Would You Flee One of These …?

Catastrophes often furnish profound insight into human nature. When Ike barreled toward the Texas coast as a Category 3 hurricane in September, more than 1 million people on Galveston Island and in low-lying areas of Houston followed orders and evacuated their homes.

But more than one hundred thousand people refused to evacuate.

That seems illogical. Most of these people could easily have fled the death and destruction hurtling toward them. They chose not to.

It wasn’t that they were oblivious to Ike’s immense fury. They, like the rest of America, tracked the swirling mass of terror for more than a week as it crawled from the southern Atlantic—grinding across Cuba, leveling large sections of the island, into the Gulf of Mexico, then toward the Texas coastline. Ike’s attack was not sudden.

Gulf Coasters knew Ike brandished catastrophic winds faster than 100 miles per hour. They knew it held enormous volumes of rain. They knew it was creating a storm surge as high as 25 feet and would undoubtedly deluge homes, sweep away belongings and drive those who remained behind to the rooftops of their houses. They knew it would sever power supplies, cut food lines and poison water supplies. These people knew—and were warned tirelessly by officials—that they would likely be killed by this hurricane.

Still, they stayed.

Why would a sane person risk life, limb or family to a 900-mile-wide monster for the sake of things—or convenience? Rational people value life over death or the loss of material belongings. When terror knocks, they will do everything possible to shuttle their family to safety.

Perhaps it’s easy to brand these people as irrational, selfish fools. But, if we’re honest, their refusal to flee demonstrates a quality of human nature common to all of us.

One of Our Greatest Enemies

Do you realize how much the occurrence of major weather disasters is increasing?

Before Hurricane Ike, President Bush had declared 422 major disasters—including damaging storms, wildfires, floods and tornadoes—during his 7 years in office. “Under Bush, the government has committed to spend $87 billion in disaster relief funds to help states and localities clean up after floods, fires and storms, compared with Clinton’s nearly $29 billion,” noted the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Even after adjusting for inflation, the Bush administration has spent 2 times more than the Clinton administration on disaster relief” (August 10; emphasis mine throughout).

Catastrophic disasters are costing the government—or taxpayers—billions and billions of dollars!

But the government isn’t the only one bearing the costs of these disasters. Farmers across America can tell you about the cost of floods and droughts on their crops. Hurricane Gustav, which struck Louisiana less than two weeks before Ike, took an agricultural toll on that state of more than half a billion dollars. According to Louisiana Gannett News Service, “Statewide, officials estimate Hurricane Gustav alone destroyed more than 14 percent of crops and forestry, wiping out almost $543 million in farm and forestry revenue, including more than half of the cotton and sweet potato crops” (September 17).

That’s one hurricane.

Ike compounded those figures. Though it did less damage than anticipated, its tab was expected to reach into the billions. Early estimates indicated insurance claims alone could reach $18 billion.

That’s two hurricanes. By September the federal government had declared fifty-four other disasters across America for the year to date!

Aid agencies can also testify to the weather disasters striking America. In 2005, the American Red Cross had to borrow money ($340 million) for the first time in its 127-year history to pay for its response efforts to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. That decision quickly became precedent. Days after Gustav struck, the Red Cross announced that it needed to borrow more to fund its $70 million Hurricane Gustav relief effort.

The Red Cross is not alone in its funding shortfalls. As Philip Rucker noted in the Washington Post, “The gap between Gustav expenses and donations comes at a perilous time for relief groups. An unusually high number of U.S. disasters this year has taxed charities, from wildfires in California to tornadoes across the South. … Other nonprofit groups also prepared for the worst from Gustav and provided shelter, food and clothing for thousands of evacuees. The Salvation Army spent in excess of $1 million on Gustav, but it has raised just $30,000 to cover it. Save the Children, which spent more than $100,000 on diapers, cots and bassinets at shelters, has raised $35,000. Catholic Charities usa spent more than $200,000 and has taken in $10,000” (September 6).

That new, unsettling reality is telling: Weather disasters have become so common and so intense, aid agencies simply cannot keep up with the demand for assistance.

Take an honest look across the American landscape. Abnormal weather is impacting virtually every region of the country. Fires and droughts routinely ravage the West and Southwest, with some cities and counties experiencing the worst drought in recorded history. Hurricanes are striking the South. Extreme storms with hard winds and flooding rains are occurring across much of the Midwest and into the Northeast. And the whole nation is feeling the consequences: State governments, unable to pay for the damage to their states, are looking to the federal government to bail them out; insurance companies are struggling to pay out claims and are raising insurance premiums; food prices are going up as a result of crop loss and damage.

Weather has become one of America’s greatest enemies! And statistical trends suggest that the problem will only get worse.

Is there anything people can do about this? In a sense, it amounts to one large hurricane approaching landfall. The almost universal belief, however, is that there is nothing to be done except bunker down and try to ride it out.

