Category: end of days

Posted in end of days, end time, pre-tribulation rapture, prophecy, tares

Mystery of dying wheat in Oregon

Posted on by elizabethprata

There is an interesting story out of Oregon today:
Investigators baffled as wheat fields wither
Mysterious yellowing affects 40,000 acres of Eastern Oregon; new problem feared

“The Oregon Department of Agriculture and Oregon State University are investigating the yellowing of upward of 40,000 acres of wheat in Umatilla and Morrow counties. So far, the cause is a mystery, and researchers do not know if the problems in the two counties are related. In early November, Umatilla County growers noticed wheat fields turning yellow and dying, OSU Extension soil scientist Don Wysocki said. Sixteen fields from three to 10 miles northwest of Pendleton were affected, Wysocki said. They are “more or less but not completely contiguous,” he said. Not every field in the area was affected. The area was predominately planted to soft white Clearfield variety ORCF-102, but other varieties were also affected, Wysocki said. “There’s probably more than one thing going on in these particular fields, like in any field,” he said.”

“OSU Morrow County Extension associate professor Larry Lutcher said 30,000 to 40,000 acres of wheat in his county have plants with yellow or purple tips. The discoloration spreads inward and downward on the leaf. In some cases, plants are completely desiccated and will not recover. The symptoms have been observed in many fields in the county, Lutcher said, but do not appear tied to any particular location. “Most of the symptoms in Morrow County are unlike anything I have ever seen,” Lutcher said.” [emphasis mine. more at link above]

It is interesting in light of what is going on with wheat around the world. It is interesting in light of what prophecy says about wheat. Finally, it is interesting in terms of the allegory and symbolism of harvest used so often in the bible. First, here is what is happening with wheat around the world.

1. Ug99 is a wheat rust disease that was discovered in Uganda (Ug) in 1999. The stem, black or cereal rusts are caused by the fungus Puccinia graminis and are a significant disease affecting cereal crops. An epidemic of stem rust on wheat caused by race Ug99 is currently spreading across Africa, Asia and most recently into Middle East and is causing major concern due to the large numbers of people dependent on wheat for sustenance. The strain was named after the country where it was identified (Uganda) and the year of its discovery (1999). It spread to Kenya, then Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen, and is becoming more virulent as it spreads. Scientists are working on breeding strains of wheat that are resistant to UG99. It is virulent to the great majority of wheat varieties. Unlike other rusts, which only partially affect crop yields, UG99 can bring 100% crop loss. Up to 80% yield losses were recently recorded in Kenya.

However, that genetic work seems to be failing. “Four new mutations of  Ug99, a strain of a deadly wheat pathogen known as stem rust, have overcome existing sources of genetic resistance developed to safeguard the world’s wheat crop. Leading wheat experts from Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, who are in St. Petersburg, Russia for a global wheat event organized by the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, said the evolving pathogen may pose an even greater threat to global wheat production than the original Ug99.” That was from Science Daily, May 2010. So the wheat is being killed all over the world and there is nothing we have yet been able to do about it.

2. The Oregon wheat failure is interesting in light of prophecy. Wheat figures into end time prophecy quite starkly. In the Seal Third Judgment (Black Horse) it is said, “When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”Wheat will be in such short supply, a person will have to spend his entire day’s wages just to get enough to feed him, never mind the family. Barely will also be in short supply. The Black Horse is famine, which will affect all the people on the earth, except the very rich.

3. The Oregon wheat failure is interesting in light of the bible’s use of harvest and reaping. One example of the judgment God brings is the following from Joel 1:10-11- “The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails. Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed…” Matthew Henry says about that verse, “Let the husbandmen and vine-dressers lament, v. 11. Let them be ashamed of the care and pains they have taken about their vineyards, for it will be all labour lost, and they shall gain no advantage by it; they shall see the fruit of their labour eaten up before their eyes, and shall not be able to save any of it. Note, Those who labour only for the meat that perishes will, sooner or later, be ashamed of their labour. The vine-dressers will then express their extreme grief by howling, when they see their vineyards stripped of leaves and fruit, and the vines withered, so that nothing is to be had or hoped for from them, wherewith they might pay their rent and maintain their families. The destruction is particularly described here: The field is laid waste (v. 10); all is consumed that is produced; the land mourns; the ground has a melancholy aspect, and looks ruefully; all the inhabitants of the land are in tears for what they have lost…”

A less direct and a more symbolic use of wheat and harvest in the bible is in Matthew 13:30 parable of the wheat and the tares. Read it in its entirely in Matthew 13:24-30. “Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” (v. 30; KJV) This parable represents the present and future state of the church of Christ’s gospel; His care of it, the devil’s hatred against it, the mixture there is in it of good and bad, and the separation between them in the other world.

