Did you see all the Fish that died on the beaches in Texas? And have you seen the stuff on how this points to the end of the world? I have a different question. Did God make lots of fish die? Or, did God know that we were going to make all those fish die? And does it matter?
The picture here shows one dead fish on a beach. But think miles and miles of dead fish on the beach and in the ocean at the edge of the beach.
Then consider a prophecy in Hosea, in the Old Testament.
And another prophecy in Revelation, at the End of the New Testament about the end of the world.
And now, consider what we know about why so many fish are dying in the waters on the ever hotter planet earth. Ever hotter because of us, not because of God.
It then seems reasonable to ask – did God make all those fish die? Or did God know we, people, were going to kill all those fish ourselves? And do His warnings to us, in some way, relate to what we’re doing to His creation?
We’ll examine this by looking at:
- What happened in Texas? Lots of fish die
- Crabs and other sea creatures dying
- A prophesy in Hosea
- A prophesy in Revelation
- A command in Genesis
- How might these all tie together?
What happened in Texas? Lots of fish die
Let’s begin with what happened in Texas.
The adjacent picture of the beach is shocking, scary, disgusting, and probably a whole bunch of other things. And yet, here it is.
And it’s not like it’s a one time thing that never happened before.
Further, it will happen again.
Over time, it will get worse and worse. We’ll see why in a moment.
The image above comes from a story in msn.com from INSIDER. The headline is: Thousands of dead fish have washed up on a once-idyllic Texas beach, baffling beachgoers and covering its shores with miles of carcasses.
In reality, while it baffled beachgoers and other, but some scientists do actually know exactly why it happened.
But the thing for now is this. Look at all those dead fish, just in this picture. I can’t even imagine this going on for literally miles!
But, it wasn’t just this beach.
Six miles southwest of Quintana Beach County, footage showed thousands of dead fish covering swathes of the ocean off Bryan Beach. One fisherman reported seeing the dead fish 10 miles away from shore, Quintana Beach County said.
There is more to this story. But let’s leave it here for the moment. We’ll get into the explanation from science after looking at the crab deaths and the two prophesies. Try not to get too far ahead of ourselves. So, please, hang in there on the “why”.
Crabs and other sea creatures dying
This one’s also on msn.com, from The Cool Down. The headline on it is: Study reveals frightening cause behind mass deaths among crabs and sea creatures: ‘A 34% rise in mortality’.
Once again, without getting into the “why”, yet, here’s the issue with the crab deaths and why they will cause so many other sea creatures to die as well.
A decrease in the survival rate of the Atlantic mangrove fiddler crab would pose an obvious threat to the species, but it would also have a massive impact on multiple surrounding ecosystems.
The crabs lay their eggs in mangrove forests. After they hatch, they stay for a few days and then begin their journey to the ocean.
Only about 1% of them make it back because the fiddler crabs serve as food for so many land species, too. These little guys play a big role in supporting their surrounding ecosystem.
That crab issue, being food and having a role in the ecosystem is slightly different from what happened in Texas. The fish in Texas are commonly used as bait. That’s a problem for people who like to fish. But there’s more to the story than just fishing bait.
Menhaden are harvested for use as fertilizers, animal feed, and bait for fisheries including blue crab and lobster. They are a major source of omega-3 fatty acids, so they are also used to develop human and animal supplements. In estuaries like the Chesapeake Bay, they are food for striped bass and other fish, as well as for predatory birds, including osprey and eagles. 1
So while the initial article spoke to bait, there’s so much more to it. It reminds me of when I used to go fishing off the Santa Barbara Islands in California. The main thing to catch was rockfish. But there were also mackerel in the waters. I was one of the few that actually liked to eat mackerel. However, the boat we went out on only brought out enough bait to get us started. Then, as we caught mackerel, they took them, cut them up, and we used them as bait. I couldn’t keep any mackerel for myself until after the bait needs were satisfied for everyone for the rest of the day. Whether side effects or unintended consequences, there’s often more to the story.
And these are just two examples out of many many occurring around the world.
A prophesy in Hosea
Next, and still with no look at why these things are happening, let’s look at the Old Testament Prophecy in Hosea.
At this point, I’m only going to include one verse. You’ll see why when you read it.
