How the Bible Predicted Modern Famine

Most significantly, the famine situation we see now was foretold in Bible prophecy for this very time period since 1914. Consider what the prophet’s vision at Revelation 6:4-8 describes:

“And [there] came forth, a fiery-colored horse, and to the one seated upon it there was granted to take peace away from the earth so that they should slaughter one another, and a great sword was given him. . . .

“And I saw, and, look! a black horse, and the one seated upon it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice . . . say: ‘A quart of wheat for a day’s wage, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wage; and do not harm the olive oil and the wine.’ . . .

“And I saw, and, look! a pale horse, and the one seated upon it had the name Death. And Hades [the grave] was closely following him. And authority was given them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with a long sword and with food shortage and with deadly plague and by the wild beasts of the earth.”​—“New World Translation,” 1950 ed.

Is this not an accurate picture of how war, followed by famine and plague have ridden across the earth since 1914? But, it might be asked, has not this cycle of war followed by plague and famine always existed? The basic pattern is not new. But the scale of these conditions here described is out of the ordinary. The figurative phrase “the fourth part of the earth” shows that the Bible is referring to a large fraction of the whole earth.

Afterward would come global food shortage and high food prices. Revelation shows that, not just the poor, but even the wealthy would feel the effects of limited food supplies. The prophecy warns them not to draw too heavily on their supplies of ‘olive oil and wine.’ (Rev. 6:5, 6) All of this is part of the “woe for the earth” clearly marking our period since 1914 as the “time of the end” for this present corrupt system of things.​—Rev. 12:12.