Wars, earthquakes and famines

Wars, earthquakes and famines

Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains. (13:8)

The content Mark 13:8 describes is the most terrible disasters humankind experienced. As a war breaks out, the entire visible and invisible civilization that is directly or indirectly connected with human life is destroyed. Only the law of jungle rules over the world. A war as it signifies the culmination of survival game. War is a destruction caused by human while earthquake and famine are natural phenomena. Earthquake and famine have also the same devastating effect to human beings like war.

Mark’s community might think of war, earthquake and famine as the pointers to the end of the world. It is natural to think the end of the world before situation to maintain human-like life. However, today’s content says, such disaster is not the end; it is the beginning of birth pains. It suggests that a bigger disaster is imminent. As a matter of fact, the early Christians really trembled before such bigger disaster.

The life of the early Christians was not at peace as of today. Living in the midst of the Roman rule, Christianity was not accepted and as a result such Christianity was not firmly established. What was worse, wars, earthquakes and famines approached to them. The situation was too difficult to handle for a young Christianity.

If they had not endured such trials and weight of survival they would not have remain alive in the annals of history. There are many religions that temporarily appeared in human history and disappeared so soon. We have to appreciate the achievement of the young Christians who had endured such difficult situations in the past. The reason why we are now able to accept the gospel of Jesus is that the early Christians had endured trials and hardship holding the promise of Jesus.