jesus – Page 31

economy, end of days. prophecy, japan, jesus

Japan’s March 11 quake woke up the nation’s 20 volcanoes, says meteorological agency

Posted on April 10, 2011 by elizabethprata

This is an essay about how the 3/11 quake in Japan is affecting Japan economy and by extension, the world’s.

From International Business Times Hong Kong English edition today:

Japan warns of massive earthquake and volcanic explosion after the April 7 earthquake
“Japan’s Meteorological Agency on Friday warned the country’s 20 volcanoes has become alive due to the massive March 11 earthquake, and a study said earthquake over 9.0-magnitude might hit Japan. The number of earthquakes above 6.0 M reached 77 on March. And 74 out of them occurred in quake-hit region, were aftershock. The number is 50 times over the same period last year. The largest aftershock on April 7 hit Japan has killed 4 people, injured at least 166, and caused a power outage over 2.61 million households, according to Japan’s police officials. The Meteorological Agency warned aftershocks above 6.0 M like the April 7 earthquake probably would hit Japan again. Meanwhile, quakes of the country’s 20 volcanoes occurred more frequently after the massive March 11 earthquake, especially, the Fuji, Hakone, and Aso-San.”

Millions of people are without power…radiation is poisoning their air, water, and food, there are continuing large aftershocks, and now they’re warned of exploding volcanoes. I can’t begin to comprehend the grief they must be feeling for their country, their families, and their own lives.

In economic news … I mentioned before that the March 11 quake was a nation changing event but it was also a world changing event. Their economy may not recover, ever, and if it does, it will be years. Well, the economic impacts of that prediction are coming into sight now.

It’s all about components. From South Korea blog “Business Area“
“Japan’s disaster affecting the worldwide automotive industry, not least in South Korea. Some manufacturers in the Country of ginseng began to reassess its production because of fear of lack of supply components from Japan.”

Toyota announced a shutdown of all North American plants (Canada/Mexico/US). GM Plants are on temporary slowdown. Toyota is shutting down UK manufacturing plants for an unknown period of time. Korea’s GM and Renault Samsung Motors Corporation (RSMC). Yena Cho, RSMC spokesman said the factory has begun to stop the activities of overtime on weekends, resulting in decreased production capacity of 2000-2500 units of this month (March 2011). There are lots more examples, but if you think about all those manufacturing plants not just in Japan & Korea, but in UK, and North America, that means no money is being exchanged over a commodity. Paychecks are not being given. It creates a huge hole. The auto industry especially, cannot get microchips, circuitry etc from Japan, and the interconnected complex global supply chain is beyond stressed.

Mike Ruppert: “Gross Domestic Product predictions for the world’s economies (such as Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain, etc) are made on the stance of positive growth. When large significant negative growth is shown across the board globally for a quarter, the markets have no place to go but implode.” He explained that although fancy bookwork can be done in certain areas by changing definitions, moving columns here and there, the ONE thing that cannot be hidden (according to Ruppert) is GDP quarterly earnings reports. We have one more bit of this quarter’s activity and the reports should be in by July that reflect the effect of the March-June quarter, which is the economic quarter of the Japanese quake and tsunami. “The markets still don’t appreciate the Japanese earthquake” but it seems that the chickens will come home to roost by July’s reports. And then watch out, said Ruppert.

Oil: fuel prices are spiking. How this affects the world’s economy is in obvious and not so obvious ways. Not so obviously, is a story out of Nicaragua. “The [fishing] industry is “frozen” by high operative costs, even though international shrimp prices remain high.” In the US, conventional production agriculture relies heavily on fossil fuels, particularly in its ability to provide high yields at low labor costs. However, the uncertain future of fossil fuel availability and prices means that in laymen’s terms, farmers can’t afford to put fuel in their tractors and fishermen can’t afford to fuel u their boats.

This is the American Farm Bureau Report for first quarter of 2011, with AFBF’s Cyndie Sirekis and AFBF economist John Anderson interview.
Sirekis: Farm Bureau’s quarterly marketbasket survey tracks and reports on retail prices of 16 staple foods that can be used to prepare one or more meals at home.
John Anderson (AFBF economist): The total cost of these 16 items in our marketbasket for the first quarter 2011 worked out to forty-nine dollars and seven cents that was up about two dollars and 10 cents compared to the fourth quarter of 2010 so that’s about a 4 percent increase. Pretty much a continuation of a trend that we’ve seen for the last couple of quarters and pretty well in line with what we see in broader measures like the consumer price index.
Sirekis: Cheddar cheese, ground beef and vegetable oil were among the foods that increased the most in retail price. This rise in retail food prices was not unexpected, according to American Farm Bureau Federation Economist John Anderson. He says energy prices are a key driver behind retail food prices increases.
Anderson: Everything that you buy at the retail level is affected by energy prices. Energy prices affect the cost of processing, they affect the cost of packaging, they affect the cost of transporting and storing and operations at the retail level. Really, there’s not much in the marketing system that isn’t affected by the price of energy.”

