Apocalypse...Now?
April 20, 2010— -- It's one thing to read in the Bible about fire and brimstone, but it's another entirely to see it on TV.
In recent weeks we've been inundated by images that can only be described as apocalyptic. A volcano in Iceland isn't spewing metaphorical "fire and brimstone" but the real stuff, and the resulting cloud of ash has made air travel hellacious, stranding thousands of travelers in airport purgatory.
The volcano follows a spate of deadly earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, Mexico and most recently China. In each place, as the Bible would say, the "earth opened up its mouth and swallowed" people and buildings, leaving thousands dead.
Scientists say the number of earthquakes this year is no more than average, but since the tremors have hit highly-populated areas and been widely reported, there is a sense that something unusual is happening.
For some people, these events are not random, but acts of God, delivered as retribution for our sins.
The eruption of Eyjafjallajokull, the consequence of ancient tectonic plates rubbing on each other thousands of feet under the Earth's surface, has been explained in considerably less scientific terms by people from different faiths with differing agendas.
For many Christians, the images playing out on television bear an eerie resemblance to the events that precede the Apocalypse, the end of days predicted in the New Testament when man is judged and sinners punished.
"The very fact that these phenomena are increasing means something strange is happening. Volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, ever terrorism, these things are frightening and are much like the things predicted to happen during the Apocalypse," said Tim LaHane, the evangelical minister and best-selling author of the "Left Behind" series of books.
