Posted in cumbre vieja, el hierro, end of days, iran, prophecy, volcano

Friday This and That

Confused about prophetic end time events? This 7-part video series, 10 min each, is scripturally accurate and enlightening. Prepare to be educated AND convicted. “The End Time

Earthquakes this week, 6.1 mag in Russia far east // 6.7 in Papua New Guinea as per United States Geological survey. All eyes are on the volcano at El Hierro, though, which presents a more interesting seismic dilemma. As Professor Erik Klemetti said on his eruptions blog in the essay “Update on the Submarine Eruptions at El Hierro” he wrote that it was “the first eruption in the Canaries in 40 years and the first at El Hierro in possibly 2500 years. After months of preamble, it now looks like two eruptions occurred, both submarine, in depths of a few hundred meters.” What makes this especially interesting is that the island is near the other island in the Canaries chain, La Palma, on which is the infamous Cumbre Vieja volcano. These subsea eruptions are really interesting because of the geologic forecast at nearby Cumbre Vieja. Cumbre Vieja is currently the most volcanically active of the Canary Isles. During the 1949 eruption, three vents—Duraznero, San Juan and Hoyo Negro—opened and lava was erupted. Also during the eruption two earthquakes occurred with epicentres near Jedey. Following the earthquakes a fracture approximately two and half kilometres long, about 1/10 of the exposed length of the Cumbre Vieja, opened and parts of the western half of the Cumbre Vieja ridge moved about 1 metre sideways and 2 metres downwards towards the Atlantic Ocean. (source)

Several geologists have hypothesized that during an eruption at Cumbre Vieja at some future time, the western half of the Cumbre Vieja will catastrophically fail in a massive gravitational landslide and enter the Atlantic Ocean, generating a ‘mega-tsunami’ wiping out the eastern seaboard of the US. A BBC documentary called End Day and a Time Magazine article both followed up on the hypothesis.

With the volcanic eruptions and the seismic activity at the adjacent island, and the attendant rare subsea quakes this week at Bermuda and Iceland, interest in the Cumbre Vieja mega-tsunami hypothesis have picked up again. From a biblical point of view, I personally find this interesting because at some point the judgments will include a quake so bad that all the islands flee away. (Rev 16:20). More specifically, in Revelation 8:8-9 we are told this will happen: “The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.” A lava-flowing volcanic eruption at Cumbre Vieja could fit that description of a ‘mountain, all ablaze’, sliding into the sea, causing a third of the ships to sink in the resultant mega-tsunami.

In still other volcanic news, Iceland Volcano Katla Sparks Fears of Travel Chaos. Remember last year the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted and Russian, European and American air travel ground to a  halt? Well, Katla is worse.

The news reports this week that there is only one Jewish person left in Afghanistan, according to the US State Department.

Science thinks it has figured out a computer program to tell us who wrote the Torah. And it ain’t Moses. “Ghostwriting the Torah.”

Iran and the US broke off diplomatic relations after the revolution of 1979 and currently talk minimally between the mediator of Pakistan. However, the recent plot by the Iranian Quds Guard fomented in Mexico to assassinate the Saudi ambassador on US soil was revealed this week. It is a dangerous escalation of the tensions in the Middle East and here on our own soil, and so the US Administration considers it an act of terrorism. The two nations took the unusual step this week of meeting to talk about it face to face. Remember, Iran is a major military aggressor in attacking Israel in the last days as Ezekiel 38-39 show.

The economic outlook isn’t much better as we closed on the fourth quarter. Bloomberg is reporting that more than dozen banks may get downgraded. UBS AG, Lloyds Banking Group Plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc had long-term issuer default grades cut by Fitch Ratings, which put more than a dozen other lenders on watch negative as part of a global review. revelation 13:1`5-17 shows that at the time of the tribulation the economy is completely revamped and managed by one person: the antichrist.

This was a very thought provoking essay on “How Steve Jobs and Christ defeated death and preached the gospel.

Want some good news? As a girl was finishing top placement in her spelling bee, her soldier dad walks in, surprising her from Afghanistan. Heartwarming. With video.

Like cats? Here is a short video of funny cats in water.

Like earth’s beauty in reverence to our Creator? See 60 stunning satellite photos of the earth.

Have a good weekend everyone. I hope you find yourself a good and solid bible believing church to attend, and there, can praise the Savior with all joy.

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4e8f22d468013109

http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share

Posted in bible, edom, end of days, jesus, jordan, petra, prophecy, tribulation

Obadiah’s future prophecy regarding Jordan

Obadiah is the shortest book in the OT and the least is known about its author. Obadiah was a very common name in those days, and so was its nickname, Obed. Obadiah is a minor prophet but his words were nonetheless striking and powerful.

Through the words the LORD told the prophets to say, we can see clearly that the prophets, minor and major, spoke to all the nations. The prophets were not just speaking to Israel or Judah, they spoke to Edom (Obadiah), to Nineveh (Nahum and Jonah), to the Gentile nations (Zephaniah.) This shows us that God is the God of all nations and peoples.

Obadiah’s prophecy is against Edom. Edom is part of what we know today as Jordan. Jordan is comprised of the three tribes of Edom, Moab, and Ammon. Amman is the capital of Jordan today. Edom was the land founded by Esau, the hated twin brother of Jacob. If you remember, Esau despised his birthright and sold it for a bowl of soup. (Gen. 25:29-34). After that, Esau took off and left his brother.(Gen 36:6). Obadiah’s prophecy is rife with the reap-sow principle, and what Esau did in despising his Godly birthright will come back to him, heaped upon his head. “See, I will make you small among the nations; you will be utterly despised.” (Obadiah 1:2).

