Hurricane Laura is the most powerful storm to hit the US this year, pushing winds of up to 150mph. The hurricane made landfall on Thursday morning, affecting Louisiana and Texas with flash floods, storm surge and hurricane-force winds. But a popular Christian evangelist from West Lafayette in Indiana believes Hurricane Laura is just a taste of worse things to come.
According to Paul Begley, who hosts the weekly show The Coming Apocalypse on some US channels, natural cataclysms are unfolding in a manner that was prophesied in the Bible.
He cited Hurricane Laura and seasonal floods in Pakistan, which have killed at least 160 people, as proof of his bizarre claims.
He also linked devastating wildfires in California to prophecies in the Bible’s Book of Joel.
The historic wildfires have so far burned about 1.3 million acres of land, and at least seven people have died.
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Pastor Begley is a frequent purveyor of doomsday prophecies who believes modern-day events are linked to the return of Jesus Christ.
Natural disasters, political conflicts and war have all, in his opinion, been predicted by the Bible.
Pastor Begley said: “So we’ve had typhoons, we’ve had monsoons, we’ve got Blood Moons over California coming from the wildfires.
“The Suns has been darkened and the Moon has turned to blood, just like it says in the Book of Joel. It’s happening in California.”
Joel 2:28-32 reads: “And afterward I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
“Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
“I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
“The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
“And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors who the Lord calls.”
Pastor Begley said: “The prophecies of the Bible keep coming to pass all over the globe, simultaneously, and we’re watching it right before our very eyes. Guys, seriously, you’re living in the last days.”
However, there is no solid evidence to link natural disasters to biblical prophecies.
Scientists are more concerned about how events like more frequent wildfires and hurricanes are linked to climate change and global warming, not scripture.
And the Bible itself speaks out against these doomsday predictions.
Jesus Christ said in the gospels: “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”