“THERE WILL BE FOOD SHORTAGES”​—Matt. 24:7

Not having enough food “now afflicts a thousand million people”! “There have always been famines, but the scale and ubiquity of hunger today is on a totally new scale. . . . as many as 400 million live constantly on the brink of starvation.”​—London “Times” (1980).

“EARTHQUAKES IN ONE PLACE AFTER ANOTHER”​—Matt. 24:7

“During a period of 1,059 years (from 856 to 1914) reliable sources list only 24 major earthquakes causing 1,973,000 deaths. However . . . we find that 1,600,000 persons have died in only 63 years, as a result of 43 earthquakes which occurred from 1915 to 1978. . . . Our generation is an unfortunate one.”​—Italian journal “Il Piccolo” (1978).

“IN ONE PLACE AFTER ANOTHER PESTILENCES”​—Luke 21:11

“The Spanish-influenza epidemic of 1918 sped over the earth, took 21 million lives, and vanished,” reports “Science Digest” (1977). It adds: “In all history there had been no sterner, swifter visitation of death . . . had the epidemic continued its rate of acceleration, humanity would have been eradicated in a matter of months.” Even since then cancer, heart disease, venereal disease, snail fever, river blindness (onchocerciasis) are at epidemic levels; they maim and kill scores of millions.