A renowned artist depicts Christianity in murals. In this piece, the artist explains his largest commission to date, The Resurrection. He explains his thought process prior to creating it, and then points out his thinking behind each element of the finished product. It will bless you: watch! 🙂
http://downloads.cbn.com/cbnplayer/cbnPlayer.swf?s=/vod/MW131v2_WS
In May it was a rat:
In June it is a fly:
Just sayin’
An obscure book written in 1903 has suddenly resurged into a best seller with a bullet. OK, it’s making the internet rounds, which these days, is the same thing. It is called “Petroleum, Petroleum” and it was written by Austrian Gustav Meyrink. In it Meyrink says (google translate)
“If the oil to the extent in, as far as my calculations are in for 27-29 weeks all oceans of the earth be covered in future for it, and no more rain, as no more water to evaporate – at best it is only then Petroleum rain.” Essentially, the short book says that an oil eruption in the Gulf of Mexico would taint the Gulf and then kill all the seas on earth, changing the climate so that it will not even rain, or if it does, it will be acidy oil rain.
Much is being made of this lately because Meyrink’s prediction seems to so closely match the events that are occurring now in the Gulf. However, he did not get his information from the bible, quite the opposite. He was an occultist.
Meyrink was most famous for his 1914 novel The Golem. The Jewish Virtual Library entry on golem says, “In Jewish tradition, the golem is most widely known as an artificial creature created by magic, often to serve its creator. The word “golem” appears only once in the Bible (Psalms139:16). In Hebrew, “golem” stands for “shapeless mass.” According to tradition, to make a golem come alive, one would shape it out of soil, and then walk or dance around it saying combination of letters from the alphabet and the secret name of God. To “kill” the golem, its creators would walk in the opposite direction saying and making the order of the words backwards.” Meyrink was experimenting with kabbalistic and Tarot-induced mystical experiences when he wrote “Petroleum Petroleum” and later “The Golem”. Later as Meyrink became more proficient in the mysticism to which he was drawn, he gave Kabbalistic tarot readings to his circle of friends.
Speaking of Meyrink’s circle of friends, they were members of The Golden Dawn (including Yeats, and at the same time as Meyrink, too, but more on Yeats in a moment). Let’s look at the background of the circumstances Meyrink was involved in when he received his “prophecy.”
Wikipedia: “The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (or, more commonly, the Golden Dawn) was a magical active in Great Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which practiced theurgy and spiritual development. It has been one of the largest single influences on 20th-century Western occultism.” The Golden Dawn group was very influential and had members from upper echelons of society. Bram Stoker was a member, he of the Dracula fame. Mysticism was all the rage those days, as it is now.
You can imagine Yeats and Meyrink and all the rest at their London Victorian Clubs holding seances and Tarot readings and drinking absinthe and calling up spirits and then being infused with verses and images, which they later wrote down as novels and poems… and prophesies.
We in the here and now are explicitly warned that the end time and the Tribulation will be rife with false signs. Mark 13:32 says “for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect.” 2 Thess 2:9 says “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders.” From this and all the other verses too numerous to list, we know that the end time will have the potentiality for false miracles, AND that previous ages power was given to satan to perform these false signs too. He even appears as an angel of light, and his henchmen as ministers of righteousness. So it is not far-fetched that they can come into the heads of these Golden Dawn occultists, and monkey with their minds and give them “prophesies.”
Now, the gulf oil disaster is not false prophecy, it is a real event. But the source from Meyrink got the information was false. This of course happens with present day occultists too, and those who call the demons better watch out for deception, including false prophecy, but remember that such deceptions always have a grain of truth in them!!
As an example, take a look at fellow Golden Dawn member W.B. Yeat’s poem The Second Coming:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
I used to love that poem until I discovered it was demonically inspired and from the point of view of Satan! Re-read it now, knowing it was inspired by a vision that came during an occult practice and see what a difference it makes knowing it is from the point of view of satan. There is no doubt of Petroleum, Petroleum and The Second Coming‘s inherent prophetical insights and images closely mirror the bible. There is no doubt that told from the demonic perspective, the Second Coming has, through Yeats’s depraved and corrupt mind, been turned into something less than glorious and totally hopeless. It is the same with Meyrink’s. Sure, perhaps the demons planted images in his mind of an event 100 years in the future, but who knows where and at what point the demons twisted the information to further their lying-thieving-destructive proclivities?
