The introduction to this 7 minute video says that it occurred at 4 in the morning local time. It shows a guy walking along a deep but narrow crack in the ground in Seagi Gulistan, Pakistan, this morning. He is speaking breathlessly and excitedly, but since the language is in the local dialect with no translation, I do not have confirmation of what he is saying. I am making an assumption that since he is taking the time to walk the length of it and to speak excitedly that the crack was not there at sunset. At the end of the video he pans from the crack to one end, then sweeps back to show a panorama of the other end. Here is a photo of one pan and the other, in case you do not have ability to watch video. No homes appeared to have been impacted by this sudden crack, as it appears to be an unpopulated area. The video is below.
I will keep tabs on this story and if it turns out to be a hoax (how could it??) I will let you know, and if it is reported on in English sometime I will also bring you those details.
Long-time followers of this blog know that I have shown from the bible that the earth will crack up. The verse is a promise from the Lord that the earth will split asunder, in That Day. ( verse source). Other strange and abrupt earth cracks are happening in Africa, Malaysia, Michigan, and Peru. Not to mention the sinkhole scourge. That we are seeing precursors to the eventual crack up is no surprise. You can almost hear the trumpet…
UPDATE: I looked at a map and noticed that this crack appeared 50 miles from Quetta Pakistan. A year ago a volcano erupted in Quetta, which is not notable, except a volcano had never, ever erupted there before. The locals were immediately fearful. More here. Tweethttp://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
In the body of Christ, all are important- even the seemingly small. Are you doubting your importance to Christ and His work? Don’t.
Isaiah 33:23a – “Your rigging hangs loose: The mast is not held secure, the sail is not spread”
I was reading this verse today and it reminded me of something that happened to me some years ago. We were liveaboard yachtsmen then and had sailed from Maine to the Bahamas. We were staying a while in the Bahamas, enjoying the numerous islands, hopping from one to the other. We had made some friends and sailed with them, anchoring at night and socializing over scrabble and rum. On the day of the photo, I and my husband were sailing with our chums on Sea of Abaco. It was a yacht race, and we were aboard their boat.
I’m in the foreground in the yellow shirt
So me and the boat owner’s wife were sitting amidships enjoying the race, looking at the other boats, and chatting. After a few minutes, she said, “Let’s go below and get some water.” We moved to the galley and a second later we heard an enormous crash! The boat shook and rolled! We instantly thought we had run aground, even though the Sea was deep at that location. We scrambled up to the deck only to see that the mast had fallen down! It had crashed down on the spot where we had just been sitting!!
dismasted credit. note, this was not the boat I was on. But the mess was similar.
Again, not our boat, but the sails and rigging dragging in the water is similar
The other owner had fallen into the water and the sails and heavy ropes and rigging were ensnaring his legs, potentially dragging him under. The boat came to a dead stop in the water and we were simply in shock.
A dismasting is one of the most terrible things that can happen to a yachtsman on the water. Fortunately we were half a mile from nearly the only and the best boatbuilding and repair facility in the entire 700 mile chain of islands. The owner guy was a schmoozer and finagled parts from the States in no time and within a week they were on their way. As with any tragedy, we wanted to know why. What did the mast autopsy say?
The cotter pin was gone.
This is a cotter pin:
This is how a cotter pin is used:
A cotter pin is “a metal fastener with two tines that are bent during installation used to fasten metal together, like with a staple or rivet.” (Wikipedia)
A mast and its rigging system is complex, and it relies on the sum of its parts, plus tension, to work. “On a sailing vessel, a forestay, sometimes just called a stay, is a piece of standing rigging which keeps a mast from falling backwards. It is attached either at the very top of the mast, or in fractional rigs between about 1/8 and 1/4 from the top of the mast. The other end of the forestay is attached to the bow of the boat.”
And the cotter pin holds the forestay to the bow. With the cotter pin gone, the tension of the system was disrupted, and at just the right moment, the mast fell backwards.
The first thing you see on a sailing vessel is its mast and sail. It is a beautiful thing, billowing in the wind, doing important work to propel the boat. The next thing perhaps you see is the boat itself, its lines and its beauty. As Alan Jackson sang in “Boats to Build,” it has a “fair curve from a noble plan.”
The next thing you may notice is the stays and shrouds hearing them hum and sing in the wind. You hear the engine, you see the keel when heeling in a stiff breeze. You never notice the cotter pins.
Isaiah 33:23a – “Your rigging hangs loose: The mast is not held secure, the sail is not spread”
We Christians make up a body. Every body part has a function. If we’re serious about our walk with Jesus, we want to make a difference. We see great evangelists opening hearts to the Spirit and subsequent salvation. We see missionaries making great sacrifices. We listen to pastors preach as if they were on fire, and altars filled with weeping responders. We see teachers publishing book after book, with eager readers excitedly discussing new points of view.
