Friday, December 21, 2018

Signs of Christ Soon Return.


    Continued from yesterday's study….

    This study is on an article written 147 years ago.  So much has happened in our world since then. Some of the things in here will sound strange to us, and some may not seem relevant now. Time and place truly are necessary in all things. May God forever and always guide us ONLY to HIS truth in all we read, in all we study, all through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior!

    *******

    The Second Coming of Christ  BY ELD. JAMES WHITE.

    "What shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the end of the world?" - DISCIPLES.  
    "When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors." - JESUS.

    *******
    Probably no one chapter of the Bible speaks more fully, and more definitely, upon the subject of the second coming of Christ, than Matt.24. We invite the attention of the candid reader to a brief explanation of the entire chapter. 

    Verse 1. "And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple; and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple." Jesus had been addressing the multitude, in the presence of his disciples. He had reproved the scribes and Pharisees for their sins, and had declared the doom of the Jews, their city, and their temple. Chap.23. The disciples supposed that the temple would stand forever. And they called the attention of Christ to its magnificence and strength, as if to convince him that he was mistaken. 

    Verse 2. "And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." This statement from the Master could but deeply interest the disciples. And whether they supposed that the destruction of the temple, the coming of Christ and the end of the age, would all occur, at the same time, or at different periods, it matters not; since Christ, in his answer in this chapter, has distinctly spoken of each separately, and has given each its place in the prophetic history of events. 

    Verse 3. "And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" These questions relate, first, to the destruction of Jerusalem; and, second, to Christ's second coming at the end of the Christian age. They were distinctly answered by our Lord, not, however, before the promiscuous multitude; but on the occasion of a private interview with his disciples. Christ here speaks to his disciples; hence his words are addressed to the church ever after. Mark the caution given by our Lord as he commences to answer these questions. 