Jacob and Esau, “Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated.” (Romans 9:13) and Malachi 1:2-3 “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” the LORD says. “Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”

Edom had always fought against Israel, even in the womb, “And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan-aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian. And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord.” (Gen 25:20-22). The LORD replied,

“And the Lord said unto her, ‘Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.” (Gen 25:23). And so if you ever wonder why there is always so much hatred against Israel, why the Jews and the Arabs cannot seem to get along, it was that way from the beginning. So saith the LORD.

Edom usually lost the battles and was subjugated to Israel, but when Edom wasn’t fighting against Israel the nation was laughing and taunting its brother, or joining in with pillaging when it seemed safe to do so. God however is not mocked and Edom’s culpability at even standing silent when Israel was raped and pillaged will be judged in the latter days. “On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them. You should not look down on your brother in the day of his misfortune,” (Obadiah 1:11).

And of course, Edom’s culpability at performing violence against Israel will also be judged. “Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame; you will be destroyed forever.” (Obadiah 1:10)

None of this has happened yet. Jordan is certainly not destroyed forever. Richard T. Ritenbaugh of Forerunner Commentary writes, “Recognizing the internal time markers in Obadiah is vital to understanding the prophecy. This little book confirms, not only Edom’s part in the confederacy against Israel, but also that the evil alliance is joined at the end time. In Obadiah 1:15, 21, clear indicators of the end time appear:”

“For the day of the Lord upon all the nations is near; as you have done, it shall be done to you; your reprisal shall return upon your own head. . . . Then saviors shall come to Mount Zion to judge the mountains of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s. The prophecy will begin to be fulfilled in the years prior to the Day of the Lord, and ends as the millennial reign of Jesus Christ commences.”

Obadiah’s prophecy can be outlined simply, Ritenbaugh says:

» Verses 1-4: God’s pronouncement of judgment on Edom.
» Verses 5-9: How Edom will be annihilated.
» Verses 10-14: Why Edom will be annihilated.
» Verses 15-16: Edom and the Day of the Lord.
» Verses 17-21: Israel’s complete triumph over Edom.

The prophecy upon the twins’ birth that the elder shall serve the younger is seen in the final days prophecy. (Gen 25:23, Rom 9:12)

Jordan today is one of only two Arab nations to hold a peace treaty with Israel, Egypt being the other. Yet both these peace treaties are fast fading pieces of paper. King Abdullah of Jordan has said more than once he wishes they did not have a treaty with Israel. Just last week in a protest in Amman, protesters called for the scrapping of the peace treaty with Israel.

The elder will serve the younger…this will happen in the Tribulation. Daniel 11:41 says that: “He [antichrist] will also invade the Beautiful Land. Many countries will fall, but Edom, Moab and the leaders of Ammon will be delivered from his hand.” Jordan will be a lone nation who escapes conquest of the Antichrist. Why? It is the place that Jesus told the Jews to flee to when they see the Abomination of Desolation: to the mountains. (Mt 24:16). The mountains are the border between Israel and Jordan, and over those mountains is the rose-red city of Petra. I wrote about Petra and its function as sheepfold in the Tribulation, here.

Petra is the city you know from Indiana Jones, where a single person on a horse or in a small jeep can enter the protected cavern where the magnificent city had been carved from red stone. Its impregnability is one thing that gave Edom its pride in thinking they could never be vanquished. They will be vanquished, and the city will remain impregnable for the fleeing remnant, and thus, Esau’s Edom serves the younger brother Jacob in protecting Israel throughout the rest of the Tribulation. The LORD’S word is true!

Ritenbaugh wrote, “Obadiah is a study in God’s punishment of a people for the things that they have done. They will be made to suffer the consequences of their hostile attitudes and aggression against Israel, as well as their constant attempts to impede the purpose of God through Israel.” Yet God’s purposes can never be impeded, hallelujah!

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4e8f22d468013109

Posted in bible jesus, end of days, end time, prophecy

What is ‘the end time,’ exactly?

Here are a few random things I’ve been meaning to get to. First, some definitions.

I was writing the Prophecy Newsletter yesterday and explaining what the ‘end time’ is, and it occurred to me that it might be good to put on here too. The term comes from, in part, Matthew 24:1-8, when the Disciples asked Christ about the end of the age. They were sitting on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem at the time so Jesus’s answer, one of the longest He delivered anywhere in the New Testament, is called The Olivet Discourse. The NASB’s header to the beginning of His answer is:

Signs of Christ’s Return

“Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.” As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many. You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.”

So when the disciples came to Jesus when they were on the Mount of Olives, they asked him three things; when will You come, what will be the signs of Your coming, and what will be the signs of the end of the age? If Jesus’s answer in Matthew 24 was to be ONLY the time of the Tribulation, He would not have included the sign of the Temple being thrown down, something that happened about 40 years later. Matthew Henry commentary explains, “The prophecy first respects events near at hand, the destruction of Jerusalem, the end of the Jewish church and state, the calling of the Gentiles, and the setting up of Christ’s kingdom in the world; but it also looks to the general judgment; and toward the close, points more particularly to the latter.” This is because the end time is technically the time between His first coming (Ascension) and the Second Coming (Return). The prophecy as Henry says points particularly to the latter period because that is what birth pangs do. A woman does not feel the pangs throughout her entire pregnancy, but at the end when the birth is about to occur and gestation is over.

