Hurricane Beryl ravaged the Caribbean earlier this week, taking with her lives and properties, but there are those who believe the category four hurricane is part of God’s judgement and is the manifestation of His anger against a region that is increasingly moving towards a global agenda that seeks to elevate unrighteousness.
After witnessing the devastation caused by the historic hurricane in Grenada, Barbados, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, many Jamaicans weren’t taking any chances and descended on supermarkets to purchase groceries and other supplies to take them through the storm.
“We need to repent,” one lady was overheard telling another shopper as they stood in a long checkout line at a supermarket on the outskirts of Spanish Town, St. Catherine, on Tuesday.
She lamented that while many Jamaicans might be “hearers of the Word,” they were not following Godly principles such as praying, fasting and repenting.
“I try to repent every chance I get, but as a nation, we are too rebellious,” she told the senior gentleman in line behind her.
Pastor at Christian Life Fellowship, Harry Walcott, believes it is the prayers of the righteous that continue to stay in God’s hands and protect the nation from His full wrath, which can manifest in hurricanes and earthquakes, among other calamities.
“There are people in the nation who know how to pray and to cry out to God, and they hope in his mercies, and they are trusting God to have mercy; but it can come to a point where the Lord may decide, ‘no, this is the point where the line is drawn’, He has to judge this nation in a way that causes death, which is what His Word says,” said the clergyman before making reference to Zephaniah 2, which speaks about judgement against nations.
He agrees that Jamaica’s continued progression towards ungodly lifestyles, such as that being promoted by LGBTQ advocates, have made the country ripe for judgement. Other initiatives that will usher in the beast system, such as cashlessness, the NIDS, and Al technology, are also being closely monitored by some in the Christian community, as it is believed they will have an even more devastating impact on the nation than a Category 5 hurricane.
“Those things are more detrimental, but because they come at us more subtly, people don’t give the same kind of attention to what is happening. With the hurricane now, you see it more upfront and personal, in your face, and there is the possibility of people losing a lot of what they have worked hard for,” noted Pastor Walcott.
Beryl has stunned scientists. It now holds the record for being the earliest Category 5 and is considered an anomaly in what is already an unusually busy storm season, which extends until the end of November.
The hurricane hit Jamaica on Wednesday, claiming at least two lives, destroying houses, toppling trees, and eroding massive acres of farmland. Thousands of Jamaicans were plunged into darkness and left without potable water as the country’s infrastructure was hit hard. Those in St. Elizabeth, Manchester, and sections of Clarendon bore the brunt of Berly’s wrath. The hurricane then headed to the Cayman Islands and eventually weakened to a category-two storm before heading for Mexico.
There have been heightened concerns about changes in weather patterns over the last few years, but some scientists have blamed climate change. Governments and other policymakers have drafted several initiatives to change people’s behaviours and are placing more focus on climate ction. Extreme wildfires are becoming far more common and intense globally, and there are increased heatwaves, droughts, and even insect outbreaks to contend with. What has been absent in the global strategy to counteract climate change has been the Biblical command to be humble, pray, and turn away from unrighteousness.
“Natural disasters and such could be the very result of the actions that some of us have been pursuing and the government giving credence to them in different ways and at different levels,” said Pastor Walcott, who is president of the Jamaica House of Prayer.
“The activities of the people that are evidently against the world of God will draw this kind of judgement for us if we don’t repent and cry for mercy,” he said.
Sadly, instead of retreating, those with reprobate thinking are advancing their ideologies and forcing everyone to conform, even those who subscribe to the Judaeo-Christian perspective. This was an observation made by several church leaders who gathered recently for a discussion on current events, which was organised by the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society (JCHS).
Shirley Richards, who is a member of the JCHS and the Lawyers Christian Fellowship, noted that immoral lifestyles are increasingly being promoted, while Christians are being told to keep their faith private.
“This statement is repeated often; the law has no place in the bedroom, but what is happening now is that that behaviour has taken over the public square. I went to another country, and even the paedestrian crossing had the homosexual flag painted on it,” she shared.
“Somehow, what is happening is that that has now been let out of the bedroom, and we are now told to keep our faith in the bedroom,” she said.
Pastor Walcott encouraged Christians to continue praying and speaking the truth, which comes from the Word of God.
“We need to be aware that we will suffer persecution, ridicule, and a despising of the believer, and we need to be prepared for that. We speak what we know the Word of God says, and we should prepare for that kind of response. It is not unusual for the prophet to be ridiculed and even scolded because of the words that he is bringing to the people,” he said.
“People don’t want to hear that, but they need to realise that we are involved in spiritual warfare. We have a real enemy who is determined to kill, steal, and destroy, and his main weapon is deception and lies. So you find that a lot of people have been swept up in the deceptive narrative that is out there,” the pastor stated.