Experts worried about increase in sinkholes

Still more sinkholes...One opens up in Dunedin
[Pinellas County, Tampa Bay area, Florida]
"Dunedin Fire Rescue responded to a sinkhole that opened up in residential Dunedin Wednesday.  Officials say a call came in at about 7:50 p.m. reporting a 20-by-20 foot hole that opened up in the yard of a home at 253 Park Circle S."

The Florida Insurance Department is nervous about all these sinkholes appearing: "Starting this month, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation is going to begin surveying Florida property insurers about their experience with sinkhole claims, in an effort to get to the bottom of the simmering controversy over whether there really are more sinkholes in the Sunshine State these days. ... the number of sinkhole claims being made appear to be rising in a dramatic fashion. Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state's second largest multi-peril home insurer, told a state Senate committee during a hearing on the sinkhole issue that the number of claims being made to the company has more than doubled since 2005."

Source: here, and here. Not the new sinkhole reported on above. Just an example of a past FL sinkhole.
I wrote an essay about sinkholes in July 2010, "Is the earth cracking up?" I followed it up three days later with another essay because more sinkholes had opened up in the interim. I addressed the issue a month later, here, and again last week. Actually, I've been reporting in the earth cracks many, many times. If you search the box at the top right of the blog with the word sinkholes, you will get 4 pages of results. I believe there is biblical precedent explaining the increase of sinkholes, and I do believe the earth is cracking up. It will continue to do so until it is destroyed and then renewed as described in 2 Peter 3:10-12 and a new earth (and a new heavens) is formed as described in Rev 21:1. It was nice to see a definitive, quantitative number, though, from the FL Dept of Insurance. It feels like the number of sinkholes are increasing, but seeing some data helps keep us on track with an orderly calm and a presence of mind, rather than going off like a half-cocked gun saying the sky is falling and wringing our hands and over-reliance on feelings.

The pace of the warnings from God (the birth pangs) is definitely increasing, as birth pangs do before the big event. In the bible, the birth pains phrase are used frequently as an illustration of how the Lord will operate in a particular situation or era. In 1 Thess it is written: "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." (verse 5:3). A woman knows the general timeframe in which she will give birth, and that does not vary. Nine months is the gestation period. But she could give birth two weeks late or two weeks early. It is not known exactly when, only the timeframe.

Other examples of the bible's use of the birth pangs allusion include, "The heart of the warriors of Moab shall be in that day like the heart of a woman in her birth pains" (Jer 48:41); "pains of a woman in childbirth will come on him: he is an unwise son," (Hos 13:13); "They will be terrified, Pains and anguish will take hold of them; They will writhe like a woman in labor ... They'll writhe like a woman giving birth to a child." (Isaiah 13:8).

Not only the physical pain of childbirth is described, but the emotions that accompany it. Fear, uncertainty, terror, helplessness, and awe at this painful, bloody process that brings about new life.

Do not sink in the sinkhole! Stay lifted up as you lift up His name, He who is in control of it all!


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