Coincidence, or a sign from God?
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More than a month after Hurricane Helene devastated wide swathes of the Gulf Coast and Appalachia, Americans are still counting the costs, both in dollar terms and, especially, in the number of dead and missing.
In the weeks since the catastrophe, intriguing accounts have begun filtering out of the impact zone; reports of a strange phenomenon in which Bibles were mysteriously – some would say, miraculously – preserved from destruction and, in some cases, found opened to eerily pertinent passages.
A SIGN OF HOPE
One fascinating case was reported in the eastern Tennessee town of Jonesborough. As Helene tore through the historic Appalachian settlement, it obliterated Enon Baptist Church, home to a flourishing congregation that has grown seven-fold in just the past three years.
"We're looking at a total loss, there's no doubt about that," pastor Keith Malone explained. "The inside of our sanctuary looks like clothes that have been in a washing machine. Our pews were stacked on top of each other, flipped up on their ends or completely upside down. Just total devastation."
And yet, following the hurricane, a sign of hope emerged from the ruins of Enon Baptist Church.
Once the storm had passed, Malone headed to the church to survey the damage. "When I got into the sanctuary on Saturday afternoon," he recalled, "we saw that our communion table that sits right in front of the pulpit had shifted all the way across the room – but the table was sitting straight up and the Bible was still on the table. It had not moved."
"I told one of our youth, hey, we need to get the Bible and get it out of here," the pastor continued. "I figured it was destroyed, but I still wanted to keep it. But when the other guys got over there to it, they yelled over to me, 'Hey, this Bible is not even wet!'"
Malone was stunned. Reaching for the book to examine its condition himself, he found that the young men were were right – though Helene had drowned the sanctuary in nine feet of water just hours before, the Bible was completely dry. What's more, the pastor discovered that not only had the holy book been preserved from the floodwaters – it had been blown open by the wind, to the 49th chapter of Isaiah.
RESTORATION FOLLOWS REPENTANCE
Isaiah 49 dates from the time of the Babylonian exile, when, owing to Israel's wickedness, God had allowed the nation to be overthrown, and its people expelled – banished into captivity in pagan Babylon.
Brought low by His wrath, the Israelites turned back to God. Seeing His people's repentance, His heart softened; hearing their cries, He promised to restore them to their land, and to bless them as never before.
Isaiah 49 describes the expiation of Israel's sin, and the blessings God vowed would follow:
"Thus says the Lord: In a time of favor I answer you, on the day of salvation I help you; I form you and set you as a covenant for the people, to restore the land and allot the devastated heritages, to say to the prisoners: Come out! To those in darkness: Show yourselves! Along the roadways they shall find pasture, on every barren height shall their pastures be. They shall not hunger or thirst; nor shall scorching wind or sun strike them; for He who pities them leads them and guides them beside springs of water ... for the Lord comforts His people and shows mercy to His afflicted.
Though you were waste and desolate, a land of ruins, now you shall be too narrow for your inhabitants, while those who swallowed you up will be far away. ... Then you shall know that I am the Lord, none who hope in Me shall be ashamed."
God kept His promise. Seventy years after the Israelites were driven into exile, Babylon fell to Persia; its conqueror, Cyrus the Great, freed the Jewish captives, allowing them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Holy Temple.
'TRUST HIM'
Inspired by this account – by Israel's return to the Promised Land and its rebuilding of the temple – Malone is determined to restore, and even expand, his church.
"We're going to pick ourselves up," the pastor vowed, "and get back to the business of God."
Fueling his eagerness to work is the phenomenon of the sanctuary Bible – its mysterious preservation amid nine feet of swirling floodwater, and its opening to Isaiah 49.
"That was God's way of reassuring us that He is here with us and He's going to sustain us through it all," said Malone.
"We've just got to trust Him," he added.
Malone is not alone in his belief that God is speaking through the phenomenon of the Enon church Bible.
Indeed, many see the hand of God at work here – not least because the phenomenon is not isolated to Jonesborough. Again, across Hurricane Helene's titanic path of destruction, accounts are emerging of Bibles being found mysteriously preserved or opened to curiously apropos passages.
'BONE DRY'
In the hurricane's aftermath, Florida resident Shae Brown returned to her St. Petersburg home to find that it had been flooded by the storm.
Though dismayed by the massive task of clearing sodden furnishings, Brown rolled up her sleeves and got to work. During cleanup, she had what she believes was an encounter with Divine Providence.
As she was sorting through her possessions in search of what might be salvageable, Brown discovered that the Bible she kept at the bottom of her entertainment center – which had been submerged by floodwater – had been perfectly preserved.
