“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You are the one I spoke of in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel. At that time they prophesied for years that I would bring you against them. This is what will happen in that day: When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign Lord. In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground. I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign Lord. Every man’s sword will be against his brother. I will execute judgment on him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’

• Ezekiel 38:17-23

Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

• Matthew 24:4-8

He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.”
Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.
“But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. And so you will bear testimony to me. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. Everyone will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. Stand firm, and you will win life.

• Luke 21:8-19

Here is the second quiz in a series of quizzes on the birth pains of the End Times – maybe not every week.  What Jesus says in Matthew 24 (basically the same words in Mark 13) gives some words that can be the focus of a quiz.  Luke 21 uses a slightly different expression of the same basic things.  For this quiz, I have added Ezekiel 38 above which has even more descriptive words.

But it is sad that so many people have their heart tugged by a war and suddenly think we are in the End Times.  Jesus also mentioned earthquakes, famines, and pestilence.  We have had those too.  But our short attention spans lose heart as we read through, before Jesus says the words “birth pains.”  And the admonishment to take heart.  Earthquakes are mentioned as part of these birth pains.

So, this quiz focuses on the word “earthquake”.  Earthquake is mentioned 17 times in the NIV.  If I expanded that to “quake”, almost exclusively used as a verb, I could have added another 11 mentions, but I have enough with earthquake.  Nearly two thirds of the mentions of earthquake are in the New Testament, and seven of the questions below.  Here is a big hint: All the questions are in biblical order.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	The first two mentions of earthquake in the NIV speak of one event out of four events.  God had told Elijah to leave the cave and God would speak to him.  Four events happened.  God’s voice was not in the first three.  Can you mention two of the other three, not including an earthquake?  Bonus for getting all four and in order.
2	What king took on the roll of a priest, burning incense, and received a leprous forehead as a result?  An earthquake occurred about the same time, recorded in two books of prophecy.  Bonus to identify the books.
3	In Isaiah’s prophecy of Jerusalem being made low, it is prophesied regarding them that the same events as in question 1 will come upon the enemies, and what will those hordes of enemies be observed as?
4	When did a Roman centurion experience many wonders, including a great earthquake, which led the Romans that were on guard to say, “Surely He was the Son of God.”
5	Soon after the events of question 4, there was another great earthquake.  After that earthquake, an angel rolled a stone and sat on it.  What had the stone been covering?
6	The book of Acts records a violent earthquake, so violent that all the prison doors opened and all the chains on the prisoners fell off.  Which two people are named as being prisoners at the time?
7	In Revelation, there are seals of the scroll that are opened, angels blowing trumpets, and angels pouring out bowls of the wrath of God.  There were seven of each of these.  The last four questions have a description of what happened, but was that a seal, trumpet, or bowl judgment? Bonus for the number of each.  Was it a seal, trumpet, or bowl when after a great earthquake, the sun turned black, the moon blood red, and the stars fell like figs falling off the tree?
8	After about a half hour of silence, an angel took a censor and offered both incense and the prayers of God’s people to God before putting fire in the censor, hurtling it to the earth, and then lightning, thunder and a large earthquake.  Was it a seal, trumpet or bowl?
9	After the two witnesses were killed and they arose from the dead, the temple was opened in heaven and the ark of the covenant was there.  Was it a seal, trumpet or bowl?
10	A voice came from the temple saying, “It is done!” and then the rumblings, lightning, thunder, and then the greatest earthquake since man was on the earth.  Was it a seal, trumpet or bowl?

In the introduction, I mention how many times the words earthquake and quake are used in the Bible.

But the two times that earthquakes were stronger, possibly, and more concentrated, definitely, were in the Creation of everything on earth and during Noah’s flood.

And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

• Genesis 1:9-10

If you understand this account of just the beginning of the third day of creation, the earth is probably flat for the most part.  There is water covering the earth.  Throughout the creation story, God “said” and it was so, and then God said that it was good.  On day two of Creation, God created the atmosphere (“sky”), separating the waters from the waters.  Air has water in it, what we call humidity, but this was separating the two fluids, liquid water from the gaseous humidity-laden air.  But that seemed to leave the earth with water on the surface.  It would have to have been a tremendous amount of tectonic plate shifts to create the continents.  Mountains would have been formed, but since the flood covered all surfaces on earth, the mountains would not have been like the mountains of today.

But then, when Noah’s flood comes, it was not just a lot of rain.

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

• Genesis 7:11

The waters covered the entire earth, including the mountains.

The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits.

• Genesis 7:20

But then, the floodgates of the deep had been closed.  In other words, the tectonic plates shifted in one direction to open the floodgates and dump water from under the ground onto the earth.  But now, with everything who breathed through nostrils dead except for those on the Ark, the tectonic plates shift again to expose empty caverns.  The water drains into these caverns to form the giant aquifers that are still beneath the surface today.  But to store all this water, the mountains had to grow much higher than before as the tectonic plates collide against each other.

Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky.

• Genesis 8:2

Earthquakes are the result of those tectonic plates shifting.  And they would have been massive earthquakes for the water and land to separate, then flood the earth, and then store the water away, underneath the earth.  Yet, the word “earthquake” does not appear in either account.

But the last question talks about an earthquake stronger than any earthquake since man was on the earth.  That future earthquake will be stronger than the Noah flood earthquakes, but the earthquakes from Day 3 of Creation might have been stronger.  Man was not created until Day 6.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	The first two mentions of earthquake in the NIV speak of one event out of four events.  God had told Elijah to leave the cave and God would speak to him.  Four events happened.  God’s voice was not in the first three.  Can you mention two of the other three, not including an earthquake?  Bonus for getting all four and in order.	1 Kings 19:11-12
2	What king took on the roll of a priest, burning incense, and received a leprous forehead as a result?  An earthquake occurred about the same time, recorded in two books of prophecy.  Bonus to identify the books.	2 Chronicle 26:19-21
3	In Isaiah’s prophecy of Jerusalem being made low, it is prophesied regarding them that the same events as in question 1 will come upon the enemies, and what will those hordes of enemies be observed as?	Isaiah 29:5-7
4	When did a Roman centurion experience many wonders, including a great earthquake, which led the Romans that were on guard to say, “Surely He was the Son of God.”	Matthew 27:54
5	Soon after the events of question 4, there was another great earthquake.  After that earthquake, an angel rolled a stone and sat on it.  What had the stone been covering?	Matthew 28:2
6	The book of Acts records a violent earthquake, so violent that all the prison doors opened and all the chains on the prisoners fell off.  Which two people are named as being prisoners at the time?	Acts 16:25-26
7	In Revelation, there are seals of the scroll that are opened, angels blowing trumpets, and angels pouring out bowls of the wrath of God.  There were seven of each of these.  The last four questions have a description of what happened, but was that a seal, trumpet, or bowl judgment? Bonus for the number of each.  Was it a seal, trumpet, or bowl when after a great earthquake, the sun turned black, the moon blood red, and the stars fell like figs falling off the tree?	Revelation 6:12
8	After about a half hour of silence, an angel took a censor and offered both incense and the prayers of God’s people to God before putting fire in the censor, hurtling it to the earth, and then lightning, thunder and a large earthquake.  Was it a seal, trumpet or bowl?	Revelation 8:1-5
9	After the two witnesses were killed and they arose from the dead, the temple was opened in heaven and the ark of the covenant was there.  Was it a seal, trumpet or bowl?	Revelation 11:19
10	A voice came from the temple saying, “It is done!” and then the rumblings, lightning, thunder, and then the greatest earthquake since man was on the earth.  Was it a seal, trumpet or bowl?	Revelation 16:18

I live on a hill.  The house is not on the top, but we would have to have a Noah type flood for the house to be affected, or so I thought.

I was on one of my one-month trips to the far side of the world, I think the first trip to India, when someone who came to the project in the third week of being there said that I should check out the news.

This was a stupid idea.  Our phones did not work there.  The joke was that we had not paid the telephone company enough to feed the water buffalo that operated the phone’s power generator, but I never saw evidence of that.  The phone only operated once or twice the entire time I was there.  Of course, that happened right when we were having problems.  A personal question was out of the question.

But the cryptic notion of phoning home or checking it out (before the wide use of the internet), I worried about it.  The one time I used the German phone on my wedding anniversary, I asked my wife about the flooding and she said that I would have to see it to believe it.  She was fine.  She could go anywhere she wanted to go and at the present time she had no desire to drive on ____ and she named the street that I usually go to and from the house.

We must have had a slight shift in the tectonic plates.  Pittsburgh is built on a little ripple in the North American plate, along the New Madrid fault.  New Madrid is in Missouri, and near there in Tennessee is Reelfoot Lake which was formed in 1811-1812.  There was a shift in the New Madrid fault and an earthquake completely redirected the Mississippi River in that area.  Witnesses said there were white cap waves going from the earthquake, going up and down the river.  As instrumentation has become more sophisticated, they have discovered that the fault extends all the way to Pittsburgh.  There must have been a small shift.  Deep underneath our hill is an abandoned coal mine.  If you live in Pennsylvania, odds are that you have a mine beneath you at some point.  But when the fault shifted to release pressure, a baby earthquake, it dumped water from an aquifer into the mine shaft and the mine filled with water.  When the water overflowed from an air vent for the mine, it eroded the asphalt pavement to find the concrete pavement beneath.  When the concrete was eroded away, the bricks from the original cobblestone road started to wash away.

When I returned home, I looked at the steep street that I always drove to and from the house and there was a cliff from halfway up the hill to the valley road beneath.  My wife’s only comment was, “Drive around to the other road.  I told you that you would not believe until you saw it!”