[Above, some of the badges still in use from the Golden Dawn-era and lineage at a temple in Arizona.]
Not every angel you see is one of the good ones, even if he is showing off with white light! Not every prophecy is from God, even if they seem to come true later! Demons are angelic beings who can course through realms from below the earth to highest heaven in the blink of an eye, who can defy the laws of gravity, who can take on the form of men or dispense with flesh at will, who live outside of time and enter into it when they want, and they may very well be able to travel though a time-space continuum and skitter into the future to view events and come back with prophesies to give corrupt men who call on demons for insight.
I would not touch Meyrink’s prophesies with a ten foot pole, knowing its source. Petroleum, Petroleum may have a germ of truth at its core, but the germ is in the middle of a big, fat, crap sandwich.
As we look forward to the rapture and our instant translation from flesh to immortal (PTL!!) I read in the bible that the few times prophets were given a glimpse of the Lord in His Glory, their descriptions were similar.
Rev 1:14 His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.
Daniel 7:9 “I kept looking Until thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow And the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, Its wheels were a burning fire.
Daniel 10:6 His body also was like beryl, his face had the appearance of lightning, his eyes were like flaming torches, his arms and feet like the gleam of polished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a tumult.
Revelation 2:18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this:Revelation 19:12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself
He sounds fearsome! Glorious! I can’t wait to see Him! Meanwhile, I asked myself, “Self? What does pure wool look like, anyway?” And google helped me out.
Paul revealed the rapture about 20-30 years after Christ’s ascension.The word ‘mystery’ here means hidden, not unfathomable.
“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-54)
The last trump is not the Trumpets in the Trumpet Judgments as outlined in Revelation 8:7 to Revelation 11:15. If you’re confused about the trumpets, please read Jack Kelley’s explanation here. If you are still having doubts about whether the rapture will occur before the Tribulation (it will) please recall the incident at Sodom and Gomorrah. Many interpret the events at Sodom as a literal event and at the same time, also as a future picture of the rapture. Sodom was a city about to be judged for its grievous sins. However, the righteous are taken away, and the angel who has come to do the smiting even says in verse 22 that he cannot do anything until Lot (the righteous one) arrives safely at his destination. 2 Peter 2:6 reminds us that the smiting of Sodom was for past sins and as an example of what will happen to the ungodly. Not the ungodly and the righteous mixed together, only the ungodly. Saved believers are not ungodly but are considered righteous (Rom 4:5). As the scene opens, we see Abraham reminding the LORD of his character and nature, that He would not judge the righteous. He began his argument when he learned about the city’s upcoming judgment where his nephew Lot resides:
The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD. Then Abraham approached Him and said: “Will You sweep away the righteous with the wicked? (Gen 18:22)
Abraham began his contention at 50 righteous people, ‘would the LORD judge Sodom if 50 righteous people reside in it?’ And got down to ten. The LORD said He would not smite the city if there were 10 righteous people found inside it, and though there were fewer than 10 found, He made a provision to have those few removed before the judgments began. The character and nature of God is to stand the righteous with Him but to judge the wicked. Church-age believers are not wicked but justified and equal in His sight, our sins forgotten. (Micah 7:19) When the tribulation begins, the saved (righteous) will be away and safely residing at our destination prior to the wrath and judgment.
In a moment we will all be changed. Think on that. At one moment, you could be sitting at your computer with a cup of coffee at your hand, reading this very entry and the next, hear a trumpet and a voice and before you can blink, BE WITH JESUS! How marvelous! Before Israel was back in the land there wasn’t a possibility of being raptured yet, but now since they are, and since we are coming up on the end of the generation that saw these things come to pass…(Mt 24:34; Psalm 90:10) then…our Groom may be getting ready to collect us now. Even if it is next year or 2 years…it is still so close. We may very soon be seeing the Lord of pure white hair and eyes like lightning and and clothes as pure as the driven snow and hear His voice of a rushing tumult say to us “Welcome good and faithful servant, to this place!”
Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely among others have pointed to this summer as a tipping point in Middle East politics. He and others warn that the tensions are so great that it is likely, more than possible, and even probable that this summer will erupt into a hot war between Israel and other ME players. His statements came before the Gaza Flotilla occurred and enraged the world, isolating Israel and causing international meetings at highest levels, raising the tensions to the stratosphere. It was in this atmosphere that The Times of London reported with specificity that Saudi Arabia offered Israel air space to fly over if or when Israel chooses to strike Iran. Despite a hatred of Israel, Saudi Arabia fears a nuclear Iran even more. The June 12 story is here:
Saudi Arabia gives Israel clear skies to attack Iranian nuclear sites
Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defences to enable Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities, The Times can reveal. [D]efence sources in the Gulf say that Riyadh has agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran. To ensure the Israeli bombers pass unmolested, Riyadh has carried out tests to make certain its own jets are not scrambled and missile defence systems not activated. Once the Israelis are through, the kingdom’s air defences will return to full alert.
However, today comes the story that Saudi Arabia made no such offer and in fact refuses to allow Israel to fly over.
Saudi Arabia: We will not give Israel air corridor for Iran strike
Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf refutes Times of London report saying Saudi Arabia practiced standing down its anti-aircraft systems to allow an Israeli bomb run. Saudi Arabia would not allow Israeli bombers to pass through its airspace en route to a possible strike of Iran’s nuclear facilities, a member of the Saudi royal family said Saturday, denying an earlier Times of London report.
In addition, the second article says that “Passing over Iraq would require at least tacit consent to the raid from the United States, whose troops are occupying the country. So far, the Obama Administration has refused this.”
The prophesies are that there will be wars in the end times (Mathew 24) and that Damascus will be destroyed into a heap of ruins (Isaiah 17:1), that Gog-Magog coalition will attack Israel. (Ezekiel 38-39). The wars will occur, at what time we do not know and in what order is not certain. However, they will occur. That Jerusalem is a cup of trembling around which all the world reels is happening just as Zechariah 12:2 predicted, and the drumbeats of diplomacy, crossing and double-crossing rumors and facts is rampant and only add to general confusion across the globe that the Tribulation will multiply.
There’s no such thing as an ex-Christian. Look at 1 John-
“They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.” (1 John 2:19)
John is saying here that people who ‘backslide’ and then fall away from the faith entirely, a symptom of the end times by the way, never really were saved to begin with. “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him,” (Titus 1:15).
For many professing “ex-Christians”, it starts with apostasy, something Paul said there would be plenty of in the last days.
Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. (1 Tim 4:1-3)
And before the person started falling away, in came sneaky heresies they began listening to:
But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. (2 Peter 2:1)
For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 1:4)
So the progression is: profess Christ by mouth… but since there was no visible fruit to show the state of grace they were claiming on the inside, they were never really saved; fail to walk closely with Jesus by procrastinating in discipleship, bible study, prayer, and/or worship, furthering the distance between themselves and Jesus; listen to or promote destructive heresies that either they knowingly or unknowingly begin to believe, start doubting Christ’s sufficiency; doubt more, and then slide to full blown renunciation and end up in a state of atheism. Peter says “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.” (2 Peter 2:20)
Notice the words that both Jude and Peter use to describe the heresies what will infiltrate the church in the last days; “secretly” and “crept in”. The heresies don’t come into the church by way of aggressive men bellowing a ‘new doctrine’ to the delight of followers who joyfully jump their pews and run out the door to his new church. They come sneakily, secretly, subtly. And no wonder, “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made…” (Genesis 3:1) so satan isn’t going to capture hearts with bellicose attitudes or flagrantly detectable bad doctrine. Many of the preachers and teachers will not even openly pronounce their heresies, they will be secret within their heart and only after a while, introduced slyly. Jude’s words “crept in” also indicate something that also isn’t readily detectable and is subtle at the start.
These teachers will have a big, white smile, open their lecture with a warm joke, and tell you that Jesus was a good, moral teacher and that you deserve the best life now. They will never tell you that your best life is later and that Jesus didn’t come to be a moral leader but to seek and save the lost- And that you are lost. Others will tell you that we are all one universal consciousness, we are our own gods, and then, they will give you a car. They will tell you that if you believe in Jesus, He will make your life better, while you are seeking Him from comfy ampitheatre watching a techno-sermon with a cappuccino in your hand. Seeker-sensitive churches are false on its premise because in Romans we learn that no one seeks God.
The end result of a Christian in name only – that is, one who claimed Jesus but never really believed – and is one who is at risk of being tempted by destructive heresies, and ultimately of apostasy. What comes next is atheism.