The LORD looks at the saved sheep as wheat, at the lost sheep as tares, and judgment as harvest time. (Rev 14:14). I think that it is very interesting that the wheat died in Oregon. It is dying elsewhere due to Ug99, it is dying in OR due to who knows why, and it is dying in places like Australia and Russia because of ‘natural’ disasters like floods and heat, respectively. The wheat is dying. It is dying in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. It is dying in Australia, Russia, and America. The wheat is dying, and soon and very soon, it will cost you everything to even obtain a fistful. Hunger is coming, and then the harvest. Are you ready?

I’m ready, because I know I will escape all these things. I will be raptured to Jesus when He calls us (read here) and I will be dining with Him at a wedding banquet while those who refused His offer of salvation by His grace will perish from famine on earth. If you ask Jesus to forgive your sins, and make Him LORD of your life, worthy to be obeyed and followed, you, too, will dine with the King. Or, you can choose to be harvested like chaff on the last day. As always, it is up to you.
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Posted in end of days, end time, prophecy, tower of babel

Man is busy re-creating creation in his own image

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’ve been saying constantly that God will judge due to rebellion against Him. One way people rebel and stay in their own sin is to fail to acknowledge Him and His sovereignty over all the universe. Another way to sin is that even if man acknowledges Him, man still elevates himself to His position. Satan did that in his “I will” statements found in Isaiah 14: 12-15 wherein satan vowed to elevate his throng above God’s. It was how and where sin entered into his heart, and then the world.

We have seen what happens when man and angel elevates himself to positions to which he is not entitled. The Tower of Babel is one example where that process comes to mind. (Genesis 11:1-9). God confused the languages and scattered the inhabitants who were building the tower not because He is a killjoy oppressing the people who were trying to make something of themselves. Rather, He knew they were not ready for cities, had told them to go forth and multiply, and they didn’t. Their leader was Nimrod and his name is from the verb ‘let us revolt.’ Nimrod was the world’s first dictator and the tower was being built to worship astrology and to push the envelope of man’s technological achievements (Gen 11:3). Genesis 11:4 says that the people wanted to make a name for themselves. They did not say ‘let us honor God’s name’.

Ever since then, man has been wanting to make a name for himself, supplanting God in his endeavors either by failing to acknowledge His means or by plowing ahead in ambition absent the Holy Spirit. I’ve noticed today four headlines that are examples of this in today’s world:

Man is using DNA to re-imagine warfare…

Dept. of Defense may begin collecting and mapping genome of all military personnel
“A new report from a highly influential group of scientists [The JASON Group] is urging the Department of Defense to begin collecting and mapping the full genome of all military personnel. Pentagon officials believe gene-mapping all military personnel could lower health costs within the military and help scientist learn a great deal about the link between fighting and genetics. So, “what’s the big deal, why does it matter?” The report sneakily inserted the possible idea of the weaponization of genetic information into the report. “It may be beneficial to know the genetic identities of an adversary,” it says. The Department of Defense will be in charge of the giant database housing the soldiers records and will likely benefit by organizing personnel data into phenotypes for the military.” source

JASON is an independent group of scientists which advises the United States government on matters of science and technology. The group was first created as a way to get a younger generation of scientists—that is, not the older Los Alamos and MIT Radiation Laboratory alumni—involved in advising the government. It was established in 1960 and has somewhere between 30 and 60 members. For administrative purposes, JASON’s activities are run through the MITRE Corporation, a non-profit corporation in McLean, Virginia, which contracts with the Defense Department. JASON typically performs most of its work during an annual summer study. Its sponsors include the Department of Defense (frequently DARPA and the United States Navy), the Department of Energy, and the U.S. Intelligence Community. Most of the resulting JASON reports are classified.

Man is using technology to re-create extinct animals for no reason…

Cloning might create live woolly mammoth
The extinct woolly mammoth could be brought back to life in as little as four years thanks to a breakthrough in cloning technology, a Japanese researcher says.

Man is re-engineering one of God’s creatures…

[W]hat if there were a way to breed poultry that are genetically resistant to H5N1 or any other avian flu virus, thus severing a major link in the flu’s evolutionary chain? That’s what a team of scientists in Britain tried to do recently, and they were remarkably successful. The result, reported in a study in the Jan. 13 issue of Science, is genetically engineered chickens that, while they’re still vulnerable to H5N1, don’t seem to pass on the disease to other poultry.
Man is re-wiring human brains…
This minimally invasive method of generating neural plasticity allows us to precisely manipulate brain circuits, which cannot be achieved with drugs. Pairing sounds with VNS provides that precision by rewiring damaged circuits and reversing the abnormal activity that generates the phantom sound.” 

