The Abomination of Desolation - St. Marys Coptic Orthodox Church

22
SIGNS OF HIS COMING
sewage. That makes water both the giver of life and the bearer of
disease and death. The report declared that at any given time, half
the people in the developing world are suffering from a water
related sickness. Another recent U.N. report noted that every day
25,000 of the afflicted die. 1
Poor countries are not the only ones concerned about the safety of
drinking water. In the U.S.A., no less than 25% of all underground
water sources are polluted, the ratio is 75% in Latin American
countries. 2
A 1996 report by China’s National Environmental Protection
Agency concluded that 78% of the water in rivers flowing through
Chinese cities is no longer drinkable. The Yangtze river, for
example, is being polluted with 40 million tons of industrial and
sewage waste a day. A report by the U.N. Development Program
estimates that 79% of the planet’s most populous country (China)
are drinking contaminated water. 3
THE FOURTH TRUMPET:
“And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was
smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars;
so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a
third part of it, and the night likewise.” (Rev 8:12)
Two recent events may help us understand the meaning of this plague,
the volcano eruption on the island of Montserrat, and the smog that
blanketed South East Asia. Anyone who had watched these two events
on T.V. will not fail to see how in both cases the amount of sunshine
reaching the earth was significantly reduced.
“The sky in Southeast Asia has turned yellow, and people are
dying,” Dr. Claude Martin, director General of the World Wide
1 Time Magazine: Special report, November 1997
2 Encarta Encyclopedia
3 Time Magazine: Special Report, November 1997