2020 A.D.:  The Earthquake in Challis, Idaho on March 31...Is There Any Biblical Meaning To It?

 The city of Challis is above the 'A' and the 'H' in the word Idaho on this map of Idaho.

     There was a magnitude 6.5 earthquake centered near Challis, Idaho, USA which occurred on March 31, 2020, at 5:52 P.M. from a determined depth of 6.2 miles.  Despite that it was pretty tame, it was my birthday, so I probably won't soon forget it!  It caused almost no damage, and it was felt most strongly in a sparsely populated mountain region.  As I write this on July 16, 2020, there have been a good number of more minor aftershocks which also have caused no real damage.  As far as earthquakes go it was kind of a non-event except that Idaho gets few earthquakes of this magnitude.  There was a magnitude 6.9 that was labeled the Borah Peak earthquake which occurred in 1983, around 37 years ago.  There was a 6.1 quake near Mallad, Idaho about 45 years ago.  Idaho gets a lot of small earthquakes, but in recorded times there have been few powerful ones.

     And so why is it important to take note of this earthquake?  For no reason at all...except...it's a strange year.  Australia nearly burns up, dry Middle Eastern and African areas of the world are suffering severe locust plagues, there was the long familiar scream of 'Global Warming, Global Warming!' lingering ever-presently in the background still. 

     Politics have been in upheaval this year.  There was the failed impeachment effort against President Donald Trump of the USA, which appeared to mostly be an election year scam by the end of it all.  America is in political turmoil largely through the efforts of paid instigators, ruffians, and hooligans procured by the New World Order types and the upper echelon of our nation's Democrat Party, who think that no price is too high to pay if America can be destroyed from within and rebuilt from the ashes to reflect their depraved visions of a perfected society.  They are successfully ginning up the troops among America's racial minorities, gender identities, economic strata, and other groups that are historically quick to embrace any suggestion that they have been disenfranchised in some manner or another (though at times and in some cases, they surely have been!)  And so we have had rioting in the streets and the mindless destruction of business property, and the photos of smiley faced excited looking looters emerging from stores carrying stolen electronics, T.V.'s, etc., the stealing of which somehow has the apparent power to mend social injustices and ease generational pain.      

     Britain decided to exit the European Union, it was the first member nation to ever do so.  It formally began disengagement this year.  And one of their high-profile royals, Prince Harry, decided to do something perhaps a bit the same concerning the trials of life as a British royal, moving away from Britain with his American wife for the time being.  And Israel is in a crushingly hard-fought battle concerning who will lead their nation going forward.  Like the United States, Israel is almost paralyzed by the deadlocked battles of political parties which hold almost diametrically opposed moral philosophies yet are near to equally matched in overall strength.  The USA, Britain, and Israel are in much the same condition on this front.

     And there is much else going on concerning worldwide political turmoil, some fairly significant.  A female associate of Jeffrey Epstein, an accused pedophile with many rich and famous connections, was arrested in early July, and so a great many powerful well-heeled glamor figures from around the world, associates of Epstein's activities, are wondering if their face is going to be in the paper and on the news.  Such people will go very far to bury that type of publicity, perhaps even so far as to stir up world events that will distract attention away from their involvement in an 'underage sex victims' type of scandal.     

     The Corona Virus pandemic is upon us and truly isn't utterly toothless.  It has killed a number of precious people, and a minuscule percentage of those were pretty healthy and not too old.  Most deaths, nearly all, have occurred in either the elderly population or among people already struggling with very serious health issues.  Yet the insanely, cartoonishly, theatrically outsized and politically motivated response to the epidemic has already wrecked devastating economic havoc on nations around the globe.  And at the present time, July 2020, you can always get dire looking news footage concerning it, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  They especially love to show distressed med worker interviews at hospitals which truthfully are struggling mightily to deal with this epidemic which their finite resources are hard pressed to respond to adequately. 

     The uniformly liberal, Democrat, and New World Order owned and influenced news organizations have been pounding the Corona drum relentlessly and with all their hysterical might, creating whatever panic they possibly can from what has turned out to be a very survivable virus.  Extremely survivable.  And the corruption that has been revealed in how the Corona Virus case numbers are counted has been very disheartening...the ridiculously crooked process they are choosing to use has been deceitfully politicized to exaggerate the number of cases of COVID-19 to gain extra funding for the medical institutions facing the actual Covid challenge and also to eclipse and suppress President Trump's administration's record-breaking economic accomplishments.  They are trying to create a nearly paralyzed nation and a panicked electorate, at any long-term cost to the nation, prior to Trump's expected November 2020 attempt at reelection.  

