The beloved country of my birth is being wracked by the trauma of devastating fires in the south, and floods in the north. Already the massive fireball that has swept across Victoria and parts of South Australia, and even now rages in part on the city of Sydney’s doorstep, has taken over 100 lives and caused unprecedented damage, wiping out whole communities in the state of Victoria. This is devastation of record proportions, even in a hot, dry country so used to summer bushfires.

To the north, 60 percent of my old home state of Queensland is under water as massive floods sweep down in the wake of the northern monsoon season. The town of Ingham had 12 meters of water in its downtown center. Crocodiles have entered normally populated areas via the floodwaters, and venomous snakes are adding to the challenges facing people displaced by the floods, which are reaching record levels. It’s suspected one wayward croc killed a child.

What a paradox.

Massive floods to the north, death and destruction by fire in the south.

Yet few would understand in this now largely godless country, where more people worship the sun on its golden beaches than ever deign to think of worshiping the great God who gifted to “the lucky country” its magnificent blessings, that they are witnessing the very prophecies of that God in action.

Our editor in chief has often pointed to the imminent reality of the prophecies of the book of Amos. This was a prophecy that Herbert W. Armstrong, that 20th-century apostle of God, who prophesied so many of today’s cataclysmic events, admitted he did not understand.

Yet, second only to the prophecies of the book of Malachi, the book of Amos was the very next book of prophecy that Almighty God opened to the mind of the one who accepted the baton of leadership of God’s remnant Church, four years after it was dropped by the one to whom it was handed upon the death of Herbert Armstrong in January 1986.

The reason for the delay in God opening up the book of Amos to our understanding was obviously due to it being a prophecy reserved for the very times that have come upon us in this time of “no more delay” (Revelation 10:6; Revised Standard Version).

Speaking of the prophecies of Amos, Gerald Flurry declared, clear back in 1991,

Amos is directing his message to the “remnant” (or end-time portion) of Joseph (Amos 5:15; 6:6). The story of Joseph and his two sons—Ephraim and Manasseh, or modern-day Britain and America—is in Genesis 48:3-5, 10-20; 49:22-26. Mr. Armstrong covered this very well in his book The United States and Britain in Prophecy.Why can’t the land bear all of our words? [Amos 7:10]. Our message would not phase them unless there were serious problems plaguing the nations! The people try to close their minds to the coming catastrophe. But God’s Word won’t allow them to hide behind deceptions.Herbert W. Armstrong never delivered this message! Our nation’s problems never got this bad while he was alive.

In particular, our editor in chief emphasized in that booklet the words of Amos that declare a significant reality for our times, that God would soon give the Anglo-Saxon peoples “cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord” (Amos 4:6-8).

Five years later, writing on the same theme, Gerald Flurry declared both the source of this devastation, and the reason for it (Trumpet, April 1996):

The Prophet Amos prophesied about this problem in the end time …. “And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered” (Amos 4:7). God says, “I caused” it! God is the cause. We are being cursed by God! Do we really understand what that means? When we continue to have serious floods and droughts at the same time, it is a warning sign from God. And this is only the beginning.

In a great reminder of the influence of the “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:20), Gerald Flurry focused on the one whom God is permitting to wreak devastation on our nations by flood and fire and other so-called natural phenomena (The Little Book, 2002, emphasis mine):

Satan is also focusing more and more on bringing the nations of modern Israel down and exalting his Gentile nations.Natural disasters have intensified mightily since Mr. Armstrong died. There have been earthquakes, floods, droughts and fires. There has also been an alarming increase in family breakdown, race problems and out-of-control crime. … That is also true for the British peoples. South Africa has lost control of its country. That catastrophe and a lot more are going to happen to America and Britain, if we don’t heed God’s Word. …There is “no more delay.” Get your mind conditioned for catastrophes as never before on this Earth!

In his introduction to the booklet The Lion Has Roared, an exposé of the prophecies of Amos, Gerald Flurry states,

Christ is getting ready to return to Earth. But how bad will events become before He arrives? The most powerful part of biblical Israel is compared to a sheep that has been attacked—and only two legs and a piece of an ear remain! [Amos 3:12]. Only one tenth of these nations’ inhabitants will survive. There is no stronger prophetic message in the Bible. Of the one who delivers it, Amos says, “The land is not able to bear all his words.” This is a prophecy for now. God must supernaturally protect His very elect from what is coming. Thankfully, all of these horrifying events lead to the return of Jesus Christ to rule this world forever!

If ever there was a land whose people largely cannot bear all the words of the prophecies of God for these times, it surely has to be the hedonistic, increasingly homophile, largely godless peoples of my beloved home country, Australia.

Yet, just as millions in Australia once heard the voice of Herbert Armstrong declaring the prophecies for our time, Australia will hear the words of a prophet—like it or not, accept it or not, and let the chips lay where they will fall. Thank God, just as in the time of Mr. Armstrong, some of those who hear will actually heed the words of a prophet and yield to the will of God to be saved from the terrible trauma of the prophesied times ahead.

Our continuing prayer will be for Almighty God to have mercy on those who cry out for understanding as to the reasons for the devastation, in particular, in the inferno engulfing southern Australia, as well as those suffering loss from the unprecedented floods in Australia’s north.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd referred to those fires as being akin to “Hell in all its fury [visiting] the good people of Victoria.” Yet this inferno in Australia’s south is but a portent of far worse to come.

Our prayers and our work are dedicated to delivering the answers as to why these catastrophes are being visited on our peoples at this time. To those precious few who will heed and understand, then turn to their God to genuinely seek to comprehend the reasons for their very existence on this Earth, the Creator offers the magnificent truth about their incredible human potential!

Read our booklet Australia—Where to Now? and request your own copy, free of charge, of our book The Incredible Human Potential, for real insight into the prophecies for these times and the great future that awaits mankind beyond the hugely corrective curses that are increasingly devastating our nations today.