So the natural disasters affect manufacturing and manufacturing is affected by fuel prices and fuel prices affect farming and fishing and when farming and fishing is affected prices go up and when prices go up people who were put out of work by the slowdown and shutdown in manufacturing can’t afford to buy food.

Ruppert warns that by July, the wheels will come off completely. He predicts the implosion of the economic markets as the quarterly reports come out will cause a 4000 or so point in the Dow as it suffers from loss of Japanese input. He said, “I do not think we will be living in anything like the society we have known by this fall. I’m as serious as I’ve ever been.”

Is he being alarmist? He made a good case. It was obvious in March as the magnitude of the disaster on the world’s third largest economy became evident and I wrote about it on March 16 here. Throughout the 1990s as the European Union came together and the euro was introduced as currency that the new world order of interconnectedness, of globalization was to be sought and extolled, might have been fine except that when one of the largest economies tanks, they all tank. I think that is where we are now. And by the looks of Japan’s volcanoes waking up, the continual earthquakes, and the ongoing radiation problem, the issues of the loss of their economy will continue to be felt right straight through Revelation 18:10 when the entire economy collapses, for good.
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end time, jesus, pre-tribulation rapture, prophecy

The Tribulation is no joke!

Posted on April 4, 2011 by elizabethprata

A person contacted me the other night, asking what the password is to get into the kingdom. Others mock, saying ‘gee, too bad, I missed the rapture but let’s party’, or something to that effect. Still others are simply vicious, unadvisedly vowing to spit in God’s eye and be content to be thrown in to hell.

The upcoming Tribulation will be a series of horrifying and terrifying judgments. Like the pregnancy contractions the time is likened to, those horrors will come one upon each other faster and faster. One horror will fall and then immediately another horror will fall. Lest we minimize the terror of the time, let’s look at a verse from Matthew:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:21)

That means it will be so bad, especially the second half of the Tribulation called the Great Tribulation, it will be worse than the Noahaic Flood. Worse than the flood. Think about it. Jesus said it will be a time worse than any time since the creation of the world, and that means the Tribulation will be worse than the flood.

I hope that thought removes any fear you have in witnessing.
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fukushima, jesus, radiation, revelation

Fukushima update, and exhortation to listen to the Spirit

Posted on April 1, 2011 by elizabethprata

This is a well-founded and interesting update on Fukushima nuclear plant situation by Arnie Gundersen, Nuclear Physicist, of Faire Winds Associates. Gundersen is an energy adviser with 39-years of nuclear power engineering experience and a former nuclear industry senior vice president. Immediately upon listening to his update, you discern he is knowledgeable. The information is delivered in a way laymen can understand. Please view this 7-minute video to absorb the import of the information, then we’ll take a look at Revelation 6 and 8.

I had planned to post a hilarious essay on Peter and Rhoda in the situation that occurred after the angel delivered Peter from jail, as a lighter fare, and I’ll still do that later today. But the times are dark, that is a fact, but we who are in the Light will never fear the dark! The purpose of this post is not only to deliver information to you that the mainstream does not cover, but that hopefully the information transforms us into prayer warriors for the lost, sick, and dying; and diligent seekers of His word. Are we falling to our knees in appeals to the Holy Spirit? The Lord put us here for a time such as this, let us not close our eyes nor wander away from being all that he intended us to be. It is precisely because things are so dark that we need to be the Light! Exhibit peace, pray for the Japanese, and stand on His word, always.

As was stated in the video, they had never anticipated that the fuel pool would burn as it seems to be doing in Fukushima. A previous study done by Brookhaven found that IF a fuel pool were to burn, that there would be as a consequence 137,000 fatalities from lung cancer. Let that sink in for a moment.

On March 11 when the Japan earthquake and tsunami happened, and the nuclear plant was destroyed, I wrote on Twitter: “FOUR Japanese reactors now lost ability to cool. Major emergency in Fukishima prefecture. Wondering Rev 6:7 plague maybe radiation poisoning.” Little did I know then that the radiation would still be outpouring perhaps dooming large segments of the population. It’s a legitimate speculation. Revelation 6 depicts several methods of prophesied death, one of which is worldwide plague. A quarter of the world dies. Things get even more specific in the Third Trumpet Judgment. Revelation 8:10-11 says:

“The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters. The name of the star is called Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the waters, because they were made bitter.”

Most people have taken this to mean literally a star, asteroid or meteor, a solid heavenly body. But if you see the same word’s use in other verses it becomes obvious that it probably a is a metaphor to be taken figuratively.

The word in Greek is aster, and this same word is used in Matthew to describe the star that led the Wise men to he babe in the manger, it is used in Revelation 22:16 where Jesus compares Himself to the Bright and Morning Star, and in 1 Corinthians 15:41 where Paul is explaining that the saints in heaven will differ from one another in glory and splendor as the stars and sun and moon differ from one another in brightness.

