DOOMSDAY ON 26TH
A couple of days ago my friend Llew Fernandez relayed an interesting chain mail to me. I enjoy his mails – some of them deeply thoughtful, some seriously thought-provoking and others deliciously naughty. I love them all. This one laid claim to the date 26 of any month on the Calendar as one of disasters. The title hinted if you think they were a coincidence, you have another think coming. That set me thinking and clicking internet sites and rather irreverently thumbing through pages of many scriptures.
This “discovery” of the 26th of a month as a day for terrible disasters was presumably first propounded by Lionel Zucker, the leader of a Jewish set known as “Messianic Judaism”. Messianic Jews believe that Jesus was indeed the Saviour of Jews and that He sits at the right-hand side of God (YHWH or ELOHIM). They do not describe themselves as Christian, a term they reserve for “gentile” (that is, formerly pagan – the idolaters) converts. After all, Old Testament, just like the Torah, describes God as the God of Jews. Even Jesus Christ once said that “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel”. It was The First Christian Church Council in Jerusalem in 50 AD which decided that uncircumcised gentiles can be brought into the Christian faith. Jews, the tribe to which Jesus and all apostles belonged, had nothing do with that decision.
Once this “discovery” came on the Internet, quoting Haggai 2:6 (written in 560 BC by a Jewish Prophet) which said, “in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land”. God was then not the merciful Father that Jesus described, but a “Man of War” who insisted that his soldiers destroy everything that Jews attacked – “Men, women, children and animals” just as disasters do. Saul (the king before David) lost favour with God for not obeying this command. God wanted to replace him with David (but could not, for a long time – Saul, like the Chief ministers of India, declined to resign) because Saul didn’t kill the healthy animals and the king of the land who begged to be spared. The “little while” that Haggai promised on behalf of God has taken 2571 years till now and YHWH has been keeping his promise of “shaking the heavens and earth and the sea and the dry land” all through these years, but rarely on the 26th.
These are the “proofs” produced by Lionel Zucker and his faithful followers for YHWH’s vengeance:
| Actul Datae | Nature ofDisaster | Consequence as on record |
| 26.12.2004 | Aceh Tsunami | 230,000 dead |
| 27.5.2006(Unless God goes by GMT) | JogJakarta Earthquake | 5,782 died |
| 26.6.2010 | Tasik Earthquake | Tasik Malaya and Tasik Indonesia have had several earthquakes on several different dates. On this date, 6.3 on Richter scale, caused relatively little loss of life (80) |
| 25.10.2010(Not on 26th) | Mentawai Tsunami | Up to 300 estimated dead. |
| 23.10. to 3.12.2010(Not 26th in particular) | Mount Merapi vocanic eruption | A mountainous area of high volcanic activity throughout the year; little loss of human life thanks to early evacuation. The one on 26th took a toll of 30; a much worse one took place on 5th of November. |
| 26.8.83 | Krakatau volcanic eruption | An area of high volcanic activity; on this date a huge explosion took place whose effect reached up to New York and English channel. I couldn’t find any death report. |
| 28.7.1976(Not 26th) | China Earthquake-Tangshan, Northern China | Loss of lives placed at 242,000. China has had scores of significant earthquakes during 1900s and this century; the worst on 28.7.1976; second worst on December 16, 1920 (234,117 died) |
| 26.1.1951 | Portugal earthquake | Probably invented or blown out of proportions to spite Catholics, whom this sect despises. The worst known earthquake in Portugal was in 1755, on 1st November. |
| 26.4.20105.3.2010 | Taiwan earthquakes | Both were of 6.4 Reichter scale that shook buildings; no human loss reported. Does God fail in wreaking vengeance on humans? |
| 21-23.12.2010 | Japan | Japan had 86 earthquakes during the period. None on 26th. |
| 26.7.2003 | NE Japan | One of the 2059 quakes in 17 years. (more than one in 2 days). Little human loss |
| 16.12.1932(Not 26th) | Kansu China Earthquake 1932 | 26th is a deliberate error. On Oct 2, 1920, Kansu had a worse disaster landslide from earthquake that killed 200,000. |
| 27.12.1939(Not 26th) unless you by GMT | Turkey earthquake | Disaster continued and death toll rose to 32,000 by the end of the year. |
| 26.1.2001 | Gujarat Earthquake | 20,000 (including Pakistan) killed |
| 26.6.1926 | Rhodes Earthquake | This quake, as compared to several others, did minimal damage; recording no death toll. |
| 24.1. 2010 | Haiti Earthquake | 316,000 died. The worst human tragedy in recent times, but not on the 26th. Is there a Haggai warning in 2:4? |
