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About 20,000 residents are under mandatory evacuation orders as a Southern California fire -- which authorities say was set intentionally -- spread this week.

The Holy Fire started Monday in the Cleveland National Forest and has so far destroyed 12 structures, according to fire authorities.

A man has been arrested in connection with the fire that is wreaking havoc near the border between Orange and Riverside counties, which are among the most populous counties in California.

The Holy Fire has burned 6,200 acres and is 5% contained.

Although it's not the largest fire burning in the state, there are growing concerns about how it could affect residential communities -- including Lake Elsinore. Some small communities in Riverside County are under mandatory evacuation orders affecting about 7,000 residential structures, according to authorities.

Read more: Southern California fire puts 20,000 people under evacuation orders

California: A repeat of Sodom and Gomorrah?

Wildfires continued to ravage Southern California for a fifth day Friday, with growing blazes and new fires sending rivers of flames through communities and injuring several people.

The largest of the fires spread across more than 200 square miles by Friday morning and crept toward the college town of Santa Barbara, while a new blaze in San Diego County grew quickly and dangerously, forcing a new round of evacuations.

These dangers came as firefighters confronted a half-dozen blazes across the region, fires that imperiled communities and homes, burned through streets and roared over mountains, forcing many to flee and leaving them with no idea when they could return home or if they would have anything to return to. Hundreds of buildings were destroyed and thousands more remained in danger, officials said.

The San Diego County blaze, dubbed the Lilac Fire, started Thursday morning and grew to more than 4,000 acres by that night. Ron Lane, the county’s deputy chief administrative officer, said it had never experienced December winds like these before.

The Lilac blaze destroyed at least 20 buildings, and three people suffered burns, according to county officials. Another person was injured by smoke inhalation, while two firefighters combating the blaze were injured. Authorities ordered a wave of evacuations and said more could follow.

Note by EU-Digest:  The fires in California, tropical storms, floods and other calamities, including political chaos.

The US must feel like it had more than its share of bad news, as this year comes to a close. It does raise the question, at least with some, as to why this is happening?  For people who are familiar with the Holy Bible - Genesis 19, it seems there are now many similarities and parallels between America and the ancient city of Sodom. 

Indeed it is interesting to note that all the things that in the past would be cause for great shame, embarrassment and personal humiliation in a morally healthy society, are now done with no sense of shame or embarrassment in today's society.  

Personal morality is of fundamental importance to a society. A building is only as good as the material it is built with.The people of a society are the fundamental building blocks of a society.
All of the institutions of a society are composed of people. 

Institutions are structures consisting of people. \\

The institutions are only as good as the people who make them up. Government from the national level down to the local level, the legal system, the school system, the health system, the police system, the military. Corporate and personal businesses.

People have become acclimated to a climate of wickedness and depravity. They like all the moral permissiveness. It suits them. They are comfortable with it. It gives them license and freedom. 

Freedom to do whatever they wish. They are so comfortable with their environment that they are no longer able to distinguish between right and wrong. Anyone who objects to their depraved ways is either seen as a radical, a lunatic, or a crazy nut.

The Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah illustrates a very important fact: 

The Holy Bible is not a broad-minded, tolerant book.It is, in a sense, a very narrow-minded, intolerant book. 

God is a God of righteousness who is patient but not infinitely patient. This is illustrated by the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, also by the story of Noah and the flood, and many other stories.

Christ showed anger and righteous indignation on certain occasions. God  certainly has love and mercy for the penitent sinner and the person who loves and serves him but he can be very severe with the unrepentant.

It might be a good thing to keep the above in mind when we are struck by calamities,  either our own,  or by disasters, like the present fires in California. 

 
Read more:  Southern California ‘like a war zone’ as raging wildfires grow