Now, there is “Day of the LORD” spoken of in the bible (1st use, Isaiah 2:12). Depending on the translation, it is mentioned between 23 and 27 times throughout the Old and New Testaments. Barnes Notes explains, “The Day of the Lord” is any day in which He avengeth sin, any day of Judgment.” However, all of human history is hurtling toward one particular Day of the Lord, the LAST DAY! God has judged many times in the past, in discrete moments, such as the earth swallowing Korah (Numbers 16:30-31), and in wide-open moments such as the Flood which swallowed the whole earth (Gen 7:6). But the Day of the LORD spoken of by the prophets in most cases refers to a 7-year period of judgment in which God will judge sin. It is also known as the Time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 30:7). We get the word ‘Tribulation’ from Matthew 24:29-“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

There is also referred to the time of ‘distress.’ It’s from Daniel 12:1, the angel tells Daniel, “Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.”

There will come a moment when the LORD dissolves the world and heaven (2 Peter 3:10) and makes a new one (Rev 21:1, Isaiah 66:22).

So the end time is a long period of devolving creation that meets the time of tribulation and ends with the one moment the LORD dissolves the world and makes a new one. In very rough, general terms.

Since Jesus likened the time to a woman in birth pangs it is instructive to look closely at His analogy. The gestational period is long, but we can see by the baby bump outside the mother just how things are progressing. When the signs indicate that the gestation period is nearing the end, we expect other signs, such as the baby moving lower, and the water breaking. The actual birth begins when the labor pangs grow in intensity and frequency, but no birth can be timed exactly. Some women are in labor for a day, others for three days. So at all phases of the gestation, labor, and birth, we can see the signs but  not know the lengths of the periods it will take to complete. Even the last day, His Second Coming, will not be a day known in advance, but a day that no one knows the day nor hour. Only the general imminence.

As we see the signs grown in intensity and frequency, we wait for the water to break, which in my opinion, is the rapture. The sudden bursting-in of the LORD into this world and physically removing His church will be a dramatic moment in which all earth’s inhabitants will know something extraordinary has happened. After that, the events described in so many of our Old Testament and New Testament books will again alert the populace that something supernatural is happening. It will all happen faster and faster until the dramatic moment when the lights go out (Mt 24:29), and after an unknown period (Mt 24:36), likely a very short period, HE COMES to judge the earth.

So that’s the end time. Are you ready?
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=%20http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/09/what-is-end-time-exactly.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

Posted in end of days, end time, hurricane irene, judgment, prophecy, warnings

The costs from Hurricane Irene are outweighed by the cost of not repenting

That natural disasters are on the rise is unquestionable. The data is the data and the facts are the facts. The debate is not whether they are increasing, but is over the cause of the increase. Some people say that these disasters are increasing because of changes in the magnetosphere, which, they say, caused the aflockalypse of bird deaths at the beginning of this year. Others say the cause is from government conspiracies such as HAARP, or High Frequency Active Auroral research Program which purposely disturbs a segment of our ionosphere and measures the effects. HAARP really exists but conspiracy theorists posit that it is being used for dark purposes. Others say it is global warming, such as the author of this first article. But whatever the cause (and it is GOD) the effects are real.

In this article by Bill McKibben, he attributes the recent increase of disasters to global warming but in his article he totes up the effects, which are devastating:

“Remember—this year has already seen more billion-dollar weather-related disasters than any year in U.S. history. Last year was the warmest ever recorded on planet Earth. Arctic sea ice is near all-time record lows. Record floods from Pakistan to Queensland to the Mississippi basin; record drought from the steppes of Russia to the plains of Texas. Just about the only trauma we haven’t had are hurricanes plowing into the U.S., but that’s just luck—last year was a big storm year, but they all veered out to sea. This year we’re already on letter I—which in a normal year we don’t get to until well into October.”

But then Irene hit.

In an incredible decision, all Mass Transit in NY City was closed in advance of Hurricane Irene, costing millions. There were no flights Sunday at the 5 NY-area airports; 9000 flights were canceled, and the George Washington Bridge lower level was closed in both directions. Amazing. What an incredible shut-down for our largest city. But that was not the worst of it. Upstate NY and Vermont were hammered.

Hurricane Irene flood damage stuns inland areas
“Brattleboro, Vt. — Rippling creeks became deadly deluges. Bridges collapsed into roiling waves. Dry streets turned into fast-rising lakes, closing in around stunned towns. While Irene – first a hurricane and then a tropical storm – unleashed its initial share of damage along the sandy shores of the Eastern Seaboard, by Monday its greatest impact was felt far from the coastline, in places such as landlocked Vermont and the bucolic mountains of upstate New York. Even so, more than 48 hours after Irene made landfall early Saturday, about 4.5 million people remained without power in 13 states from North Carolina to Maine. The death toll jumped to at least 40, according to the Associated Press, and some rivers had yet to crest.”

“Hundreds remained stranded in communities cut off by washed-out roads, including at least 2,500 residents of remote Hatteras Island in North Carolina, where severed utility lines also left them without power. The only access to the island was via a ferry limited to emergency use. Police in suburban Parsippany, N.J., had to rescue dozens of people who became trapped in two hotels Monday when a nearby lake spilled over its banks and sent enough water into the streets and hotel parking lots to swallow vehicles. Evacuees included guests who had fled to the hotels after heeding advice to evacuate their homes in advance of Irene.”

The economic cost of the advanced protection and evacuations, the lost revenue from closed businesses, and the cleanup afterwards is incalculable.

