God is trying to get America’s attention! Massive wildfires have burned a path of destruction through Los Angeles County, leaving prosperous neighborhoods looking like war zones. Wind gusts of up to 100 miles per hour aggravated the fires, which have burned tens of thousands of acres and have incinerated neighborhoods. At least 24 people have died. Roughly 10,000 buildings have been destroyed. More than 24,000 people have applied for disaster assistance.

News anchors are using biblical terms like “Hades,” “apocalypse” and “last days” to describe the raging inferno. “[I]n recent days, many images of wildfire devastation coming over the newswires made the City of Angels look every bit like Hades: raging infernos, charred skeletal remains of homes, a smoke-filled amaranthine sky, weeping residents,” wrote James Hibberd for the Hollywood Reporter. “The frequency and intensity of fires statewide likewise feels new—seven of the eight largest California wildfires of all time have occurred in just the past four years.”

This is bitter affliction!

Many media and government officials downplayed the destructive nature of Hurricane Helene last year because it hit a conservative area of the country. The California inferno is different: It is pounding the celebrity class, and people are worried.

Some pundits are pointing fingers at California Governor Gavin Newsom for failing to clear away the underbrush in the forest and ensure the fire hydrants were topped off with water. Much of this criticism is warranted. California’s wildfires have gotten much, much worse since environmentalists convinced the California government to stop clearing the forests through timber harvesting, underbrush removal and controlled burns.

But even these conservative pundits are not talking about God’s hand in these fires. Journalists might use terms like Hades and apocalyptic to describe the destruction, but they don’t really understand why these curses are increasing in the latter days.

California received an abundance of rain the past two years, but its water reserves are still dangerously low due to a once-in-a-millennium mega-drought. University of California climate scientists have examined the data and found that, even after two wet winters, the last 25 years have been the driest quarter century since a.d. 800. That’s right! Charlemagne was being crowned the last time California was this dry.

Radical leftists like to blame drought on greenhouse gas emissions, ignoring the fact that the Mayan civilization suffered through a similar mega-drought long before the first Californian purchased an suv. Yet the Bible has a very different explanation for why mega-droughts, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes afflict humanity.

Hollywood liberals and establishment politicians may consider themselves too sophisticated to believe it, but the Bible says God punishes us with “natural” disasters. Isaiah 29:6 says, “Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.” California certainly is being “visited” with “the flame of devouring fire” this week. And as far back as 2003, my father, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry, has pointed out that California’s mega-drought is a result of this state’s rebellion against God and His law. Specifically, my father has pointed out that God is punishing California for the vicious legal attack it launched against the late Herbert W. Armstrong in 1979.

“In an overt attack against Mr. Armstrong, the state of California, through the attorney general’s office, launched a massive lawsuit against the [Worldwide Church of God] in 1979,” he wrote in his December 2003 article “Is California Under a Curse?” He continued:

On January 3, that office initiated a sudden, armed assault on the Pasadena headquarters, in an attempt to claim ownership of the Church’s property and assets as well as its continuing income—in violation of the U.S. Constitution. A receiver, secretly appointed by the court, tried to take over and operate God’s Church. Completely false, outrageous and baseless allegations of financial mismanagement were made—despite financial and all other required records having been regularly and voluntarily filed. No evidence of wrongdoing was ever found, and on Oct. 14, 1980, the attorney general dropped all charges and dismissed the case. Later, the higher appellate court ruled that the lawsuit was without foundation. California is the only state that ever attacked Mr. Armstrong and his work. Actually, it attacked a lot more than that. California really attacked the living God!

California has been saturated with God’s warning message probably more than any other state. Yet rather than turn to God in repentance, the people of this state attacked Mr. Armstrong and the Church of God before going on to promote “gay pride,” the “lgbtq+ agenda” and “San Francisco values.” Even in the midst of the wildfires, the California media is praising the efforts of lesbian firefighters rather than repenting.

There should be no question about why God is cursing California. He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire (Genesis 19), and California is deeply mired in the same vile sins committed in those ancient cities. Even though America is experiencing a temporary resurgence brought on by the incoming Trump administration, we can expect California’s problems to get worse until its people repent. Amos 4:7 foretells of a time when God will cause “it to rain upon one city, and … not to rain upon another city.” So we can expect natural disasters like Hurricane Helene and the California fires to intensify.

Crises like these should cause us to take an introspective look at the way we are living. Yet in California’s case, a quarter century of curses has failed to wake the state up.