Atheism is a natural cul-de-sac in the road away from the cross. Gotquestions.org writes:
“At the same time, it takes just as much faith to believe in atheism. To make the absolute statement “God does not exist” is to make a claim of knowing absolutely everything there is to know about everything and of having been everywhere in the universe and having witnessed everything there is to be seen. [I]t cannot be proven that God does not exist. It takes just as much faith to be an atheist as it does to be a theist.”
Which, I suspect, could be one of the reasons Peter said it makes a person worse off from what they were before. Whereas a person before was a perhaps being drawn by the Spirit, after apostasy settles in and atheism rears its head, a person is well and truly now in the dangerous pits of despair, misplacing their burgeoning faith in Something for a faith in Nothing that will last forever.
An interesting article appeared in Maine Family Policy Council’s online publication, The Record:
“While there may be a diversity of opinion about the nature of God, no one in state government has stepped forward to doubt His existence. Atheism remains a strong taboo in political circles, in part because of the widely-held belief that faith in God is the mainstay of civil society. Eight state constitutions explicitly forbid atheists from holding public office. Tennessee’s state constitution gives the clearest statement in this regard:”
“No person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this state.”
“The controversial belief that atheists are untrustworthy has ancient roots. Plato wrote that disbelief arises from either sensuality, or from a conceited belief in one’s own wisdom. He warned that those who do evil deeds think one of three things: First, that god does not exist; second, that if god does exist, He does not care what people do; and third, that god can be otherwise appeased by good deeds.”
“The opinion of John Locke was also severe with regard to non-believers in public office. Locke wrote that atheism undermines the foundations of civil society. “They are not at all to be tolerated who deny the being of a God. Promises, covenants, and oaths, which are the bonds of human society, can have no hold upon an atheist. The taking away of God, though but even in thought, dissolves all.” “
“For centuries, Christian doctrine held that not only atheists, but irreligious people in general, could not be morally good. To quote one expert in Christian ethics: “Therefore, the irreligious man is not a morally good man since he neglects to perform his essential duties to God. Besides, a man who shuns his duties to God will be prone likewise to shun his duties to his fellow man.” “
It all starts with destructive heresies, ungodly men creeping in unnoticed. And why aren’t they noticed? Because Christians today all too often fail to be familiar with the real thing, foregoing bible study, quiet time, prayers, and worship, so that when the counterfeit shows up, being only subtly different from the Truth, it goes unnoticed. What today’s Christian needs is larger doses of the above, not smaller. As times get tougher and stress makes a person weary, as work loads increase and family strife abounds, people fall away from the paving stones of a faith that lead toward the cross. This process separates the Christians In Name Only from the true believers. Are you worried about your salvation? Are you unsure? Has there been no visible fruit in your life for a while? You are at risk. Repent. Take it to the cross, and make sure you are saved. Apostasy is a ‘subtil’ thing, as subtle as satan. Has he crept into your heart?
It is clear from my last post, that the scale of the disasters about to be unleashed upon us are outside the human capacity to comprehend them. As stated in the previous entry, “Current engineering technology cannot contain gas that is pressurized to 100,000 psi” just so the human heart and mind cannot contain the images of the coming destruction wrought from a Holy God.
Images of things that could happen:
“gas gusher will surge upwards through miles of ancient sedimentary rock—layer after layer—past the oil reservoir. It will explode upwards propelled by 50 tons psi, burst through the cracks and fissures of the compromised sea floor, and rupture miles of ocean bottom with one titanic explosion. The burgeoning toxic gas cloud will surface, killing everything it touches, and set off a supersonic tsunami with the wave traveling somewhere between 400 to 600 miles per hour.”
