[Steve Myers] Have you seen one of the latest news items? A Dutch University lab has created a highly contagious killer flu. It's a form of the bird flu that was out a few years ago. Now, what they've done is they've actually mutated it so that it can become airborne. Now it's easy to transfer between person to person. Now it's not out. It's still contained in the lab. But the scientific world is going crazy over this whole thing at the moment because they want to publish their results.

[Darris McNeely] And the big issue is whether or not to make this information freely out in the public, especially to share among scientists, and this is creating a debate among the scientists because they don't know if a terrorist posing as a scientist or some scientist who may be friendly toward terrorists would take that information and give it to a group who would then manufacture a way to spread that within the population. This is a very scary possibility. You don't see a lot of this information except when something breaks out and it kind of ebbs and flows in the news, Steve. But it's a very real possibility.

[Steve Myers] The interesting thing is what some of the scientists said about it. They said, this is a quote, "The fear is if you create something this deadly and it goes into a global pandemic, the mortality and cost to the world could be massive." And that's one of the more mild comments. This is the one that caught my attention in an article I was reading about it. One of the scientists said, "The worst case scenario here is worse than anything you could imagine." Now that takes your breath away when you begin to think about that. And you can't help but think of some of the prophecies that are mentioned in the Bible as we draw to the end of the age.

[Darris McNeely] Jesus Christ did address this very real possibility in Matthew chapter 24, the Olivet Prophecy when He was asked about the signs that would precede His second coming. And in verse 7 He said, "For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there will be famine, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All of these are the beginning of sorrows" (Matthew 24:7). So pestilence is definitely one of those items mentioned, and it's also one of those seals mentioned in Revelation chapter 6, one of the so-called horsemen of the Apocalypse, and signs of that age of a problem that could very well begin to ride across the global landscape almost overnight.

[Steve Myers] And about riding, it reminds me of the four horsemen in Revelation chapter 6. That fourth horse, the pale horse, is that one that talks about pestilences (Revelation 6:8). Now, we're not saying that's right where we are in history, we're not making that prediction, but the thing is we know that's coming and this is another precursor that's pushing us that way, that's showing us the times that we live in. It is a dangerous time.

[Darris McNeely] And when you read articles like that, you understand just how real and palpable this problem is just under the surface of our culture and our society almost waiting to erupt throughout the population causing a great deal of suffering. We hope and pray that does not happen. Bible prophecy shows that it's a very real event that is going to happen, but when you read events like this, Steve, you understand just how close we are in this world. It's a very precarious situation.

[Steve Myers] And it's a reminder, not about the doom and the gloom that is coming, no doubt, but what about us? We need to make sure we're close to God. We need to make sure we have a relationship with Him. We need to be growing in grace and knowledge and putting on the mind of Christ. That's what it reminds me of.

[Darris McNeely] That's what the real effect of all of these prophecies should have in our lives to draw us closer to a sobering reality, the times we live in and a deeper relationship with God.

[Steve Myers] That's BT Daily. We'll see you next time.