Hos 4:3 Because of this the land mourns,
and all who live in it waste away;
the beasts of the field and the birds of the air
and the fish of the sea are dying.
And there it is. The fish in the ocean are dying.
Of course, the reason for not showing more than this one verse is the first three words – Because of this.
A prophesy in Revelation
With that brief look at Hosea, let’s move to Revelation.
Rev 8:9 a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
Once again, the surrounding text speaks to things that get into the issues of why all those fish died.
What we do see though is that once again The Bible warns of a large number of fish dying. And, it is happening. Are they related? We’ll look at that later.
A command in Genesis
Here’s a longer sequence than the ones so far. After this, we’ll begin to tie it all together.
The Beginning
…
Ge 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Ge 1:27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
Ge 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Ge 1:29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
Ge 1:31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
…
So, God creates people. People like us. And they are told: Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.
Of course, one really important question about that command is – exactly what does it mean?
How might these all tie together?
Before I do work on tying these together, there are a couple things I must say first.
- This is not a statement on what is for sure happening. It’s a possibility. Something for us to think about.
- This is also not saying the End Times have begun. None of us know when that will be. Many others have tried to say they knew, but Jesus made it extremely clear that we cannot know exactly when they will begin.
Having said those things, there is something else Jesus said that we should also remember.
Interpreting the Times
Lk 12:54 He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. 55 And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. 56 Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?
Lk 12:57 “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? 58 As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled to him on the way, or he may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. 59 I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.’”
This was originally Jesus’ message to people when He walked the earth. What we now call the first coming. However, the message is no less applicable or important for the second coming. For the End Times.
Next Jesus turns the attention of his hearers, disciples and multitudes alike, to a different type of question: that of his coming into the world (12:49, 51) and ‘the present time’ (12:56). The coming of Jesus, and the events of that ‘time’, were pregnant with meaning. He was not just another rabbi, not even another prophet. A baleful fire flickered around his path, a fearful baptism lay ahead of him, the even tenor of life would turn to strife and anguish on his account (12:49–53). What do these things mean?
And meaning they must have, just as clouds from the western sea mean rain, and wind from the southern desert means heat. The advent of the Carpenter of Nazareth is the most significant happening in all human history. But the majority of men, who can see meanings and connections and relationships in most of the phenomena in the world around them, and all the more so as their civilization becomes more sophisticated and rationalistic, are rank hypocrites when they look at Jesus Christ and pretend that they can make nothing of the remarkable facts of his life, death, and resurrection.
Well, a lawsuit is in progress, and a writ is being issued, and a heavy sentence is impending, and those who ignore the plain signs of the way things are going will have only themselves to blame when they are finally called to account (12:57–59).
Thus Jesus distinguishes between those who will not see his crucial place at the centre of human life and history, and those who as his disciples are beginning to glimpse, however dimly, the meaning of it all. 2
In other words, we are aware of at least some of the “ordinary” things in life. As followers of Jesus, we should also be aware of the things of God. That includes awareness of the prophecies in the Bible. That’s what we Christians call discernment. The ability, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to see the things of/from God in the world around us. It should be a natural part of something else Jesus said.
The Greatest Commandment – Matthew
22:34-40 pp — Mk 12:28-31
Mt 22:34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Mt 22:37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Examining how all these things might tie together
Why try to make them all fit together? Well, it’s a question of do we want to believe something, or don’t we? If we’re stuck on insisting something is pure science, any attempt to introduce God into the equation will be ignored. On the other hand, if we’re stuck on something being pure God, any attempt to introduce science into the equation will be ignored.
But, consider this. If God created everything, then God also invented science. On the flip side, the odds that everything in our universe happened just by chance are, pardon the pun, astronomical. It’s far more likely that God is real than it is that everything needed for our universe to exist purely by random chance. Since the universe apparently does exist, it seems a worthwhile exercise to see if God and science can coexist.
To that end, and with all of this in mind, let’s take another pass through the things we just looked at. This time we’ll add the “why”. At least, the possibilities. And try to construct something where they all make sense together.
Did God make lots of fish die? Or did we?
We’ll examine this by looking at the same things as the first pass, but this time addressing the “why” question that we put on hold the first time.
- What happened in Texas? Lots of fish die
- Crabs and other sea creatures dying
- A prophesy in Hosea
- A prophesy in Revelation
- A command in Genesis
- Conclusion – How might these all tie together?