There are other uses for the word star in the bible, halal, kokab, phósphoros, planḗtēs etc.But it is this word aster that can be used both literally and figuratively.

Further, if Wormwood is actually a solid heavenly body, take note that it falls on a third of the rivers and a third of the springs. Would an asteroid be able to split up and fall on only and exactly the springs and rivers and on nothing else? God can do anything, so of course it is possible, but tied in with the figurative use of the word aster above I think it an unlikely interpretation.

As a side note, compare the reverse situation in Exodus 15:22-25:
“So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” So he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree. When he cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.”

It is not out of the realm of possibility that the poison infecting the rivers and springs (which come from underground) could be radiation contamination. The information Gundersen delivers about the unknown leak under the trenches spreading unrestricted into the ocean is sobering. If it is leaking into the ocean then it’s likely it is also leaking under the ground to the groundwater table. This article explains the dangers of this happening, since Fukushima sits so close to the water table.

It is a speculation but with all that we now know that is going on in the air and under the sea at Fukushima, and the fact that the Japanese officials have now officially abandoned attempts to stop it, and will entomb it in concrete instead, tells us that the time prophesied of devastation from ecology destruction could be near to beginning.

We need to pray. The Japanese officials have put the Japanese people in deadly danger, and many are knowingly or unknowingly infected. Also, we can donate to the Red Cross. Donations have already surpassed 120M, praise to the generous souls who give sacrificially! Do you feel a burden to go there? To join the missionaries, or to start a missionary trip though your church? It is not outside the realm of possibility that some few reading this already feel that burden. Jesus said “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations…” For others, you may be feeling a conviction to do something that I haven’t described but was uniquely delivered at the prompting of the Holy Spirit. There is a lot we can do and we should get busy doing it. Our first priority is a close walk with Jesus so that we will ‘have an ear to hear’ when He calls!
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barack obama, daijal, end time, islam, jesus, mahdi

What do Muslims believe about the end of the age?

Posted on March 30, 2011 by elizabethprata

Did you know that Islam has an eschatology (doctrine of the end of days)? It does. And though many religions have nothing to do with Christianity, there are religions that intersect Christianity. Islam is one of those.

Jesus actually plays a critical role in Muslim end time theologies. The following is a synopsis from John MacArthur. He is preaching through the book of Mark and he is up to Mark’s version of the Olivet Discourse, the end of days answer that Jesus gave to the disciples. The title of the sermon is “The Grim Reality of the Last Days” and MacArthur is preaching on Mark 13:1-13. You can listen, read, or download for free the entire sermon, here.

The information MacArthur uses in the sermon is taken from the Quran, which to a Muslim are the holy words from Allah (Satan), and the Sunnah, the Muslim tradition as expressed by Muhammad. Sunnah is also known as Hadith. These are the two sources of authoritative truth for the Muslim.

To the Muslims, Jesus was a man, and a prophet. He did not die. He was taken to heaven, alive, like Elijah, where He stands beside Allah. If he did not die, He did not rise, and therefore never provided an atonement for anyone. He is waiting for Allah to send Him back to earth. When He returns from heaven according to the Muslims, Jesus’ main role in the end times is to correct all the Christians who have misunderstood who He is and what His role is. He will correct them, saying that He never paid for their sins. Then Jesus will get married, have children, and die, to be buried next to Muhammad. That is the Muslim Jesus. So you can see for yourself that we have NO COMMON GROUND with Muslims.

There are three great signs for the Muslims that signal the end of time. Each of these signs will be a man. The first is the arrival of the Final Mahdi (12th Imam). The Mahdi is coming to slaughter all who will not worship Allah and will not covert to Islam. The Quran calls these people who refuse to worship Allah “pigs and dogs.” Mahdi’s final task is to establish the world dominating Kingdom of Islam.

The Mahdi is their long-awaited savior. Their Messiah. He will establish the final Caliphate. He will destroy all enemies of Islam, in a bloody global holy war. He will have an army, a massive one, going from nation to nation, to punish unbelievers. This army will carry black flags. This flag has on it one word, “Punishment.” They go to Israel, and establish his rule on the Temple Mount. All will then prosper, and all worship the Mahdi and they speak of no one else but him. He will make a peace agreement with the Jews and the West for 7 years. The reign of Mahdi lasts 7 years, in which he establishes Islam. He will come riding a white horse and their own writings quote Revelation 6:1-2 as the rider on the white horse carrying a bow. They say that the Jews and the Christians’ writings were all wrong and secret scriptures will be revealed to the Mahdi after he gets here that will validate this point of view.

So to sum up, the 12th Imam, or Final Mahdi, will be a great leader, coming on a white horse, a messianic figure, unparalleled leader, out of a crisis of turmoil, establish a new world order, invade many nations, make a peace treaty with the Jews, establish a false religion at Jerusalem, kill non-worshipers, and rule for 7 years.

It is a precise description of the biblical antichrist. The bible’s antichrist is Islam’s savior.