I am not saying technology is bad. I am not saying technology is good. Technology is technology, by itself it’s inherently neither. It is only after man overlays his own uses upon technology that it becomes evil or good. And if the new technology is being managed by a humanity that has no moral compass grounded from the bible, then that technology could go in any direction. It always does.

Secondly, there are always unintended consequences to everything that man produces, but especially in the technological realms. Only God is omniscient, knowing the end from the beginning. We do not know how a new technology will be used in the future. We make all safeguards against improper use but because we are not omniscient, we will miss something. That is why we rely on the omniscient God to guide us in all our ways. Because He knows! Absent His guidance, as God said in Genesis 11 at the conclusion of the tower of Babel incident, “And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.” (Gem 11:6b). Quite often, we are not ready for what we unleash on the world, yet man must still suffer the unintended consequences. God also takes seriously when we worship created things instead of the Creator and exchange the truth of God for a lie (Romans 1:25; Jeremiah 13:25).

This spate of few is but a tiny fraction of the scientific and technological headlines being published every day around the world. God made creation. But man is busy re-creating it in his own image. This will not be allowed to go on indefinitely. As in Genesis 11:5 states, at a certain point “the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built” he will come down again, and take action. As a globe, we are lost and will be judged. That is prophesied and will come true. The unforgiven will fall on their faces, every tongue confessing He is Lord and every knee bowing in belated acknowledgement that He is King. As individuals, however, we always have the option to turn to Him and acknowledge His sovereignty over creation, and over our souls until the moment we breathe our last! If you repent, and make Him your Lord, when you face Him, you will be able to stand, His forgiveness and love holding you up.

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Posted in australia floods, end of days, end time, end time. prophecy, julia gillard, pre-tribulation rapture

Is there a connection between Australia electing an atheist PM and their current woes?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Brisbane suburbs, Australia’s third largest city, evacuated!
“Cars and pedestrians were swept away last night when a ‘super rainstorm’ sent water raging through the streets of Toowoomba, west of Brisbane. At least eight people were killed and 72 were missing following the flash floods. Anna Bligh, Queensland’s state premier, said: ‘This has been a night of extraordinary events…. Yesterday’s events brought the overall death toll in Queensland since the two-week-old flood crisis started to 18. Entire towns have been swamped, more than 200,000 people affected, and coal and farming industries virtually shut down. Brisbane Mayor Campbell Newman said some 6,500 homes, businesses and properties would be flooded within the city’s borders by Thursday. … Gary McGowan, a businessman who lives and works in a western suburb of the city, said: ‘It’s taking on new proportions and getting worse by the minute.’

The Wivenhoe Dam’s ability to provide expansive flood protection to the city of Brisbane and surrounding districts was failing today. It is reported that the dam holding back water that protects Brisbane is at 190% of capacity (200% being the limit) and that even with daily water releases of 409,000 megaliters, it is now announced that “the dam could no longer protect the Queensland capital.” Brisbane’s power is out, the flood is predicted to be the worst in 118 years, and the entire city is now bracing.

An anonymous commenter on yesterday’s post regarding the sudden flooding at Toowoomba, shared the following: “Toowoomba is on a mountain; on the Great Dividing Range (a mountain range that extends from Queensland to Victoria). If you can be flooded up there, where are you safe? (what a challenge to our pride, when we cannot rely on common sense, our gold bars or our infrastructure to save us from the unexpected). The authorities weren’t prepared for this because it happened so fast, with rain causing flash floods in Toowoomba’s streets then raging down the valley beneath, demolishing everything in its path. Ipswich and Brisbane are bracing for the highest flooding since 1974.”

The commenter continued: “Brisbane suburbs are being evacuated, and the flood isn’t expected to peak there for two more days. It’s still raining. After ten years of drought, which devastated major farm production, we are now enduring floods that have washed away crops and good farm soil over vast areas. This means farmers losing incomes yet again, and food prices will soar Australia wide. With the amount of topsoil being washed away it will take a long, long time to recover. Queensland’s mines are also underwater. This will affect exports. Unprecedented quantities of rain water are being washed into the sea. The disaster isn’t over by a long shot.”

