See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”
Hebrews 12:25-29
If you have ever experienced an earthquake, you will never forget it. Although our planet is constantly spinning (about 1000 miles an hour at the equator) and rotating around the sun (at about 67,000 mph, 19 miles per second), gravity helps us to feel secure until the ground under our feet begins to move in ways that we can feel. I have only experienced minor quakes. But I remember them. I also remember my grandmother who in her nineties enjoyed telling the story of how the great Charleston earthquake of 1886 shook her family home in upper SC just below Charlotte. She was only 12 at the time and she and her siblings, along with their mother, ran terrified out of the house. “Mama was lying in the bed, feeling too weak to get up. But when the house continued to shake, Papa said, ‘This is an earthquake…’ and Mama hopped up, and ran out, bare feet, nightgown and all.”
Every day the earth is shaking. According to the National Earthquake Information Center, about 20,000 earthquakes occur each year (about 55 per day). Only an average of 16 per year are considered major and certain areas are more prone to greater frequency and severity.
The Bible tells us that there is a great shaking that God will bring about one day that will not be a natural phenomenon. It will be a supernatural judgement by the Creator, Owner and Ruler of the universe. Apparently, this will not be the first time that God has done this to the planet. Haggai records, “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land’” [2:6].
We see glimpses of this truth in Genesis 1:1-2 –
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
and Jeremiah 4:23-25 –
I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty;
and at the heavens, and their light was gone.
I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking;
all the hills were swaying.
I looked, and there were no people;
every bird in the sky had flown away.
The shaking that is coming is not going to be on a scale that the news can report it. The whole world’s infrastructure will collapse. People who have spent a fortune trying to secure their safety but neglecting the only way of salvation will realize they lived as fools. The only safety, the only escape, the only refuge, is in Christ Jesus. When God shakes the heavens and the earth there will be no other safe place, even on Mars.