Joel Rosenberg wrote a good piece this week titled “This was a wake up call: American East Coast shaken by Hurricane Irene.” Joel write in part–

“This was a wake up call. At its peak, Hurricane Irene was the size of the State of Texas. Had it remained a Category 3 storm — or even increased in intensity — it could have created the greatest natural disaster catastrophe in the history of the United States. Fortunately, that’s not what happened. The storm is now over, and even as the clean up begins, critics are saying it was hyped up and “overblown” by government officials and weather forecasters. But did the experts really badly “misjudge” Irene, or did God hear people’s prayers and have mercy on us by weakening the storm faster than the experts had predicted? I think both are true. I am grateful to the Lord for His grace and mercy on us. I am also grateful to the forecasters and the government leaders who warned us as best they could and took decisive action to put public safety first. As I have written about several times in recent months, the Lord is shaking us, trying to wake us up and get us to focused back on Him and on His Word. We need to recommit ourselves to prayer, fasting and reading the Bible and get our hearts right with the Lord. For Bible prophecy tells us that far greater storms are coming as we steadily approach the Day of the Lord.”

And another storm has formed. She is on the same track as Irene. Her name is Katia… I’ll repeat Joel’s good advice: “We need to recommit ourselves to prayer, fasting and reading the Bible and get our hearts right with the Lord. For Bible prophecy tells us that far greater storms are coming as we steadily approach the Day of the Lord.”

Posted in end of days, miracle

Something terrible happened. Think positive

Something wonderful happened. I posted earlier today about a boy that was drowned, dead, non-responsive for over 15 minutes, who was brought to the hospital and then he awoke, and even more miraculously, he had no lingering effects of his drowning ordeal. The group swimming at the beach was a church youth group, and when the boy was swept out to sea, they began praying on their knees. It was a great story. I felt very good after reading it, and I was so grateful to be thinking of that all day long.

Something terrible happened. A Texas father threw his four-year-old son out of his car “like a bag of garbage”  and left him standing on a West Texas highway. The father drove off. It was 3 am along a cactus-strewn area of nothing in the middle of nowhere. A passing motorist saw  the boy move in the gloomy morning light and stopped to check out the situation. The motorist brought the boy to the hospital, and the doctors extracted 500 cactus spines from him. He was dehydrated too, but thankfully that was the extent of his injuries.

Have you ever been to West Texas? I have. There is nothing there. Except javelinas. Coyotes. Foxes. Creosote bushes. Cactus. Rattlesnakes. AND A FOUR-YEAR-OLD BOY! Here is a google street view photo of Interstate 20 as it winds into Sweetwater.

I was so upset reading this story I cried like a baby. I was distressed and angry and wretched. I prayed so hard for the Lord to perform justice on the world and for the rapture to occur so that the children would be safe in eternity with their Father. I thought about the kid’s dad, and I was mad that the world has come to such a state where a person would even think of doing this let alone actually do it.

So I was thinking, how can I hang I emotionally until the rapture? I work with children in an elementary school. This is my fourth year working with children in school here in GA. I was a teacher in Maine for 12 years, working with kids in a depressed inner city from 1982 to 1994. Even though I was teaching in an inner city back then, the conditions I see now are worse. Not as many kids are bringing snacks to school as they used to. More children are on free and reduced lunch. More programs are starting that strive to put food in kids backpacks so they can eat over the weekend. They are wearing clothes that are too big and fall off them at recess as they run around. They wear clothes that they’ve outgrown and are so tight they literally can’t sit down on the floor to put together a puzzle. They have old shoes taped together, live unsettling home lives, are getting evicted, moving a lot from one family member to other family member. In other words, I’ve never seen things so bad with these children, and I mourn over them. I pray over them. I love them.

Suffice it to say, children in these terrible times are much on my mind. When I read the story out of Texas, I lost it. It put me over the top.

But then I started thinking of the joy. With Jesus, there is always joy. I decided to focus on the child, and the miracles that had to have happened around the rescue of the boy that are just as miraculous as the rescue of the drowned boy up above. First, if you know four year olds, the fact that he stayed by the road is a miracle. That for the three hours he was stranded, he didn’t move even an inch from the roadside was wonderful. Wandering into the desert would likely have been the end of him. The fact that no animal got to him is also wonderful. That a motorist spotted the boy in the gloom was also a miracle. Angels must have been tightly surrounding the boy and ministering to him. THAT is how to hang in there emotionally until the rapture- choose joy. Seek joy. Trust the Lord.

With Jesus, there is always joy to be found in any situation. Sometimes, we don’t know how a situation turned out, but faith in Him means that we take to heart the verse that says “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” We know that these two boys were rescued, but for the ones where we don’t know the end, trust Him to work it out to the good. (Romans 8:28). The verse doesn’t say ‘some things work together for the good’ it says all things. Evil does exist in the world and it is more visible than ever. But Jesus works it out for those who love Him. And some day those of us who love Him, and the children, will be whisked away to His dwelling place in heaven to be glorified and freed from the effects of sin.

No more little boys will be abandoned. No more teens will be drowned. No more kids will be hungry or cold or sad. He is working all things to the good. In the midst of evil, choose joy. Trust Him when it seems there is no joy in sight. Because there is!!!!!!!!!
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/08/something-terrible-happened-think.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

Posted in bible jesus, end of days, rapture

It’s evening in America, and the sun is setting on the world

Well. Here in the good old United States, things are getting very severe. They are getting very crazy. I look at today’s headlines and I do not even know where to begin. I sit numbly in front of the computer screen, shaking my head.