Images that WILL happen like this:
“In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground. I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign LORD. Every man’s sword will be against his brother. I will execute judgment upon 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.’ ” (Ezekiel 38:19-23)
and like this:
“Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, ‘It is done’, And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. (75 pounds) Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great.” (Rev. 16:17-21)
But before you tune out, saying “I can’t handle this anymore,” I offer two thoughts. First, is that we are Sinners in the time of an Angry God. That God is making Himself visible and present on the world is becoming obvious to most. That the scale of current disasters are reaching beyond our ability to respond to them is also obvious. That the potential for imminent destructive problems that also stretch beyond our ability to solve them, or even react, is obvious. We are in the Time when He is beginning to “show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.” (Ezekiel 36 23)
He will show Himself holy before the people in the Gog Magog war and He is that process is now visible. Of course it is difficult to comprehend the times. In our flesh, even saved and sanctified, we can’t comprehend a Holy God. Isaiah 6:5 in the Throne room, “And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.Then I said “Woe is me, for I am ruined Because I am a man of unclean lips And I live among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” He immediately fell down in despair! The word ruined (or ‘undone’ in other translations) means utterly devastated, brought to silence, cut off. One glimpse and he was in the throes of woe! No wonder in our tiny glimpses of His Holiness as He makes Himself visible on earth, we are also undone!
John, when shown the throne room in Revelation 5:1-4, “When I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.” When John says he wept “much” the Greek word is abundantly and long and earnestly and greatly.
We are watching the rumblings of the Holy God making Himself known and it is a great and humbling and awesome thing. “For [when] the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Revelation 6:17 italics mine) Be awed. Do not be scared. If you are saved by the blood of Jesus, He sees you equal in His eyes, Co-heir to all creation. He will bring us out and we will be glorified and then we will be able to comprehend His Mightiness as He continues to hold the world’s sinners in His Angry Hands.
But what of the unsaved? Here is the second thought: if a crashing helicopter was about fall on your friend, wouldn’t you scream for him to move him? If a train was about to run into a car, wouldn’t you be honking your horn in a frenzy? The video of the unsuspecting tsunami guy shows the people taking the video screamed their lungs out to alert the man, who was, moments later, swept away by a wave he never saw coming. But they tried. They tried. Are you trying to alert people as to the wave that is coming?
Tell the Gospel for all you’re worth, Christian! Sinners falling into the hands of an angry God is an eternal, everlastingly painful thing. We see what’s coming, TELL OTHERS. And fear not. He is Holy and He is coming!
In news reports today, we are discovering how violent methane is and how VERY much of it there is in the Gulf. And BP knew it.
“It is an overlooked danger in oil spill crisis: The crude gushing from the well contains vast amounts of natural gas that could pose a serious threat to the Gulf of Mexico’s fragile ecosystem. The oil emanating from the seafloor contains about 40 percent methane, compared with about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits, said John Kessler, a Texas A&M University oceanographer who is studying the impact of methane from the spill.” “This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history,” Kessler said.”
Above, Discoverer Enterprise methane flare. photo source/credit
However, while the AP article looks at the devastating environmental aspects of the spill, this scientifically based article reveals the greater danger.
How the Gulf Oil Disaster Could Kill Millions
“Disturbing evidence is mounting that something frightening is happening deep under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico—something far worse than the BP oil gusher. Warnings were raised as long as a year before the Deepwater Horizon disaster that the area of seabed chosen by the BP geologists might be unstable, or worse, inherently dangerous. What makes the location that Transocean chose potentially far riskier than other potential oil deposits located at other regions of the Gulf? It can be summed up with two words: methane gas. Location of Deepwater Horizon oil rig was criticized more than 12 months ago some geologists rang the warning bell that the Deepwater Horizon exploratory rig might have been erected directly over a huge underground reservoir of methane. Documents from several years ago indicate that the subterranean geologic formation may contain the presence of a huge methane deposit. None other than the engineer who helped lead the team to snuff the Gulf oil fires set by Saddam Hussein to slow the advance of American troops has stated that a huge underground lake of methane gas—compressed by a pressure of 100,000 pounds per square inch (psi)—could be released by BP’s drilling effort to obtain the oil deposit. Current engineering technology cannot contain gas that is pressurized to 100,000 psi.”
But wait…it gets worse. Much worse.
“The ultimate Gulf disaster, however, would make even those historical horrors pale by comparison. If the huge methane bubble breaches the seabed, it will erupt with an explosive fury similar to that experienced during the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens in the Pacific Northwest. A gas gusher will surge upwards through miles of ancient sedimentary rock—layer after layer—past the oil reservoir. It will explode upwards propelled by 50 tons psi, burst through the cracks and fissures of the compromised sea floor, and rupture miles of ocean bottom with one titanic explosion. The burgeoning toxic gas cloud will surface, killing everything it touches, and set off a supersonic tsunami with the wave traveling somewhere between 400 to 600 miles per hour.”