We never notice the cotter pins. But if the pin is gone, the mast falls down. It has its part in the system, and every body part is important to Jesus, the Head of the Body. If you have been feeling sad, like you’re insignificant, like you don’t make a difference, YOU DO. Tweethttp://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
In Ezekiel 38:1-2, 6,8-9 we read: “Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him…Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer and all its troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops—many people are with you. … In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely. You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.”
Chapters 38 and 39 of Ezekiel depict a climactic battle in which a confederation of armies sweep across Israel and almost decimates the nation. (Russia, Iran, Turkey/Armenia, Northern Africa including Libya and Ethiopia and environs, Saudi Arabia. It is climactic because it is at the moment of destruction that God Himself opens the veil between heaven and earth and personally saves Israel. It is this moment when Israel realizes how much she needs her God and returns to her old Covenant with Him. (Ez 38:18-23; Ez 39:7;22).
When the Soviet Union collapsed and laid low for so many years it seemed that the Russian Bear was vanquished. The US was often stated to be the only global superpower. Oh, what a difference a few years make, but are as nothing in the timing of the Lord. Russia is back, and she is growling. In these news excerpts, notice how her growls are consistent with activities she is prophesied to take part in during the Tribulation:
With Russia’s $650 billion rearmament plan, the bear sharpens its teeth “Moscow – The graying bear is getting a make-over. Russia’s military is launching its biggest rearmament effort since Soviet times, including a $650 billion program to procure 1,000 new helicopters, 600 combat planes, 100 warships, and 8 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. Analysts say Russia, while already the world’s fifth-largest military spender, needs strong conventional forces to reduce its overreliance on its aging Soviet-era nuclear missile deterrent. Valentin Rudenko, director of the independent Interfax-Military News Agency, says it could create “a whole new ballgame.” “For about two decades we’ve had no real modernization, at least not like what’s being proposed now,” he says. “Russia will finally have a modern, top-level armed forces that are capable of protecting the country.” [my note– Or invading Israel…]
Your Jewish News: Russia launches universal ID and payment card. “Imagine a piece of plastic that gets you a doctor’s appointment, pays your bills, allows you to rent a car or buy a plane ticket and even get Moscow registration faster than the sham ads in the Moscow metro. President Dmitry Medvedev promised Monday that three years from now all Russians will have this magic card. He gave the government till May to make final calculations of the funds necessary to introduce the universal electronic card, or UEC, for all citizens and urged banks to not take advantage of card users at the meeting of the commission on modernization and technological development of the economy Monday.”
The Gog-Magog battle seems to be sparked by the question in Ezekiel 38: 13- “Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all its villages will say to you, ‘Have you come to capture spoil? Have you assembled your company to seize plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to capture great spoil?'” We do not know what the ‘great spoil’ is that Russia and her allies seek to plunder, but it is reasonable to speculate that it could be oil. Israel knows the engine of the world is run by oil and that she, her neighbors, and Russia possess it. An article in the conservative Jewish newspaper Haaretz this week was headlined: “What about a revolution in oil dependency?” and it is noted,
“The repeated warnings that the world economy is relying on a dwindling resource lying deep down in the earth, underneath unstable states, are proving true before our very eyes. Global oil consumption is now at a record peak of about 88 million barrels a day. The two largest producers are Russia and Saudi Arabia, which together supply about one-quarter of the market. The largest proven reserves are also in Saudi Arabia. Only that country has surplus production capacity, by which it is able to take up the slack in the event that one of the smaller producers is in trouble – as is the case now in Libya. All the other exporters are pumping oil at their full capacity.”
So oil is in short supply. In Israel, natural gas is too:
On March 3, 2011 the government of Israel and the Delek Gas company were in talks about how to deliver the bounty of gas the company had found late last year. Everything was rosy. “Israel’s production of natural gas is set to soar in coming years following the discovery of two fields in the eastern Mediterranean that could provide the country with its natural gas needs for decades and even make it an energy exporter.” The two fields are named Tamar and Leviathan. Then on March 5th we read this:
YNet News: Israel’s natural gas supply cut off “Israel has been cut off of its natural gas supply until further notice. A malfunction occurred in the Yam Tatis reservoir which is currently the sole gas supplier for Israeli power plants. It remains unclear when the malfunction will be fixed.”
