Thirty tornadoes battered the Midwest United States Friday and Saturday, razing major portions of cities and leaving thousands of Americans homeless. It appears one tornado traveled a remarkable 200 miles. Of six affected states, Kentucky suffered the worst damage. Hundreds of people are missing in that state, and 64 people, including a 5-month-old baby, are reported dead.

At a press conference on Sunday, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear was visibly disturbed. He said, “I wish I understood why we’ve gotten hit with the pandemic, a historic ice storm, flooding, and now the worst tornado in our history, all in a span of 19 months.”

This is a tragic disaster. America has been plagued by a number of record-breaking events like this. But what makes them all the more tragic is that our leaders don’t understand why we are having them!

It is essential that you know the reason for the weather disasters that affect our nations.

For over 70 years we have been telling the world why “natural” disasters. Yet few people heed. And now they have come to believe all these catastrophes are caused by carbon emissions. That is terribly false!

You can understand why all these disasters—the covid-19 pandemic; record-breaking flooding and drought simultaneously; a tornado traveling some 200 miles, leaving devastation in its wake. But it will require that you believe God and believe the Bible!

Does God exist? Why did He allow these tornadoes to happen? Do you know? There is a Bible answer to that! It is a tremendous answer, and it ought to strengthen your faith. We need faith amid these terrible times.

In Matthew 24, Jesus Christ was asked by His disciples about what signs would precede His Second Coming and the end of this present world. He responded with the pivotal prophecy of His earthly ministry—the Olivet prophecy. Every end-time Bible prophecy revolves around it. A red-letter Bible shows that these are all Christ’s own words.

Christ spoke about the end time—the time we live in right now. In verse 14, He gave us the major sign of His return: the gospel being preached around the world. If you know the history of God’s Church, you know that has happened. In verses 21-22, Christ said there is a time coming when no flesh would be saved alive if He didn’t return and prevent it! We must realize that in today’s age of weapons of mass destruction, this is a very realistic scenario. These are obviously end-time prophecies.

In verses 4-5, the first warning Christ gave—and a major warning sign we need to watch out for—is that people would come in His name, but they wouldn’t believe His message. And He said that these false ministers would deceive many! Look at how few people, even religious people, accept the Bible explanation for climatic disasters. Believe it or not, that is proving Christ’s prophecy true!

His prophecy continues: “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers [different] places” (verses 6-7). Here is another sign of the end time: earthquakes in different places. Christ said we would experience natural disasters! He told us to expect it.

Some people ask whether such disasters are God’s will. The answer depends on how you look at it. It isn’t His will that people have to suffer. But if they reject His message or turn away from Him, then that’s another matter. Then He wants to correct them so He can bring them into His Family for all eternity!

Christ also spoke of famines—not enough food and water—and then pestilences, or disease epidemics. Earthquakes, famines, pestilence: These are among the signs Christ gave of the end of the world we know—and the beginning of a beautiful new world we can hardly even imagine.

Can we ignore Christ’s words? Why won’t so-called Christians simply believe Christ?

But the prophecy gets even more shocking. In the next verse, Christ tells us, “All these are the beginning of sorrows” (verse 8).

Jesus Christ was the greatest newscaster ever. If you doubt that, just watch what happens. Compare what He said with what we are experiencing today. Learn Christ’s prophecies, and then watch events: Every single prophecy will be fulfilled. Then, right on the heels of all these catastrophes, He will return.

And note: The point at which we find ourselves today, Christ told us, is only the beginning of sorrows.

The town of Mayfield, Kentucky, was especially hard-hit by the tornadoes. The entire community looks as if it had been bulldozed. “I could hear people screaming, cries for help. I couldn’t tell where they were, where it was coming from,” said Wes Fowler, a local pastor. “Power lines down, buildings down, debris in the street; it resembled what I think a war zone would look like.” In this disaster, there were literal cries for help! There is great sorrow over the destruction.

This is the beginning of sorrows. We are experiencing the beginning of the end of the world! Jesus Christ is about to usher in a new world—a world without disasters, without any such troubles because Christ will be ruling! When He governs Earth, it will be a paradise. The Bible is full of prophecies about that.

The problem now is, most men are not ruled by Christ. They may say He rules them, but most of them are wrong. Their statement simply will not stand the test of the Scriptures.

If we don’t listen to Christ, the troubles will intensify: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (verse 21). The disasters that afflict our nation are just a little sliver of the sorrows about to come. Do you believe Christ? Most people do not, and that’s why we have all these problems. We wouldn’t have to experience the sorrows if we would only listen to Christ!

At the end of the previous chapter in Matthew, Christ said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matthew 23:37). You wouldn’t allow it—you wouldn’t do what I wanted you to do! Those are strong words. We must listen to them, or the sorrows are only beginning.

“And because iniquity [lawlessness] shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:12). The translators, because of their human nature, obscured a key word in this verse. Christ said that, in our day, lawlessness would abound.

Oh, is that ever true! Everywhere today we see lawlessness. That is the real cause of the problems we face! God wants us to keep His law. 1 John 5:3 reveals that keeping God’s commandments is the very definition of the love of God!

Think about this. When we face such disasters, isn’t it strange that no one will blame lawlessness? Some even resort to blaming God, but they don’t like to blame man. And I am not talking about “sins” like driving cars that emit carbon. I’m talking about breaking God’s spiritual law! America is plagued by sin. Pornography, homosexuality, abortion, drugs, violence—we are steeped in sin and lawlessness! It abounds just as Christ prophesied it would!

At a time like this, we ought to look at our sins. Can you see the evil in this world as God does?

When Jesus Christ came to Earth, He was bludgeoned to death by sinners. We are all guilty of His death, because we all sin.

It’s true that, when He has to, God does bring evil upon people. In the book of Daniel, which is for the end time (Daniel 12:4, 9), the Prophet Daniel said, “[A]ll this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice” (Daniel 9:13-14). God allows evil, and sometimes He brings it upon us. But why? “That we might turn” from our lawlessness!

Christ’s prophecy continued: “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved [the Moffatt translation says ‘saved alive’]: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:22). Humanity would be destroyed if Jesus Christ didn’t come back to this Earth and stop it from happening.

Now, Christ didn’t bring those nuclear bombs into this world. He didn’t invent the terrible weapons of mass destruction we possess today. Man did that—in violation of God’s law.

God is going to put the people of this world through great tribulation until they know that, without Him, there is no hope—there’s nothing man can do. People will be brought to the point where they have to rely on God! So often, an alcoholic has to hit rock bottom before he’ll ever admit he is wrong and actually wants to change. That is the way mankind tends to be.

The two hardest things in the world for people to do are, first, to admit they’re wrong, and second, to believe God.

“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (verse 24). False prophets are going to appear who will actually be able to show signs and wonders. Do you know the difference between a false prophet and a true one? You must, or you will be deceived.

But God’s very elect cannot be deceived. Do you know why? It’s because they simply believe Christ. They hold on to what He said and won’t let go.

“For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (verse 27). Christ is going to return, and that is what it will look like. Change is on the way like this world has never known! That is the best possible news you could ever hear.

“So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled” (verses 33-34). Christ’s return is almost upon us! We don’t know the day or the hour (verse 36)—but Christ said we should know when it is at the doors. And we can be certain that everything He prophesied will be fulfilled—both the bad news, and the best possible news! Do you believe that?

“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (verse 35). You can always trust His words of life. They will never fail.

Leaders of this world wish they understood why we have such disasters. If only they would believe their Bibles and believe what God says. Yes, God brings evil upon us, but He also shows us how to turn away from our sinful way of life so we’ll receive nothing but blessings on top of blessings!