Scoffers in the Modern World: A Parallel in Japan

The apostle Peter characterized it best:

"...you must understand that in the last days, scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, 'Where is this coming he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.'

But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.

By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men,"
(2 Peter 3:3-6)

In other words, these scoffers intentionally ignore biblical prophecy, under the false premise that "we've heard all of this before and nothing happened, so we know it won't happen in the future"...

My, what faulty logic.

Recently I was engaged in an exchange relating to biblical prophecy, on a sports related board of all places (hey, I'll put this word of biblical prophecy anywhere, if the situation presents itself). After listing a page full of "signs" of this generation, I received the following comments:

"complete BS"

"I find it comical"

"Asinine conclusions"

"Its criminal that people will use psychology under religious pretext to scam people"

"inherently flawed"

"Jesus was possibly mistaken"

"you believe you have God's word on your side"

"This has been going on for thousands of years"

"working backwards to make your evidence fit"

And the above comments are fairly typical for scoffers. The sad part is, such comments are born out of ignorance, and not from careful Bible study, but, rather, based upon tidbits of (incorrect) information gathered here and there from friends, relatives, etc.

It also reminds me of what Jeremiah went through as he pleaded with the Israeli leaders to listen to God's prophecy that the Babylonians would come destroy the last remnants of Israel in Jerusalem, if Israel didn't repent from their wicked ways. This was an unpopular message and the scoffers came out in droves to protest Jeremiah - to the point where he was imprisoned and thrown into a cistern.

And of course, we know that Jeremiah was correct.

That leads to this interesting article and the parallels are obvious:

How one Japanese village defied the tsunami

In the rubble of Japan's northeast coast, one small village stands as tall as ever after the tsunami. No homes were swept away. In fact, they barely got wet.

Fudai is the village that survived — thanks to a huge wall once deemed a mayor's expensive folly and now vindicated as the community's salvation.

The 3,000 residents living between mountains behind a cove owe their lives to a late leader who saw the devastation of an earlier tsunami and made it the priority of his four-decade tenure to defend his people from the next on

His 51-foot floodgate between mountainsides took a dozen years to build and meant spending more than $30 million in today's dollars.

Reminds one of the story of Noah doesn't it?

"It cost a lot of money. But without it, Fudai would have disappeared," said seaweed fisherman Satoshi Kaneko, 55, whose business has been ruined but who is happy to have his family and home intact.

The gate project was criticized as wasteful in the 1970s. But the gate and an equally high seawall behind the community's adjacent fishing port protected Fudai from the waves that obliterated so many other towns. Two months after the disaster, more than 25,000 are missing or dead.


In Fudai, the waves rose as high as 66 feet, as water marks show on the floodgate's towers. So some ocean water did flow over but caused minimal damage. The gate broke the tsunami's main thrust. The two mountainsides flanking the gate also offered a natural barrier.

The man credited with saving Fudai is the late Kotaku Wamura, a ten-term mayor whose political reign began in the ashes of World War II and ended in 1987.

But Wamura never forgot how quickly the sea could turn. Massive earthquake-triggered tsunamis flattened the northeast coast in 1933 and 1896. In Fudai, the two disasters destroyed hundreds of homes and killed 439 people.

He vowed it would never happen again.

He insisted the structure be as tall as the seawall.
The village council initially balked.

"They weren't necessarily against the idea of floodgates, just the size," said Yuzo Mifune, head of Fudai's resident services and an unofficial floodgate historian. "But Wamura somehow persuaded them that this was the only way to protect lives."

Construction began in 1972 despite lingering concerns about its size as well as bitterness among landowners forced to sell land to the government.

Once again, the scoffers were wrong. While the rest of Japan became involved in their economic growth, personal finances, and just daily life - they choose to ignore the previous warnings that a tsunami could happen again - such warnings were ignored - except for the lone voice of this mayor, the late Kotaku Wamura.

And it was his single vision - based on the knowledge that this could happen again - a huge, destructive tsunami - led to this entire town being saved from destruction.

Kind of like biblical prophecy isn't it?

The scoffers have it easy now, just as the scoffers in Japan had it easy as this wall was erected. Just as the scoffers ridiculed Noah as he built his ark. Just as the scoffers had it easy as they ridiculed the prophet Jeremiah and his warnings.

Its the nature of prophecy. People become complacent in their daily lives and see the world as never changing. They don't want to be reminded of what could happen - things that could upset their daily existence. Its the nature of mankind.

Unfortunately, history hasn't been kind to such scoffers - those who are tied to the life that they desire and those who refuse to believe the warnings issued in biblical prophecy.

After all, it might just make someone reassess their life and where their priorities are. It might just make someone review their sinful ways. It might force someone to look at the Gospels and see what God's expectations are - and to realize that the only way to escape the sin of this earth is through the gift offered by Jesus.

There will even come a future time in which their scoffing will appear to have been correct, and one can imagine their initial glee that planet earth has given them their utopia without those pesky Christians around and their "doom and gloom" message.

Following the Rapture of the Church (and whatever deceptive message explains that - as propagated by the antichrist) - and following the initial rise of the antichrist - which will seemingly reinforce the opinions of the "scoffers" - we see this prophetic scenario:

"While people are saying 'Peace and safety', destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman and they will not escape." (1 Thessalonians 5:3)

Closely followed by this passage:

"They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason, God will sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness." (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12)

Being a prophecy watcher isn't easy - especially in a complacent world. A world that refuses to accept the premise that life as they know it could change - and change rapidly and dramatically.

The signs are abundant if one chooses to look with an open mind and an open heart.

When these last events come, including the carnage of the Tribulation, no one will be able to claim that they weren't previously warned. Just as God gave mankind the prophets throughout history - prophets who warned against various destructions - the prophets are speaking to this generation - and warning of what is to come.

Yet, today, just as we have seen historically the prophets and their warnings are being ignored - and unfortunately, its at the peril of those ignoring such warnings.

Today's world is no different.

To close, I am reminded of the scriptures in 1 Corinthians 1:18-21, which seem fitting:

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

For it is written:

'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.'

Where is the wise man?
Where is the scholar?
Where is the philosopher of this age?

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?"

Amen.