The second Muslim sign is in the person of Jesus. They believe Jesus will return. Jesus, (not the true Jesus, their version of Jesus) returns as a prophet, assisting the Mahdi. He establishes Islam worldwide and corrects all misinterpretations. “He will shatter crosses,” their writings state, which is a metaphor for destroying Christians and churches. That is a quote from Quran. He will be the Mahdi’s executioner. This sign in the form of a person matches up with what the False Prophet does as an aider and abettor of the antichrist.

The third sign in the form of a person is someone known as Daijahl who is a great deceiver. This person is an infidel who is blind in one eye, returns to earth on a mule. He is a false miracle worker claiming to be Jesus Son of God, deity, who attempts to stop the Mahdi and Islam’s Jesus. He is really our Jesus, and the one eyed deceiver on a mule is their view of Him!

“Every Messenger of God did warn his nation about the trials of Dajjal. God, however, delayed Dajjal’s birth and did not let him appear until now. Be aware! he will claim to be God and try to create doubts in your minds. Have a firm belief, the one-eyed creature cannot be your Lord. He will come out riding on a ‘donkey’, which will have a distance of one mile between its two ears. He will claim to have come with the gifts of paradise and arsenal of hell.” [Essence of Life, A translation of Ain al-Hayat by Allama Mohammad Baqir Majlisi. Qum: Ansarian Publications. p. 103.]

We know the TRUE end of the story, Jesus the Savior who died on the Cross will banish sin and establish a holy kingdom! You see how carefully and scrupulously satan has copied the truth.

Many Muslims would like to re-establish the Caliphate. According to Hadith the Caliphate will be followed by the arrival of the Imam Mahdi. I was accused in the earlier posting on the Caliphate of fear-mongering. I hope this information illustrates that for the lost, there is much to fear. Christians never have anything to fear if we are covered under the blood of the Spotless One who died for us. So where is the fear, if you are a Christian? Absent. Where is the fear if you are not a Christian? Legitimate.

Islam is something to fear because it was written by the greatest deceiver the universe has ever known, and it will be carried out by the deepest evil the world will ever see. It is important to know the facts. But know this, the end shall come, and the words of the martyrs will be a testimony for the Lord’s name and He will establish His righteous kingdom and will reign FOREVER!
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end of days. prophecy, end time, jesus, middle east unrest, syria

"It’s all a big plot, I tell ya": Syria accuses world

Posted on March 30, 2011 by elizabethprata

Today Syria’s President Assad accused the external world of a conspiracy to disrupt his government. The report states, “Syrian President Bashar Assad blamed a wave of protests on “conspirators” who are trying to destroy the country, giving his first address to the nation Wednesday since the demonstrations erupted nearly two weeks ago.”

This is not rhetoric nor is it a ploy. I had presented a case yesterday that explored what the Islamic states are really saying when they accuse external forces of meddling in their affairs. I’d written:

“Sudan stated, “The message came as part of the joint consultations between Khartoum and Tehran on global and regional issues of common concern…Hashemi highlighted the importance for the two countries to pay attention to external plots targeting their common interests”. [emphasis mine]. You’ve seen that phrase “external plot” come up in the news the last two weeks: “Bahrain Monarch Says ‘Foreign Plot’ Failed”. The Sudanese President’s statement about external plots was from Dec 2010, and the Bahraini King’s statement about external plots was from this week. Muslims around the global ‘belt’ are tightening ties, drawing together as inexorably as iron shavings to a magnet. And it has happened before our very eyes! Ahmadinejad has done a good job of fomenting perspective that when the nations see us they see us through enemy eyes, and when they see each other they see like-minded allies suffering from external plots. They are internal, we are external.”

To get the full context read here and here.

Today Syrian News agency Sana reports “President al-Assad receives calls from King of Bahrain, Emirs of Kuwait and Qatar, Iraqi President, supporting Syria in face of conspiracy“
“President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday received phone calls from King of Bahrain Hamad bin Issa al- Khalifa, the Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, President Jalal al-Talabani of Iraq , Emir of Qatar Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. King of Bahrain, Emirs of Kuwait and Qatar, Iraq’s President expressed their countries’ standing by Syria in the face of conspiracy to which it is exposed, targeting its security and stability. They underlined confidence in Syria’s capability, as leadership and people, to foil that conspiracy.”

I want to emphasize that they really believe this. The current unrest in the middle east that began in January with Lebanon’s government falling (Whatever happened to Lebanon, anyway?) and continues in Yemen, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and now Syria is something that is prophesied. The entire focus in the last days of the Tribulation (which is NOT YET upon us) will be on Israel and all her neighbors.

“A prophecy: The word of the LORD concerning Israel. The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares:“I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.” (Zechariah 12:1-3).