The result would be that
“While the entire Gulf coastline is vulnerable, the state most exposed to the fury of a supersonic wave towering 100 feet or more is Florida. The Sunshine State only averages about 6 inches above sea level. A supersonic tsunami would literally sweep away everything from Miami to the panhandle in a matter of minutes. Loss of human life would be virtually instantaneous and measured in the millions. Of course the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and southern region of Georgia—a state with no Gulf coastline—would also experience tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of casualties…”
This is what could happen. Not to say that it will happen. However, the geologists who have studied this area warned that the methane deposit under where BP planned to drill was too unstable and contained larger than normal quantities of methane. That is a fact. So it is also a fact that the BP well exploded. It is a fact that the sea floor is cracked and ruptured. It is a fact according to the AP article that methane is leaking at a rate at which the BP containment ships cannot keep up with burning it and the gas is spilling into the gulf, leaving huge dead zones. Pray to God that the methane in the gulf, either in the water or under the unstable sea floor, doesn’t explode, My mind can’t conceive of the devastation ensuing from such a disaster. Is judgment about to be rendered unto this sinful nation?
On June 10 I posted Is the earth cracking up? On June 13 I did a follow up, with fresh news and additional scriptures. If we start with the end and work backward it goes like this: from Zechariah 14:4-6 and Isaiah 24 we know that during the Tribulation (the last 7 years of this age on earth) the earth’s physical features undergo a dramatic change. Mt. Olives splits in two and a river gushes from it. The earth reels like a drunkard. In Revelation 16:19-20 we know that Earthquakes happen that are so large the islands sink and the mountains crumble. The earth’s geologic features are remade into something unrecognizable.
We also know from the period just prior to the Tribulation, known as the end time, that there will be earthquakes and roaring seas as Jesus describes in Luke 21:25. In Matthew 24:6-7 it describes wars (plural) and we know that wars scar the earth.
Lately there have been an unusual number of unexpected underground failures. Breaks in underground pipes, oil leaks, sinkholes, more sinkholes wreaking havoc in China and Canada, mine shaft collapses, methane explosions at natural gas rigs, and of course the sea floor break under the BP oil well in the Gulf. Many. A lot. There have been so many sinkholes in China that the population is spooked and just a rumor of a sinkhole or an earthquake causes them to sleep outside for the night. The previous two entries have more source news items at the links above.
Here is another example of a sinkhole, again, in China. “June 15, 2010: A resident throws a stone into a sinkhole near Qingquan primary school in Dachegnqiao, China. The hole, 492 feet wide and 164 feet deep, has been growing since it first appeared in January and has destroyed 20 houses so far. No casualties have been reported, and the reason for the appearance of the hole remains unclear. Reuters” source
It is possible that the earth’s coming changes have begun. This is what I personally believe. The recent pattern of earth cracks is too noticeable not to wonder this and put the dots together… After all, the earth changes have to begin sometime. Here is another disaster to illustrate the point. In south-central Mexico last night an underground explosion ripped a crack in the earth that was a mile long and twenty feet deep! Note, the headline link is to the original Spanish article. Here’s a link to a google translation—
Underground explosion in Mexico damages 400 houses
This afternoon an explosion occurred inside the city dump, which caused damage to at least 400 homes located in 15 streets, Mayor Jesus Tolentino Roman Bojorquez. The mayor explained that the incident could be provided by a combination of methane gas produced by decomposing garbage, and a possible softening of the final disposal site is located in the neighborhood Tlatel Xochitenco. Garbage collectors have even made a crack arising from the explosion which has a length of up to one kilometer, a depth of six to seven meters and two meters wide…
It seems that events are cascading faster and faster and waxing worse and worse. This is also predicted. Jesus said that the end time events would be as birth pangs, and when a woman gives birth the contractions accelerate in potency and pain until the birth of the new life. The guys at Rapture Ready put it this way:
Birth pangs, in terms of Bible Prophecy, refers to certain convulsive geopolitical, geophysical, astrophysical and world-wide socio-economic events and issues scheduled to occur in the time leading up to Jesus Christ’s Second Advent (second coming). These are likened to the contractions experienced by a woman about to give birth, with those episodes increasing with frequency and intensity. Jesus’ foretelling of these birth pangs use the word “sorrows,” in His Olivet Discourse on end time things to come. (Matt. 24:3-8)
Now is the time to examine your sins and see them for what they are: rebellion against a Holy God which will result in permanent separation from Him until and unless you accept the remedy for it. Fortunately that remedy is free, because Jesus paid the price for our sins. Justice has been satisfied and you are given a pardon from the High Judge! Jesus is the Way and the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father but through Him. (John 14:6). If you are sincerely sorry for your sins and want to apologize to Jesus, and then turn away from your sins, then tell Him! (confess and repent) He will forgive you. He is THAT GOOD!
