
Author
Brady StephensonAuthor
Brady StephensonA recent World Net Daily article shouts the question, "WILL TRIBULATION BEGIN A YEAR FROM NOW?"
Pastor Mark Biltz authored the article and I view him with great respect for his discovery of the "blood moons" phenomena back in 2008 well before anyone else was speaking about it. In his tribulation article, Pastor Biltz makes note of several factors suggesting that the end is near and the tribulation is about to begin:
Wait... earthquakes?
During my "day job", I lead a team of data analysts and use earthquake data as an example in some of our discussions with new employees. There has not been a huge jump in the number of major earthquakes.
The World Net Daily article includes a chart that shows a huge increase in magnitude 6+ quakes since 2000 so I set out to examine the data for myself. The chart referenced the US Geological Survey (USGS) website so I went there and retrieved a fresh copy of the the data.
When I graphed out the data it revealed there has been a big increase in recorded 6.0+ earthquakes but it goes back to 1964. I was curious so I dug a little deeper and found the increase can be attributed to three things:
If we pare the data down to the "big quakes" that are 7.0 and greater we find a completely different picture. Based upon a 10-year average going back to 1900, it seems like the number of big quakes has decreased over the past century. It seems like the 10-year average for big quakes was about the same in 1978, 1954, 1937, 1923, and 1911.
So no... we aren't having more big quakes than normal.
Well... maybe it's the severity. Maybe they aren't happening any more often but when they do, they're bigger.
I changed my approach to the data in order to consider the severity and found that, too, was not the case. Earthquakes aren't getting more severe.
I contacted the the USGS directly and here is what they offered on the subject:
So... earthquakes aren't getting any more frequent or any more severe.
On that particular point, it appears that World Net Daily and the good pastor miss the mark. What about all the other factors? Well... those are a topic for a different article.
For now, let us remain serious and sober awaiting the Lord's return and remember Paul's exhortation to Timothy:
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