“Things are changing so fast, the Queensland Premier is holding press briefings every 2 hours. The rain is extending into New South Wales, with residents of several coastal towns warned to seek higher ground. In developed countries like Australia, we cannot imagine famine or other devastation even when we have natural disasters. While we are accustomed to major bush fires and droughts followed by major floods, we have enjoyed efficient primary production and transport systems so we can rely on fresh food supplies from long distances away. Not any more. Roads are destroyed. Rail lines are gone. Nobody knows the extent of infrastructure damage but we expect it to be severe. World wide, I am watching the birth pangs, especially the destruction of food security. Fires, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, locusts… Truly we need to rely on the LORD because we cannot rely on ourselves anymore. Please pray for Australia and for everywhere else on the planet as we realise how little control we really have over anything. Even so, as Jesus said, it’s time to look up!”

From Toowoomba to Brisbane it is 78 miles.

Now for the biblical exhortation about these events. There are consequences for the things we do. Most people accept that. If you speed on the roads, you get a ticket (or are in an accident). If you are late to work every day you will get fired. If you kill someone, you go to jail. If you don’t study, you fail the class. On the earth, our choices to take certain actions in employment, legally, educationally, and morally,  have outcomes. But people seem to believe that taking spiritual actions have no consequences. People think that they can die in their sins and that they will go to heaven anyway. They think they can deny God but expect Him to be a friend when you knock on heaven’s door. It doesn’t work like that.

I’ve been looking at the ruin Australia is becoming and I wonder what is going on there, spiritually. They have had devastating droughts, biblical plagues of locusts, and now floods that are wrecking everything from industry to infrastructure farming to lives. When I connect the world events to the bible I do it this way: I look at the record of His words and actions (bible) and I see what He has done in the past. Then I look and see what He has promised to do in the future. I draw a mental line and that becomes my benchmark.

In the past, God has always judged for atheism: “For the LORD brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “There is no truth or mercy, Or knowledge of God in the land.” (Hosea 4:1)

In the past and in the future, He judges for worshiping false idols: “The names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests— Those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops; [astrology/Queen of Heaven worship] Those who worship and swear oaths by the LORD, But who also swear by Milcom…” (Zephaniah 4b-5b). This worship on the house-tops individualized the public idolatry; it was a rebellion against God, family by family; a sort of family-prayer of idolatry.

He judges for faithlessness: “Their heart is faithless; Now they must bear their guilt The LORD will break down their altars And destroy their sacred pillars. Surely now they will say, “We have no king, For we do not revere the LORD.” (Hosea 10:2).

Note that the LORD was judging a nation for their faithlessness, paganism, and apostasy. Individuals are judged for rejecting God but when that rejection becomes institutionalized as a national governmental decision or becomes so widespread it is effectively an entire nation’s outlook, it is another matter entirely. He warns, then He judges. Always.

Australia faced a choice in August 2010. A federal election was held on Saturday, 21 August 2010 for members of the 43rd Parliament of Australia. The incumbent centre-left Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister Julia Gillard defeated the opposition centre-right Liberal/National Coalition led by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, after Labor formed a minority government with the support of an Australian Greens MP and three independent MPs. They chose Gillard. Gillard is an avowed atheist. When she was sworn in to her office, she refused to place her hand on the bible or utter any oath to God. [Left, Atheist’s symbol]  This news excerpt is from last July 2010:

“In endorsing Tony Abbott as his preferred PM, Pastor Nalliah wrote on his website last week: ”Ms Gillard is anti-God, pro-abortion, has no Christian moral values and the list goes on. On the other hand Mr Tony Abbott is openly Christian, pro-life and has very good moral values.”

Australia chose a Prime Minister but they also chose someone to lead the nation who is the embodiment of God-rejection. They chose to reject God as a state and as a nation. If the electors thought that selecting an atheist over a God-fearing man has no effect, they were wrong. This choice has consequences.

This Brisbane Times article asked: “Will atheism spell trouble for Gillard?” Yes. But it spells trouble for the nation, too.

“Ever since Ms Gillard declined to put her hand on the Bible when she was sworn in as PM, Australia’s religious and spiritual folk of all persuasions have been praying for, pondering the nature of and, at least in one case, damning her soul. But if Ms Gillard is damned, she will have plenty of company. In the 2006 census, one in five people said they had no religion.