I guess that I should have expected that kind of reaction from her.  A friend backstabbing her made her feel like the world had come to an end, but she was born in Indonesia.  She vacationed near active volcanoes.  This was a little flood.  No big deal.  But the water came up from the ground about 40-50 feet above the valley floor.  If mud can make a Mini Grand Canyon near Mount St. Helens in Washington state in only one day.  Water from a mine can carve a hill away.  My wife, far before her health issues, laughed about how you had to think about where you were going since one thoroughfare was a river, but otherwise, it was business as usual.  What she meant was that all that water, and mud, and paving material had to go somewhere when it got to the bottom of the hill, and the easiest way was down one of two main arteries through town.

   …

   …

   …

The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	The first two mentions of earthquake in the NIV speak of one event out of four events.  God had told Elijah to leave the cave and God would speak to him.  Four events happened.  God’s voice was not in the first three.  Can you mention two of the other three, not including an earthquake?  Bonus for getting all four and in order.	1 Kings 19:11-12	There was a wind so strong it tore the mountains apart.  Then the earthquake, then a fire, and then a gentle voice, and God was in the gentle voice.
2	What king took on the roll of a priest, burning incense, and received a leprous forehead as a result?  An earthquake occurred about the same time, recorded in two books of prophecy.  Bonus to identify the books.	2 Chronicle 26:19-21	Uzziah, Amos 1:1; Zechariah 14:5.  The earthquake is confirmed by Josephus.  Some scholars think it might be related to Uzziah’s sin.
3	In Isaiah’s prophecy of Jerusalem being made low, it is prophesied regarding them that the same events as in question 1 will come upon the enemies, and what will those hordes of enemies be observed as?	Isaiah 29:5-7	Verse 5 mentions they will be like fine dust.  Verse 7 mentions they will be like a dream.  In other words, you wake up the next morning and it is as if you had only dreamed the hordes of your enemies were there the day before.
4	When did a Roman centurion experience many wonders, including a great earthquake, which led the Romans that were on guard to say, “Surely He was the Son of God.”	Matthew 27:54	During the crucifixion of Jesus Christ
5	Soon after the events of question 4, there was another great earthquake.  After that earthquake, an angel rolled a stone and sat on it.  What had the stone been covering?	Matthew 28:2	The entrance to the tomb where Jesus had been buried – but He had arisen.
6	The book of Acts records a violent earthquake, so violent that all the prison doors opened and all the chains on the prisoners fell off.  Which two people are named as being prisoners at the time?	Acts 16:25-26	Paul and Silas, but the prisoners had not escaped.  As a result, the jailor and his family believed in Jesus and were baptized.
7	In Revelation, there are seals of the scroll that are opened, angels blowing trumpets, and angels pouring out bowls of the wrath of God.  There were seven of each of these.  The last four questions have a description of what happened, but was that a seal, trumpet, or bowl judgment? Bonus for the number of each.  Was it a seal, trumpet, or bowl when after a great earthquake, the sun turned black, the moon blood red, and the stars fell like figs falling off the tree?	Revelation 6:12	Sixth seal
8	After about a half hour of silence, an angel took a censor and offered both incense and the prayers of God’s people to God before putting fire in the censor, hurtling it to the earth, and then lightning, thunder and a large earthquake.  Was it a seal, trumpet or bowl?	Revelation 8:1-5	Seventh seal
9	After the two witnesses were killed and they arose from the dead, the temple was opened in heaven and the ark of the covenant was there.  Was it a seal, trumpet or bowl?	Revelation 11:19	Seventh trumpet
10	A voice came from the temple saying, “It is done!” and then the rumblings, lightning, thunder, and then the greatest earthquake since man was on the earth.  Was it a seal, trumpet or bowl?	Revelation 16:18	Seventh bowl

And just a note: I said it was a hint that the questions were in biblical order.  If you knew that in Revelation the seals come before the trumpets and the bowls are last, you would at least know that question seven was a seal and question ten was a bowl.  Not much of a hint, but a little knowledge goes a little way in this case.

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here is the Cokesbury Vacation Bible School, from Canada maybe, singing Earthquake.  Sorry, when I saw this video, I loved it.

Here is Heidi Jensen North singing Fall on Me.  This is a song that she wrote.

Here is Stephen McWhirter singing Turn Your Eye upon Jesus.  He sings it slowly and soulfully.

Here is the congregation of Trinity Reformed Baptist Church, Jackson, Georgia, USA singing Thy Might Sets Fast the Mountains.

While earthquakes can do considerable damage, the earthquakes of Revelation are going to be massive.  But God promises to be with us and protect us.  And the earthquakes of today are only the birth pains of the End Times.  In a strange way, such disasters let us know that God is in control.  No matter how the arrogant nations say that we can fix things here on earth, like Climate Change, God reminds us of how puny we are, and for those that recognize that, we know He is in control.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.