For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another. All these things are a beginning of pangs of distress.”​—Matt. 24:6-8.

Global war

‘But there have been many wars since Jesus’ day,’ someone might object. True, and it should be noted that those that occurred during the decades immediately following Jesus’ prophecy were not without significance; they led on to the devastation of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. But Jesus was also pointing ahead to another “tribulation,” one that would have no equal. (Matt. 24:22) As part of the “pangs of distress” leading on to that event, wars have been fought that affect all the earth.​—Compare Revelation 6:1-4.

Historians widely agree that World War I was the first war on a global scale. Comparing World War I with previous major wars, cultural historian Jacques Barzun observes that in previous wars, “the absence of large industry had precluded the involvement, physical and mental, of every adult citizen simultaneously throughout Europe.” In World War I it was different. “In 1914 Beethoven, Hegel, and Goethe would have been in the trenches.”

[Chart on page 8]

War

Back in 1978 it was calculated that 150 wars have been fought since the end of World War II, with 25 million lives lost. Here are a few of the better known wars. As this partial list indicates, peace has truly been ‘taken away from the earth’ in the 20th century, as predicted in Revelation 6:4.

1945-54 Vietnam War (French involvement)

1955-75 Vietnam War (American involvement)

1948-57 Guerrilla war in Malaya

1950-51 Korea

1954-62 Algeria

1956 Hungary

1956 Suez

1957 Tibet

1959 Laos

1959 Chinese-Indian border

1960 Congo

1962-75 Iraq

1962 Yemen

1965 India-Pakistan border

1967 Arab-Israeli “Six-Day War”

1967-69 Biafra (Nigeria)

1968 Czechoslovakia

1969-present Ireland

1969 Russian-Chinese border

1969-75 Angola

1971 Bangladesh

1973 Sinai

1975 Lebanon

1976-79 Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)

1977 Ethiopia

1978 Zaire

1979 Cambodia, Vietnam

1979 Chad

1979 Iran

1979 Yemen

1979 Uganda

1979 Nicaragua

1980 Afghanistan

1980 Iran, Iraq

[Chart on page 9]

Earthquakes

Here are a few of the major earthquakes since 1914. Only those killing 3,000 or more are listed. Of course, casualty estimates vary in some cases.

Date Location Approximate number of deaths

1915 Italy 29,900

1920 China 180,000

1923 Japan 143,000

1927 China 200,000

1932 China 70,000

1934 India 10,700

1935 India 60,000

1939 Chile 30,000

1939 Turkey 23,000

1948 Japan 5,100

1949 Ecuador 6,000

1960 Chile 5,700

1960 Morocco 12,000

1962 Iran 10,000

1968 Iran 11,500

1970 Peru 66,700

1972 Iran 5,000

1972 Nicaragua 6,000

1974 Pakistan 5,200

1976 Guatemala 23,000

1976 China 655,000

1976 Philippines 3,300

1976 Turkey 3,700

1978 Iran 25,000

1980 Algeria 20,000

1980 Italy 3,000