Ms Gillard accepted an invitation from “Melbourne witch and high priestess Lizzy Rose into their magic circle to speak about ”her intentions of where she is taking the country”. Ms Rose says her divinations ”will prove to us whether Julia is going to govern through ego or through her heart space”. Did you know that Wicca is one of the fastest growing religions in Australia?[Left, Wicca pentacle]

Do they not think all this will have a consequence? Lawlessness always has a consequence. You kill someone, you go to jail. Well, paganism, divination, witchcraft, atheism and faithlessness are also lawlessness. God, being the Highest Judge, and Jesus, being given the authority to Judge at God’s right hand, will render a verdict! Right now He is warning us in the world, and it seems He is pointedly warning the residents of Australia. Soon He will come to judge the whole world. As devastating as these droughts, locusts, and floods in Oz are, they are a picnic compared to what is coming.

Choices have consequences. Pray that yours will be to choose Jesus! He will forgive you of your law-breaking. He will clean you from the taint of sin. He will enfold you into His kingdom as a full citizen, Priest, and King! He is waiting. He is speaking. Please listen.
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Posted in end of days, end time, hole punch cloud, pre-tribulation rapture, prophecy, signs in the sky

Signs in the sky: triple hole punch clouds in SC

Posted on by elizabethprata

Spaceweather “TRIPLE PUNCH HOLE CLOUDS: “I’ve lived by the sea for many years, but never seen anything like this,” reports Wesley Tyler of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. “On Friday, Jan. 7th, there were three punch hole clouds in the same place.” He grabbed his camera and recorded the phenomenon:

In Oct. 2009, a really REALLY weird cloud appeared over Moscow, and the scientific response was that it was a hole punch cloud. At that time, I posted NASA’s explanation of what hole punch clouds are and how they form, leaving it up to the reader as to whether the Moscow cloud was indeed a hole punch or not. I’ll post the NASA explanation of hole punch clouds again, and again leave it up to you as to discerning the odds of the rare hole punch cloud appearing at all, never mind in triplicate…

NASA: “What could create a huge hole in the clouds? Such a hole, likely hundreds of meters across, was photographed last month from a driveway near Mobile, Alabama, USA. Very unusual to see, hole-punch clouds like this are still the topic of meteorological speculation. A leading hypothesis holds that the hole-punch cloud is caused by falling ice-crystals. The ice-crystals could originate in a higher cloud or be facilitated by a passing airplane exhaust. If the air has just the right temperature and moisture content, the falling crystals will absorb water from the air and grow. For this to happen, the water must be so cold that all it needs is a surface to freeze on. The moisture lost from the air increases the evaporation rate from the cloud water droplets so they dissipate to form the hole. The now heavier ice crystals continue to fall and form the more tenuous wispy cloud-like virga seen inside and just below the hole. Water and ice from the virga evaporates before they reach the ground.”

One of the end time signs are: “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.” (Luke 21:25)

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Posted in australia, end of days, end time, end time. prophecy, inland tsunami, pre-tribulation rapture

The terrible flooding in Oz continues, PM calls it "an inland tsunami"

Posted on by elizabethprata

Goodness, the language in the usually staid news outlet BBC News is breathless and aghast!

“A massive deluge overwhelmed Toowoomba, a city west of the state capital Brisbane, without warning. Cars were swept away by the torrent of water. State Premier Anna Bligh called the flash floods Queensland’s “darkest hour” since the flood crisis began. “The event that started in Toowoomba can only be described as a complete freak of nature, an extraordinary deluge that almost came out of nowhere,” the Australian Broadcasting Corporation quoted her as saying. “What we have here in Queensland tonight is a very grim and desperate situation.”

The following video is from Australian Broadcasting:

Australia’s third-biggest city under threat from deadly flooding and inland tsunami.
“Australia’s third-largest city is under threat and the nation is bracing for a heartbreaking death toll after an unprecedented flood crisis delivered its most savage blow yet: an “inland instant tsunami” that swept away everything in its path, claiming at least four lives.”

Pray for Australia!

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Posted in end of days, end time, pre-tribulation rapture, prophecy

Another mass bird death: this time in Karacabey Turkey

Posted on by elizabethprata

In Turkey mass killing birds [google translated from Russian]
“In Turkey, there was a case of an unexplained mass deaths of birds. Dead starlings found residents of the county Karacabey in Bursa province. Promptly reported the incident to local authorities launched an investigation of the incident. Experts are currently conducting the necessary tests. However, while they failed to establish the cause of death of starlings.”

The UK Telegraph grapples with the facts of these worldwide events and explores the spiritual side of it. They do so incorrectly, but still, attempts to reasonably explore whether these mass bird and fish and animal deaths really harbinger the end of days is always a worthy discussion-.