What happened in Texas? Why did lots of fish die?
From the INSIDER article referenced above”
The fish were killed by low oxygen levels in the water brought about by rising summer temperatures, according to a Saturday Facebook post by the parks department for Quintana Beach County, a beachfront campground in the area.
“When water temperature rises above 70 degrees Fahrenheit, it becomes hard for menhaden to receive enough oxygen to survive,” the post read. “Shallow waters warm more quickly than deeper, so if a school of menhaden are trapped in the shallows as the water begins to heat, the fish will start to suffer from hypoxia.”
I realize there are many people who try to claim there’s no such thing as global warming. And yet, the evidence says there’s a problem. And it’s getting worse. Living in the “land of denial” only means it will continue to get worse.
Hold onto that thought, about it getting worse. We’ll return to it shortly.
Crabs and other sea creatures dying. Why are lots of fish dying?
Some will deny the findings from this study. Others won’t be surprised at all. How that can happen is beyond my understanding. But it does say a lot about what we’ll read in a later section.
A marine heatwave is defined as an extended period of time –– more than five days –– during which water temperatures are more than 90% above the region’s average.
Brazilian researchers working from Brazil, Norway, and the United States studied this phenomenon and published their findings in the journal Estuarine, Coastal, and Shelf Science.
They conducted research on the coast of São Paulo, Brazil where, according to their findings, there is projected to be a 35% increase in marine heatwaves by the year 2100. Species at the bottom of the food chain may be most devastated by this, which doesn’t spell good news for those at the top, or anywhere else.
The researchers focused on the potential impacts of marine heatwaves on the larvae of Leptuca thayeri, otherwise known as the Atlantic mangrove fiddler crab, to come to this conclusion.
“A rise of 2 degrees Celcius in sea surface temperature during the first three to four days of their lives led to a 15% drop in the survival rate compared with larvae at the average temperature for the region,” said Murilo Zanetti Marochi, first author of the paper. “A rise of 4 degrees Celcius led to a 34% rise in mortality.”
How can you read that and not at least be concerned? But wait ’til you see what’s coming.
A prophesy in Hosea – why are lots of fish dying?
We read the one verse from Hosea about fish dying. Here’s more of it, with context to show why Hosea had that message. I underlined some parts to draw particular attention to them.
The Charge Against Israel – Hosea
Hos 4:1 Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites,
because the LORD has a charge to bring
against you who live in the land:
“There is no faithfulness, no love,
no acknowledgment of God in the land.
Hos 4:2 There is only cursing, lying and murder,
stealing and adultery;
they break all bounds,
and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
Hos 4:3 Because of this the land mourns,
and all who live in it waste away;
the beasts of the field and the birds of the air
and the fish of the sea are dying.
Hos 4:4 “But let no man bring a charge,
let no man accuse another,
for your people are like those
who bring charges against a priest.
Hos 4:5 You stumble day and night,
and the prophets stumble with you.
So I will destroy your mother—
Hos 4:6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
“Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also reject you as my priests;
because you have ignored the law of your God,
I also will ignore your children.
Hos 4:7 The more the priests increased,
the more they sinned against me;
they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful.
Hos 4:8 They feed on the sins of my people
and relish their wickedness.
Hos 4:9 And it will be: Like people, like priests.
I will punish both of them for their ways
and repay them for their deeds.
…
There’s more. Much more. But this makes the point. Below is a summary, from ChatGPT, of the passage in a more readable format/style. (I don’t put these AI summaries in blindly – I do verify them for accuracy.)
This passage is a summary of a message from the LORD to the Israelites. The LORD accuses the people of lacking faithfulness, love, and acknowledgement of God. The land is filled with cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery, with no boundaries being respected and bloodshed occurring continuously. As a result, the land mourns, and its inhabitants suffer. The people are warned not to bring charges against one another because they themselves are guilty. The Israelites, including their leaders and prophets, stumble in their ways. The LORD laments that his people are destroyed due to a lack of knowledge. Because they have rejected knowledge and ignored God’s law, the LORD will also reject them as priests and ignore their children. The priests have sinned greatly, exchanging the glory of God for disgraceful things. They feed on the sins of the people and delight in their wickedness. The LORD declares that both the people and the priests will be punished for their actions and repaid for their deeds.
