Bangladesh Cyclone Death Toll Rising

In the November-Decmber 2007 edition of LCG’s Tomorrow’s World, D. Winnail wrote:

…we are witnessing record-breaking droughts, fires, famines, and more extreme weather conditions—floods, hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes and tidal waves—that many associate with global climate change. Is there any significance to these concurrent and calamitous events?
Many “Bible-believing” people recognize a connection between today’s news and the ancient “end-time” prophecies recorded in Scripture…
Jesus told His disciples that one preliminary sign of the end of the age would be a plethora of false teachers claiming to represent Him. He also warned of widespread religious confusion, escalating war and violence, terrible epidemics and diseases, and other disasters including unprecedented weather upsets—such as droughts, floods, famines and earthquakes (Matthew 24:3–10).

Bangladesh is now suffering from a severe cyclone that has caused flooding as an Australian news service reports:

November 17, 2007 – 11:29PM

Military helicopters and ships joined relief operations, as aid workers on the ground struggled to reach victims of a savage cyclone that tore apart villages and towns in south-west Bangladesh, killing a reported 1,100 people.

Tropical Cyclone Sidr flattened tens of thousands of homes Thursday and left millions more without power in the deadliest storm in the impoverished south Asian country in more than a decade. More than a million coastal villagers were forced to evacuate to government shelters.

Rescuers battled along roads that were washed out or blocked by windblown debris to try to get water and food to people stranded by flooding. Some employed the brute force of elephants to help their efforts.

The Ministry of Disaster Management, which has struggled to collect detailed information from the devastated area because of the disruptions to power and communications, put the official death toll at 932.

“The toll is rising fast, as we receive more information from outlying areas where telephone lines have been restored,” said Mokhlesur Rahman, a ministry official in Dhaka, the capital…

At least 270 people died in Patuakhali, south of Dhaka, while neighbouring Barguna suffered at least 160 deaths, Rahman added.

The United News of Bangladesh news agency, which has reporters across the devastated region, said the count from each affected district put the death toll even higher, to at least 1,100.

The damage to livelihoods, housing and crops will be “extremely severe”, John Holmes, the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said Friday, adding that the world body was making millions of dollars in aid available to Bangladesh. http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Toll-in-Bangladesh-cyclone-rises-to-932/2007/11/17/1194767029307.html

Comments by COGwriter

Bangladesh broke away from India in the 1940s as “East Pakistan” with ties to “West Pakistan” then later became independent–though it has fairly strong ties with India.

Life has normally been hard for those in Bangladesh, and now it is once again harder. They need our prayers and the kingdom of God to come.

But there is hope for those who died as well as those who still live as the Bible shows that God does have a plan to offer salvation to all who ever lived, including those in Moslem nations like Bangladesh.

The following two articles may be of interest:

Hope of Salvation: How the COGs differ from most Protestants How the COGs differ from mainstream Protestants, is perhaps the question I am asked most by those without a COG background.
Universal Salvation? There Are Hundreds of Verses in the Bible Supporting the Doctrine of True Apocatastasis Do you believe what the Bible actually teaches on this? Will all good things be restored? Does God’s plan of salvation take rebellion and spiritual blindness into account?