David B. Hall records (http://across.co.nz/WorldsWorstDisasters.html) hundreds of disasters that took heavy human toll since Christ; more than 60 that killed over a hundred thousand (some of them in millions) men women and children. Those that occurred on the 26th can indeed be counted on your fingers. Many disasters were diseases that are attributed to God’s anger by religions of all shades – Plague, Cholera, Malaria, European sickness (of 16th to 18th centuries) and famine. You couldn’t put a date to diseases that killed humans over a period of time. Nor can you put a date to the worst man-made disaster of all – holocaust that destroyed million Jews while YHWH apparently sat and watched patiently to later grant a piece of land and eternal strife and fear of Islamic bomb for those who remained. The crusades, European and Asian battles, first and second world wars – incidents where Christians, being the major contenders from both sides could claim a majority among the dead even if you include Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Catholics and protestants (both of whom are rejected as ‘twisted church people’ by those who recognize Jesus only by that name and not as Christ) Ireland and Great Britain, Hindus and Muslims in South Asia, Muslims and Muslims in the Middle East, Christians and Muslims in Afghanistan, Shias and Sunnis in Iraq and Pakistan – there is no end to the ways God devised to limit human population and to shake the heavens, earth, sea and dry land. Floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, cloud bursts and Katrina-style typhoons take place every other day in some spot or another on God’s good earth. How many thousands die a day due to starvation and malnutrition all over the world is known neither to man nor to God. (If YHWH knew, I suppose he would reserve their deaths to the 26th of each month). Then you have human disasters that regularly take place in pilgrimages to shrines of various religious denominations. Religions of all shades –Judaism, Christianity and Islam – have been promising that the end of the world and the judgement day is near. They also try their best to make it come true with their preachings and sermons that lead to wars, genocides and even mass suicides. Where scriptures fail some quote Nostradamus, a Jew pretending to be Catholic, who conveniently predicted disasters on vague dates in every century.
As for the past events, date 26 figures no more frequently than any other date of the month when world disasters had struck. Interestingly, Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 26.4.1986 does not find mention in the list. Many of those mentioned actually fell on a day between the 21st and the 27th. Neither are they the worst disasters that befell earth since Haggai 2:6. As I said earlier, the worst disasters that killed a hundred thousand or more during the known centuries, the date 26 rarely figures.
If the disasters that took place on dates 26 are God’s handiwork, one must admit He did succeed the same way as Americans under Bush succeeded in destroying the very cradle of human civilization in Iraq – formerly Mesopotamia. US started the invasion of Iraq not on the 26th, but on 20th of March 2003. Perhaps they had Haggai and God in mind when they carried out massive airdrops on the 26th!
Take a look at the instances of earthquake in Iran, one of the “evil empires” as described by George Bush and still in the bull’s eye of the West:
| Date | City | Magnitude | Killed |
| 02/22/2005 | Zarand | 6.4 | 550 |
| 12/26/2003 | Bam | 6.6 | 26,200 |
| 05/28/2003 | North | 6.4 | 36 |
| 06/22/2002 | North West | 6.5 | 500 |
| 05/10/1997 | North | 7.1 | 1,500 |
| 06/21/1990 | North West | 5.8 | 20 |
| 06/20/1990 | North We st | 7.3-7.7 | 50,000 |
| 06/11/1981 | Kerman | 6.9 | 3,000 |
| 09/16/1978 | Tabas | 7.7 | 25,000 |
| 03/21/1977 | Bandar Abbas | 6.9 | 167 |
| 11/24/1976 | Yerevan | 6.9 | 100 |
Source : http://www.farsinet.com/bam/
Of the five major earthquakes that took a heavy toll of over 1000, only one occurred on a 26th, the one quoted by Zucker. Is God slipping up on his calendar? .
Apart from Iran you have Bangladesh and Indonesia that are susceptible to extreme calamities. Here is the publish record of major disasters in Bangladesh:
Top 10 Natural Disasters of Bangladesh
Disaster Date Human toll
Famine Through 1943 1,900,000
Epidemic Through 1918 393,000
Wind storm 12-11-1970 300,000
Wind storm 30-4-1991 138,866
Wind storm 15-16 10-1942 61,000
Wind storm 11-5-1965 36,000
Flood and famine All through 1974 1,500,000
Wind storm 12-6-1965 12,047
Wind storm 28-5-1963 11,500
Wind storm 9-5-1961 11,000
Flood Aug-1988 73,000,000
Flood 22-7-1987 73,000,000
Flood Jul-1974 38,000,000
Flood May-1984 30,000,000
Drought 5-7-1983 20,000,000
Flood Jul-1968 15,889,616
Wind storm 30-4-1991 15,438,849
Flood 8-7-1998 15,000,050
Flood 15-Jun-1995 12,656,006
Flood 1st week Jun-Jul-1993 11,469,537
Source: http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/apcity/unpan009378.pdf
And http://www.factophile.com/show.content?action=view&pageid=140
Unfortunately again, one can’t put a precise date to famine, epidemics and drought, but none of those terrible calamities that managed to “shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land” took place or started on the promised date of 26th. If you were to find a bias in those statistics of disasters you find them not on the date of 26 but on the months between May and August – the period of hot summer and monsoon in the tropics.