    Verses 4, 5. "And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." Jesus knew the heart of man, and that many impostors would arise, and deceive multitudes. He here warns his disciples, and guards them against the deceptions of corrupt and ambitious men. Such was the general expectation of the appearance of the Messiah among the Jews, that many would set up the claim that they were the Christ, to carry out selfish purposes. Buck, in his "Theological Dictionary," gives a list of false Christs as they have appeared during the Christian dispensation. 
    8
    1. Caziba, who set himself up at the head of the Jewish nation, and proclaimed himself their long-expected Messiah. To facilitate the success of his bold enterprise, he changed his name to that of Barchocheba, alluding to the Star foretold by Balaam. Adrian raised an army, and sent it against him. He retired into a town called Bither, where he was besieged. Barchocheba was killed in the siege, the city was taken, and a dreadful havoc succeeded. The Jews themselves allow that, during this short war against the Romans in defense of this false Messiah, they lost five or six hundred thousand souls. This was in the former part of the second century. 
    2. In the reign of Theodosius the younger, in the year of our Lord 434, another impostor arose, called Moses Cretensis. He pretended to be a second Moses, sent to deliver the Jews who dwelt in Crete. 
    3. In the reign of Justin, about 520, another impostor appeared, who called himself the son of Moses. His name was Dunaan. He entered into a city of Arabia Felix, and there he greatly oppressed the Christians; but he was taken prisoner, and put to death by Elesban, an Ethiopian general. 
    4. In the year 529, the Jews and Samaritans rebelled against the Emperor Justinian, and set up one Justin for their king; and accounted him the Messiah. The emperor sent an army against them, killed great numbers of them, took their pretended Messiah prisoner, and immediately put him to death. 
    5. In the year 571, was born Mahomet, in Arabia. At first he professed himself the Messiah who was promised to the Jews. By this means, he drew many of that unhappy people after him. In some sense, therefore, he may be considered in the number of false Messiahs. 
    6. About the year 721, in the time of Leo Isaurus, arose another false Messiah in Spain; his name was Serenus. He drew great numbers after him, to their no small loss and disappointment, but all his pretensions came to nothing. 
    7. The twelfth century was fruitful in false Messiahs; for about the year 1137, there appeared one in France, who was put to death, and many of those who followed him. 
    8. In the year 1138, the Persians were disturbed with a Jew who called himself the Messiah. He collected together a vast army. But he, too, was put to death, and his followers treated with great inhumanity. 
    9. In the year 1157, a false Messiah stirred up the Jews at Corduba, in Spain. The wiser and better sort looked upon him as a madman, but the great body of the Jews in that nation believed in him. On this occasion almost all the Jews in Spain were destroyed. 
    10. In the year 1167, another false Messiah arose in the kingdom of Fez, which brought great troubles and persecution upon the Jews that were scattered through that country. 
    11. In the same year an Arabian set up for the Messiah, and pretended to work miracles. When search was made for him, his followers fled. 
    12. Not long after this, a Jew, who dwelt beyond Euphrates, called himself the Messiah, and drew vast multitudes of people after him. 
    13. In the year 1174, a magician and false Christ arose in Persia, who was called David Almusser. He pretended that he could make himself invisible; but he was soon taken and put  to death, and a heavy fine laid upon his brethren the Jews. 
    14. In the year 1176, another of these impostors arose in Moravia. But the reign of delusion is short, and his fate appears to have been similar to that of his predecessor. 
    15. In the year 1199, a famous cheat and rebel appeared in Persia, called David el David. He was a man of learning, a great magician, and pretended to be the Messiah. He raised an army against the king, but was taken and imprisoned. 
    16. We are told of another false Christ in this same century, by Maimonides and Solomon; but they take no notice either of his name, country, or good or ill success. Here we may observe that no less than ten false Christs arose in the twelfth century, and brought prodigious calamities and destruction upon the Jews in various quarters of the world. 
    17. In the year 1497, we find another false Christ, whose name was Ismael Sophus, who deluded the Jews in Spain. He also perished, and as many as believed in him were dispersed. 
    18. In the year 1500, Rabbi Lemlem, a German Jew of Austria, declared himself a forerunner of the Messiah, and pulled down his own oven, promising his brethren that they should bake their bread in the Holy Land next year. 
    19. In the year 1509, one whose name was Plefferkorn, a Jew of Cologne, pretended to be the Messiah. He afterward affected, however, to turn Christian. 
    20. In the year 1534, Rabbi Salomo Malcho, giving out that he was the Messiah, was burnt to death by Charles the fifth, of Spain.
    21. In the years 1615, a false Christ arose in the East Indies, and was greatly followed by the Portuguese Jews, who were scattered over that country. 
    22. In the year 1624, another in the Low Countries pretended to be the Messiah of the family of David, and of the line of Nathan. He promised to destroy Rome, and to overthrow the kingdom of Antichrist, and the Turkish Empire. 
    23. In the year 1666, appeared the false Messiah Sabatai Sevi, who made so great a noise, and gained such a number of proselytes. He was born at Aleppo, imposed on the Jews for a considerable time; but afterward, with a view of saving his life, turned Mahometan, and was at last beheaded. 
    24. The last false Christ that had made any considerable number of converts, was one Rabbi Mordecai, a Jew of Germany; he appeared in the year 1682. It was not long before he was found out to be an impostor, and was obliged to fly from Italy to Poland, to save his life. 
    Here, then, we have a record of twenty-four false Christs who arose at different periods during about thirteen hundred years of the Christian age, and deceived "many," as the Lord had said. 

    ((( Interjecting here to bring a continued list of noted false Christs…..))))

    18th century

    1.  Kondratiy Selivanov (c. 1730s–1832), the founder and leader of the Skoptsy sect in the Russian Empire.

    1. Ann Lee (1736–1784), the founder and leader of the Shakers. Lee's followers referred to her as "Mother", believing that she was the female incarnation of Christ on Earth.

    19th century

    1. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

    1. John Nichols Thom (1799–1838), a Cornish tax rebel who claimed to be the "saviour of the world" and the reincarnation of Jesus Christ in 1834. He was killed by British soldiers at the Battle of Bossenden Wood, on May 31, 1838 in Kent, England.

    1. Arnold Potter (1804–1872), Schismatic Latter Day Saint leader; he claimed the spirit of Jesus Christ entered into his body and he became "Potter Christ" Son of the living God. He died in an attempt to "ascend into heaven" by jumping off a cliff. His body was later retrieved and buried by his followers.

    1. Jones Very (1813–1880), American essayist, poet, literary scholar, and Greek tutor at Harvard who befriended several prominent American Transcendentalists and suffered a nervous breakdown in 1837 after which he claimed to have become the Second Coming of Jesus.

