From Iran to Russia, strange events are occurring which people of faith in different religions are seeing as signs of end times.
Swarms of locusts devastate parts of Southern Russia, darkening the skies and threatening the crops, described by one local witness as "Very frightening. Some were as big as your finger! They came like a clouds."
Swarms have been reported across many other southern regions, stretching from Chechnya to the Astrakhan province on the Caspian Sea. Because of the locusts, a state of emergency has been declared in three regions near Stavropol, according to local media. In Stavropol alone, efforts to kill the insects have stretched across more than 350 miles, according to officials.
Multiple videos of these massive swarms were immediately uploaded to YouTube of the "largest attack of locusts in the last three decades." One of which was a video recorded by a local man shows thousands of locusts that travel up to 40kmph (25mph) appearing as a dark cloud and then shows the insects destroying crops and foliage in a field. Each locust eats its own body weight worth of food in a day.
Locust references in the bible are many, a compilation of which can be found here.
It’s not only evangelical Christians who are sensing that something has changed in the world, and that we may be entering the very last days.
Muslims are also eagerly awaiting their messiah.
In the latest evidence of this messianic fervor, a mainstream Sunni Muslim website has decreed that the Islamic messiah, called the Mahdi, will appear this year or in 2016 and that the Muslim Jesus will return in 2022 to conquer the world for Islam.
For Sunnis, the Mahdi is Muhammad's successor who is yet to come. For most Shia Muslims, the Mahdi was born but disappeared and will remain hidden from humanity until he reappears to bring justice to the world, a doctrine known as the Occultation. (Source)
A massive meteor hit Iran on Friday with multiple impact locations. The meteor landed in Avaj in the province of Qazvin, Mohammad Ali Ahani, director of Qazvin Crisis Management Staff said, Mehr news agency reported July 31. Also, there have been reports that some pieces of rock have hit areas in Eshtehard, Alborz Province, Arsalan Qasemi, governor of Boeen Zahra, county in Qazvin Province, said. (Source)
Ka'b said: "It is a star that rises from the East and illuminates for the people of the Earth like the illumination of a moon in a full-moon night." (Nuaim bin Hammad's book Kitab)
Ka'b said: "'A star will rise from the East before the appearance of the Mahdi and it has a tail.'
Then we have the rare "Blue Moon" which comes amidst the even rarer "tetrad" of Blood Moons, which have some preachers warning of Apocalypse, such as Pastor Paul Begley, quoted below from the Express UK:
He said in his video, on the channel he calls The Coming Apocalypse, which is also aired on some US TV channels, that after the first full moon this month on July 1, there were great fires in Canada, which sent so much ash into the air they made the moon "appear red."
Having another "red moon" in the run up to the "blood moons" is a warning we cannot ignore, he suggested.
He said: "The thing I find very strange about this is it happens to be happening in this four Blood Moon tetrad, and in such a prophetic time. "As we come towards the fourth and final Blood Moon - a super Blood Moon, we've got a Blue Moon."
The pastor said the full moon in early July was the night of his first broadcast.
He added: "There were forest fires burning in Canada that sent so much ash, but the jet streams did not blow them away like normal, but instead, God just let the smoke hang there, so when the moon came up it was blood red.
"So it was un unscheduled Blood Moon. It should not have been red, but because of the ash and smoke in the atmosphere, it turned the moon blood red and it darkened the Sun, which is exactly what the Bible says in Joel Chapter two."
From one religion to another, events that were foretold in ancient prophecies appear to be occurring right now. It is not so much the events themselves as the timing of each individual event when looked at together.
See more on Begley's assertions in the video below.