You really can’t get away from the reality of: The land is filled with cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery, with no boundaries being respected and bloodshed occurring continuously. Our American penchant for mass shooting events is even spreading abroad to countries where that kind of thing was previously unheard of.
We also can’t get away from the statement: There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. Of course, it is hyperbole. But not as much as we might like to think. So many established churches, whether individual congregations or entire churches within denominations, are breaking apart.
And not for the core things of Christianity. It has nothing to do with Jesus dying for our sins. Rather, it’s things like whether to affirm things that God has said are sinful and whether women are allowed to be pastors. The net result is that while we may think we’re acknowledging God, being faithful, following Him, we may not be doing that at all. We must remember, God sets the rules. And we aren’t God.
Is that at least part of how we end up with:
Because of this the land mourns,
and all who live in it waste away;
the beasts of the field and the birds of the air
and the fish of the sea are dying?
Does that same prophecy have something to do with what’s happening in Texas as well? And not only in Texas, but around the world?
A prophesy in Revelation – why are lots of fish dying?
As with Hosea, let’s get some context for the verse in Revelation.
The Trumpets
Rev 8:6 Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them.
Rev 8:7 The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
Rev 8:8 The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, 9 a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
Rev 8:10 The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— 11 the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.
Rev 8:12 The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.
Rev 8:13 As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”
Rev 9:1 The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. 2 When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. 3 And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. 6 During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
Rev 9:7 The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. 8 Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9 They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. 10 They had tails and stings like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. 11 They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.
Rev 9:12 The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.
Rev 9:13 The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the horns of the golden altar that is before God. 14 It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. 16 The number of the mounted troops was two hundred million. I heard their number.
Rev 9:17 The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. 18 A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. 19 The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.
Rev 9:20 The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. 21 Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Let’s get real here. Are we in the End Times now? I don’t see how that’s possible. For starters, yes, we have a lot more brush and forest fires than we used to. But have we reached the point of 1/3 of all the grass and trees have burned? No. Not yet, anyway.
The same is true for the things prophesied to happen before the burning of that much grass and forestland.
However, having said that, it is possible, even likely, that this is God trying to get our attention. Trying to either get our attention or to warn us that if we don’t change, that these are the signs of the times. And they point to The End may soon begin.
A command in Genesis – why are lots of fish dying?
We don’t need any additional context for the command in Genesis: Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.
I simply don’t believe God meant for us to “rule over” His creation the way we’ve done. We’re not ruling over it, we’re destroying it. Although, considering the way our leaders “rule over” people, it’s easy enough to see how we think we’re doing OK.
The problem is, God can’t possibly be happy with the way our leaders rule over people. Even a casual reading of the Old Testament rules for how to treat people shows we fall far short of what God wants. And then when we read what Jesus said in the New Testament, well, we’ve completely blown it.
Love for Enemies – Matthew
Mt 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
We don’t do that. Forget about loving enemies. We don’t even love our friends in the manner Jesus says we should.
And so, the warnings in Hosea and the events in Revelation aren’t out of line at all.
How might these all tie together? – why are lots of fish dying?
It might seem like I’m going down three different tracks here. One for the way we don’t take care of God’s creation. One for Global warming. And another for not following God.
But they aren’t different. Not at all. They’re very much intertwined. Here’s why. Do you remember the mention of the priests in Hosea? I didn’t underline them above. But now I do want to draw attention to them.
Hos 4:7 The more the priests increased,
the more they sinned against me;
they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful.
Hos 4:8 They feed on the sins of my people
and relish their wickedness.
Hos 4:9 And it will be: Like people, like priests.
I will punish both of them for their ways
and repay them for their deeds.
Remember, this is from the Old Testament. Today, we tend to think of priests as Catholic Priests. Some Christians will make a connection to ourselves. But it cannot be either of them. Neither existed back then. Here’s a comment on those who were actually with the reference to “priests”.
While it may look at first sight as if the Lord is speaking of the nation, growing in sin as it grows in size, the ‘they’ of verse 8 means certainly the priests; therefore these men are surely the subject of verse 7 as well. ‘The more priests there are,’ as NEB puts it, ‘the more they sin against me.’ And we can recognize the picture. A protected and exclusive group will easily grow arrogant, and then cynical and shameless. Added to this there was the tempting fact that the sin-offerings, which were prime lambs or kids, were priestly perquisites: ‘the priest who offers it for sin shall eat it’ (Lv. 6:26).