Aflockalypse now: on a wing and a prayer
Were sinister wildlife deaths around the globe foretold in the Bible, asks Philip Sherwell – or just foul play?
But last week, it found itself at the centre of a frenzy of doomsday prophecies and conspiracy theories after some 5,000 dead blackbirds — roughly one for each resident – rained down from the night skies on New Year’s Eve. That was strange enough. But mass deaths of thousands of birds and millions of fish were also reported elsewhere in Arkansas, in nearby states, and finally worldwide, from Scandinavia to the South Pacific. As the world wondered whether celestial or terrestrial factors were at play, the commuter town of Beebe, 35 miles north-east of the state capital, Little Rock, was struggling to recover from its “aflockalypse”. For those outside at about 11pm on New Year’s Eve, it proved a terrifying experience as dead and dying creatures crashed down on to roofs, roads and gardens. The carnage looked even grimmer in daylight…. For the apocalyptically inclined, the answer was obvious. Some Christian fundamentalists claimed the end was nigh, finding biblical justification in Hosea 4:1-3, which reads: “Because of this the land dries up, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea are swept away.” That the birds fell from the sky in the southern Bible Belt, where Old Testament plagues of frogs and locusts are often viewed as part of a creationist account of history, only fuelled such interpretations.”

The article ends with the usual conclusions- that mass animal die-offs happen all the time, that because of the instant nature of our information delivery we are just hearing about it more, and the birds got scared and flew into things. However, as the die-offs continue, that explanation will less and less pass the straight-face test, and people will search for an answer. As always, the answer is JESUS. He loves you, He wants none to perish, He knows everything that is in your heart, and loves you anyway. “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matthew 6:29-31). What comfort!

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Posted in end of days, end time, loughner, pre-tribulation rapture, prophecy

Alleged Tucson shooter, Loughner, may have been a devil worshiper

Posted on by elizabethprata

Sad news regarding alleged Tuscon shooter Jared Loughner. Here is an excerpt from the NY Daily News:

Source

“A sinister shrine reveals a chilling occult dimension in the mind of the deranged gunman accused of shooting a member of Congress and 19 others. Hidden within a camouflage tent behind Jared Lee Loughner’s home sits an alarming altar with a skull sitting atop a pot filled with shriveled oranges. A row of ceremonial candles and a bag of potting soil lay nearby, photos reveal. Experts on Sunday said the elements are featured in the ceremonies of a number of occult groups. Investigators have focused on Loughner’s online anti-government ramblings as the chief motivation for the shooting Saturday of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). The discovery of the shrine raises the possibility that Loughner, 22, may have been driven by other forces.”

When the shooting began, people immediately blamed Sarah Palin’s web page which had political targets on it. Then people blamed liberals, then they blamed conservatives, the tea party, and the guns. As a matter of fact, there is a gun control bill in Congress today, already. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY readies gun control bill.

People want to make sense of the world, and one way to make sense of it is to place blame, personalize, and then process it through the filter of our own prejudice, experience, and emotion. But the one place to lay blame is never spoken of: sin and satan who is the father of it. His influence on the world is more dramatic than people give him ‘credit’ for. Satan perverts the Scripture, he opposes God’s work. He hinders the gospel. He works lying wonders. And he roams up and down upon the earth looking for someone to devour.

He is invisible, so it is natural for unbelievers to dismiss him and his effect on the world. It is they who are under his sway, though. He who is not for Jesus is against Jesus (Luke 11:23) and are therefore one of the devil’s children. (1 John 5:19)

But Jesus came to us to break that bondage. The Son of God came to destroy these works of the Devil. (1 John 3:8). Praise Him for loving us, and giving us the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit to resist the devil and his influence. If you submit to God and resist the devil he will flee from you! (James 4:7; Eph 6:13; 1Peter 5:9).

God knows the devil and his angels and He also knows what we are capable of. So God told us “not to be ignorant of the schemes, or the plans, or the stratagems, or the tricks of Satan.” (2 Cor 2:11). In his sermon, “Satan: How Does He Operate?” John MacArthur wrote, “It’s amazing that even those who claim to worship Satan are really not worshiping the Satan that exists, but a manufactured Satan that Satan himself uses to trap men. He is a deceiver.” God told us to repent and receive the Spirit, that being the best way to resist the devil and his schemes. He also told us not to practice divination, soothsaying, witchcraft, or to worship false gods and idols. All these are an invitation for the deceiver to enter the heart and mind and eventually drag a person down to bottomless depths of madness. By the way, I HIGHLY recommend the MacArthur sermon series on satan. If, as Paul said, we should not be ignorant, then please take some time to educate yourself or to refresh your knowledge of satan and his schemes. The link above is a good place to start

I am upset that mass shootings like this happen in the world and in our nation. I am saddened that an aunt can’t even safely take her niece to a political function without the child being killed for it. I am aghast at the amount of violence and evil in the world. I hope Mr Loughner gets justice, and swiftly. But I’m also compassionate over him. He is an example of what the devil can do to men’s hearts – and minds. The perversion of thoughts in that young man’s head were twisted beyond belief.