     But enough of the political, and more of the physical!  There is just now, mid-July 2020 A.D., an unexpected comet passing by Earth that has been named NEOWISE, and comets have often been noted as harbingers of unusual times and events throughout the ages.  To note just one epidemic-related former instance, the last great Black Death plague of London, England began in 1665 A.D. immediately preceded by a comet.  And it ended in 1666 A.D. with another different comet being visible in the sky.  

     And so back to the earthquake in Idaho.  On such a year as this strange year it just might be meaningful that the name of the town of Challis is pronounced the same as the word 'chalice' which refers to 'a cup'.  The word 'chalice' specifically refers to a fairly large and often fancy ceremonial goblet typically used for drinking wine.  So, when Challis, Idaho had their earthquake there was a 'cup' that 'trembled', at least in a metaphorical sense.  And it did so on a year that seems like a highly unusual year, possibly a year in which the Lord is telling us to take warning.  I personally do not know that there is any connection at all, nor that the Lord is telling us to take special warning this year.  But in the Bible, there are several references to trembling cups of wine, or cups of trembling or cups of woe so to speak.  They represent the wrath of God being delivered whether wanted or not to sinful and unrepentant nations.  

An example of an ornate chalice.

     So I am just putting this out there to be considered by people who did not hear about the relatively unpublicized Challis, Idaho earthquake.  (And by the way, the original meaning of the name Challis when spelled in this manner, the town and not the cup, relates to an ancient Norman word for a ladder.)  Such events as a fairly low impact earthquake might normally mean nothing concerning spiritual affairs.  And I have no personal knowledge from God that this one means anything.  But maybe someone out there will see a connection that I did not.  And we should always keep it in mind to focus a respectful and fearful portion of our thoughts and attention on our Maker.  When He decides to punish mankind, it is an awful thing to witness or experience.  If He remains quiet for a time, we tend to forget about the immeasurable power that He can, and has, exercised at times of His choosing.    

     If this earthquake has significance there is probably reference to that in His word somewhere.  He always tells a prophet about what He has decided to do, He has said. For instance:

     "Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets."  Amos 3:7

     Some of the ancient proven prophets did present peoples and rulers with a 'cup' or a 'cup of trembling', using it as a powerful symbol of coming woes or judgements.  Certain of these portents of coming dire events definitely applied to their time and not ours.  But the use of a trembling cup as a symbol was established at that time.  And sometimes prophecies in the Bible have applications to the time in which they were spoken, but to a future time as well.  Jeremiah was a famous Jewish prophet from the 6th century B.C.  Jeremiah chapter 25, as shown below, has portions of a prophecy involving a CUP that have Jeremiah going to some awfully distant lands to tell them what the Lord has in store for them.  How long would such travels have taken him?  Read the long list of far flung places that he is directed by God to travel to!  So, in those various contexts where the 'cup' or sometimes 'cup of trembling' terms were used it was a deliberately chosen and meaningful phrase, and so there is a small chance that those prophetic utterances could be a warning again, now, in our present time.  They may have a 2nd intended target audience:  us!  But, on the other hand, this is just speculation.  It's always good to take our mere human speculations and pondering, mine definitely included, with a grain of salt.  But consider the following verses:   

1. Isaiah 51:17
   Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.

    
2. Isaiah 51:22
   Thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:

    
3. Zechariah 12:2
   Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.

     

    

   Finally, from Jeremiah chapter 25, v. 15 thru 29.

    

   ^"15 For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.

   ¹⁶ And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.

   ¹⁷ Then took I the cup at the Lord's hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the Lord had sent me:

   ¹⁸ To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;

   ¹⁹ Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;

   ²⁰ And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod,

   ²¹ Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon,

   ²² And all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea,

   ²³ Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners,

   ²⁴ And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the desert,

   ²⁵ And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes,

   ²⁶ And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.

   ²⁷ Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.

   ²⁸ And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink.

   ²⁹ For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the Lord of hosts."

    

   End quotes, KJV...the bold highlighted verses were highlighted by me.  