Amazed, she took to social media to share the phenomenon, hoping to encourage others.
"Our Bible was BONE DRY," Brown testified. "Jesus works in mysterious ways."
UNTOUCHABLE
250 miles to the north, Cindy Cole of Nashville, Georgia, had no idea how severe Helene would be when it slammed into her town on the night of Sept. 26. In fact, she was so unconcerned that she went to bed and was sound asleep by the time the storm began moving into southern Georgia.
Suddenly, however, Cole awakened with a start. Immediately, she noticed that the electricity had gone out. Then, she noticed something else.
As she later described it, a voice told her to flee her bedroom.
"I had this little voice that kept saying, 'Get up! Go to another room in your house,'" Cole recalled. When she hesitated, the prompting came again, and then again. Indeed, it persisted until she rose from bed and retreated deeper into her house, just as Helene began tearing Nashville apart. Five minutes after leaving her bedroom, a neighbor's tree toppled onto Cole's house, crashing through the roof and crushing her bed.
Grateful to be alive, she later reflected, "I'm thinking it was the Lord telling me to move to another room."
Helene annihilated Cole's house. Emerging from her hiding place after the storm passed, she was greeted with splintered walls, collapsed ceilings, and overturned furniture. As she scanned the ruins, however, she noticed something else.
Perched atop a dresser was Cole's Bible – standing upright, on display, just as she had left it. Though the hurricane had shredded her house and thrown most of her furnishings about, Cole's Bible remained untouched.
"When I first saw the Bible, I'm like, 'Oh, look! I cannot believe that the Bible's still standing,'" she told a reporter.
"You cannot touch the word of the Lord," Cole added. "You cannot touch it."
HUMBLED THROUGH HARDSHIP
Further north, rescuers digging through the rubble of Glen Ayre, North Carolina, found a Bible opened to Psalm 107, which proclaims God the Savior of those who are in distress.
The psalm begins with an exhortation: "'Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His mercy endures forever!' Let that be the prayer of the Lord's redeemed, those redeemed from the hand of the foe."
Psalm 107 goes on to describe God punishing sinners for their wickedness, and delivering them from affliction once they turned back to Him:
"Some lived in darkness and gloom, imprisoned in misery and chains. Because they rebelled against God's word, and scorned the counsel of the Most High, He humbled their hearts through hardship; they stumbled with no one to help. In their distress they cried to the Lord, Who saved them in their peril; He brought them forth from darkness and the shadow of death and broke their chains asunder. Let them thank the Lord for His mercy, such wondrous deeds for the children of Adam.
Some fell sick from their wicked ways, afflicted because of their sins ... In their distress they cried to the Lord, Who saved them in their peril, sent forth His word to heal them, and snatched them from the grave. Let them thank the Lord for His mercy, such wondrous deeds for the children of Adam. Let them offer a sacrifice in thanks, recount His works with shouts of joy."
Continuing, Psalm 107 affirms that in the face of adversity, total reliance on God is required.
Eerily, it illustrates this lesson by describing the effects of a monstrous storm:
"They saw the works of the Lord, the wonders of God in the deep. He commanded and roused a storm wind; it tossed the waves on high ... their hearts trembled at the danger. They reeled, staggered like drunkards; their skill was of no avail. In their distress they cried to the Lord, Who brought them out of their peril; He hushed the storm to silence, the waves of the sea were stilled. They rejoiced that the sea grew calm, that God brought them to the harbor they longed for. Let them thank the Lord for His mercy, such wondrous deeds for the children of Adam. Let them extol Him in the assembly of the people, and praise Him in the council of the elders."
Psalm 107 concludes by reiterating that God chastises His people when they stray from Him.
"God changed rivers into desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the wickedness of its people," it declares.
But, it also reaffirms that once sinners repent of their evil, God lovingly showers blessings upon them:
"He changed the desert into pools of water, arid land into springs of water, and settled the hungry there; they built a city to live in. They sowed fields and planted vineyards, brought in an abundant harvest. God blessed them, and they increased greatly, and their livestock did not decrease. But He poured out contempt on princes, made them wander trackless wastes, where they were diminished and brought low through misery and cruel oppression. While He released the poor man from affliction, and increased their families like flocks. The upright saw this and rejoiced; all wickedness shut its mouth. Whoever is wise will take note of these things, and ponder the merciful deeds of the Lord."
'YOU SHALL NOT FEAR'
Florida resident Amy Perry returned to Ruskin, along the eastern shore of Tampa Bay, to find her home ravaged by Helene.