A few hours later we read in Arutz Sheva/Israel National News that “No Natural Gas in Israel Until Further Notice” The Delek gas company says it’s trying to find the problem, but whatever it is that went wrong at sea over the Sabbath, it has cut off Israel’s natural gas supply. The “Yam Thetis” natural gas supplier underwent maintenance at its offshore gas deposit today, expecting to renew the supply immediately after. But it didn’t work out that way, and while experts seek out the source of the problem, Israel remains gasless until further notice – hours, days, or weeks away. The Israel Electric Company will continue to supply electricity, but it will be fueled only by diesel fuel (soler) and mazut – causing ecological and other problems. It is thought that the problem might possibly be a computer fault. The gas deposit is jointly owned by Noble Energy, Delek, and Isramco. The works today were designed to prepare to increase the supply of gas to the electric company, in light of the uncertainty in the Egyptian gas market. Egypt’s EMG company, which halted its gas supply to Israel a month ago, continues to waffle on when the supply will be renewed. Since 2008, Egypt has supplied Israel with 40% of its gas needs, used for 20% of Israel’s electricity.”
In energy news elsewhere, in the UK, electricity is predicted to be the issue-
UK Telegraph: Era of constant electricity at home is ending, says power chief Electricity consumers in the UK will need to get used to flicking the switch and finding the power unavailable, according to Steve Holliday, CEO of National Grid, the country’s grid operator. … “The days of permanently available electricity may be coming to an end, the head of the power network said yesterday.” Under the so-called “smart grid” that the UK is developing, the government-regulated utility will be able to decide when and where power should be delivered, to ensure that it meets the highest social purpose. Governments may, for example, decide that the needs of key industries take precedence over others, or that the needs of industry trump that of residential consumers. Governments would also be able to price power prohibitively if it is used for non-essential purposes.” (other source, Global Warming Policy Network)
What will happen when the oil/gas/electricity becomes scarce? I can hardly venture to guess the riots and unrest then. It becomes easier to envision a Psalm 83 battle, Isaiah 17:1 concluded and the Gog-Magog war on the horizon.
“An online event intended to let China’s mistresses celebrate their status and air grievances quickly descended into a slanging match yesterday. Mistresses were joined by cheating husbands and wronged wives in an online chatroom for the inaugural “Festival for Mistresses.” The time and date chosen – 3:30pm on March 3 – was significant, as in Chinese mistresses are nicknamed “Little Three,” as they are the third person in a married man’s relationship. However, despite being dubbed a festival, good cheer was in short supply. … As levels of abuse escalated and chaos reigned, the moderator was forced to warn participants to behave. … Sister Three hoped the event would let people know more about mistresses, help them shed their scandalous image and gain social and legal status. Some mistresses complain China’s marriage law discriminates against them, giving all advantages to wives.”
Who didn’t see that coming. Anyone? Anyone?
One of the conditions the Lord said would be prevalent in the world just before His second coming would be that the world would be like it was in the Days of Noah. Jesus said: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Mt 24:40).
What were the days of Noah like?
“Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Gen 6:5) Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.” (Gen 6:11-13)
The people were corrupt, all flesh was corrupt, all the time. They were cavorting, flaunting their immorality in front of God. Why? They thought they were secure. With no thought to their eternal destiny, they hedonistically lived only for the moment, squeezing maximum pleasure into it.
But if you are the only person in a crowd acting immorally, it is not a comfortable situation. The goal, then, is to get other people to act like you do, or at the least, to get them to accept it. Just read Genesis 19:4-5 for another example of societal immorality and pressure to conform to the evil. The situation at Lot’s house in Sodom also merits another mention by Jesus (Luke 17:29-30) as a condition we will see at the end of days.
Back to today, being a Little Three in a marriage breaks God’s Law, period. But one of the goals of the Little Three group wants is to “shed their scandalous image and gain social and legal status.” I’ll say it again, sharing a bed with a married man is against God’s law. But that doesn’t stop all flesh from corrupting their way upon the earth and all thoughts end up as evil continually. They expend energy trying to normalize adultery. They felt secure in their sins, so secure, that they noticed nothing until the flood waters came. They noticed nothing until the burning sulphur rained down. They will notice nothing until the fire from heaven comes.
If you are wondering what the eternal consequences of your sins are, they are death. But the eternal consequences of Jesus’ death on the cross is that you do not have to die. You can live! He paid the price that God exacts for sin. He is Holy and His must render justice, and He did. Jesus died as the blood sacrifice for the immorality you perpetrate, for the sins you enjoy. If you are queasy about your thought-life, if you are wondering about the emptiness of your morality, if you hate your speech when you gossip or slander, then wonder no more. Jesus can answer those questions and He will forgive everything if you ask Him to! He will embrace you, clean you of sin and welcome you to His home. Be mindful, you will be outside of the crowd, standing against the current. For the time being. But for eternity, you will be as one with the Holy God who loves you.