    1. Bahá'u'lláh (1817–1892), born Shiite, adopted Bábism later in 1844, he claimed to be the prophesied fulfillment and Promised One of three major religions. He founded the Bahá'í Faith in 1863. Followers of the Bahá'í Faith believe that the fulfillment of the prophecies of the second coming of Jesus, as well as the prophecies of the 5th Buddha Maitreya and many other religious prophecies, were begun by the Báb in 1844 and then by Bahá'u'lláh. They commonly compare the fulfillment of Christian prophecies to Jesus' fulfillment of Jewish prophecies, where in both cases people were expecting the literal fulfillment of apocalyptic statements.

    1. William W. Davies (1833–1906), leader of a Latter Day Saint schismatic group called the Kingdom of Heaven located in Walla Walla, Washington from 1867 to 1881. He taught his followers that he was the archangel Michael, who had previously lived as the biblical Adam, Abraham, and David. When his son Arthur was born on February 11, 1868, Davies declared that the infant was the reincarnated Jesus Christ. When Davies's second son, David, was born in 1869, he was declared to be God the Father.

    1. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, India (1835–1908), claimed to be the awaited Mahdi as well as (Second Coming) and likeness of Jesus, the promised Messiah at the end of time. He claimed to be Jesus in the metaphorical sense; in character. He founded the Ahmadiyya Movement in 1889, envisioning it to be the rejuvenation of Islam, and claimed to be commissioned by God for the reformation of mankind.

    20th century

    1. John Hugh Smyth-Pigott (1852–1927). Around 1890 Smyth-Pigott started leading meetings of the Agapenomite community and recruited 50 young female followers to supplement its aging population. He took Ruth Anne Preece as his second wife and she had three children named Glory, Power and Hallelujah. By 1902 his fame had spread as far as India, from where Mirza Ghulam Ahmad warned him of his false teachings and predicted his miserable end. The house which may have belonged to Smyth-Pigott in St John's Wood was visited by John Betjeman in his film Metro-Land. It is built in the neo-gothic style. It is currently the home of the television presenter Vanessa Feltz and was previously the home of Charles Saatchi. Smyth-Pigott died in 1927 and the sect gradually declined until the last member, sister Ruth, died in 1956. Her funeral in 1956 was the only time when outsiders were admitted to the chapel.

    1. Haile Selassie I (1892–1975) did not claim to be Jesus and disapproved of claims that he was Jesus, but the Rastafari movement, which emerged in Jamaica during the 1930s, believes he is the Second Coming. He embodied this when he became Emperor of Ethiopia in 1930, perceived as confirmation of the return of the Messiah in the prophetic Book of Revelation 5:5 in the New Testament, who is also expected to return a second time to initiate the apocalyptic day of judgment. He is also called Jah Ras Tafari, and is often considered to be alive by Rastafari movement members.

    1. Lou de Palingboer (1898–1968), the founder and figurehead of a new religious movement in the Netherlands, who claimed to be "the resurrected body of Jesus Christ".

    1. Gregory Stuart GOrDon (1957- ) felon. Broke into former president Ronald Reagan's Bel-Air California mansion on Independence Day, July 4th of 1990. Proclaimed himself to be the second coming of Christ aka "Jeeses Christ" and stated that former president Reagan was the anti-Christ. Made numerous appearances on The Howard Stern Show as the "Black Jesus."

    1. Ernest Norman (1904–1971), an American electrical engineer who co-founded the Unarius Academy of Science in 1954, was allegedly Jesus in a past life and his earthly incarnation was as an archangel named Raphael. He claimed to be the reincarnation of other notable figures including Confucius, Mona Lisa, Benjamin Franklin, Socrates, Queen Elizabeth I, and Tsar Peter I the Great.

    1. Krishna Venta (1911–1958), born Francis Herman Pencovic in San Francisco, founded the WKFL (Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith and Love) Fountain of the World cult in Simi Valley, California in the late 1940s. In 1948 he stated that he was Christ, the new messiah and claimed to have led a convoy of rocket ships to Earth from the extinct planet Neophrates. He died on December 10, 1958 after being suicide bombed by two disgruntled former followers who accused Venta of mishandling cult funds and having been intimate with their wives.

    1. Ahn Sahng-hong (1918–1985), a South Korean who founded the World Mission Society Church of God in 1964, who recognize him as the Second Coming of Jesus. The World Mission Society Church of God teach that Zahng Gil-jah is "God the Mother", who they explain is referred to in the Bible as the New Jerusalem Mother (Galatians 4:26), and that Ahn Sahng-Hong is God the Father.


