. “The agency’s accounting also shows that more fires have ignited this year than any other in the last decade and burn totals are more than 71% higher than the ten-year average” (The Guardian, May 1, 2022).