UPDATE: Just as I finished and uploaded this essay about God using lightning, this occurs:
“Oil collection on the gulf is halted due to fire aboard containment vessel. Lightning hit it.”
“A bolt of lightning struck the ship capturing oil from the blown-out BP well in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, igniting a fire that halted containment efforts in another setback for the embattled company in its nearly two-month struggle to stop the spill, the company said. The fire was quickly extinguished and no one was injured. BP said it hopes to resume containing oil from the well sometime Tuesday afternoon.”
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In the previous two entries to this series, we examined scriptures that illustrated how and when God uses His signature events, hail and fire/brimstone to judge, to warn, or to speak to His people. Since God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and since the bible prophesies future events with hail, brimstone, and lightning (among other events) it’s a good idea to get a biblical basis for how and when He may be using those phenomena now, and whether they are signs.
The Language of God: Hail
The Language of God: Fire and Brimstone
Today we are looking at lightning. A keyword search for the word lightning yields about 55 results. Here are a few:
Psalm 18:14 – He shot his arrows and scattered [the enemies], great bolts of lightning and routed them.
2 Samuel 22:13 – Out of the brightness of his presence bolts of lightning blazed forth.
Job 36:32 – He fills his hands with lightning and commands it to strike its mark.
Job 37:3 – He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven and sends it to the ends of the earth.
Daniel 10:6 – His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.
Matthew 24:27 – For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Matthew 28:3 – His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow
Revelation 8:5 – Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.
It is clear that lightning is part of God’s vocabulary. He looks like lightning, He causes lightning, and He hurls lightning. He uses it to vanquish enemies, to inspire awe, and to announce His coming.
There’s a story this week of a tragedy atop a mountain in North Carolina. A man and woman in love were hiking. When they got to the top of the mountain, they stopped to admire the view. Though cloudy and a bit thundery, it was gorgeous nonetheless. Unbeknown to the woman, the man had a ring in his pocket and was going to propose. Very much in love, he watched her as she took in her surroundings. Turning to him, she said, “Isn’t it beautiful?”
Those were the last words she spoke.
Waking up a few minutes later on his back, the soles of his feet smoking, he saw his beloved laying on the ground a few feet away. She was dead. A lightning bolt had struck them both and though the man performed CPR for many minutes, she could not be revived. In despair, he put the ring on his beloved’s finger and said his goodbyes.
Did this incident have a direct Divine Cause? Did God hurl a lightning bolt to earth and cause this girl’s death? Let’s look to the bible for that answer.
In this day and “tolerant” age, bible students and Christians in general like to claim that God is all-loving and would never hurt a flea. This claim is usually preceded by the claim that there is no hell and a loving God would never send any of His children there. Aside from the fact that hell exists to hold all unforgiven sinners of all eternity and for all eternity, and that God IS loving, let’s take a look at the uncomfortable fact of some of His direct interventions.
“Then Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD killed him. (Genesis 38:6).”
Yes, that’s my reaction, too. How about this, just a few verses later: “The next brother in law to marry Tamar also was wicked, and four verses later, we see again, “And the thing which he did displeased the LORD; therefore He killed him also.” In 2 Samuel 6:7, Uzzah touched the Holy ark of God, and “Then the anger of the LORD was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by the ark of God.” The bible does not record exactly how these were killed, but in in 2 Samuel God routed whole armies using thunder, rain, and lightning.
It is clear that in God’s inestimable perfection, He sees fit to directly cause the death of one or more people at a time. It seems harsh, but it speaks more to man’s disobedience. The people were told how to carry the Ark, which was the visible throne of God and contains the presence of God between the angels’ wings (Lev. 16:2). It speaks to God’s holiness. The New Testament incident of Ananias and Sapphira is proof that it isn’t “just the Old testament God” who takes things so very seriously. The pair lied directly to the Holy Spirit and were killed because of it and for a lesson in how hypocrisy infiltrating the church from the inside can cause tremendous damage.