But if you are a mistress celebrating your sins and pushing for acceptance and status through them, you will lose it all. Jesus always gives you a choice. He tells you ahead of time. If you don’t listen… they “did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” Tweethttp://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
I totally get Paul’s lament in Romans 7:15: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” Every day I ask the Lord for opportunities to obey. For the most part I do, but sometimes I don’t. I hate that. I love Jesus and I want to make a Kingdom difference, but when He presents something I still balk sometimes. As Paul said, ” don’t understand what I do…”
So Saturday the Spirit said clearly that our church and its people are under attack. I’ve noticed this more lately. The more a Christian steps out, the more the adversary will attack. We are told in these times to expect such attacks. (Ephesians 6:10-18). I was to do my part by prayer walking the church property perimeter before services this Sunday and every Sunday. I thought, hmmm, OK. But when Sunday dawned I started talking myself out of it. I gave all the fleshly excuses, shoes, chest pains, weather, etc, and even convinced myself that wasn’t really what I heard Him say anyway.
Then at church Sunday service He made it evident that there was a lot going on. During the opening hymn singing, a lady spontaneously went forward to the altar to pray. Then more people. When the hymn finished, the Pastor’s wife got up and said that she can’t go two feet in the hallway before someone comes to her beseeching for prayers. There are a lot of serious illnesses, heartaches, and tremendous difficulties facing our families, she said. Everyone is hurting. She said we were obviously under attack.
After the lady had come forward, the Pastor’s wife spoke, she asked the church to pray. About a hundred people came forward and swamped the altar and prayed. I felt terrible I failed to do my part in what the Holy Spirit prompted me to do. I took that opportunity to scoot out the front and do the prayer walk the Spirit has asked me to do.
I don’t have any illusions that I could have prevented any attacks, or that my failure to obey meant things would come crashing down, lol, no delusions of grandeur here. I mean simply that He had asked me to do something, something EASY and ORDINARY: pray and walk, and even at that I still disobeyed! Why do I do that? Why?? I realized that by not obeying I wasn’t hurting myself but as Pastor said, we are all one body. When one part doesn’t work then something else will be impacted or not impacted. That is why I was so upset with myself. My resistance to being used meant that perhaps someone else was not helped.
I am so, so, so sick of sin, in other people of course- isn’t it easier to hate sin in others? lol, but I truly hate it worse in myself. I hate my sin!!! I’m convinced that the bible’s promises of entering His rest (Hebrews 4:1) do not mean rest from labors. We will be doing a lot of work on New Earth and New Jerusalem. I am convinced the verse means rest from our struggles with sin. In our glorified bodies in a sinless world, we will no longer have to guard every thought, control the tongue, fail, confess, obey, and repeat the fleshly cycle. It’s tiring. I can’t wait for rest. I really can’t.
The best part thought is that He is so present in the world, and so active and alive in us. He is so gracious to accept my repentance, and to bless me afterwards with a peace that He knows my heart (and loves me anyway.) I love Him so much. We have the truest God and the Best God possible. I don’t know why everyone doesn’t follow Him.
Comet Elenin Update HERE ————————————————————- There is a dust-up about Comet Elenin between the Government science sites and the conspiracy fringe sites that I think is pretty interesting. As always, the truth lays somewhere in between.
On NASA’s Ask an Astrobiologist site, there is a pretty cranky disclaimer at the very top: “Special Note: Ask an Astrobiologist has received more than 5000 questions about Nibiru and Doomsday 2012, with more than 400 answers posted. Please read a summary of the answers that have already been posted, view a video on these topics, use the search feature and read the FAQ’s before submitting questions on these topics.”
LOL. Five thousand questions is a lot of questions on the same topic. Obviously it is of concern to the populace. As the end approaches, the lost and the unaware have increasingly turned their interests to events that are depicted in the bible. Though these people deny the bible as the source of truth, they perpetuate the events in their mind, cultures, and discussions through conspiracies and pseudoscience. They refer to Mother Shipton or Nostradamus as originators of these prophesies and quote them as gospel. Planet X or Nibiru is one of these events. How much of what they say about Planet X is true and how much of it is bunk?
The Nibiru collision is a conspiracy-predicted disastrous encounter between the Earth and a large planetary object planet or asteroid, in either a collision or a near-miss in which certain people believe will take place soon. Believers in this doomsday event usually refer to this object as Planet X or Nibiru. According to Wikipedia, “the idea that a planet-sized object could possibly collide with or pass by Earth in the near future is not supported by any scientific evidence and has been rejected as pseudoscience by astronomers and planetary scientists.” However, a large comet was just discovered in late December by Leonid Elenin, an amateur Russian sky watcher, and Comet Elenin as it is now called will zoom between the sun and the earth by fall 2011. Why Wikipedia states so matter of factly that a planet sized object will never pass close to earth is a mystery, because obviously, the appearance of this comet- which was unknown to science before a few months ago- exists and is now classified as a PHO (potentially hazardous object.) The surprise appearance of the comet and its imminent near-passage to our planet has gotten the conspiracy theorists all riled up!