I’m in awe of how the Lord works. How this little thing and that little thing over time now connect to make a worse thing. And this nudge is repeated and that connection repeated since time immemorial, the dots are connecting and it is all coming down. I’m amazed.

The stocks crumbled today in the aftermath of Standard and Poor’s downgrade of our previous AAA credit rating to AA+ with Negative Outlook. Gold is at record high on the stocks crash. The UK Daily Mail’s headline was screaming veritable panic: “Bloodbath! Panic grips Wall Street as desperate investors rush to sell and Dow goes into freefall”. The stock market is not only tanking, but the big financial corporations are turning on each other. Kind of reminds of the book Lord of the Flies.

The drought in the American central south is deepening. A Texas town ran out of water today. What a horror for the residents! Israel suffered the worst earthquake (4.2) they have had all year.

The killing in Syria continues. Jerusalem deals with enormous protests, 320,000 march in the streets. London is burning in massive riots. The damage is incredible.

Jesus warned that because of the increase in wickedness (sin), love of most would would wax cold (Mt 24:12). The godless want to be rid of us Christians so that they can be in ‘peace’ but even before the Restrainer (Holy Spirit) is taken out of the way (2 Thess 2:7) that sin is rising and giving rise to evil deeds. Like this one:

Housekeeper Says Queens Monk Kept Her As “Slave” or this one, “Chained up with the dog: The Chinese boy kept as slave by uncle“. Or this one: “Elisabeth Fritzl was forced to help build the dungeon where she was kept by her sadistic father Josef, it emerged yesterday. For the first nine months of her 24 years in captivity, she was also tethered with a 5ft dog leash around her neck to prevent her escape.” So a dad turns sadistic, forces his daughter to build her own dungeon and then chains her up. Unbelievable.

Paul warned Timothy that in the last days people would be without natural affection, meaning, without the natural affection felt between kindred, as a parent to a child. Or an uncle to a niece. Headlines like these are not just headlines. They involve real people. Real people betrayed by the very people they should be able to trust most, and forced to live a horrific life devoid of humanity. I could continue with posting the headlines that would shock and cause anxiety and dismay to one and all. But the thing that really should cause anxiety and dismay is the fact that the Restrainer is still here, restraining, and these are already horrific headlines. The rapture has not occurred and the Days of Lot and the Days of Noah haven’t even begun yet. Meaning, it will get worse. A lot worse.

Please, please, please PLEASE repent. If you have not already confessed your sins and asked Jesus to be your Lord (who will forgive you), the tensions and distress of these days will be so much more magnified beyond all imagining. You will be left behind to wallow in your sins and everyone elses’s and if you still have any sentience, conscience, or morality, you will long for days when ALL they did was chain you up. The horror of daily life during the tribulation will be all riots. All brutality. All cold-heartedness.

But you can repent now and become part of the Bride of Christ, His church, His brethren. The rapture will take us out of all this and the worse part to come. See, He has told us ahead of time: “Come, my people, enter into your rooms And close your doors behind you; Hide for a little while until indignation runs its course.” (Isaiah 26:20). He wishes that no one perish in their sins, and that means you. He knows your name, and He wants for you to be one of His. Please do it now. The time is short.
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/08/its-evening-in-america-and-sun-is.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

Posted in bible jesus, end of days, end time, prophecy, sin

Why TV cooking shows have morphed into adventure programs

I’ve been talking about two things lately. First, are the increasing superlatives that must be attached to describe the events we’re seeing in the world. Because Jesus likened the time to birth pangs, we know that birth pangs get worse and worse, more and more painful as the big event nears. The weather is record shattering, this flood is the worst ever, this tornado outbreak is the biggest in history. Yet the superlatives keep getting attached to the events in ever bigger form as the events grow larger and records keep getting shattered. It is an upward spiral that eventually will bring everyone down.

The second thing I’ve been mentioning is ever-deepening sin. Sin’s depths know no bounds. In 1969, Charles Manson was discovered to have led a bevy of mind-controlled females and males into committing the Tate/LaBianca murders in California. Nine people died and it absolutely shocked the country. Nowadays if there aren’t at least nine killings on a television show the ratings dip. As one sin becomes passe, another worse one has to take its place. There is simply no where else to go for the rush except to top it and try and repeat the rush next time.

This deepening of sin and its combined adrenaline rush is played out in television show titles. I was noticing on the television listings about the nature of the titles of reality shows. The Food Network for example. In decades past, the shows used to feature gourmet chefs who were galloping, or were frugal. The titles were benign, inoffensive, charming. The very first cooking show on television was James Beard in 1946. (no, not Julia Child, she came along more than a decade later, in 1962). Beard’s show was simply called “I Love To Eat.”

Nowadays we have gone from:

Top Chef … to … Chopped …to… Iron Chef …to… Extreme Chef. Where once upon a time, people were content to simply sit still for half an hour and watch a competent chef teach them something new, we watch quick-edits of chefs running in the desert and dodging hailstones while extracting ingredients from a block of ice or using a Swiss Army knife as a lone cooking utensil, being are pushed to their physical and mental limit. All for a good pasta.

In 2003 “The Restaurant,” a reality show featuring two owners at odds with each other, was compelling enough to spawn more restaurant shows, each with a more adrenaline-rush name:

Hell’s Kitchen … to … Restaurant Nightmares… to …Restaurant Battle …to … Restaurant Impossible. Impossible! As each television season unveils a new show, the names have to be tougher, the people participating in them have to be rougher, the fights bigger, the injuries worse. And these are the cooking shows. In order to lure increasingly jaded audiences, they entice them with teasers promising blood, crashes, fisticuffs. Again, I’m talking about cooking shows.