But the truth is, there is an evacuation route most are simply refusing to use!

The Reason for Catastrophic Weather

Most people would dismiss this fact, but the increase in catastrophic weather conditions is described in biblical prophecy. And its cause is thoroughly explained!

In Amos 4, God says: “And also I withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest. I caused it to rain upon one city and caused it not to rain upon another city; one piece of ground was rained upon, and the piece upon which it did not rain withered. So [the people of] two or three cities wandered and staggered into one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied …. I smote you with blight … and with mildew; I laid waste the multitude of your gardens and your vineyards; your fig trees and your olive trees the palmerworm … devoured; yet you did not return to Me, says the Lord” (verses 7-9, Amplified Bible).

What a perfect description of U.S. weather patterns! Between them, Hurricanes Gustav and Ike forced 3 million people to evacuate their homes. These people literally fled from one city to another, just as the Prophet Amos described.

Amos’s prophecy, like many others in the Bible (read, for example, Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28), shows that the weather is a measure of God’s happiness with and blessings upon man—or lack thereof. That’s right. God uses the weather as an instrument of correction, as well as an instrument through which He blesses the obedient.

These weather curses are a wake-up call from God to the American people. You could compare them to the early-warning calls for action blasted to the residents of Galveston before Hurricane Ike.

The question is: How are you responding?

The fact is, there is a strong tendency in human nature—common to all of us—that makes us want to pretend that if we just keep doing what we are doing, everything will turn out just fine in the end.

All humans have the proclivity to ignore terror!

We should think about this before we judge those who refused to flee Ike. Yes, you have the same proclivity as those in Galveston to ignore terror, ignore warnings and refuse to flee to safety!

Don’t believe me? There are at least half a dozen hurricane-sized crises barreling down on America right now. What are you doing to protect yourself and your family from them?

Tracking Hurricanes

For years, the Trumpet has tracked and warned about the multitude of figurative hurricanes bearing down on the Anglo-American peoples. Today, many of these violent storms are on America’s doorstep; some are already pounding the nation.

Perhaps most obvious is the Category 5 economic hurricane currently smashing into America. The average American has long ignored the balance sheets of American companies and the reckless spending of the U.S. government—and thus ignored the forecasts of the coming economic storm. That fierce storm has now arrived (see page 4). Economic devastation looms.

How are you responding to this financial hurricane?

Another crisis the Trumpet has talked about for years is the geopolitical hurricane hurtling toward America. Most Americans remain blissfully ignorant of the terrifying world in which they live. Most refuse to accept that much of the world hates the United States and, in many cases, is attempting to implement strategies and foreign policies designed to handicap and destroy American power. You can read about this in last month’s issue of the Trumpet.

The United States is quickly becoming a global weakling while anti-American nations are emerging as powerhouses. Geopolitical demise may be an off-shore threat, but it stands to impact every American. How serious do Americans perceive this problem to be? How many are searching for a safe place?

There are multiple other powerful, potentially devastating hurricanes brewing inside America, which the Trumpet has written about for years. Racial tension is palpable; race riots loom. Sexual immorality and sundry sexual perversions—considered normal and widely promoted in mainstream media—are leveling marriages and families. America’s children are mentally, emotionally and spiritually lost, abandoned by their parents and besieged by a culture that worships the gutter. The list goes on.

Like Hurricane Ike, these crises can and have been tracked, many in alarming detail, for years. Now they’re on America’s doorstep, and some are already making landfall.

One would think a rational person would be diligently searching for a safe place to go to escape these storms. Only an irrational person would ignore the terror, reject the warning signs and, like the folks in Galveston, hunker down and attempt to weather the storms alone.

Yet that’s exactly what most Americans are doing! Few are evacuating to safety. Most are ignoring the warnings and going about life as usual.

A Place of Safety?

Finding a safe place to escape to today, however, may seem impossible. There isn’t a square inch of American soil that isn’t exposed to one crisis or another. That’s true.

But that doesn’t mean there is not a place of safety for you to escape to. Bible history shows that God has a history of protecting righteous, obedient people. He caused Noah to build an ark to escape the largest flood in history. He rescued the Israelites from slavery. He protected the ancient prophets. He protected His true Church throughout the centuries, when His people remained faithful to Him.

This lesson permeates the Bible: God protects righteous, obedient people who seek His protection!

The United States faces a multitude of Ike-sized hurricanes—political, geopolitical, economic and social. As they approach, are you searching for a place of safety for you and your family? If you’re seriously interested in learning how to be protected from these terrible storms, order a free copy of Repentance Toward God, and request your first issue of the Herbert W. Armstrong College Bible Correspondence Course.

This literature, if you believe it and put it into practice, will be your vehicle to God’s place of safety.