In Babylonian astronomy, Nibiru is a term of the highest point of the ecliptic, i.e. the point of summer solstice, and its associated constellation. Did you notice that the planets, constellations, moons, and most of technology are all named after the demonic/pagan realms? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a planet’s moon named, say, after Moses? Alas, I digress.
“Question: I’ve recently heard about the discovery of comet Elenin, which is scheduled to come close to earth around October-November 2011 – Is it possible it will be an extinction level event? AND Comet Elenin: How close to earth will it get? And can we expect it to cause any damage? AND I have read that Russian scientists are now predicting that asteroid Apophis will impact the Earth April 13 2036 causing terrible damage. I understand that the Russians are planning a mission to stop the asteroid.”
Some people even say that the amateur skywatcher Leonid Elenin’s name is really code for ELE-nin, or extinction level event. See what I mean about the conspiracies?
“ANSWER: Both Comet Elenin and Asteroid Apophis are real, but these concerns about collisions are without foundation. Unfortunately there are a few popular websites that are known for suggesting multiple catastrophes, including popularizing the 2012 hoax. Two that show up in any search for “Comet Elenin” are godlikeproductions and abovetopsecret, both of which predict either a very close pass by Earth or a collision. If instead you consult dependable websites like wikipedia and skyandtelescope you will find that Comet Elenin will come nowhere near the Earth. At its closest (on 10 September 2011) it will be more than 25 million km from our planet.”
Astro-scientists measure celestial distances in our orbit by AU’s, or astronomical units. Initially, Comet Elenin was predicted to pass earth 25 AU’s away from earth. That distance was narrowed to .15 AUs, the 25 million km the Astrobiologist mentioned. How far is .15 AUs in real people distances? 13 million miles. The sun is 92 million miles away. Seems that the guys at abovetopsecret and godlikeproductions were right when they said “very close pass by earth”! Elenin’s debris trail could be rather large so for the people on earth on September when Elenin arrives, it could well be a very bad day. On the other hand, the miss distance could be comfortable and simply put on a good show for backyard astronomers.
My point here is two fold. The Astrobiologist said that people should not depend on conspiracy sites like abovetopsecret for their information, but dependable sites like Wikipedia. Wikipedia? Really?? I about choked on my corn flakes when I read that. Wikipedia is just as liberally biased as any site, so biased, that Conservapedia, an English-language wiki project written from an American conservative Christian point of view was created to present more accurate information than Wikipedia.
But relying on government sites for information is just as fraught with error, bias, and lies. The United States Geological Survey has repeatedly stated that earthquakes are not on the increase, despite their own data telling the opposite story. And do we really think NASA would alert the populace if a planet-sized asteroid was going to crash into earth in September? Of course not. Are the Government’s unemployment statistics accurate and presented clearly? No. The data is manipulated. John Williams started Shadowstats to present the same data that the government does and calculates it the way the government used to, before things got so bad the government started hiding data. And when was the last time anything really helpful came out of the White House site? The [new] Press Secretary simply refuses to answer any questions these days.
Out of desperation, many people do turn to conspiracy sites, because the information is naked and unfiltered by corporate mainstream media.
The popular blog Death By A Thousand Paper Cuts published a list of the top 80 alternative news-gathering sites on the net. Abovetopsecret and godlikeproductions- the two sites that the Astrobiologist chided us for reading, were in the top five.
What does that tell you. The very fact he mentioned the conspiracy sites lets us know that citizen-led journalism is often-times truer than government or corporation-led news media, and likely really getting on the government’s nerves. Of course, you have to wade through profanity, stupidity, and real conspiracies like reptilians living inside us to get to any nuggets, but many times citizens feel they have to wade through just as much when reading White House-released unemployment statistics or economic news.
My second point is that there is increasingly a difficulty in learning the truth, apart from the bible. There is no need to read conspiracy sites about the Illuminati that want to take over the would to reform it into a New World Order. That is a real event that is described in Chapter 13 of Revelation. There is no need to sift through conspiracies about Nibiru/Planet X because that is described in Revelation 8. There is no need to turn to murky quatrains in Nostradamus to learn about extinction level events that the government is secretly preparing for. The Great Flood was an Extinction Level Event. The Tribulation will be another Extinction Level Event. Three out of four Jews will die in the Tribulation. 2/3 to 3/4 of all earth’s population will die in the Tribulation. All the oceans will die. All the rivers will die. All the islands will die. All the mountains will crumble. That is really an extinction level event! You do not need to read conspiracy sites or read between the lines in Corporate or Government media. It’s all there in the bible. And that’s one book where you can count on the information being true and reliable 1000%, forever!!