In 2000, The History Channel aired a 46-minute episode titled “Ice Road Truckers” as part of the ‘Suicide Missions’ series. The IRT episode became a break out show on its own. After four years, Ice Road Truckers alone wasn’t good enough (not enough of them sank beneath the cracking ice to drown their drivers in a frozen lake?) so we got IRT: Deadliest Roads in the Himalayas with constant quick-cuts to crushed vehicles at the bottom of precipitous inclines.

The shows titles and of course their material are getting more extreme. I think if we looked at a prime time television line-up schedule from 1965 and then looked at one now we’d be shocked at the mentions of extreme, death, deadly, etc. Like this- What’s after ‘Fear Factor’? “Terror Factor”?

The only place to go is down. Television is rapidly becoming more and more shallow, nasty, and polluted. However, being a mirror for our culture, it is only reflective of the people who watch it and our descent into sin is also rapid, polluted, and nasty. It is a progression James 1:15 aptly describes: “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” The lust he describes is not just a sexual lust, it is a coveteousness, desire, sensuality that seeks to fill the emptiness inside. That emptiness is a place just waiting for Jesus, His light, His holiness, His righteousness. But if they do not accept Jesus, they continually seek to fill it with ever deepening poisons and perversions.

Unbelievers say that they are free. They are not, they are slaves to their lusts. The television schedule shows us that, plainly. But Jesus is the INSTANT answer to the need for that emptiness to be filled. He is waiting to fill it. You will be a participant in His plan to regenerate you from the inside out. He replaces lusts and poison and depravity with light and holiness and righteousness. You feel fresher. You no longer seek and seek and seek the next high, because you have finally found the ultimate High: Jesus.
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/07/why-tv-cooking-shows-have-morphed-into.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

Posted in crime, end of days, end time, holy spirit, prophecy, restrainer

Copper thievery and sinful conditions

Sin doesn’t end. Sin doesn’t settle. Sin doesn’t shrink. It expands, creeping bigger, more, deeper. A lie in your mind changes to a lie out loud, to two lies, to a tangled web … There is no end to Jesus’ love and conversely, there is no end to sin. The heights of Jesus love are mirrored by the depths of sin, and sin can go pretty deep.

Jesus, Paul, and Peter outlined the specifics of what was to come at the end of the age (in the Tribulation). But they all also taught about moral conditions that would be upon humanity. Jesus said “love will wax cold”, (Mt 24:12); Paul said they will be brutal, unloving, and without self-control (2 Timothy 3:3); Peter said the truth will be blasphemed and covetousness will rule (2 Peter2:2-3) just to give a few examples.

Jesus also said that the Tribulation will be a time like the days of Noah. In the days of Noah, the evil of man was so great that he only had evil thoughts, continuously. (Gen 6:5) That is 100% sin saturation! We are not at 100% saturation of evil now, but we are sliding down the hill quickly. After believers are removed from the earth at the rapture (Gen 6:3) and the ministry of restraint of the Holy Spirit is removed, (2Thessalonians 2:6) evil will have free reign to unleash whatever it will. It will be pretty bad. Jesus said that unless He cut short the days, no one would be left alive on the earth, it will be so evil and violent. (Mt 24:22).

So let me give you an example of the descent of sin. We are not in the Tribulation now, but we do have to move from the level of earthly sin we’re in now toward that 100% mark and I believe we are seeing the speeding up of it now, in this time just prior to the rapture.

The metaphor of deepening sin is encapsulated in an example of the copper thieves.

Copper thievery is a sin that has always plagued us. But it has spiked exponentially, said police in Alabama. “Record copper prices have caused a surge in U.S. copper thefts, plaguing law enforcement and local governments and prompting states to pass new laws. “Since the beginning of the 2004 spike in copper prices, copper theft and copper prices have been directly linked,” a 2010 U.S. Department of Energy study on copper wire thefts said.”

Thieves used to take coils from constructions sites, empty houses, when no one was around. Then they began stealing copper from churches. They graduated to gutters, and these kind of bandits are called “gutter grabbers.” Most often the house is occupied, the thieves not caring if people are about. They they moved on up to larger booty: transformers. In this article titled, “Antioch Copper Wire Thieves Reach New High – Or Low” you see, the lows just keep getting lower. “Just days after Pacific Gas and Electric lamented the ongoing and widespread theft of copper wire from its Antioch power poles, the utility is now revealing that a particularly brazen thief – or thieves – stole an entire transformer from a power pole.”

The booty is getting bigger, and so is the personal risk, both to the owners of the copper and to the thieves. More of them who attempt to steal copper from live wires are getting fatally electrocuted.

So then they ‘graduated’ from transformers to whole air conditioning units, attached to houses where the people are living. Stealing the unit puts the people inside at risk, of course. In a heat wave people die. Stealing the scrap metal or copper from live gas lines means houses explode, sometimes with the people inside them. These thieves sunk even lower, stealing the AC unit from an animal shelter, putting all the puppies and kittens at risk.

So in a short time we have gone from a constant of petty wire thievery at abandoned homes or constructions sites, to huge AC units attached to homes, churches and non-profit centers, and from pipes to gutters to entire transformers that black out whole neighborhoods. But we don’t stop there.