You see that at the end ALL nations will be gathered against Israel. The inexorable slide toward that moment has begun. A series of battles and wars will occur, (Mt 24:6-7; Rev 6:3). By the time the tribulation begins, the whole world will be in war. Prior to that or immediately after the rapture, Psalm 83 battle will ignite the conflagration in the Middle East like at no other time in the world nor shall ever be. Israel’s neighbors conspire to attack. A confederation including Palestinians, Jordanians, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria attack the apple of God’s eye (Zech 2:8;) Israel. Israel is successful in wiping them out, even to the point where Israel reclaims land that was originally given to her by God (Genesis 15:18, Obadiah 1:17-18). For the rest of the tribulation we don’t hear much from any of these nations again. Israel is seen to have an exceedingly great army (Ezekiel 37:10).

In Isaiah 5:30, the analogy of the restless and wicked multitudes as the sea is used: “And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.” Barnes notes explains, “The prophet speaks of the vast multitude that was coming up and roaring like the tumultuous “ocean.” And again, the analogy is used in Isaiah 17:12 “Oh, the raging of many nations–they rage like the raging sea!”

One of the prophesies Jesus told us of in the Olivet Discourse, was that, “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.” (Luke 21:25.) In my opinion, this is what we are seeing a precursor of now, with the continual revolutions rolling over from nation to nation the Middle East.

In the practical, what we’re seeing today is the coalescing of these nations from individual states battling here and there, into a lock-step united front of a massive Muslim coalition with eyes looking upon a common enemy: Israel. The old Arabic proverb applies here, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Finally they will come together on an issue: and it’s not peace at the diplomacy table, it will be in attacking Israel. They all hate Israel but until now they have been preoccupied with their own business to adhere to a united front.

If Sudan and Bahrain and Syria and Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran are all saying that outside plots are upsetting the peace of the Middle East and causing these revolutions, how long do think it will be until they decide that those outside plots are from Israel (little satan) and US (Big Satan)? It looks like not long.
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fukushima, jesus, wormwood

Facts and prophetic implications of Fukushima meltdown

Posted on March 29, 2011May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

The situation in Japan is truly critical. Here is some context and some news, with my interpretation of the end time implications at the end. Believe it or not, I have edited this down from a longer length. But it is a good roundup of the latest and most pertinent facts I could find. I apologize if it is too long.

ABOUT THE REACTOR FACILITIES:

The Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant, also known as Fukushima Dai-ichi (dai-ichi means “number one”), is a nuclear power plant located on a 860-acre site in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. There are six nuclear reactors on site, known as Fukushima-1, Fukushima-2, etc. The plant reactors came online from 1970 through 1979.

Fukushima II Nuclear Power Plant, Fukushima Dai-Ni (dai-ni means “number two”), is a nuclear power plant located on a 370-acre site located 7 miles to the south of Fukushima Dai-chi. There are four reactors at the second Fukushima, which all came online between 1981-1986. After the 2011 Tokyo earthquake and tsunami, the four reactors at Fukushima II automatically shut down without incident.

The situation has been difficult for media to get a handle on because it is a major disaster after all, and things are very fluid. At one point, readings were published that indicated radiation was 10 million times normal but there were extra zeroes in the report that went uncorrected for hours. The radiation was actually 100,000 times normal, which of course, is bad enough. No mother with a baby is going to care how many zeroes are on the report when her child comes down with cancer. But the situation has been hard to get a handle on also because of government’s hiding information and disinformation.

COMPARISON TO THREE MILE ISLAND

Four days ago, we heard from the Japanese Prime Minister that there was a breach at Fukushima-3 and that the situation is in his words, “grave and serious.” An American nuclear scientist, Michio Kaku, was asked for comment /reaction to the news. He said:

“This is huge. For the first time they are using that dreaded word ‘breach’, meaning uncontrolled release of radiation in the environment. This reactor contains plutonium, the most toxic chemical known to science. A millionth of a gram of plutonium can cause cancer if ingested.”

Dr. Kaku explained that the accident at Three Mile Island rated a five in the nuclear accident scale, because one reactor sustained 90% core damage, but very little radiation escaped into the environment. To compare Fukushima, the officials have rated as a level five on the nuclear accident scale. Dr Kaku said there are three raging meltdowns in progress, one spent fuel pond open to the air, hydrogen as explosions, any ONE of which exceeds Three Mile Island. “At the very least, Fukushima should by now be rated a six,” Dr Kaku said. Chernobyl was rated the highest, a seven on the nuclear accident scale.

But we are really parsing here when talking ‘partial meltdown’ and ‘full-scale meltdown’ when it comes to the Japanese people and the toxicity released into the global environment. There are reports on the ground from lay-people posting to Youtube that the situation is out of control, that plutonium has already been released in the air. What is the latest mainstream, credible news?

UFO shuts down Norway Airport

Posted on March 27, 2011 by elizabethprata

This is a weird story. It really happened, but the response was off.