    1. Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012), believed by members of the Unification Church to be the Messiah and the Second Coming of Christ, fulfilling Jesus' unfinished mission. Church members ("Unificationists") consider Sun Myung Moon and his wife, Hak Ja Han, to be the True Parents of humankind as the restored Adam and Eve.

    1. Clyde Benson, Joseph Cassel and Leon Gabor, all pseudonyms for psychiatric patients. In 1959, Milton Rokeach conducted an experiment by having the three patients who believed they were Jesus Christ share a room at a psychiatric hospital, and published his results in the book The Three Christs of Ypsilanti.

    1. Jim Jones (1931–1978), founder of Peoples Temple, which started off as an offshoot of a mainstream Protestant sect before becoming a personality cult as time went on. He claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus, Akhenaten, the Buddha, Vladimir Lenin and Father Divine in the 1970s. He organized a mass murder suicide at Jonestown, Guyana on November 18, 1978. He shot himself after the murders were done.

    1. Marshall Applewhite (1931–1997), an American who posted a Usenet message declaring, "I, Jesus—Son of God—acknowledge on this date of September 25/26, 1995: ..." Applewhite and his Heaven's Gate religious group committed mass suicide on March 26, 1997 to rendezvous with what they thought was a spaceship hiding behind Comet Hale–Bopp.

    1. Charles Manson (1934–2017), American criminal, cult leader, and songwriter.

    1. Yahweh ben Yahweh (1935–2007), born as Hulon Mitchell Jr., a black nationalist and separatist who created the Nation of Yahweh in 1979 in Liberty City, Florida. His self-proclaimed name means "God, Son of God". He could have only been deeming himself to be "son of God", not God, but many of his followers clearly deem him to be God Incarnate. In 1992, he was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

    1. Laszlo Toth (1938–2012), Hungarian-born Australian who claimed he was Jesus Christ as he vandalized Michelangelo's Pietà with a geologist's hammer in 1972.

    1. Wayne Bent (1941–), also known as Michael Travesser of the Lord Our Righteousness Church. He claims: "I am the embodiment of God. I am divinity and humanity combined." He was convicted on December 15, 2008 of one count of criminal sexual contact of a minor and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in 2008.

    1. Ariffin Mohammed (1943–2016), also known as "Ayah Pin", the founder of the banned Sky Kingdom in Malaysia in 1975. He claimed to have direct contact with the heavens and is believed by his followers to have been the incarnation of Jesus, as well as Shiva, and the Buddha, and Muhammad.

    1. Mitsuo Matayoshi (1944–2018) was a conservative Japanese politician, who in 1997 established the World Economic Community Party based on his conviction that he is God and Christ, renaming himself Iesus Matayoshi. According to his program he will do the Last Judgment as Christ but within the current political system.

    1. Tony Quinn (1944–), an Irish businessman, whose followers believed him to be Jesus Christ.

    1. José Luis de Jesús Miranda (1946–2013), Puerto Rican founder, leader and organizer of Growing in Grace based in Miami, Florida, who claimed that the resurrected Christ "integrated himself within me" in 2007.

    1. Inri Cristo (1948–), a Brazilian who claims to be the second Jesus reincarnated in 1969. Brasília is considered by Inri Cristo and his disciples as the New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse.

    1. Thomas Harrison Provenzano[40] (1949–2000), an American convicted murderer who was possibly mentally ill. He compared his execution with Jesus Christ's crucifixion.

    1. Shoko Asahara (1955–2018) founded the controversial Japanese religious group Aum Shinrikyo in 1984. He declared himself Christ, Japan's only fully enlightened master and the Lamb of God. His purported mission was to take upon himself the sins of the world. He outlined a doomsday prophecy, which included a Third World War, and described a final conflict culminating in a nuclear Armageddon, borrowing the term from the Book of Revelation 16:16. Humanity would end, except for the elite few who joined Aum. The group gained international notoriety on March 20, 1995, when it carried out the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. He was sentenced to death, and was executed on 6 July 2018.

    1. David Koresh (1959–1993), born Vernon Wayne Howell, was the leader of a Branch Davidian religious sect in Waco, Texas, though never directly claiming to be Jesus himself, proclaimed that he was the final prophet and "the Son of God, the Lamb" in 1983. In 1993, a raid by the U.S. BATF, and the subsequent siege by the FBI ended with Branch Davidian ranch burning to the ground. Koresh, 54 adults and 21 children were found dead after the fire extinguished itself.