All black humor aside, Lebanon is experiencing a terrible fuel crisis:
Lebanon Daily Star: “Rony Rizk pulls up at an empty gas station Thursday and begs station workers to give him just LL5,000 of gasoline. His gas tank was nearly empty when he learned that fuel importers had decided to stop supplying gas stations earlier in the day. The gas station attendant ruefully shakes his head. The station had run out of gasoline at 6 p.m., after cars lined up along much of the length of the Charles Helou highway in order to reach the station. A heated dispute between caretaker Finance Minister Rayya Hassan and caretaker Energy and Water Minister Jibran Bassil triggered the severe fuel shortages Wednesday. Fuel importers have said Bassil’s failure to update gas prices has cost them over $50,000 a day, and they have subsequently decided to halt supplies as a way of pressuring Bassil to release new prices. But some of the disgruntled drivers who lined up at gas stations Wednesday say they have no idea why the country is suddenly out of gas. “I don’t know what’s happened to cause this. All I know is that we’re running out of fuel, and that’s why I’m here,” says Tony Matar, an assistant manager at Hawa Chicken, who had been waiting in a queue at the Medco gas station near Gemmayzeh for nearly half an hour.”
Compounding the problem, “Jordan cuts off electricity supply to Lebanon“: “Jordanian authorities have suspended power supply to Lebanon due to the disruption of regional gas pipelines, according to a statement issued Tuesday by Lebanon’s state-run power company, Electricity du Liban.”
Remember, Lebanon’s government fell in January, caused by Hezbollah cabinet ministers resigning en masse. Their action started the spate of unrest spreading throughout the region. Ever since the Lebanese cabinet fell, the Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati has been working to knit together another coalition government. Political maneuvering is in high gear, as one of the most powerful blocs, the March 14 bloc, is rumored to imminently announce its decision not to participate in a Mikati cabinet. This paves the way for a one-sided, Hizbollah-dominated cabinet.
As the world eyes Libya, Egypt, and Israel remember to keep one eye on Lebanon. The kind of Cabinet they produce may be the last straw for Israel…and the region. Tweethttp://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Slaves I heard an interesting sermon from John MacArthur this week. It got me thinking. It was about being slaves of Christ. You can read, listen to, or download this sermon here. He said that a believer’s true position in Christ has been diluted by the translators’ choice of the word servant and bond-servant for the Greek word doulos. They have consistently translated the word doulos which means slave, as servant. Doesn’t that change the flavor of service to the Lord? Being a servant indicates that we can and do serve Him at our own will and pleasure, and slave means we submit our will to an alien will and then the matter is out of our hands.
The bible is clear in its description that believers are slaves, not servants. In every case where the word doulos is used it means slave, and the New Testament uses it 130 times. We are not servants of Christ, we’re his slaves. Even emphasizing the point in using the word minister, in 1 Corinthians 4:1 Paul said they were ministers of Christ but the Greek word is under-rower. The Roman trireme had three levels and the slaves chained to the oars at the lowest level were under-rowers.
Now, that notion is unpalatable in this “you can do anything” liberated free culture. It is anathema to the promotion of Christianity as a free-ing religion. It is certainly revolting to this generation of ego-driven self-gratification seekers in the secular world. But it is what it is.
The forehead I am reading the bible through and I notice that a well-known phenomenon that will happen at the end of days also happened from the beginning. In the end, Revelation tells us the antichrist will place a mark on the hand or forehead of all who worship him. (Rev 13:15-17). The mark allows people to buy and sell, but its reason for being is not the economy, it is a mark of allegiance and worship of the beast. That the mark allows a person to also participate in the economy is a by-product of its placement on the person.
Jesus also sends an angel to place a mark on the forehead of His 144,000 who evangelize the world. (Rev 7:3-4).
Who brands his slaves? The master. Who puts a mark of ownership on his slaves? The master. Jesus is the ultimate Master and we are His ultimate slaves. That He puts a mark on us should not be surprising. We happily read language in the bible that says ‘we are His’. But when you look at the Greek word for ‘His’ it really means slave, and that’s when people balk. Did you know that ancient Romans marked runaway slaves on the forehead with the letters FUG (for fugitivus)? The notion of marking ownership of those who belong to Him was shown in the bible to have happened from the beginning. And here comes the use of the word forehead again.
In Exodus 28:36-38 we see the LORD instructing Aaron to order a gold plate made, “You shall also make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet: HOLINESS TO THE LORD. And you shall put it on a blue cord, that it may be on the turban; it shall be on the front of the turban. So it shall be on Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel hallow in all their holy gifts; and it shall always be on his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD.”
Deuteronomy 6:7-9 “Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” The symbols mentioned here are phylacteries, a set of small cubic leather boxes painted black, containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah, with leather straps dyed black on one side, and worn by observant Jews during weekday morning prayers. They were in use by the third century BC.