Google-translated from Norwegian:
“Any-UFO” frames weekend traffic
Paralyzed air traffic in a half hour – police in disarray
“No one knows yet for sure what it was that disrupted air traffic over the Oslo yesterday. But the consequences were great, and can be spread out over the weekend. Much of the air traffic in Norway was paralyzed between 16.00 and 17.30 yesterday afternoon, after an SAS pilot notified of an unidentified object in the skies that make the approach route to Oslo Airport Gardermoen. SAS plane was on its way up the west side of Oslo Fjord on board when the captain made visual contact with another vehicle that reflected sunlight back into the cockpit of the SAS plane. The distance should have only been a few hundred meters, in a slightly lower altitude. “The Master interpreted it as a glider that had been higher than they normally get to,” said information chief Knut Morten Johansen of SAS to VG Nett. Information Manager Jo Kobro at Oslo Airport Gardermoen projected to VG Nett that “between 60 and 90 aircraft movements (departures and arrivals) were affected as a result of the incident.”

“So far, however, no one really has been able to determine what was actually observed over the Oslo Fjord on Thursday afternoon. Police are connected into the matter, but so far without result. We have created an investigation and make right now a witness questioning. Most likely it was a glider that because of strong winds have come into the approach zone, “said guard manager Morten Undlien at Heathrow police station to the AP.” The second option is a hang glider, but the height is almost impossible to control, and the same goes for so-called ultralight, claims those who have heard of this.” The weather conditions were such that other objects from the ground may have come loose and been transported into the air by an upward air flow.”

Pets and the rapture

Posted on March 27, 2011March 13, 2021 by elizabethprata

I’m asked more often lately about what will happen to our pets when we’re raptured. Some ask about the animals we keep, being a farm community. This place abounds with cows, bulls, buffalo, mules, goats, chickens, pigs and more. An ancillary question is often asked about pets and/or animals in the New Earth. I find the question fascinating, and also encouraging. The question about pets during the rapture has two answers: the literal one and the abstract one

The literal answer would have to refer to the bible. The book of Genesis tells us that we are unique in God’s creation, being made in His image and likeness. Also, though we and the animals have the breath of life in us, we were made to have dominion over the animals. It is reasonable to assume that our futures will be different, being of different flesh and having had different roles on earth.

We read in Isaiah 11:6-9 that there will be animals walking the earth during the Millennial Kingdom.

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.”

Those verses do not give us any indication one way or another specifically whether any of those animals will be our resurrected pets or whether they will be all newly created animals, or whether they will be animals completely different from any we could conceive of. After all, our normal picture of angels never prepared us for the passages in Ezekiel 10:10-12 with the cherubim of four faces and wheel within wheels. And a word of caution. Remember, a redeemed earth is not a resurrected earth.

After the thousand year reign of Christ on earth concludes and He makes a New Heaven and a New Earth (Rev 21, 22, 2 Peter 3:13, Isaiah 66:22) there is no indication that animals will be present with us. I take comfort in the Genesis flood accounts that He took care to provide for animals of the earth. He didn’t make new animals after the flood, and He didn’t give Noah only the animals he would eat and sacrifice, but He provided for all the kinds of animals. But the truth is, we simply don’t know.

We do know for a fact that we will feel all joy in the new heaven, and the former things will not be remembered nor come to mind. (Revelation 7:16-17). I take that to mean that if our pets are not accompanying us in the eternal state, not only the crushing guilt of our sin will no longer be remembered and not only also our lost family members and friends will not come to mind, but also we will not remember our pets. Everything necessary to our happiness will be in heaven, and that will mean they will either be present or their memory will be absent.

The abstract answer to the question as to what happens to our pets indicates a growing awareness of the real impacts of imminent rapture. Many Christians who ask me this have been Christians for a lifetime, or at least many years. We hear about the rapture and most of us know it as truth and adhere to it as a doctrine, but peeking into the nuts and bolts of the mechanics of it has largely been absent from our thoughts. This is because until now it has not been obvious that we might very well be the generation spoken of that will experience it. Though the rapture has been imminent for thousands of years, the conditions that immediately follow our departure haven’t been.

But those conditions are present now and growing more glaring by the minute. Christians are waking up to the fact that the rapture could indeed occur in our lifetime, or next year, or tomorrow. As we gaze around at our world and see the decline of the church and the war against truth, we start picturing what it will exactly look like- after.

I have an indoor cat. When I’m raptured, whether it occurs when I’m home or at work, it means they will starve. They will be thirsty and alone and lonely and confused. Maybe a tree will fall on the house in one of the terrible storms and disasters prophesied to come upon the earth, and maybe they will be injured or escape into the world, only to be eaten by a larger predator. I don’t know. But it will be bad. The future does not look good for them.

Nor does it look good for the chickens in the pens and the cows needing to be milked and the dogs tied to the pole or inside the car while the master is inside getting coffee. I try not to think about it. It is just one of the many tragedies that will occur during this time. After all, Jesus Himself said “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matt. 24: 21-22). It will be a very bad time, for not only the people but for the animals who suffer under the same corrupted earth that we do. I simply try not to dwell on it.

