While much of the world was turning and preparing for the so called “royal wedding”, much of Alabama and deep south was being turned up and twisted by the destruction of one of the deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history. Notice what one of the recent news reports have said concerning this terrible devistation:
“TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Authorities say the fatality toll from the devastating tornadoes across the South has climbed to 337, making it the second-deadliest day for a twister outbreak in U.S. history.
The largest death toll ever was on March 18, 1925, when 747 people were killed in storms that raged through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.
Alabama was in the path of the most destruction this time with at least 246 deaths. Authorities on Saturday raised the total number of confirmed dead in several states to 337.
The second deadliest day had been in March 1932, when 332 people died, all in Alabama.
The 1925 outbreak was long before Doppler radar could warn communities of severe weather. Forecasters say residents were warned, but the twisters were too powerful to avoid the horrifying body count.
On Friday President Barack Obama toured some of the destroyed neighborhoods and met with devastated residents.
“I’ve never seen devastation like this,” Obama said after touring the Tuscaloosa area. “It is heartbreaking.” To read the whole article click here
What Do this Tornadoes Mean?
“Satan works through the elements also to garner his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature, and he uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows. When he was suffered to afflict Job, how quickly flocks and herds, servants, houses, children, were swept away, one trouble succeeding another as in a moment. It is God that shields His creatures and hedges them in from the power of the destroyer. But the Christian world have shown contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will do just what He has declared that He would–He will withdraw His blessings from the earth and remove His protecting care from those who are rebelling against His law and teaching and forcing others to do the same… While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast. “The earth mourneth and fadeth away,” “the haughty people . . . do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed
the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.” Isaiah 24:4, 5. {GC 589.3}
And then the great deceiver will persuade men that those who serve God are causing these evils. The class that have provoked the displeasure of Heaven will charge all their troubles upon those whose obedience to God’s commandments is a perpetual reproof to transgressors. It will be declared that men are offending God by the violation of the Sunday sabbath; that this sin has brought calamities which will not cease until Sunday observance shall be strictly enforced; and that those who present the claims of the fourth commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are troublers of the people, preventing their restoration to divine favor and temporal prosperity. ” {GC 589 590}
“The time is at hand when there will be sorrow in the world that no human balm can heal. The Spirit of God is being withdrawn. Disasters by sea and by land follow one another in quick succession. How frequently we hear of earthquakes and tornadoes, of destruction by fire and flood, with great loss of life and property! Apparently these calamities are capricious outbreaks of disorganized, unregulated forces of nature, wholly beyond the control of man; but in them all, God’s purpose may be read. They are among the agencies by which He seeks to arouse men and women to a sense of their danger. {PK 277.1}
Oh, let us seek a shelter and refuge in Jesus today without delay. The Bible says, ” Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until [these] calamities be overpast.” Psalm 57:1.
Proverbs 18:10, ” The name of the LORD [is] a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.”