    

    

         There are some odd features to these prophecies about the 'cup', or sometimes the 'trembling cup'.  Could all the people of the Earth have been visited back at that time?  It seems difficult.  Could all of the kingdoms on the face of the world have been presented with this cup.  Such a journey would have taken very many years!   Perhaps something of this, portions of these listed prophecies or others in the Bible which are like them, always were meant to play out, and will play out, in our own present day and time.  

    

        We would all do well to take stock and try to be ready and on the right side of the Lord's good favor when the sudden ending comes.  We are told that it will come very unexpectedly, and that even the Lord's followers won't have time to make preparations.  Either you will be ready, or you will not.  We are shown this concept in allegory I believe when Lot and his family are whisked out of the Sodom and Gomorrah area only hours before those cities are destroyed.  Lot's wife looks back towards Sodom and even that small delay costs her everything.  She is turned into a pillar of salt.  

    

        We are shown this in allegory when the Israelite slaves flee Egypt.  They packed and took off.  There was no time for planning.  And the ones who later looked back in their minds upon the good foods and the comforts that they had enjoyed while slaves in Egypt were stricken with a plague from the very food they chewed upon...the surprise provision of exhausted quail that landed among their tents.  God was not pleased by their fond remembrance of the conditions that He had rescued them from.  

    

        The Christians fled without delay and carrying little with them out of the gates of Jerusalem in A.D. 66, running for their lives, many towards Pella when a brief lifting of the Roman siege occurred. Other non-Christian people stayed within the thick strong familiar walls of Jerusalem and were later destroyed by the Romans when they returned and reset the siege.  Most of the people who remained in Jerusalem were killed...hundreds of thousands according to ancient writers such as Josephus in the 'Wars of the Jews.'

    

        When people keep predicting the end of the world without it coming to pass, we can grow bored of it, dismissive of it.  God said that He will end it in its time, and Christians do not know if it will be in their lifetime or not.  But it will come quickly, this snatching up of the accepted living and 'dead brought back to life' prior to the awful days of destruction on the Earth.  Jesus gave us the parable of the 10 virgins, five of whom had oil in their lamps and five of whom carelessly did not.  When their master suddenly returned in the night from a long trip and the virgins got up to run out and greet their master, the ones without oil thought to just borrow from the ones that did have it, but those possessing oil in their lamps would not share their oil.  They said they did not know how much of the oil in their own lamps they would need, so how could they share!  And so, half were ready and went out to meet their returning master, but half were not ready, and it was all over before they ever found oil for their lamps.  They had possessed only a small window of time and they had missed it.

    

        It has been taught since the days of the early church that it will be the same for Christians when the Lord returns to remove them from what will soon be 'the battlefield'.  They need to already have 'oil' upon them, in them, with them.  Oil is often used in scripture as a symbol for the Holy Spirit.  There apparently won't be some long period where we can say, "Uh oh!  It looks like God wasn't kidding.  I apparently do need to get ready.  If the Kingdom of Heaven is real then Hell must be real also, and I don't want to end up there."  It speaks of our chance to be counted as ready and to be whisked off to safety as only a fleeting moment, a small narrow window of time.  It will simply be too bad for us if we are not already prepared!

    

    

   ^{Rev 14:6 - 13}

   ⁶ Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. ⁷ He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

   ⁸ A second angel followed and said, “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’^[a] which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.”

   ⁹ A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, ¹⁰ they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. ¹¹ And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” ¹² This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.

   ¹³ Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”

   “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”

    

   Rev 17: 4

   The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries.

   Rev 17:18

   The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.”

    

   Rev 18

   She has become a lair for demons

   and a haunt for every unclean spirit,

   every unclean bird,

   and every detestable beast.b

   3All the nations have drunkc

   the wine of the passion of her immorality.

   The kings of the earth were immoral with her,

   and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy

   through the extravagance of her luxury.”

   4Then I heard another voice from heaven say:

   “Come out of her, my people,d

   so that you will not share in her sins

   or contract any of her plagues.

   5For her sins are piled up to heaven,

   and God has remembered her iniquities.

   6Give back to her as she has done to others;

   pay her back double for what she has done;

   mix her a double portion in her own cup.

   7As much as she has glorified herself and lived in luxury,

   give her the same measure of torment and grief.

    

    

   End Quotes

    

        Meaningful, or just another earthquake?  Common sense says that it is just another normal and familiar earthquake.  But we are supposed to be watchful, we Christians.