I take encouragement from something Texas Baptist Pastor Don Fawcett said, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope, that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” Romans 8:20-21. It seems abundantly clear from this verse that 1) the entire creation was subjected to decay and corruption due to sin, 2) animals and pets are created beings, 3) animals and pets are subject to corruption as part of the fallen world, 4) Christ, in his atonement, undid the sin/death principle for all corrupted creation, 5) at the eschaton, all things that have been effected by sin and corruption unwillingly will be restored. So, my conclusion- animals or pets in heaven? Animals? No doubt. Personal pets? I don’t know but it is certainly within the scope of biblical theology.”

I would like to agree with this. It is certainly in the scope of possibility, too.

I know God is good. His thoughts are above our thoughts and His plans are always working together for the good and His glory. It comes down to trust. I trust His thoughts and I trust His ways. After all, He sent Jesus to us. He sent the Holy Spirit to us. He sent the bible to us. He knows whither a sparrow falls and He knows our emotions and needs. Maybe He will send Fluffy and Scrappy to us! Heaven is perfection, and so, it will be perfect. I trust that with all my soul.

Further Reading:

Will our Pets be Raptured with Us?

end time, jesus, prophecy

Leadership vacuum causing distress

Posted on September 12, 2010May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

On September 4th, I posted the following essay:
Ayatollah Durrani’s call for Obama to be Caliph has enormous end time implications in Christianity AND Islam

7/2008 cover of the New Yorker

That post generated a HUGE amount of internet traffic. It was repeated and posted and discussed in many places. It got over 1000 page views the next day after I posted it (after it’d propagated) and it’s still getting huge traffic to date. I think the Obama as Caliph post clearly shows the extreme uneasiness of the American populace in terms of current leadership. Any culture needs and craves good leadership, a steady hand, and comfort that our representatives are truly representing us. When our leaders don’t, we get uneasy. Usually, an election takes care of the problem, as it did after the horrendous presidency of James Buchanan, generally acknowledged to be our worst President ever. (Sorry Bush haters…)

But the current uneasiness has an added tinge to it these days: panic. This is because the problems facing us are out of the norm, outsized, and seemingly insurmountable no matter how many Czars and funds and strategies we throw at it. This uneasiness tinged with panic is repeated the world over. The problems are simply getting bigger and more frequent. And no one is solving them.

I also think the root of the uneasiness about Obama as Muslim is the intuitive understanding at the soul-level Islam is of the devil and that it will likely be a major segment of the coming one-world religion. It’s all part of the end time.

The end time is technically the time between Jesus’ ascension and the Second Coming. However, He said that the signs of the end of the age would be as birth pangs: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.” (Mark 13:8). The character and nature of birth pangs are that they begin with a watershed moment (pun intended) and continue in rising frequency and intensity until they are so frequent and intense that they harbinger the event’s imminence.

The world’s problems are mounting in frequency and intensity. Earthquakes are on the rise. Drought is common. Crop failures are intense. Romania is so broke that they put forth a bill to tax fortune tellers and witches, just about the last ‘professions’ not to be taxed for their revenue. Leaders are out of ideas and the popularity of the American Tea Party is evident that we sure do notice the dearth of political innovation, or even competence.

As much as rallies satisfy for the moment, they do not suffice for true, steady leadership over time. Americans, and everyone else (except perhaps Germany) is craving it. We are not getting that craving satisfied, and it is making the world nervous. Crop after crop of leaders arise, only to disappoint. None of them have a clue as to how to solve the devastating problems facing us today.

That Obama’s origins are murky at best makes us even more nervous. An Associated Press article from today headlines the moment: “Unsettled nation marks 9/11 with rituals of sorrow (AP)” Unsettled is correct. We are unsettled not only because our leaders are failing us but we do not really even know who our top leader IS. Is he Muslim? Christian? Kenyan? Indonesian? Hawaiian? White? Black? Obama even calls himself a mutt. A mutt is an animal or a plant resulting from various interbreedings, especially a dog of mixed or undetermined breed. We are being “led” by a man of undetermined origins who stands for unexplained philosophies in a time of uncertain future. Unsettled isn’t the half of it.

Then the rapture will come. Suddenly, things will tip even more to the panic side of global turmoil. A terrorized populace will ask, scream, demand to know Where did they go? Why? Who took them? The weakened economy perhaps will not be able to stand the vacuum created by millions of vibrant and contributing Christians. The problems will get worse.

This uneasiness of the present day will translate into sheer panic after the rapture and will be one of the emotional foundation blocks that will be the path for allowing the Antichrist to arise. There will be a leadership vacuum of problematic proportions. There will be rampant panic to quell, and clamor for a steady, sure hand at the helm. The antichrist will fill the bill.

In the bible he is referred to by many names, such as Son of Perdition and Man of Lawlessness, and most often simply “The Beast”. He will be boastful, full of intrigue, win by craft and put forth dark sentences. He will be fierce, blasphemous and seemingly come in peace. By the time the leadership vacuum is at its fullest, none of the above will matter. The world will want somebody, anybody. The fact that Ayatollah Durrani was willing to settle for Obama as the Muslims’ Supreme Religious Leader (Caliph) is indicative of the yearning on the Muslims’ side of the world for someone to fill the leadership gaps spiritually as well as politically.

