Two powerful earthquakes – the first one with epicenter near the city of Gaziantep, Turkey, with 7.8 magnitude, and the second one with epicenter in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras province, Turkey, and a magnitude of 7.5, hit Turkey and Syria today, on February 6, 2023, provoking 2600 killed victims, including 810 in Syria, and 11119 injured people, bbc.com and theguardian.com confirmed.
The tragic event lets us remember Christ’s prophecy about ‘earthquakes in various places’ as a sign of His second coming in Matthew 24:7, Mark 13:8 and Luke 21:11. In addition, the war of Russia against Ukraine fulfills also the second sign predicted: ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom’.
Unfortunately, the third sign – ‘famines’, was fulfilled as well, when news.un.org announced on December 3, 2019, that “Zimbabwe was facing its worst hunger crisis in a decade with half of the population – 7.7 million people – food insecure”.
However, God gives us a recipe against suffering: “Is any among you suffering? Let him pray.” (James 5:13, first part). Furthermore, “God has placed in the church…gifts of…helping” (1 Corinthians 12:28) as well, so we could also help our brethren by God’s grace.
Damaged building in Diyarbakir, north-east of Gaziantep, Turkey; a photo by Anadolu Agency, quoted by bbc.com.
Written by Margarit Zhekov
