The Bible tells us that in the end times, there will be earthquakes in various places (Matthew 24:7). Although earthquakes likely have shaken our planet as long as it has existed, it appears that more numerous intense earthquakes have happened over the past century.

Jesus Christ said earthquakes, along with other natural disasters, would cause human suffering until His second coming. A final globe-girdling earthquake greater than any before is prophesied to shake the entire earth immediately before Christ returns (Revelation 16:18).

Recently in Bantul, Indonesia, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake killed more than 6,200 people, injured 30,000 more and destroyed 135,000 houses across Java Island (Associated Press report, June 2). The world's largest archipelago is Indonesia, located on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes that ring the Pacific Basin. There are 76 volcanoes in Indonesia alone, the largest concentration in the world.

The Supreme Designer has built the earth in such a way that tectonic plates can morph and, on occasion convulse, creating dramatic shifts of the earth's surface. Over time such geologic movements redistribute and recycle minerals crucial to keeping the earth habitable for plants, animals and people. At the same time earthquakes can cause great human suffering and, in some cases, encourage human beings to turn to God. This is one prophetic reason that earthquakes occur (Revelation 16:17-21).