Church of God News

South Africa: Swarms of locusts cause havoc in East Cape

Independent News, South Africa – Jan 13, 2009

Thousands of locusts have descended on farms in the Eastern Cape, destroying crops, the department of agriculture said on Tuesday.Research manager Lumkile Ngada, said swarms of locusts were discovered in the Ukhahlamba District and had now moved on to Whittlesea near Queenstown, destroying everything in their path.

“The department had been alerted to the locust invasion by a farmer.  The locusts devoured all his lucern. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=143&art_id=nw20090113162935286C590727

Australia:  The Day of Locusts

World News Australia – Jan 12, 2009

We have had some introduction to farm life over the past four years. Apart from your regulation droughts and flooding rains, we have dealt with runaway stock, dying steers, wild dog attacks and sheep massacres, foxes, still born lambs and lambs hit by flying wind-blown debris, cockatoo destruction on a mass scale, mobs of marauding sheep eating our entire vineyard and garden while we are on holidays, and plague numbers of earwigs.

That is just to name a few heartbreaking events off the top of my head. So it didn’t surprise me when the lady from the Department of Primary Industries told me that the millions of little hopping critters that now cover half of our paddocks are, in fact, Australian Plague Locusts.

I don’t believe this latest setback is a disaster of biblical proportions, but something about hearing the words “plague locusts” down a phone line can send a shiver up your spine. While we were celebrating the December rains that brought over 70 blissful millimetres to our parched land, the little blighters were licking their chompers and getting to work. Whatever grass grew is now pretty much gone. The ground was too dry for any runoff into our dams, so now it is like those rains never even happened.

Locusts don’t normally make it as far south as our hills.  http://www.theworldnews.com.au/blogarticle/108965/The-Day-of-Locusts/blog/Paddock-to-Plate

Australia: Locust threat remains

ABC News, Australia – Jan 12, 2009

The Department of Primary Industries is warning the threat of locust plagues developing in Victoria is not over.

Plague locust commissioner Andrew Tomkins says large numbers of locusts came over the border in the state’s north before Christmas.

He says despite less sightings than in spring, large egg-beds are developing in the area.

Mr Tomkins says although the cooler weather has prevented locusts flying long distances at night, the threat of a plague remains.

We live in perilous times.  We are near the time that Jesus called “the beginning of sorrows: (Matthew 24:8).

In the Bible God warns:

23’I will heap disasters on them;
I will spend My arrows upon them.
24 They shall be wasted with hunger,
Devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction;
I will also send against them the teeth of beasts (Deuteronomy 32:23-24).

Locust infestations would seem to fit those verses.

The end (meaning the Great Tribulation) is coming, but not for a few years.

Some articles of related interest may include:

End of Mayan Calendar 2012–Might 2012 Mean Something? There is a Mayan calendar prediction for change in 2012. 2012 changes were also centuries ago predicted by the Hopi Native Americans and the Hindu Indians (who were not even on the same continent). Do these Mayan/Hindu/Hopi prophecies have any value? Why might Satan have inspired this date? Does the Dresden codex show destruction of the earth by flood? Can the great tribulation start before 2012?
Anglo – America in Prophecy & the Lost Tribes of Israel Are the Americans, Canadians, British, Scottish, Welsh, Australians, Anglo-Southern Africans, and New Zealanders descendants of Joseph? Where are the lost ten-tribes of Israel? Who are the lost tribes of Israel? Will God punish the U.S.A., Canada, United Kingdom, and other Anglo nations? Why might God allow them to be punished first?
Can the Great Tribulation Begin in 2009, 2010, or 2011? Can the Great Tribulation begin today? When is the earliest that the Great Tribulation can begin? What happens in the “beginning of sorrows”? What is the Day of the Lord?
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?
Who is the King of the North? Is there one? Do biblical and Roman Catholic prophecies point to the same leader? Should he be followed? Who will be the King of the North discussed in Daniel 11? Is a nuclear attack prophesied to happen to the English-speaking peoples of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand? When do the 1335 days, 1290 days, and 1260 days (the time, times, and half a time) of Daniel 12 begin?