    1. Hogen Fukunaga (1945–) founded Ho No Hana Sanpogyo, often called the "foot reading cult", in Japan in 1987 after an alleged spiritual event where he claimed to have realized he was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha.

    1. Marina Tsvigun (1960–), or Maria Devi Christos, is the leader of the Great White Brotherhood. In 1990 she met Yuri Krivonogov, the Great White Brotherhood founder, who recognized Marina as a new messiah and later married her, assuming in the sect the role of John the Baptist, subordinate to Tsvigun.

    1. Sergey Torop (1961–), a Russian who claims to be "reborn" as Vissarion, Jesus Christ returned, which makes him not "God" but the "Word of God". Also known as "Jesus of Siberia," Torop has an appearance similar to depictions of Jesus. He dresses in all white flowing robes and has long brown hair and a beard. Before claiming to be the Vissarion, Torop worked as a traffic policeman until he was fired in 1990. He founded the Church of the Last Testament and the spiritual community Ecopolis Tiberkul in Southern Siberia in 1990. The Church of the Last Testament has been described as being a mixture of beliefs from the Russian Orthodox Church, Buddhism, apocalypticism, collectivism, and with ecological values. The church currently resides on the largest religious reservation in the world in Siberian Taiga.

    21st century

    1. Alan John Miller and Mary Luck - Alan John Miller (1962–), more commonly known as A.J. Miller, a former Jehovah's Witness elder and current leader of the Australia-based Divine Truth movement. Miller claims to be Jesus Christ reincarnated with others in the 20th century to spread messages that he calls the "Divine Truth". He delivers these messages in seminars and various forms of media along with his current partner Mary Suzanne Luck, who identifies herself as the returned Mary Magdalene.

    1. Apollo Quiboloy (1950–) is the founder and leader of a Philippines-based Restorationist church, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, Inc. He has made claims that he is the "Appointed Son of God".

    1.  lan John Miller (1962–), more commonly known as A.J. Miller, a former Jehovah's Witness elder and current leader of the Australia-based Divine Truth movement. Miller claims to be Jesus Christ reincarnated with others in the 20th century to spread messages that he calls the "Divine Truth". He delivers these messages in seminars and various forms of media along with his current partner Mary Suzanne Luck, who identifies herself as the returned Mary Magdalene.

    1. David Shayler (1965–) is a former MI5 agent and whistleblower who, in the summer of 2007, proclaimed himself to be the Messiah. He has released a series of videos on YouTube claiming to be Jesus, although he has not built up any noticeable following since his claims.

    1. Maurice Clemmons (1972–2009), an American felon responsible for the 2009 murder of four police officers in Washington state, referred to himself in May 2009 as Jesus.

    1. Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez (1990–). In November 2011, he fired nine shots with a Romanian Cugir SA semi-automatic rifle at the White House in Washington D.C., believing himself to be Jesus Christ sent to kill U.S. President Barack Obama, whom he believed to be the antichrist.


    (((That concludes the interjection))))

    Verses 6-8. "And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that ye be not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows." 

    Wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, have occurred at different periods since these words were spoken. Therefore, these, as they have ever existed, cannot be regarded as the especial signs of the end. It may be urged, however, with a good degree of consistency, that the Scriptures teach that these calamities would exist in the last days to that extent as to constitute a sign of the approaching Judgment. We wish to keep the important fact distinctly before the mind, that the sacred Scriptures do teach when men may not, and when they may, look for the second appearing of Jesus Christ.

    The sacred writers had so uniformly associated such judgments as war, famine, pestilence, and earthquake, with the last Judgment, that the disciples would be in danger of concluding that the end would immediately follow the first appearance of these calamities; hence the caution given: "These things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." Here the disciples were clearly taught that they should not expect the end in their day. This fact is worthy of the candid attention of those who object to the proclamation of the second advent of Christ in the form of an especial message. These sometimes assert that it was right for the disciples to look for Christ in their day, and that it has been scriptural and right for all Christians to look for the second appearing of Christ in their time, from the days of the chosen twelve to the present time. And they decide that no more can be learned and believed upon this subject in our time, than by the Christians of past generations,. and that the public mind should not now be moved upon this great question, any more than in all past time since the first advent of Christ. 