Amid the ruins, however, she discovered what she considers a sign of hope: her Bible, opened to Psalm 91, which speaks of God's protection for His faithful.
Psalm 91 opens by exhorting believers, "You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shade of the Almighty, say to the Lord, 'My refuge and fortress, my God in whom I trust.'"
The psalm then outlines God's promise to deliver from His wrath those who truly love Him: "He will rescue you from the fowler's snare, from the destroying plague; He will shelter you with His pinions, and under His wings you may take refuge; His faithfulness is a protecting shield."
Continuing, Psalm 91 exhorts God's faithful to trust Him, reiterating that, no matter what catastrophes they behold unfolding around them, they will be preserved, owing to their fidelity to Him:
"You shall not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that roams in darkness, nor the plague that ravages at noon.
Though a thousand fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, near you it shall not come.
You need simply watch; the punishment of the wicked you will see.
Because you have the Lord for your refuge and have made the Most High your stronghold, no evil shall befall you, no affliction come near your tent."
Psalm 91 closes with a promise of deliverance, uttered directly by God Himself, for His faithful: "Because he clings to me I will deliver him; because he knows My name I will set him on high. He will call upon Me and I will answer; I will be with him in distress; I will deliver him and give him honor. With length of days I will satisfy him, and fill him with My saving power."
AN OMINOUS TAKEAWAY
If indeed providential, rather than coincidental, the discovery of Bibles opened to such passages is bittersweet.
Sweet, as the scriptures spotlighted are especially pertinent to residents of hurricane-ravaged stretches of America, and to US Christians as a whole. They offer encouragement that God is with His people, no matter how bleak things may seem in Helene's aftermath – or amid any trial, for that matter.
Bitter, because the passages also point to God's wrath upon a people who have turned away from Him and fallen into depravity. In short, they are an indictment of America. They suggest that darker times may be ahead for the United States – suffering on an even greater scale – if the country refuses to repent of its sins.
Among all the mysterious "Bible" cases reported in the wake of Hurricane Helene, one seems to have sparked more buzz on social media than any other. And – again, if this phenomenon is providential, not coincidental – this is unsurprising, considering the ominous takeaway.
In the tiny North Carolina hamlet of Old Fort, just east of Asheville, a group of volunteers banded together, post-Helene, to help residents whose homes had been ravaged by the hurricane. What they found at one house during cleanup stopped them – as well as tens of thousands of others who later saw the story online – dead in their tracks.
At the height of the storm in Old Fort, Helene's floodwaters rose so high that the owner of 12 South Mauney Avenue was forced to climb onto his roof to escape drowning. Thankfully, the man's brother was able to rescue him, via boat, before he was swept away.
Once the waters receded, a team of Good Samaritans, including the homeowner's brother, joined together to begin gutting the ruined house. As they set to work, however, they made an unsettling discovery: Wedged onto a fencepost along the home's property line was a book – a Bible, splayed open to Revelation 14-16.
Stunned, several team members took to social media to document the phenomenon.
"Once everything was done," the homeowner's brother explained, "we noticed something that's kind of crazy, but it really opens your eyes ... this Bible was stuck on this fencepost, open to Revelation. Of all the things destroyed, that was left open, and it's settin' there, and we're not touching it, so, if that's not a message, somebody needs to wake up."
As the homeowner's brother was recording, another volunteer began compiling his own message. "This Bible was found after the flood from Hurricane Helene," he said, "and it is on Revelation 14 and 15 [and 16]."
Panning around, he continued: "This house was buried and flooded all the way to the roof, originally. The man that lived here had to be rescued off of the roof by a raft, and they're just emptying it, just demoing the entire house, and this Bible was found, on a pole, open to Revelation."
"What is absolutely crazy, right now," said yet another volunteer at the site, "is that a Bible washed up onto a post, and it is open to the Book of Revelation."
"This is where the Bible washed up," she explained, panning in for a close-up, "and this is where it has stayed – no one has touched it."
It wasn't just the fact that a Bible somehow had been thrust, open-faced, onto a fencepost during the deluge that electrified observant Christians among the cleanup crew. It was what the Bible was open to – the passages displayed – that captured their attention, and that of many others.
Chapters 14-16 of Revelation – or, as it is also known, the Book of the Apocalypse – are some of the most fascinating, and foreboding, passages in all of Scripture. They foretell the end of an age, marked by the unleashing of God's wrath upon the earth.
