Ebola: More deaths in Africa, more issues in USA

Ebola has killed thousands and the World Health Organization, of the United Nations, is reporting more problems with it:

October 16, 2014

The World Health Organization said . . . the situation at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is worsening.

The UN agency called the transmission of the deadly virus “widespread and persistent” in the area.

It singled out Ebola’s “rampant” spread in Sierra Leone, where at least 425 new cases were reported in the last 10 days, and noted that neighboring Guinea has seen an “increase in the intensity” of transmission.

Yet a positive step in combating the virus may come within the next week. The WHO will declare Nigeria and Senegal free of Ebola if the West African countries reach the required 42 days without any new cases.

Nearly 4,500 people have died from the virus since the outbreak began late last year. The virus can cause fever, bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea, and spreads through contact with bodily fluids. http://www.voanews.com/content/who-conditions-deteriorating-in-ebola-stricken-guinea-sierra-leone/2485516.html

October 16, 2014

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — The deadly Ebola virus has infected two people in what was the last untouched district in Sierra Leone, the government said Thursday, a setback in efforts to turn back the disease in one of the hardest-hit countries.

The Emergency Operations Center in its report covering Wednesday noted two Ebola cases in the Koinadugu district, in Sierra Leone’s far north, which since the outbreak early this year has remained untouched.

Residents of the district had practiced strict safety precautions and limited contact with the rest of the country where the disease is rampant.

According to the World Health Organization, there have been 425 new cases in the whole country just last week. http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/New-district-in-Sierra-Leone-gets-Ebola-5826429.php

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is “unquestionably the most severe acute public health emergency in modern times,” Dr. Margaret Chan, the director general of the World Health Organization, said Monday.

Chan, who dealt with the 2009 avian flu pandemic and the SARS outbreaks of 2002-03, said the Ebola outbreak had progressed from a public health crisis to “a crisis for international peace and security.”

“I have never seen a health event threaten the very survival of societies and governments in already very poor countries,” she said in a statement delivered on her behalf to a conference in Manila, Philippines, and released by her office in Geneva. “I have never seen an infectious disease contribute so strongly to potential state failure.” http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Ebola-outbreak-threatens-peace-security-WHO-5820039.php

Sadly, ‘safe’ locations according to certain ‘experts’ are not always safe. And many feel the risk of Ebola is very high.

The USA is becoming more concerned about Ebola:

In the United States, President Barack Obama canceled travel plans Wednesday to hold an emergency Cabinet meeting after news that the second U.S. health worker infected with the Ebola virus flew on a commercial jet a day before developing symptoms.

U.S. lawmakers will question senior public health officials about the country’s response to Ebola in a congressional hearing on Thursday.

Two nurses in the southern state of Texas contracted the virus while treating Thomas Eric Duncan – the Liberian national who last week became the first person in the United States to die of Ebola.

One of the women, Nina Pham, 26, is under medical supervision in Texas, while the second, Amber Vinson, 29 – who took a domestic flight right before her diagnosis – was flown Wednesday from Dallas to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, where two other Ebola patients were successfully treated.

On Wednesday, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Vinson never should have been allowed to fly on a commercial jetliner because she had been exposed to the virus while caring for an Ebola patient who traveled to the U.S. from Liberia. http://www.voanews.com/content/who-conditions-deteriorating-in-ebola-stricken-guinea-sierra-leone/2485516.html

Nearly 2000 years ago, on the Mount of Olives just outside of Jerusalem, Jesus warned of sorrows, including pestilences:

4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:4-8)

There are risks from Ebola.

Is Ebola a sign that the fourth horseman of the apocalypse has began to accelerate his ride or simply a precursor of things to come?

As I mentioned once before, there is a questionable, and likely false report, that many have circulated on the internet that in 1847 a Professor Lloyd Cunningdale found a prediction about the end of the world in 2016:

An article in Weekly World News describes a find by a Professor Lloyd Cunningdale of Salt Lake City who was excavating with his students at the site of the famous Donner party disaster of 1847. The latter were a group of settlers bound for California who became trapped by snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Cunningdale and students have found a time capsule left by the settlers which contains many predictions for the future. They predict that nations will abandon traditional methods of conflict and resort to the use of biological warfare. In 2016, one such disease will spread out of control and kill all of the humans on the planet. (http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl18.htm viewed 09/27/14)

As the claimed source, Weekly World News, often reported fiction, why mention this here?

Because some do feel that the United Nations and others have an agenda to kill off much of the planet and some feel that massive pestilences will destroy much life in 2016. Some allege that governments around the world are working towards that.

