Looking at the titles of this and the previous blog, you might already be seeing a familiar pattern. So far we have war and famine, and if I tell you that another of the five on the Jehovah's Witnesses list is pestilence, and yet another is a list of deaths caused by earthquakes, what have we got? War, Famine, Pestilence and Death - do my eyes deceive me or are those the names of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

Yes indeed the Jovos have latched onto the weird ramblings of the drug-addled mind who wrote the book of Revelation (see this excellent documentary: The Doomsday Code), then looked back through the teachings of Jesus and pulled out half a dozen so-called 'signs' to support it. These riders are much like the ring-wraiths in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and of course equally fictional - the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse similarly appear in a work of fantasy.

So let's see what the 'Will this world survive?' leaflet has to say about famine:

2. There will be food shortages (Matthew 24:7) (Note: That's a prophecy?! A bit short isn't it?!)
   Following World War I came perhaps the greatest famine in all history. Terrible famine also followed World War II. A scourge of malnutrition affects up to one fifth of earth's population, killing some 14 million children every year. Truly, there have been "food shortages"!

Again, as per the 'war' scenarios of the first part of the leaflet, I find it strange that the Jovos focus only on famines which occurred after World War I. Are we seriously to believe that before 1914 there were no food shortages whatsoever in any historical period? Look here and you'll see 'In Sudan the year 1888 is remembered as the worst famine in history'. So immediately the JW statement that a post WWI famine was 'the greatest famine in all history' is opposed.

Here's a list of some major historical famines, which all occurred before the 20th century:

• Ireland - 1845-1852
  In The Great Hunger (aka The Irish Potato Famine), the population of Ireland was reduced by 20 to 25 percent when a potato disease caused the catastrophic collapse of the potato crop. But note that the article to which I link also describes many earlier crop failures.

• Ethiopia - 1888-1892
  A famine caused by epizootic rinderpest, drought, smallpox and war led to the deaths of one-third of the country's population.

• China - 108 BC through to 1911
  A long period of time, during which a massive 1828 famines are recorded. One, in 1333-1337, killed 6 million Chinese, and this article notes that 'The four famines of 1810, 1811, 1846, and 1849 are said to have killed not less than 45,000,000 people.'

• India - 1702-1704
  Famine in Deccan killed at least 2 million people. Later, there were 'approximately 25 major famines spread through states such as Tamil Nadu in the south, and Bihar and Bengal in the east during the latter half of the 19th century.'

• Europe - 1315-1317
  Any famine given the name The Great Famine of 1315-1317 is probably going to be something of a major event. Once again, millions died.

Staying with the period of time around that last famine, remember from the previous article that the Hundred Years' War began shortly afterwards (1337)? Unfortunately for the people around at the time, so did the Black Death (1347 onwards - I'll deal with this in a future article), so anyone living in 14th century Europe would see far, far more 'signs' than we see today. Surely the 14th century would have been much more likely candidate for 'the end of the world'. Did it actually end? No, we're still here, more than 600 years later.

It's obvious that famines are nothing new. Whatever the cause - weather, disease, or some other natural disaster - as long as there have been people needing food, there have been times when the amount of food just wasn't enough. Result: famine - people died. So the only thing the Jehovah's Witnesses have to cling to is their assertion that famines are getting worse - more people are dying. And as with their war argument, this is an entirely false premise. Of course more people die when there is a famine. And why? Because there are simply more people alive to die.

Look again at the so-called 'sign'. All it says is 'there will be food shortages'. Here's my prediction: next year, and every year until the end of time, somewhere in the world there will NOT be food shortages. And somewhere in the world there WILL be food shortages. Does either one tell us the world is ending? No, it tells us that there are different natural, social and economic conditions for different people in different parts of the world. It doesn't take a genius, and certainly not the son of a god, to work that one out.

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Coming next:
Next, the Jovos assume that more earthquakes are happening, and more people are dying in each one. As you can tell, their silly number games continue unabated.

Meanwhile, I found this collection of short articles, including some information about famine and the Four Horsemen, which may interest you: Consistently Inconsistent!. Indeed the whole site, JW Files, tears apart the 'end of days' arguments of the Jehovah's Witnesses, and I found this image from Awake! (one of the official JW publications) particularly amusing:

Note the underlined text:

Most important, this magazine builds confidence in the Creator's promise of a peaceful and secure new world before the generation that saw the events of 1914 passes away.

Er, guys, we're still waiting. 94 years and counting. And doesn't that sound a little like Matthew 16:28?

Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

Again, still waiting. And in both cases: not going to happen.