The Growing AIDS Crisis/More Heatwaves and Fires/

The Growing AIDS Crisis

Contrary to popular belief, the AIDS crisis is still with us. The media seems “comfortable” with the epidemic and thus has paid it little attention over the last decade. In 2016, the most recent year with complete global AIDS statistics, nearly 37 million people were living with AIDS and nearly two million new cases were contracted each year (AIDS.gov). HIV infection rates have increased by a staggering 30 percent in Eastern Europe and Asia since 2010, and infection rates are currently increasing in 50 countries (Deutsche Welle, July 23, 2018). Even more sobering is the infection rate among adolescent females. “One girl between the ages of 15 and 19 becomes infected with HIV every three minutes, according to a UNICEF report” (Deutsche Welle, July 25, 2018). Many experts cite complacency as a major reason for the increase in HIV/AIDS infection rates in recent years. Many, including many adolescents, no longer see AIDS as a health risk to themselves or others.
Major disease epidemics have been prophesied in the pages of the Bible for millennia. God warned that degenerative and “wasting diseases” like AIDS would come upon those who reject God’s life-saving laws and way of life (Leviticus 26:14–16; Luke 21:11). The Bible gives clear guidelines, which, if followed, would eliminate the causes and prevent the spread of diseases like AIDS (Leviticus 18:22; 1 Corinthians 6:18; Ephesians 5:3). The time is coming when HIV and AIDS and the suffering associated with these and other diseases will be eliminated—when Jesus Christ returns to establish His Kingdom on this earth (Isaiah 35:4–6). For more biblical information on the future of disease, read “Disease Epidemics: The Fourth Horseman.”



More Heatwaves and Fires

In recent days, multiple parts of the globe have experienced searing temperatures and devastating fires. Currently, deadly fires have claimed lives, destroyed homes and scorched thousands of acres in California, western Canada, Greece, Sweden, the Netherlands and Britain, and heat is even searing Finnish Lapland above the Arctic Circle. The Economist recently stated, “Heat is causing problems across the world,” and as fires burn in Siberia, “Japan is in a state of emergency” and “has declared its heatwave to be a natural disaster” (July 28, 2018).
In addition to the expensive destruction of property caused by fires, there is also the loss of lives due to both the fires and the heat itself. As the same article highlighted, “In 2003 more than 70,000 Europeans may have died as a direct result of an infernal summer.” Extreme heat is especially dangerous for the elderly and very young, but it also ravages crops, decimates livestock, causes power outages and increases the risks of lightning strikes (The Telegraph, July 27, 2018). The actual costs of these current heatwaves, in terms of lives and property, will not be known for several months.
What many do not realize today is that the Bible warns that extreme temperatures will also be one of the signs of the end of the age. While the current heatwaves may not be the direct fulfillment of Bible prophecies, they provide insights into what will happen in future years. Jesus warned that famines at the end of the age will be part of the “beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:7–. Later, in the book of Revelation, God warns that fires will burn up one-third of the trees and all the grass (Revelation 8:7). And at the very end, the sun will burn even hotter and scorch the earth just prior to Jesus Christ’s return to rule the earth (Revelation 16:8–9). Scientists suggest there will be more frequent cycles of extreme heat in the years ahead—which the Bible also confirms, though, perhaps, for reasons far different from those that scientists will accept. To learn more about weather events to watch for in the years ahead, read or listen to Who Controls the Weather?