These thieves stole an entire irrigation system in Modesto CA. “Thieves crushed a grape crop when they took off with the tools that help a local vineyard to grow. Grape grower Frank Rashid was on track for a record-breaking year. “See how beautiful?” said Rashid, gesturing toward his grapes.But in an instant, thieves crippled all of his hard work. “A lot of trouble for me, [and] the grapes; I can lose the crop, you know,” said Rashid. Bad guys stole the grape irrigation system worth more than $10,000.”

Copper thievery has gotten so persistent and so bad that there are states proposing laws regulating the sale of the metal. Copper thievery has risen sharply in Winston-Salem, with “more copper thefts in Winston-Salem in the first six months of 2011 than there were all of last year, city police said.”

The boldness of the copper thieves, the size of the booty, the heightening of danger, are examples of a downward progression in sin and evil in these last days. This progression is in all sins and crimes of course. We’ve gone from child abuse, to child abuse and kidnapping, to child abuse, kidnapping and murder, to child abuse, kidnapping, murder and dismemberment. Embezzlement is no longer perpetrated by a furtive, mealy-mouth man in some back cubicle at a tiny company. That sin’s depths were revealed to us in the Bernie Madoff schemes where he boldly made off with billions. Petty shoplifting is a thing of the quaint past, now we have whole mobs storming stores in full view of security guards and grabbing all that they can. Each and every sin on earth is getting deeper, worse, more corrupt.

The point is, you don’t want to be here when there is NO restraint. Things are this bad now but soon there will be free reign to plunder, steal, be brutal and selfish and the sanctity of life will mean nothing.

By His grace He died to save us from our sins. He will forgive you your unholy crimes if you ask him with penitent heart. He is sending these signs and warnings to us now to let us know the era is drawing to a close. He will remove His bride from the earth, He will send the Holy Spirit into retreat, He will allow satan full capacity to do his worst. You really don’t want to be here when that happens. And you don’t have to be. Just turn to Jesus.
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/07/copper-thievery-and-sinful-conditions.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

Posted in bible jesus, end of days, end of days. prophecy, God

Glory be!

Jesus came for God’s glory. (Hebrews 1:3).  Jesus said this over and over. He came for us, of course, to seek and save the lost, but Jesus came to increase God’s glory. God is passionate about His glory, “I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images.” (Isaiah 42:8)

God’s glory is increased when He redeems sinful man to Himself. It is the single greatest act of a Holy God. Redeeming. Sinful. Man. THAT is the expression of His highest glory in the most glorious act, and that His Son would incarnate (not just for 33 years, but forever) and live a human life and die a horrendous death, and in between would seek God’s glory at every moment. This is something admirable to ponder.

Philippians 4:8 – “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

Think on the admirable things.

1 Corinthians 10:31 – “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” This verse is saying that even if we are not missionaries leading thousands to Christ, even if we are not fiery preachers speaking before thousands, even if we are not teachers publishing hundreds of books, we, the small and mundane, should do everything we do for the glory of God. The small tasks, the routine, the everyday, are glorious to Him if performed with Him in mind as the utmost audience. Do all with an awareness that you are doing it for God. And it will be a fragrant aroma unto Him.

“and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” (Ephesians 5:2).

So think on the admirable things:

http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/07/glory-be.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

Posted in end of days, end of days. prophecy, feminism, gender roles

The Eternal Discontent of Feminists

God set up the hierarchy. He said: “Here is how it is going to be.” (Genesis 2:17; 24; Gen 3:16; 1 Cor. 11:8-10). He is the Authority, He holds authority in heaven and upon earth. He made the earth, and He made the puny humans who populate it. He bestowed it all upon Adam and Eve, gave them jobs to do, and said have it all except this one fruit.

And suddenly (thanks to the serpent) all Eve wanted was the fruit. “I don’t want those. I want this one.”

Because humans know better, you know? Not.

The usurpation of the male as head of the family has been going on ever since. Nimrod’s wife Semiramis did a great job of perpetuating the usurpation. Cut to the late 1960s and feminism was born. The mid to late 1960s birthed a lot of rebellion in the world that this generation is still reaping. I think it is one of the reasons we are the last generation: so much rebellion. One of those rebellions was that the role for women outlined in the bible was set aside. Oh, sure, there have been historical anomalies throughout history, but wholesale abandonment of the Godly role set aside for women didn’t occur until the late 1960s. It suddenly was passe to have a man in economic, political, social, and even ecclesiastical fields. This is the lead sentence from the NY Times in their story “Is God a feminist?” – “Behind the public arguments and fracases over the ordination of women there has appeared, since the late 60’s, a flood of feminist religious writing.” The 1960s was the era in which I grew up.

One thing I remember is my mother teaching me about feminism. How “a woman can do anything.” [Really? Anything? And even if we could, which we can’t, do we want to?]. She used to wear a blue tee shirt that had the slogan: “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” It had a fish riding a bicycle on the front. The deduction one makes is that women don’t need men. They are useless in the world of the fish. Er, women.

I always privately thought that the sentiment was stupid. It was illogical. First, it was obvious women needed men. And vice versa. Secondly, the foundation of culture had always been marriage, and that was one man-one woman and then children. Rinse. Repeat. Dismantling the structure of thousands of years of what had been working perfectly fine was ridiculous. These ideas seemed obvious to me. I was 12. That’s how obvious it is that a man needs a woman and a woman needs a man. A 12-year-old can see it.

With feminism came discontent in the jobs outlined for her to do. The Proverbs 31 woman wasn’t good enough any more. Though her children call her blessed, though her husband praises her, though she honors God and He her, that isn’t good enough. What else is there besides familial peace and a God-honoring life? But the serpent made ambition to serve God in His ordained roles seem like nothing. At the same time he made the world seem like something. Women wanted the world!