In the bible, forehead is used a lot to show identification with God (or with the antichrist.) We think of forehead as the exterior part of the face above the eyes and under the hairline. But in the bible forehead was used also to indicate what was inside the head. Wayne Blank explains it well. The Bible doesn’t just use the term “forehead” to describe what is physically foremost inside the head, as not just a bodily location, but also what is consciously a heart condition, much more like the term “heart and mind” is used today.
In Ezekiel 9:4: “The LORD said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst.” A mark – literally, “Tau,” the name of the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The old form of the letter was that of a cross. Summary of our true position A slave was exclusively owned by one master. He was expected to demonstrate complete and constant obedience and availability to that master. He was subject to one alien will (because no man can be a slave to two masters) and was completely dependent on his master for everything. All discipline and reward came from that master. Are you uncomfortable with this lifestyle? Well, did you ever pray, “not my will but thine be done”? (Luke 11:1-2; Mt 26:42). Do you love the book of John, reading it well and recommending it heartily? It says in John 5:30 “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” There are many other examples of Jesus reiterating that His will not be done but the Father who sent Him, and as an example to His children to do the same. Yes, we are His children, we are His beloved, we are His bride, all nice, but we are also His slaves.
We use that term so casually today. Teenagers sneer, “What am I, your slave?” We say we slave away at the sale mines. We are slaves to things, like “I’m a slave to…ice cream. We slaved over a hot stove all day. But when we read of our true position in Christ, slave, we balk. “No, not me”, you think.
But we will be slaves to Him throughout all of eternity: Revelation 22:1-4: “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.”
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Israel’s rabbis, and Christian ministers are all saying that the prophesied battle of Gog and Magog will occur soon that the Lord’s arrival on earth is imminent. I find it very interesting that the leaders of the three major religions in the world all feel a similar spiritual burden- that end time prophesies are about to be fulfilled. Let’s see who is saying what, but first, delve into some biblical background for context.
The End Time, End Times, or End of Days is a time period described in the eschatological writings of the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). In Christianity, the End Times are depicted as a time of tribulation that precedes the Second Coming of the Christian saviour who is Jesus who will then usher in the fullness of the Kingdom of God and bring an end to suffering and evil after smiting the rebellious ones (non-believers). In Islam, Yawm al-Qiyāmah “the Day of Resurrection” or Yawm ad-Din “the Day of Judgment” is Allah’s final assessment of humanity. It is preceded by the end of the world. In Judaism the term “End of Days” is taken from the Tanakh, Numbers 24:4, as a reference to the Messianic era and the Jewish belief in the coming of Mashiach and the World to Come. (Summarized by Wikipedia).
IRAN/PERSIA & AHMADINEJAD, In the Gog Magog prophecy of a battle to come described in Ezekiel 38-39, Ezekiel said that Persia, Libya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Turkey Russia and Armenia will surprise attack Israel. It reads: “Persia, Cush (the upper Nile region) and Put (Libya) will be with them, all with shields and helmets, also Gomer (Turkey) with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah (Armenia) from the far north with all its troops—the many nations with you.” (Ez 38:5). They are almost successful in their attack. However, at the very last second when all seems lost, God rescues Israel, visibly and demonstrably. All will know who and how Israel was rescued and it is this demonstration of divine intervention which pulls Israel back into covenant relationship with God. “I will execute judgment on him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’ ” (Ez 38:22-23)
By the end of the battle Israel will be back in old covenant, ‘I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I the LORD am the Holy One in Israel. It is coming! It will surely take place, declares the Sovereign LORD. This is the day I have spoken of.” (Ez 39:7-8). Because of Israel’s recognition of God as the God of their Old Covenant (Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob), it means that by the end of the battle the church is gone, because we represent the new covenant. The last 7 years remaining for the old covenant to be fulfilled will resume. (Daniel 9:25, and see below).
The prophesied seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years to accomplish what the LORD wanted to do with Israel are divided into three distinct periods, to each of which particular events are assigned. The three periods are: – I. Seven weeks, that is, forty-nine years. II.-Sixty-two weeks, that is, four hundred and thirty-four years. III. One week, that is, seven years. It is this last 7 years of concern to us now.
The Shias also believe that the world will end after a 7-year turmoil, that there will be deceiver, that Jesus will return to help the Mahdi as his deputy to force all to convert to Islam. The Shia Muslim end time scenario is exactly the same as Christianity’s, except the exact opposite. Think of their doctrines as being a photographic negative to the picture of Christianity. So, here is what Iran’s leader said today (Iran = Persia) and note how closely it relates to this upcoming Gog-Magog battle:
US, Israel will soon exit Middle East: Ahmadinejad President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday that a new Middle East is being created which would be free of the United States and Israel, as he backed the Arab uprisings but warned Egyptians to be watchful of America’s “friendly face.” “We will soon see a new Middle East materialising without America and the Zionist regime and there will be no room for world arrogance (the West) in it,” Ahmadinejad told the cheering crowds who gathered despite the cold and cloudy weather.