So do I think that the girl on the mountain was directly killed by God? I don’t purport to know the mind of God but I do know in His consistency that He tells us beforehand of His expectations. In the most severe abridgment of his expectations, precepts, laws, or commands, He directly intervenes.
In the unfortunate case of the girl who died, I think the truism that “lightning seeks the ground” is brought to bear here, rather than conclude whole-heartedly that it was any direct smiting or was a sign in particular. Whatever the case of it may be, we can learn from what happened to her.
Your death could come at any moment, and at that moment, it will be too late to decide for Jesus. Your lack of decision will have been the decision. As the end of the age draws near, now every time I hear of a death, I can’t help but wonder if that person was saved or not. As the girl on the mountain admired the beauty of creation, did she know her creator? More importantly, did she know her Savior? Do you?
Lightning is in the news today in the mid-section of the nation. The King of Kings statue located at Solid Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. The statue is 62 feet high, presents only Jesus’s torso with arms upraised, causing the aptness of the nickname “Touchdown Jesus” to be all too ruefully honest. The statue is in a baptismal pool and at night, is lit from underneath from multi-colored lights. It is gaudy and not to my liking, and not to many of the locals’ either: 75% of those polled said it was in bad taste and reflected poorly on the city of Monroe.
“Monroe firefighters said the lightning strike set the statue on fire around 11:15 p.m. Monday. Firefighters said at their tallest, the flames reached 100 feet. The sculpture, which was 62 feet tall, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus by some because of the way his arms were raised. Church members said the lightning strike and destructive fire stunned them, many thought it was a sign they need to pay attention to. Kevin Jones said, “I’m thinking it’s a sign from Jesus that we need to learn something, as Christians, as a whole, we’re not doing something right.” Ashley Morgan said, “It scares me, it really does, I think about what that symbolizes, to me that’s a sign and not a good one.” The steeple wasn’t touched. Nor was the cell phone tower next door.
The statue reminded me of the Buddy Jesus from the movie Dogma, a sarcastic and mocking look at the ‘loopholes’ in Catholicism, and the alleged farcical nature of religion in general. Avowed atheist George Carlin is the actor playing a Bishop who bemoans the depressing-ness of the crucifix image, and creates a new campaign, “Catholicism Wow!” with a ‘friendlier’ Jesus as a newly branded image of the Deity.
The two images, Buddy Jesus and Touchdown Jesus are similar in nature, though I am sure they were not intended to be, at least not on the part of Solid Rock Church. In any case, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” (Gal 6:7)
Some may say that the lightning struck because the Touchdown Jesus was an idol. But the definition of idol is “worship of any cult image, idea, or object, as opposed to the worship of a monotheistic God. It is considered a major sin in the Abrahamic religions. Which images, ideas, and objects, constitute idolatry, and which constitute reasonable worship, is a matter of contention…” Were they engaging in reasonable worship? It is matter of opinion. Solid Rock Church’s website states that they serve and worship a resurrected Jesus from a biblical standpoint, so the statue, gaudy as it is, may or may not be considered an idol (at least on the surface with the definition).
We look to the bible for descriptions of and uses of lightning in God’s work. That it is part of His vocabulary is fact. That individual incidences, at least in the past, of God smiting individuals has occurred is also a fact. However, we can never be sure of particular incidences and should remain cautious in ascribing Divine hands at work for any given circumstance. That the girl’s sudden death atop the mountain moves us to consider our own eternal destination in the face of the fleetingness of life is a good thing. That the woman in the article at Solid Rock Church wonders if this is a sign from God and if she or the church should change their ways is also a good thing. Taking stock of your standing with God is never a pointless exercise.
I advise doing a keyword search of an online bible to see how and where lightning is used for a sign to the people. I use biblecc, ad biblegateway. We know that in the very near future, Revelation 8:5 says that lighting will occur as a direct order from God: “Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.” And also in Revelation 11:19 – “And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.” And again in Revelation 4:5 – “[The Throne and Worship of the Creator ] Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God;”
Lightning is part of God’s vocabulary and He will be speaking it very soon. Are you listening?
the-end-time.org 