All humans, however, will not be killed in 2016.

As far as Ebola goes, it should serve as a warning, a precursor of pestilences to come. One of the way Ebola is spread is by fruit bats. As it turns out, Fruit bats are eaten by people in parts of West Africa where they are smoked, grilled or made into a spicy soup. If this practice and certain others were stopped, this would help reduce the spread of the disease. And it is not just fruit bats, the Reston ebolavirus (REBOV) can be transmitted to pigs and was found in Virginia in 1989. Since the initial outbreak it has since been found in nonhuman primates in Pennsylvania, Texas, and Italy–but the problems were contained (Ebola. Wikipedia, viewed 09/27/14). However, avoidance of consumption of biblically unclean animals would help prevent certain pestilences, but most ignore what the Bible teaches about that (see also The New Testament Church and Unclean Meats).

As I mentioned, Ebola be considered as a precursor to coming pestilences. Why?

Because both in Jesus’ list of sorrows and the opening of the seals of the Book of Revelation, there is an order. In both lists, famines proceed pestilences. Notice what Revelation shows:

5 When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. 6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.” (Revelation 6:5-6)

Famine to the degree what Revelation 6:5-6 is discussing have not happened yet.

And it is after this time of famine has began that pestilences will get worse. In time and more will die in the future with the ride of the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse:

⁷When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.” ⁸So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. (Revelation 6:7-8)

Many believe that infectious diseases and possibly bugs are part of the “beasts of the earth” that are prophesied to kill a significant portion of humankind in Revelation 6:7-8, especially in the light of what Jesus taught in Matthew 24:7-8.

Ebola is one of many pestilential threats. And it is one that has been killing thousands already. However, because we have not had massive famines yet, the time for the fourth horseman to start his final ride does not seemed to have started yet.

Ebola is a precursor of other pestilences and the end will not come in 2016.

That being said, my prayers are with those in Africa and elsewhere who are affected with Ebola.

Some items of possibly related interest may include:

Ebola, Pestilence, and 2016? The World Health Organization says the Ebola epidemic is the most severe acute public health emergency seen in modern times and kills 71% who contract it. What does the United Nations say? Is Ebola a pestilence related to the four horsemen of the apocalypse? Is a questionable prediction that all humans will die from infection in 2016 possible?
Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse What is the pale horse of death and pestilences? What will it bring and when? Spanish: El cuarto jinete de Apocalipsis, el caballo pálido de muerte y pestilencia.
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse What do each of the four horseman of the Apocalypse represent? Have they began their ride? Did Jesus discuss the any of this? Might their rides coincide with the “beginning of sorrows? Do they start their ride prior to the Great Tribulation? Did Nostradamus or any other ‘private prophets’ write predictions that may mislead people so that they may not understand the truth of one or more of the four horseman? There is also a related YouTube video titled The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
The New Testament Church and Unclean Meats Are foods considered to have been unclean in the Old Testament considered to be food in the New Testament? This article discusses this from the perspective of the New Testament. It also has a list of clean and unclean animals and tells of infections like Ebola being spread by eating bats. It also answers the question, is pork healthy or is pork dangerous? There is also a sermon-length video on this: Christians and Unclean Meats.
When Will the Great Tribulation Begin? 2014, 2015, or 2016? Can the Great Tribulation begin today? What happens before the Great Tribulation in the “beginning of sorrows”? What happens in the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord? Is this the time of the Gentiles? When is the earliest that the Great Tribulation can begin? What is the Day of the Lord? Who are the 144,000? Here is a version of the article in the Spanish language: ¿Puede comenzar la Gran Tribulación en 2013 o 2014? ¿Es el Tiempo de los Gentiles? You can also see the English language sermon video: The Great Tribulation from the Mount of Olives.
Africa: Its Biblical Past and Prophesied Future What does the Bible teach about Africa and its future? Did the early Church reach Africa? Will God call all the Africans?
United Nations: Humankind’s Last Hope or New World Order? Is the UN the last hope for humanity? Or might its goals end up with sinister results? A related video would be United Nations and Vatican Are Planning the New World Order.
Prophecies of Barack Obama? Reasons why Barack Obama is apocalyptic and reasons why Barack Obama is not the Antichrist. This article includes many biblical and non-biblical prophecies, from around the world, that seem to discuss Barack Obama. Did Nostradamus predict Barack Obama dealing with the Antichrist? Might Barack Obama set the stage for the kings of the North and South as at least one Shiite prophecy suggests? Read it and decide for yourself if President Obama seems to be fulfilling various prophecies. Watch also the YouTube Barack Obama and the State of the Apocalypse.