In his fiery style, Ahmadinejad, showed his messianic beliefs on Friday, saying the world was witnessing a revolution managed by Imam Mahdi, the 12th Shiite imam who disappeared as a five-year-old in the 10th century and who Shiites believe would return on the judgment day. “The final move has begun. We are in the middle of a world revolution managed by this dear (12th Imam). A great awakening is unfolding. One can witness the hand of Imam in managing it,” said Ahmadinejad. “Come and take away the Zionist regime which is the source of all crimes… take it away and liberate the region. Free the region and give it to the people and take this regime, which is the child of Satan (the United States), out.”
The Gog Magog battle is a foray of the Muslim coalition to do just that- an attempt to wipe Israel from the earth. That two Iranian warships were allowed through the Suez Canal after 32 years to patrol waters in the Med off Israel is no accident. That missiles are being fired into Gaza as we speak for the first time since the Gaza war is also no accident. The war is coming. Ahmadinejad is right.
Israel’s rabbis say the same thing.
“RABBIS SAY ARAB UNREST SIGNALS MESSIAH COMING SOON” Prominent rabbis from the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox sector have offered their own curious interpretations for the upheaval that is spreading through the Middle East, stating that the events are a clear proof that a higher power is at work. “Recently it appears that there is a powerful effort to destroy and agitate the world of the Torah, through various attempts to prosecute kollels and yeshiva students,” Steinman said. “When you try to agitate the world of the Torah, God agitates the world.” Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, an unconventional Lithuanian leader who is believed to have mystic powers, offered a different explanation. “It is evident that many unnatural things are happening,” he said. “People have come to me and said that it’s ‘Gog and Magog’. We cannot know. But it’s probable that any unrest that God creates shows that the Messiah is coming, and that we must begin to prepare for it and become stronger.”
And finally, Christian leaders also say that the end is nigh and the battle of Gog-Magog is coming. Joel C. Rosenberg commented on the Ynet article above,
“On this, I agree with Rabbi Kanievsky – the War of Gog and Magog is approaching, the Messiah is coming, and we must be prepared and become stronger spiritually as the Lord’s return draws near. That said, I suspect the Rabbi and I disagree on the Messiah’s identity. That’s a good discussion to engage, particularly now. The Hebrew prophets told us the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem Ephratah, would minister to the people living darkness in the region of Galilee, would teach in parables, would do miracles, would suffer and die as a guilt offering for our sins, and then would rise again and His body would not see decay in the grave. What’s more, in Daniel chapter 9 we learn that the Messiah will come, atone for our sins, and be “cut off” before the Second Temple is destroyed and Jerusalem is crushed by the Romans. That means if the Messiah didn’t come before 70 A.D., He is never going to come. I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that our Messiah has come, and that He is coming back, possibly sooner that we realize. Today, we are seeing the type of “uprisings” and “lawlessness” that the Lord Jesus warned in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 would precede His return. What’s more, I believe we are steadily approaching what the Hebrew Prophets called the “Day of the Lord,” the tumultuous events that will lead us right into what Jeremiah called “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7), what Jesus Christ called the “Great Tribulation” (Matthew 24:21), and what the Apostle John described in horrific detail in the Book of Revelation.”
Another prominent Christian leader, Pastor John Hagee also commented this week on the military buildup in the Middle east and the Libyan participation as a precursor to the set up for the Gog Magog battle.
With the globe’s most scholarly and well-versed religious leaders all saying that the tribulation time of judgment and Jesus’ return to the earth is imminent, you pay attention. You know what else? Since the rapture precedes the Tribulation, it must be REALLY imminent. Keep looking up! Tweethttp://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
A shallow quake, especially one that lasts a long time, will cause a tremendous amount of damage. This one did. It was a 6.6 by NZ standards, a 6.3 according to USGS, but it was only 4 feet deep and reverberated for over a minute. A shallow, long lasting quake such as this would have caused more damage than last year’s 7.3.
A twitter commenter said “Watching TV3 live – apocalyptic…lots of car horns, sirens, confused people and the Cathedral has no top”. This videographer said “It’s terrifying.”
This was the first photo posted on Twitpic:
Radio New Zealand reported widespread damage to the city centre, with a church on Durham St collapsed and concrete lifted by up to a metre. A Newstalk ZB reporter in Christchurch said liquefaction was spewing out of the ground at St Albans High School. School kids had to be removed from the fields with liquefaction also spewing from the tennis courts.
the-end-time.org 