“‘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 seventh quiz in a series of quizzes on the birth pains of the End Times – and they have been every other week.  This is probably the last in this series.  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.  I have added Ezekiel 38 above which has even more descriptive words.

Burning Sulfur is mentioned in Ezekiel and in Revelation.  These may be more in line with End Times events rather than birth pains.

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.

So, this quiz focuses on the word “sulfur,” not necessarily burning sulfur.  Sulfur is mentioned 14 times in the NIV.  The questions are in biblical order.  Half are in each of the two testaments, five in one New Testament book.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	In the first use of burning sulfur in the NIV, what two cities were destroyed when burning sulfur rained down from heaven?
2	Why would the Promised Land become burning wasteland with sulfur and salt?
3	What type of people, who love violence, will God rain fiery coal and burning sulfur?
4	Isaiah says that Topheth is prepared with wood and fire, but what will cause the fire to be lit like burning sulfur?
5	Later in Isaiah, what nation is being cursed with rivers becoming pitch, dust becoming burning sulfur and the land becoming blazing pitch?  Hint: The people of a relative of Israel (Jacob)
6	When the sixth trumpet is blown, four angels will arise from the Euphrates River.  There will be 200 million soldiers wearing red, blue, and yellow (like sulfur) breastplates.  Their horses will have a different head.  What kind of head do the horses have that can breathe burning sulfur?
7	Once this army from question 6 is finished, how much of the earth’s population will be killed by fire, smoke, and sulfur?
8	After John sees the Lamb and the 144,000, three angels fly over.  The first says to fear God, the second calls for the fall of Babylon, and what does the third angel say will cause God’s wrath to be poured upon you like burning sulfur?
9	Who were the first two to be thrown into the lake of burning sulfur?
10	Then after the devil has been cast into the lake of burning sulfur, who else?

Question 5 reminds me of my old chemical engineering days.  When a source of crude oil has very little sulfur in it, it is called sweet crude oil.  One of the best places to find sweet crude oil is Saudi Arabia, but sweet crude oil can be found in west Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.  Sulfur carries with it a distinctive smell and in burning it, the pollution that results is something that we do not want.  So looking for sweet crude oil has been the preference to taking the sulfurous oil and trying to clean it up.

But this land that is mentioned in question 5 is not far from Saudi Arabia.  This makes this prophecy interesting.

I developed some safety training for a coke battery off-gas reclamation system.  As the process took the gases from the coke batteries, they purified the by-products to make benzene, ammonium sulfate (used in fertilizer), and sulfur, but mostly a lot of tar.  When I was working on that project, the hotel bathtub had an oil ring and I eventually threw my clothing in the trash.  But some people work in that environment every day.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	In the first use of burning sulfur in the NIV, what two cities were destroyed when burning sulfur rained down from heaven?	Genesis 19:24 and also Luke 17:29
2	Why would the Promised Land become burning wasteland with sulfur and salt?	Deuteronomy 29:23
3	What type of people, who love violence, will God rain fiery coal and burning sulfur?	Psalm 11:6
4	Isaiah says that Topheth is prepared with wood and fire, but what will cause the fire to be lit like burning sulfur?	Isaiah 30:33
5	Later in Isaiah, what nation is being cursed with rivers becoming pitch, dust becoming burning sulfur and the land becoming blazing pitch?  Hint: The people of a relative of Israel (Jacob)	Isaiah 34:9
6	When the sixth trumpet is blown, four angels will arise from the Euphrates River.  There will be 200 million soldiers wearing red, blue, and yellow (like sulfur) breastplates.  Their horses will have a different head.  What kind of head do the horses have that can breathe burning sulfur?	Revelation 9:17
7	Once this army from question 6 is finished, how much of the earth’s population will be killed by fire, smoke, and sulfur?	Revelation 9:18
8	After John sees the Lamb and the 144,000, three angels fly over.  The first says to fear God, the second calls for the fall of Babylon, and what does the third angel say will cause God’s wrath to be poured upon you like burning sulfur?	Revelation 14:10
9	Who were the first two to be thrown into the lake of burning sulfur?	Revelation 19:20
10	Then after the devil has been cast into the lake of burning sulfur, who else?	Revelation 21:8

The first video is a piece of one of my favorite M*A*S*H episodes.  Hawkeye and Margaret are doing an inventory and they look for Sulfa.  Sulfa is a group of chemical compounds that have been used in medicines for a long time.  I have been on two different diuretics.  One was hydrochlorothiazide, but now I take a more aggressive sulfonamide (sulfa), furosemide.

Besides the use as diuretics, they have been used in preventing malaria and as an antibiotic.  So during the Korean Conflict, its use was probably as an antibiotic in the surgical arena.

So, sulfur is not always a bad thing.  Burning sulfur raining down on you…  Now that is a bad day.

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The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	In the first use of burning sulfur in the NIV, what two cities were destroyed when burning sulfur rained down from heaven?	Genesis 19:24 and also Luke 17:29	Sodom and Gomorrah
2	Why would the Promised Land become burning wasteland with sulfur and salt?	Deuteronomy 29:23	Breaking the covenant God made with them, specifically turning away from God
3	What type of people, who love violence, will God rain fiery coal and burning sulfur?	Psalm 11:6	The wicked
4	Isaiah says that Topheth is prepared with wood and fire, but what will cause the fire to be lit like burning sulfur?	Isaiah 30:33	The Breath of God
5	Later in Isaiah, what nation is being cursed with rivers becoming pitch, dust becoming burning sulfur and the land becoming blazing pitch?  Hint: The people of a relative of Israel (Jacob)	Isaiah 34:9	Edom (descendants of Esau)
6	When the sixth trumpet is blown, four angels will arise from the Euphrates River.  There will be 200 million soldiers wearing red, blue, and yellow (like sulfur) breastplates.  Their horses will have a different head.  What kind of head do the horses have that can breathe burning sulfur?	Revelation 9:17	Heads like lions
7	Once this army from question 6 is finished, how much of the earth’s population will be killed by fire, smoke, and sulfur?	Revelation 9:18	One third
8	After John sees the Lamb and the 144,000, three angels fly over.  The first says to fear God, the second calls for the fall of Babylon, and what does the third angel say will cause God’s wrath to be poured upon you like burning sulfur?	Revelation 14:10	The mark of the beast on your forehead
9	Who were the first two to be thrown into the lake of burning sulfur?	Revelation 19:20	The beast and the false prophet
10	Then after the devil has been cast into the lake of burning sulfur, who else?	Revelation 21:8	Basically, those not in the Book of Life, but John lists cowardly, liars, sexually immoral, etc.

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here are Hawkeye and Margaret doing an inventory on M*A*S*H.  Whenever I think of Sulfur, I think of Sulfa and this comedy bit comes up in my mind.  Margaret “Hot Lips” Hoolihan loosens up with Hawkeye, but only because she is tired and only when there were no witnesses.

Here is Brantley Gilbert, with Jamey Johnson and Allison Krauss, singing Fire and Brimstone.

Here is Jordan St. Cyr singing Fires.  The video is rather touching too.

Here is Unspoken singing Start a Fire.  Some people respond to the fire and brimstone sermons.  I have not heard one in a long time, and I miss them.  But what is the flip side?  We do not have to worry about fire and brimstone if God has started a fire within us.

Let us light a fire within us that cannot be extinguished.  Let us shine our light so that all the world can see.  God is an awesome God and He loves us.

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.