Major earthquake in China

Yesterday, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck the city of Chengdu, China and at the time of writing, over 12,000 people are dead and more than 18,000 are missing. Online pictures depict the immense devastation, must of it affecting students and children. We will keep them in our prayers, hoping that no Christians perished and hoping that God will comfort those who lost loved ones.

It won't take long, though, for people to use this incident to teach false doctrine. They are going to claim that this earthquake is a precursor to the end of the world. They may even quote Matthew 24:7: "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places." If you look at the context of Matthew 24, Jesus is speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem, not the end of the world.

I'm a preacher myself, and perhaps most people would believe that I would be inclined to agree with people who say that these events are harbingers of the end of the world, but it contradicts the truth and is in very poor taste to use a tragic disaster like this to teach erroneous theories of the "end times." There has been enough suffering. Let's not add to it by condemning people's souls to an eternity in hell by claiming that a made-up series of "end events" are just around the corner.

Kyle Campbell