If you are going to blame someone, blame satan, and then accept God. God is pure, holy, loving, and willing to receive sinners unto Himself. Come home to Jesus, and dwell safely in HIS arms.

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Posted in end of days, end time, end time. prophecy, pre-tribulation rapture

Two of the animal kills sites had "a strange cloud" present

Posted on by elizabethprata

This last week I’ve been awestruck at the amount of spiritually spooky events happening. The dead birds falling from the sky and the fish washing up on beaches all over the world are definitely freaky. I mused long and hard over the plight of mothers in Beebe Arkansas who saw the birds littering their bushes, their streets, and their roads and then were terrified when hazmat vans rolled up and fully suited men walked up and down the street picking up the birds. What must have gone through their minds? Did they wonder, ‘Should I get my children and evacuate?’ ‘Are they a hazard to my health?’ ‘What is happening?’

Thailand bird-kill in orchard

I mused further on the description of the dead doves in Faenza Italy: “There are certainly many hundreds, probably thousands, the collared dove who are dying at this moment in Faenza. They are in heaps in the flower beds, crushed by machinery in the streets, horribly hung from trees like Christmas balls. Over all a mystery. Inside the beak, in some animals, the staining was of a strange blue,” and thought to myself, gracious sakes alive! That is heart-breaking! I’ve written before about the mental state of people in attempting to grapple with events that are completely outside the realm of our experience and outside our ability to understand. As faith wavers, as love grows cold, the brakes on our sinful nature will be unleashed and people will increasingly snap.

Thailand bird kill in Orchard

I drove to church this morning with these matters on my mind. I mused on Ezekiel and Revelation on the LORD’S warning of how sins pile up. I pondered the Hosea and Zephaniah scriptures that show the LORD’S work in judging and sweeping the land of birds and fish. And as I parked and walked to the side door, this greeted me:

I had actually passed it and when I went into the Sunday School room, my friend said “Did you see the dead bird by the door?” I rushed out and saw the little thing, toes up, and went “awww”. Then I went “Oh My Goodness!”

Now most likely this juvenile hawk simply flew into the glass breezeway and fell down dead. But in thinking of the events far away, they were brought home to me in vivid detail. If I was moved, then freaked, by one dead bird, how must have the people of Beebe Arkansas felt when upwards of 8000 fell on them?? How must the residents of Faenza have felt when thousands of dead doves fall stiffly to the ground? It IS freaky, moving, disconcerting, and upsetting to see dead animals, especially vulnerable ones like baby hawks or doves.

In researching these things today, there are two comments that pricked up my ears. One was my already-posted comment from the Russian Wildlife expert discussing the 12,000 antelope kill. He said that there had been an earlier saiga antelope kill in another district, and there, “a strange white cloud” had been seen.

In the Beebe Arkansas 5,000 bird kill, the one that burst this entire issue onto the national and global consciousness, it is now being reported that weather radar captured a “strange cloud” that was NOT precipitation nor was it hail. The “cloud” did not move, as normal clouds do. Weather radar experts simply do not know what the cloud was. Here is the news spot about it:

Radar spots strange cloud where birds died 

In the bible, God comes in a cloud, and a cloud symbolizes the Spirit. Yahweh’s Presence and Glory: “The metaphoric and symbolic uses of clouds are many, and furnish some of the most powerful figures of Scripture. In the Old Testament, Yahweh’s presence is made manifest and His glory shown forth in a cloud. The cloud is usually spoken of as bright and shining, and it could not be fathomed by man: “Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through” (Lam 3:44). Yahweh Himself was present in the cloud (Ex 19:9; 24:16; 34:5) and His glory filled the places where the cloud was (Ex 16:10; 40:38; Nu 10:34); “The cloud filled the house of Yahweh” (1 Ki 8:10). In the New Testament we often have “the Son of man coming on” or “with clouds” (Mt 24:30; 26:64; Mk 13:26; 14:62; Lk 21:27) and received up by clouds (Acts 1:9). The glory of the second coming is indicated in Rev 1:7 for “he cometh with the clouds” and “we that are alive …. shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord” and dwell with Him (1 Thess 4:17). 2. Pillar of Cloud: The pillar of cloud was a symbol of God’s guidance and presence to the children of Israel in their journeys to the promised land. The Lord appeared in a pillar of cloud and forsook them not (Neh 9:19). They followed the guidance of this cloud (Ex 40:36; Ps 78:14).” There are more definitions of how clouds are used actually and symbolically at the link above.