Part of the end time is not only the quantifiable and observable news that we read each day and match to the scriptures. Though it seems that some days the newspaper reports are ripped from the pages of the bible, it is also the spiritual and emotional feelings generated by the global events that are also part of the complex make-up of this unique time. That the “Obama as Caliph” post generated such buzz is indicative, I believe, of the unsettling emotional season upon which we are embarking. There is a children’s book by PD Eastman called “Are You My Mother?” in which a baby bird falls out of the nest, and unable to fly, walks all around repeatedly asking every animal he meets, “Are you my mother? Are You My Mother? Are You My Mother?” That book is like the world after the rapture and just before the antichrist. They will search and search, their tired legs carrying them to and fro, asking each potential candidate, Are you our leader? Are you the one? And finally the world will finally settle contentedly under the sheltering wing of the one who says, “Yes, I am the one.” He will be false, and he will wreak havoc on the world, and all because of lack of discernment of true leadership of the Holy Christ who has already come. Jesus said this will be so: “I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.” (John 5:43)

Nature abhors a vacuum. It is an idiom used to express the idea that empty or unfilled spaces are unnatural as they go against the laws of nature and physics. Humans abhor a leadership vacuum, and our hearts abhor a spiritual vacuum. The antichrist’s empty promises and false words will fill the vacuum created by the lack of leadership now and the coming days. Don’t fall for it. Empty words are no substitute for …

the real leadership of King JESUS CHRIST.

ann rice, end time, jesus, prophecy

Ann Rice cannot leave Christianity

Posted on August 5, 2010May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Ann Rice is famous for her vampire series of books, her bi-sexual erotica, and her very public conversion to Catholicism ten years ago. Her announcement this week that she is quitting Christianity is, of course, just as public. She said:

“Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out,” she wrote. “I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being ‘Christian’ or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious and deservedly infamous group. For 10 years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else…. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.”

Rice wrote that she cannot get behind a religion that is “anti-gay”. The culture of our times, here in the last days before the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, is such that man’s personal choices and ideas always trump God’s. His standards for morality and purity are that His men and women refrain from sexual indulgence until marriage, that they stay married, that they remain faithful until they die. This notion is mocked and scorned today. The literati firmly claim that it is hopelessly outdated. Even Federal Judge Walker said that the notion of opposite-sex genders as the only qualifiers for marriage is an “artifact from a past time” when he overturned the California constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

Equally, the notion that God renders consequences on those who choose to set aside His standards is anathema to today’s culture. No one wants to be held accountable and no one wants to think that anything they do has any consequences whatsoever. Ann Rice’s renunciation of the religion, the bible, yet claims of remaining faithful to Jesus are just another example of the tendency for fallen humans to pick and choose ideals with which they can remain fleshly and indulge in their favorite pastimes.

It is particularly poignant that she states that she remains “committed” to Christ but quits adhering to His standards, and in His name, no less. One cannot remain committed to someone or something after you selectively decline so many precepts the entirety looks like a foundation-less house. It is not possible to remain “committed to Christ” and repudiate His Word and His standards for purity, marriage, life, and culture. It is simply not possible.

Further, her statement reveals just how little she understood genuine conversion. Upon renunciation of your sins, seeking forgiveness of Jesus for them, and last, submitting to His will for your life, The Holy Spirit then enters and seals you. Thinking that even for a minute that man can tell the Spirit to come or go is ridiculous. Thinking for even a minute that man has the power to break a seal that God Himself set is even more ridiculous. And Jesus promised that the gates of Hades will not prevail against His church. Ann Rice never was a Christian. You can’t leave something you never went to. And sadly, Ann Rice believes she is a friend of God, has the power to break His seal, and can select at will the precepts to which she will adhere. This attitude is prevalent today, held not just by author Rice, but many, even most, Christians and non-believers.

Of course there is no such thing as an ex-Christian. But it speaks to how far we have fallen and how blinded we have become to even say such a thing with a straight face. The only thing left in Ann Rice’s spiritual landscape is the name of her Savior; the very God who hung on the cross so that she would be allowed to claim Him as savior- or reject Him. Unfortunately, Rice, and all of who believes as she does, will discover the devastating choice she made when Judgment Day rolls around. She can refuse to be anti-gay, anti birth control, anti-feminist all she wants. And she, and all who refuse the Way of Jesus will hear this: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’

Christian, if you have the Spirit in you, your walk should be closer each today to Him. If you wonder whether you are saved (or are considering “leaving Christianity”), then pray, pray hard and do a heart-check. Appeal to Him to forgive your sins and then repent, which means turn away from temptations and lifestyles that draw you back into lawlessness. It’s now, or then. And for eternity’s sake, turn from lawlessness NOW.