    We have seen that this position is incorrect so far as the early disciples were concerned. They're cited to the distant future as the time when their Lord should come. They are assured that they need not be troubled at hearing of wars and rumors of wars; "for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." Our Lord then guides the minds of his disciples, as we shall see in the examination of this chapter, down over the time of the great apostasy, and the long period of the rule of papal Rome, before mentioning a sign of his second advent. He does not intimate that his people during these long periods may expect the end. No, not once. But when he comes near our time, the Lord gives signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars, and adds: "When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors." 

    Mark this: Our Lord does not mention wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, as signs of his second advent; but, rather, as events of common occurrence all the way through the Christian age, which must exist before the end. And history attests the fact that these calamities have covered at least seventeen centuries. The following is from a work of Noah Webster, LL. D., published in 1799:- 

    "By famine and sword, 580,000 Jews were destroyed between A.D. 96 and A.D. 180. 
    "In Antioch, from A.D. 96 to A.D. 180, earthquakes destroyed 13 cities, and over 100,000 lives. 
    "In Rome, A.D. 169, pestilence destroyed 10,000 daily. 
    "In Rome, A.D. 187, pestilence appeared, and continued three years. "In London, A.D. 310, by famine, 40,000 died.
    "In A.D. 446, Sept. 17th, an earthquake shook down the walls of Constantinople, and 57 towers fell.
    "In Rome, A.D. 539, in one district 50,000 died.
    "In Antioch, A.D. 588, an earthquake killed 60,000. "In A.D. 590, the plague killed 10,000 daily in Turkey. "In A.D. 679, a severe famine in England three years. 
    "In A.D. 717, in Constantinople, 300,000 died of plague. 
    "In A.D. 1005, earthquakes three months, followed by pestilence, by which it is said one-third of the human race died. 
    "In A.D. 1077, in Constantinople, so many died by plague and famine, the living could not bury them. 
    "In A.D. 1124, in Italy, there was such famine that the dead lay in the streets, not buried; and in England, one-third of the people died of plague.
    "In A.D. 1294, in England, thousands died of famine. 
    "In A.D. 1345, in London, 50,000 died of plague and famine, and were buried in one graveyard; in Norwich, 50,000; in Venice, 100,000; in Florence, 100,000; in Eastern nations, 20,000,000. It was called the black death.
    "In A.D. 1352, in China, 900,000 died of famine.
    "In A.D. 1450, in Milan, 60,000 died of plague. 
    "In A.D. 1611, in Constantinople, 200,000 died of plague.
    "In A.D. 1625, in London, 35,000 died of plague 
    "In A.D. 1626, in Lyons, 600,000 died of plague.
    "In A.D. 1665, in London, 68,000 died of plague. 
    "In A.D. 1755, in the East, an earthquake destroyed the city of Lisbon, killing 50,000.
    In Mitylene and the Archipelago it shook down 2,000 houses. It shook all the Spanish coast. The plague followed, which destroyed 150,000 lives in Constantinople. 

    (((Interjecting with updated incomplete list…))))

    Dead 100,000        Asia, Europe        1816–1826        first cholera pandemic        cholera
    100,000        Asia, Europe, North America        1829–1851        second cholera pandemic        cholera
     20,000        Canada        1847–1848        Typhus epidemic of 1847
    1,000,000        Russia        1852–1860        third cholera pandemic
    40,000        Fiji        1875        Fiji        measles
    1,000,000        worldwide        1889–1890        1889–1890 flu pandemic
    800,000        Europe, Asia, Africa        1899–1923        sixth cholera pandemic
    75,000,000        worldwide        1918–1920        Spanish flu
    2,000,000        worldwide        1957–1958        Asian flu
    30,000,000        worldwide (commenced in Congo Basin)        1960–present        HIV/AIDS pandemic
    4,293        Zimbabwe        2008–2009        2008–2009 Zimbabwean cholera outbreak
    14,286        worldwide        2009        2009 flu pandemic
     4,500 (February 2014)        Congo        2011–present                measles
     11,300        West Africa        2013–2016        Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa

    (((End interjection.))))

    Verses 9, 10. "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you; and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. 

    And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another."
    Here is a brief description of the afflictions and martyrdom of the church. Thousands of the faithful followers of Jesus were most cruelly put to death by pagan Rome; yet the prophecy doubtless applies more particularly to the long period of papal persecutions, in which not less than fifty millions of Christians were put to death in the most cruel manner wicked men and demons could invent. In these verses we are brought down over the long period of the martyrdom of the church of Jesus Christ, to near the present generation. 

    To be continued…..

No comments: