Are there always survivors after every catastrophe?
Yes. The teaching emphasizes that regardless of the catastrophe people endure, there are always some survivors. Examples include a woman who survived Hiroshima and people found alive after the San Francisco freeway collapse. At the end of the tribulation, survivors will be scattered across the planet from every nation.
Les teaches that no matter what kind of catastrophe people go through, there are always some survivors. He illustrates with the Hiroshima bombing, where a woman working in a library was buried by books that insulated her from the heat flash and radioactivity; she was totally burned but survived. He also points to the San Francisco earthquake when the freeway collapsed, and workers frantically lifting concrete found survivors. Les applies this to the end of the tribulation, saying survivors will be scattered around the planet from every nation. He then has his classes consider what “a few” means, suggesting less than five percent of the world’s five billion people, though he lets them choose their own figure or percentage.