'HIS TIME HAS COME TO SIT IN JUDGMENT'
Penned by St. John the Apostle, Revelation 14 describes Christ standing atop Mount Zion, surrounded by followers who are untainted by wickedness, as angels issue a "final call" of sorts to the earth's inhabitants, warning them to repent before God's wrath destroys 'Babylon the Great' – an embodiment of evil – and consumes the world.
"I looked and there was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion," St. John begins the chapter, "and with Him ... the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They have been ransomed as the first fruits of the human race for God and the Lamb ... they are unblemished."
"Then I saw another angel flying high overhead, with everlasting good news to announce to those who dwell on earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people," Revelation 14 continues. "He said in a loud voice, 'Fear God and give Him glory, for His time has come to sit in judgment. Worship Him who made heaven and earth and sea and springs of water.'"
"A second angel followed, saying: 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great, that made all the nations drink the wine of her licentious passion.'"
Saint John then describes a third angel, warning, "Anyone who worships the beast or its image, or accepts its mark on forehead or hand, will also drink the wine of God's fury, poured full strength into the cup of His wrath, and will be tormented in burning sulfur before the holy angels and before the Lamb. The smoke of the fire that torments them will rise forever and ever, and there will be no relief day or night for those who worship the beast or its image or accept the mark of its name."
SEVEN ANGELS, SEVEN PLAGUES
In Revelation 15, St. John records additional prophecies – visions of angels preparing to unleash judgment upon an unrepentant earth, and of the faithful singing praises to God for their redemption:
"I saw in heaven another sign, great and awe-inspiring: seven angels with the seven last plagues, for through them God's fury is accomplished.
Then I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire. On the sea of glass were standing those who had won the victory over the beast and its image and the number that signified its name. They were holding God's harps, and they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb ...
After this I had another vision. The temple that is the heavenly tent of testimony opened, and the seven angels with the seven plagues came out of the temple. ... One of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven gold bowls filled with the fury of God, Who lives forever and ever. Then the temple became so filled with the smoke from God's glory and might that no one could enter it until the seven plagues of the seven angels had been accomplished."
FURY UNLEASHED
In Revelation 16, St. John chronicles the tribulations that befall man as God's wrath is fully unleashed upon the world.
"I heard a loud voice speaking from the temple to the seven angels, 'Go and pour out the seven bowls of God's fury upon the earth'," he writes, before recapitulating these chastisements in greater detail:
"The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth. Festering and ugly sores broke out on those who had the mark of the beast or worshiped its image.
The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea. The sea turned to blood like that from a corpse; every creature living in the sea died.
The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water. These also turned to blood. Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say: 'You are just, O Holy One, Who are and Who were, in passing this sentence. For they have shed the blood of the holy ones and the prophets, and You [have] given them blood to drink; it is what they deserve.'
The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun. It was given the power to burn people with fire. People were burned by the scorching heat and blasphemed the name of God who had power over these plagues, but they did not repent or give Him glory.
The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast. Its kingdom was plunged into darkness, and people bit their tongues in pain and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and sores. But they did not repent of their works.
The sixth angel emptied his bowl on the great river Euphrates. Its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings of the East. I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come from the mouth of the dragon, from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet. These were demonic spirits who performed signs. They went out to the kings of the whole world to assemble them for the battle on the great day of God the Almighty. ('Behold, I am coming like a thief.' Blessed is the one who watches and keeps his clothes ready, so that he may not go naked and people see him exposed.) They then assembled the kings in the place that is named Armageddon in Hebrew.
The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. A loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, 'It is done.' Then there were lightning flashes, rumblings, and peals of thunder, and a great earthquake. It was such a violent earthquake that there has never been one like it since the human race began on earth. The great city was split into three parts, and the gentile cities fell. But God remembered great Babylon, giving it the cup filled with the wine of His fury and wrath. Every island fled, and mountains disappeared. Large hailstones like huge weights came down from the sky on people, and they blasphemed God for the plague of hail because this plague was so severe."
Intriguingly, both Revelation 14 and Revelation 16 speak of the destruction of 'Babylon the Great', a luxuriant, fleshly abode of evil whose collapse drives the world's political and economic elite into despair – an account described more fully in Revelation 18:
"Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great. She has become a haunt for demons. She is a cage for every unclean spirit, a cage for every unclean and disgusting beast. For all the nations have drunk the wine of her licentious passion. The kings of the earth had intercourse with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her drive for luxury.
The kings of the earth who had intercourse with her in their wantonness will weep and mourn over her when they see the smoke of her pyre. They will keep their distance for fear of the torment inflicted on her, and they will say: 'Alas, alas, great city, Babylon, mighty city. In one hour your judgment has come.'