One of the realms women went into that had previously been reserved for men was police work. This encroachment was beginning to be reflected in television, which always acts as a cultural mirror. In 1974, the first woman to lead a police series was Angie Dickinson in “Police Woman.” I watched an interview with her last night on PBS, in a show about early television crime show pioneers. She said that she had a blast doing the Police Woman show. “In 1974 a woman in police uniform was still rare. If you saw one you’d go ‘oh, look, a lady cop.'” Dickinson was a beautiful woman and had a fantastic body, which the producers showed off, at the same time as they were showing her solving crimes and holding her own with the men. She liked that. She said she was always comfortable with her body and didn’t mind the sexier aspects of the show because that was her personality. It wasn’t something they were contriving or changing her into. Dickinson said the feminists were furious with her. They wanted her to be less sexy and use the show as a feminist platform. Dickinson said no. She recounted her reply to the interviewer, “I’m feminine, not feminist. They wouldn’t talk to me after that,” she said, laughing.

Therein lay the eternal discontent of feminists. They strove for better representation in male-dominated fields and got it. They strove for female representation on television of females in male-dominated fields and they got it. They had a confident, sexy, capable woman in Hollywood holding her own financially and balancing children and a marriage. But they hated her. Why? She was doing it wrong. In other words, she wasn’t being the kind of feminist they wanted. She was her own woman. This is anathema to feminists. Lest you think that the feminists’ twisted mindset is a bygone thing, look at the females of today one would think feminists would laud: Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin.

Hillary is feminism’s ideal woman. She isn’t too feminine, like Angie Dickinson is. She has a family, but doesn’t  pay too much attention to them. Her Rose Law firm colleagues thought it was shameful she planned to leave her newborn at home and return to work. No way. She later said “I could have stayed home and baked cookies” revealing the two categories of feminism- either they are seen as ambitious, professional women (doing it right) or traditional, stay-at-home women (doing it wrong) even though ostensibly feminism was supposed to be about equality with men and women having options to choose her life’s work. Hillary was politically powerful, even usurping the office of the Presidency by her husband’s admission that with “you get two Presidents for the price of one.” Feminism poster child!

Sarah Palin came onto the scene as the very first legitimate vice-presidential candidate. She is beautiful, active, healthy, successful (in business with fishing industry and politically as former mayor and Governor, then VP-candidate). She has a family AND a career AND the national spotlight AND she broke the political glass ceiling. You’d think feminists would be dancing around the fir tree with torches to celebrate this victory. But they hated her. What? Yes. She has exactly all the same things as Hillary, ambition, success, family, power, her own decisions, and had even made it farther along the political spectrum. But, see, she was doing it wrong. She held conservative ideals, put her family first, (no abortions!) and worst of all, believes in God.

Liberals define the feminist movement this way:

“The feminism “of the 1960s-1980s was concerned with gender inequality in laws and culture. … During this time feminists campaigned against cultural and political inequalities, which they saw as inextricably linked. The movement encouraged women to understand aspects of their own personal lives as deeply politicized, and reflective of a sexist structure of power. If first-wave feminism focused upon absolute rights such as suffrage, second-wave feminism was largely concerned with other issues of equality, such as the end to discrimination.”

Awww. How nice. Benign even. Conservatives define feminism this way:

Conservapedia:
A modern feminist denies or downplays differences between men and women, opposes the encouragement of homemaking and child-rearing for women, and seeks to participate in predominantly male activities. Modern feminists:
–never wanted gender equality; they want power for the female left
–believe that there are no meaningful differences between men and women (The most significant belief underlying contemporary feminism is that there are no sex differences; therefore advocacy for equal rights must be extended to advocacy for equal results or outcomes.)
–oppose chivalry and even feign insult at harmless displays of it
–view traditional marriage as unacceptably patriarchal
–belittle and mock other women who desire to have children or raise a family
–shirk traditional gender activities, like baking
–support affirmative action for women
prefer that women wear pants rather than dresses, presumably because men do
–seek women in combat in the military just like men, and coed submarines
–refuse to take her husband’s last name when marrying
–distort historical focus onto female figures, often overshadowing important events
–take offense at grammatical rules of the English language, like using the pronoun “he” when referring to a hypothetical/anonymous person, or phrases like ‘fireman’ and ‘stewardess.’

We even have a gender neutral bible now, one which removes all mention of man or woman completely from God’s Word. Of course, this removes God as Father and Jesus as the Son of Man, pleasing satan no end. And still the feminists are not happy.

At About.com feminism is defined this way: “Historian and activist Cheris Kramarae once famously remarked that “feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings.” Although that’s the sort of thing you see printed on t-shirts, it also happens to be an accurate and concise definition of what feminism is. Feminism, as a movement, is about women living on equal terms with men–and not pushed down, by law or by culture, into a subservient role.”

It is thanks to the serpent that notions of one role over another is subservient. Women’s biblical roles are certainly not subservient to a man’s. They are complementary. Man’s headship is an issue of order, not of who is better or more important. The patriarchal structure is not due to cultural influence but of scriptural revelation. God made two human beings and He saw them as equal. He still sees man and woman as equal. It is satan who implants the notion that what you have isn’t good enough. It’s why feminists will always be discontent.

CS Lewis said, “Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.’ Let me rephrase that into today’s politically correct phraseology: “Human history is the long terrible story of woman trying to find something other than God which will make her happy.” It won’t work. It never has and it never will.
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/07/eternal-discontent-of-feminists.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150