Just sayin’.

Pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ, and pray for our neighbors who do not know Christ as these events continue to unfold.

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Posted in end of days, end time, pre-tribulation rapture, prophecy

The end time is not a downer!

Posted on by elizabethprata

Most people think the end of days is a downer. It’s not. The last days assuredly are a downer for non-believers, and trust me, true Christians mourn over the wasted spiritual opportunity and the massive loss of lives that are to come. As each day grows closer to the time when our Savior redeems us and leaves the rest to their fate, it gets easier to mourn over what will happen to the millions and even billions of non-believers that have closed their hearts to Jesus.

But amongst ourselves, we see Him coming, and we hear His footsteps. We listen for the trumpet. And as we do, we see His work in the world. God’s work is always good!

Even as the doves rain down on Faenza, and blackbirds on Beebe, Arkansas, and all the other places the birds have been falling dead down to the ground, it is good. Even as miles and miles of fish go belly-up in China, South Carolina, New Zealand, it is good. How can it be good, you ask?

Because I see it this way: every end time sign Jesus sends is a marker of His constancy of justice. He judges sin. He always has, He always will. I take enormous comfort in His constancy and His eternal attribute of Judge.

With every dead bird that falls, with every fish that dies, I see His sovereign control over all of creation. He made the world, He cursed the world, He will judge the world, and in the end, He will restore the world! He is in control, because He is the Maker, the Creator, the King!

With every sign that sparks fear or awe of consternation, I take comfort in His patience. That He doesn’t judge us now, this instant, is a wonderful testament to His love. With each indicator of His increasing wrath, I take joy that His promises will be fulfilled. He warns, He shakes us out of our apathy, but His long-suffering patience is to be praised!

The end time is the final punctuation mark that began in Genesis 1. It is the fulfillment of all that He has shown Himself to us as, and is the finalization of all that He allows us to be. It is the culmination of all the ages, the point toward which we have been longing ever since the Fall. Judgment Day is supreme in His Plan, with the exception of the death of Jesus on the cross, the moment that allows the rest to occur.

These end times are a magnificent display of the constancy of His justice, His continual sovereignty over creation, the comfort of His patience, the joy in fulfilled promises, and the final punctuation on our hearts as the Redeemed. How can these days NOT be good?

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Posted in animal deaths, dead birds, end of days, end time, fish kill, pre-tribulation rapture, prophecy

More animal deaths: fish in China, saiga antelope in Kazakhstan

Posted on by elizabethprata

BBC News reports: Mystery over mass antelope deaths in Kazakhstan
A mystery disease has killed more than 12,000 saiga antelope in Kazakhstan. Conservationists are warning that the mass deaths could spell disaster for the saiga, which is already an endangered species. The figure could account for up to a quarter of the global population of the species. “No one can figure out what’s happened. We see dead animals concentrated in a certain area.” A lung disease may be to blame. “The government is baffled.” It is noted in the video that this phenomenon happened in another district, “where a strange white fog was seen.”

In China yesterday, wholesale death on a large scale. Here is news, Google translated from Chinese: “Jiaxing City, about 2.5 millions kg of fish aquatic products wholesale death”
“The day before yesterday morning, is located in Jiaxing Economic Development Zone, integrated logistics park’s aquatic products wholesale market, almost all of the fishmongers have suffered heavy losses – they just wholesale to the number of sudden mass mortality of fish. Even more surprising is that the same group of fish, the river side of the river with the market almost all the deaths raised deposit, with the water the fish are kept safe and sound support.” The translation seems to be saying that all the fish in the fishmongers’ tanks died.  Apparently, as fishmongers arrived to their stalls, they saw that all the fish were dead. “said the fish market in the large-scale emergence of unnatural death. Police rushed to the aquaculture market.” Further, “After the accident, the environmental protection department of Jiaxing City staff quickly rushed to the scene, taking the water samples for testing, yesterday, the reporter learned that, after testing, the environmental protection department did not find water contamination.”

There are also unconfirmed reports of sparrows dead in a Chinese village too, but the video is in Chinese and I can’t translate that.

Here is a Google Map of the animal deaths. I can’t vouch for its complete accuracy, but I believe it does show a close-enough picture of what is going on. When you see the map, you’ll know.

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