The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn for her, because there will be no more markets for their cargo ... The merchants who deal in these goods, who grew rich from her, will keep their distance for fear of the torment inflicted on her. Weeping and mourning, they cry out: 'Alas, alas, great city, wearing fine linen, purple and scarlet, adorned [in] gold, precious stones, and pearls. In one hour this great wealth has been ruined.'"
Various interpretations of 'Babylon the Great' have been floated throughout the centuries. Some suggest that St. John's prophecy foretold the collapse of ancient Rome. Others speculate that it describes the destruction of the United States, or perhaps the overarching world order that predominates today. Still others maintain that it pertains to the godless inhabitants of earth as a whole.
Whatever the case, Christians are warned to flee 'Babylon' so as to remain untainted by its wickedness: "Depart from her, my people, so as not to take part in her sins and receive a share in her plagues, for her sins are piled up to the sky, and God remembers her crimes."
Likewise, the strange, post-Helene phenomenon of Bibles being found mysteriously preserved or opened to particularly fitting passages – whether this is providential, or merely coincidental, the fact remains that followers of Christ must remain steadfast in their walk with Him, in spite of the tsunami of evil that is increasingly enveloping the world.
As Revelation 16 reminds us, Our Lord warns, "Behold, I am coming like a thief," and that "Blessed is the one who watches and keeps his clothes ready, so that he may not go naked and people see him exposed."
BE READY
Jesus tells His disciples in Luke 12:39-40: "Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come."
Saint Luke follows by recording Our Lord's haunting warning:
"Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute [the] food allowance at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so. Truly, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.
But if that servant says to himself, 'My master is delayed in coming,' and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk, then that servant's master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful.
That servant who knew his master's will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely ... Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more" (Luke 12:42-48).
For decades, in spite of our deepening sin, the United States was under the umbrella of God's Mercy, shielded from His wrath. This protection, however, seems to have begun dissipating in the early years of the 21st century, with 9/11 marking an especially pronounced point of departure. Since then, the state of our nation has deteriorated markedly.
Today, the tattered remains of the umbrella of Mercy still offer us a measure of protection, but we now appear to be on the cusp of catastrophe; if we persist in clinging to our sin, Mercy will be withdrawn and supplanted by Judgment, and we will enter a season of suffering unparalleled in the history of our country.
God's Mercy does not allow His children to take advantage of Him. His Mercy does not mean He is carelessly indulgent or excessively lenient. His Mercy does not allow for us to presume that we may choose to live in sin simply because God, in His Mercy, forgives.
God's Mercy requires us to strive for discipline, to master Self. Our duty – difficult though it is – is to build a disciplined, holy life, aided by grace. If we are always striving, then whenever we may stumble, God will forgive us and lift us up to resume our trek onward and upward.
But to believe that we may live life choosing sin simply because God is merciful – this is a diabolical deception. It is also an insult to God's grace.
Romans 12:19 tells us, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord."
In addition to striving, ourselves, we must pray for those who are so deceived – there are many of them among us in the United States and, indeed, inside the Church, today.
They – and we – need endurance to do God's Will. If the post-Helene phenomenon described in this article is, in fact, providential, then it seems that God's Mercy may soon give way to His Judgment. Woe to any of us who believes His Mercy allows us to take advantage of Him – to presume upon Him. Left unchecked, this will incur the penalty of eternal ruin, separated from His Presence.
When Christ walked the earth, He rested with Lazarus, Martha and Mary. Let Him rest, now, in us. As a myriad of our countrymen begin to rebuild their hurricane-shattered houses, let every American construct a new, resplendent home for Christ within our hearts. Let us be rich and generous in lavishing our love upon Him – through obedience, adoration and trust. Let us serve Him with joy and longing for His Presence. Let Him delight in us – in lives honed by discipline into holiness. He suffered and died for us; therefore, let us ensure, through our striving, that our souls find their final rest in Him, in heaven.
Whatever may be in store for the United States, each of us, at an individual level, needs to be ready. If we're not ready, then let's get ready – and stay ready – to enter eternity.
Writer, editor and producer Stephen Wynne has spent the past seven years covering, from a Catholic perspective, the latest developments in the Church, the nation and the world. Prior to his work in journalism, he spent eight years co-authoring “Repairing the Breach,” a book examining the war of worldviews between Christianity and Darwinism. A Show-Me State native, he holds a BA in Creative Writing from Pepperdine University and an Executive MBA from the Bloch School of Business at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.