So the charge of verse 8, ‘They feed on the sin of my people’, may be quite literal. To a degenerate set of priests, the more sin the better: there would be all the more fresh meat. The fact that the sin-offering was ‘a thing most holy’, ‘given to you’ (as Moses reminded Aaron in Lv. 10:17) ‘that you may bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them’, would mean nothing to them. On the other hand, since in times of moral decadence consciences grow hard, and sacrifices scarce, the meaning may be metaphorical: simply that the priests love and relish the prevailing wickedness.
So comes the blunt prediction, ‘like people, like priest’—a saying which, taken on its own, might either brand the priests as, so to speak, clerical chameleons, for ever matching their colour to their social context (a phenomenon by no means obsolete), or else, as the Hebrew idiom would equally allow, it might imply the converse: that the people would be sinking to the level of their priests. But in fact it is a saying about judgment: a warning that there will be no exemptions.
No privilege will shelter this supposed élite. There is a strikingly similar prophecy in Isaiah 24:1–3, speaking of the end time, where the same Hebrew phrase, ‘like people, like priest’, heads a list (‘as with the slave, so with his master’, and so on) which demonstrates the equal exposure of us all to the day of God. 3
The priests are the ones giving “spiritual guidance” to God’s people. But let me ask you a question. Who do many so-called Christians get their spiritual guidance from? Far too often, it’s either from a political leader, or from a pastor whose view of God seems to be defined more by their political party than by God’s Word, the Bible.
Then, when these so-called Christians play key roles in who gets elected and comes into power, we have almost a race to the bottom. A mob syndrome takes over, where positions by the leaders, the political pastors and the so-called Christians keep taking more and more extreme positions.
That forces the other political side, with its leaders, political pastors and so-called Christians to take positions that are ever more distant from their opponents.
And then both sides end up with their “priests” being their political leaders, their political pastors, and their political friends.
And who suffers? The people suffer. God’s creation suffers. God suffers, by watching us.
Eventually, we get to the point where Revelation begins.
Prologue – Revelation
Rev 1:1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
There are two points in there to notice:
- We need the Holy Spirit to truly understand not only this topic but everything in the Bible
- Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
- The things Jesus told John in Revelation will take place “quickly”.
- The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.
- It’s unfortunate that the NIV, and other translations, chose to use “what must soon take place”.
- Young’s Literal Translation uses more appropriate words: “come to pass quickly”.
- So it’s not a question of the passage of time before the prophecy takes place. Rather, it’s that once it does begin, events will unfold quickly.
Conclusion – Did God make lots of fish die? Or did we?
So, did God make lots of fish die? Or did we, people, make all those fish die? Or, somehow, are both true?
I submit, the most likely scenario is it’s both.
As Christians, we should believe God is all-knowing. In other words, as God told us in His own words, the Bible, God knew everything that would happen even before time began.
If God already knew what we would do to His creation, the prophecy in Hosea, make sense. Not that God made global warming happen, we did. In the same way, God didn’t kill the fish, we did. Our failure properly care for God’s creation led to the destruction of that creation.
Our actions also seem to have led to the signs of the time that Jesus referred to.
However, Revelation makes it clear that God does step in and take action in Revelation. To bring justice to us, for what we did. What we did to His creation What we did to each other. What we did by turning away from Him. The last one is critical, because every sin we commit is a sin against God. Even we if try to claim that what we do isn’t a sin, if God said it is a sin, then it is a sin. Period.
So, did God give us these warnings with no chance to avoid the coming destruction and justice? And to see the new heavens and the new earth?
Once The End begins, it will not be stopped. The world, as we know it, will end. And a new world begins.
What about the people? We do have some hope. Not as a hope for humanity, but as in hope for the few individuals who will turn to Him during the events of the End Times. God did leave us something about and for those who will be alive during the End Times. It’s in the form of letters to seven different churches.
If we fail to return to God at that point, we have, as Jesus told Nicodemus, condemned ourselves.
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Texas beach image info:
Thousands of dead fish were photographed on Quintana Beach. QUINTANA BEACH COUNTY PARK / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
© QUINTANA BEACH COUNTY PARK / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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