If Bangladesh lies on the shores of a bay prone to flood and windstorm, Indonesia is a vast archipelago given to earthquakes, tsunamis and floods in equal measure. The country of a thousand islands is said to sink into sea by two inches a year. While calamities are frequent enough, I could not find a single one of massive scale in the records other than the Aceh disaster that took place on the God-threatened date.
Then we have global warming (no fault of God’s, but of men). It affects the whole world – Jews, Messianic Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists – you name it. Oxfam says that natural disasters have quadrupled during the decade between 1995 to 2004 as compared to that from 1985 to 1994. Disasters in both decades were more or less evenly distributed during the precarious seasons; very few indeed took place on a 26th.
On a smaller scale, the recent Queensland floods that killed only a few dozen (thanks to the sparse population) started on 24th December and more or less ended in later January 2011, but both 26s –particularly Australia Day on 26th January – were spared of any major catastrophe. Super typhoon Megi of Northern Philippines happened on 18th October 2010; Hurricane Katrina that ravaged Bahamas, South Florida, Cuba, Louisiana (especially Greater New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida Panhandle, most of eastern North America took shape on 23rd August 2005 and carried out wanton destruction (literally as promised by Haggai) till 30th of that month. On 26th it hit Florida, but the havoc was to come later. Human loss was over 1800 – a good majority of them Blacks. Does God practise apartheid apart from religious discrimination?
Not to be outdone by the little-known Messianic Jews, Christians of all shades have taken up this date of 26th as “proof” of some sort of apocalyptic attempt at doomsday. Not to be outdone, Lakshar-e-Toiba and other terrorist agencies chose 26/11 to shake earth, the seas and dry land in India to establish a Muslim state before Qayamat descends. At least one Hindu zealot added the two digits and got 8 (“ashtami”), which gave him a double date of high energy in a month – finding Shiva’s dance in the disasters that happened on the 8th and 26th of the month. I wonder if a net war could start for claiming the number 26, each one claiming one’s own god to be the perpetrator.
One wonders if the “dirty bomb” from the Islamic terrorists or the “clean” bomb from the Americans or Chinese would fall first to “shake the Heavens, Earth and Dry Land” as promised. When it does fall, and if I am still around, I will be able to show you that it didn’t fall on the 26th. Statistically, the chances of it happening on that particular date are a trifle 1/30. A more possible disaster that can send humans out of existence as it did Dinosaurs is estimated to take place on 13th April 2036 when a huge asteroid could strike earth, going by its current trajectory. I can already see someone pointing out that 13th is one-half of 26. If you try hard enough, you could interpret some line in the Bible or Haggai that predicts this doom, the same way as others interpret Nostradamus verses. I am supposing the Americans or the Chinese or Pakistanis don’t hasten the process and beat God in his own game of vengeance.
Religious zealots, with their lies, exaggerations, stage-managed healing and cheap magic that pass off for miracles give faith a bad name. No, I don’t think 26 is a coincidence. It is just a date plucked out from the twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty of thirty-one days of each month in a year through the centuries, on every one of which, there has been a disaster since the ‘Year of Our Lord’ was invented. The frequency of disasters on 26th will continue to happen the same way as it would happen on other dates. We don’t need reminders from any God. Since he claims to be merciful, let Him spare us the tragedies.
The most powerful earthquake yet recorded in history occurred on 11 th March, 2011. The nuclear disaster in its aftermath might yet be the longest lasting tragedy. God appears to have overlooked the incident; it did not occur anywhere near 26th.
But don’t laugh – a Biblical revelation (Revelation 9:5 and the ones surrounding that number) and some careful calculations by the faithful have come to the conclusion that “Rapture” when the faithful (those who have seal of God on their forehead – that is Christians of a particular set) would be lifted physically and taken to Heaven. The day – note that down – is 21st of May 2011. Rest of us will be made to suffer a terrible suffering (the greatest suffering known to God is the bite of a scorpion) for the next five months; after which a terrible fire will descend on us on 21st October and carry us to eternal hell. If you have any doubt, or think one can’t be serious, click http://www.ebiblefellowship.com/outreach/tracts/may21/
Till then, have fun.
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very interesting, thanks for posting this here and sharing with us!
Michelle
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