oil

Pakistanis hoard food, Australia stikes big oil, Syria crumbles, US mulls military intervention

Posted on July 25, 2013 by elizabethprata

I think this is a big deal- Netanyahu pondering a massive withdrawal from West Bank.
(Joel 3:2, And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land,)

Netanyahu to bring referendum bill up for cabinet vote on Sunday
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to bring in the referendum bill for a cabinet vote on Sunday, and then submit it to the Knesset for a preliminary vote on Wednesday before the parliament disbands for summer recess. The bill stipulates that if an agreement that is reached with the Palestinians calls for Israeli withdrawal from territory, the public would have to approve it in a referendum for it to take effect. Netanyahu is expediting the bill in response to pressure from the right wing, spearheaded by Economy Minister Naftali Bennett.”

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If the Aussies become self-sufficient, or a global oil power, that might make Russia more jealous for the remaining oil in their neck of the woods. Remember the Gog Magog war begins because they come to take a spoil. (Ezekiel 38:12).

Oil find ‘can fuel Australia’
“SOUTH Australia is sitting on oil worth more than $20 trillion, enough for Australia to become a self-sufficient fuel producer. The Advertiser reports Brisbane company Linc Energy yesterday released two reports, based on drilling and seismic exploration, estimating the amount of oil in the as yet untapped Arckaringa Basin surrounding Coober Pedy ranging from 3.5 billion to 233 billion barrels of oil. At the higher end, this would be “several times bigger than all of the oil in Australia”, Linc managing director Peter Bond said. This has the potential to turn Australia from an oil importer to an oil exporter.”

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I feel terrible about people who don’t have enough to eat! Imagine the hoarding and fighting when famine is in the land, and a loaf of bread costs a day’s pay! (Revelation 6:6, Revelation 6:8, Matthew 24:7).

Hoarding drives up food prices in Pakistan
“Prices of food usually rise during the month of Ramadan. But in Pakistan, it is not so much supply shortages that are causing the inflation, but hoarding by criminal gangs. Prices of food usually rise during the month of Ramadan. But in Pakistan, it is not so much supply shortages that are causing the inflation, but hoarding by criminal gangs. With the onset of Ramadan in Pakistan, the Nawaz Sharif government has set up special food markets across the country to provide affordable food items to all. However not all are satisfied with what is on sale, with some complaining about the quality of products and the range of items on sale.”

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Oh, Syria! Syria! What is to be done? (Isaiah 17:1-3a), “Damascus will be destroyed, The cities of Aroer are deserted; they will be for flocks, which will lie down, and none will make them afraid. The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus”)

Syrian rebels capture key village near Aleppo city
“Syrian rebels seized a strategic village on the edge of the northern city of Aleppo on Monday, activists said, just a day after opposition fighters sustained some of their heaviest losses in months in battles to the south near Damascus. Government troops killed at least 75 rebels in and around the Syrian capital on Sunday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday. It was one of the deadliest single-day tolls for opposition fighters recently.”

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Who do we root for?? No one! Joel Rosenberg’s analysis:

“Who exactly would we arm and assist? We’re talking about a civil war that is pitting Shia radicals (Assad’s regime, Iran and Hezbollah) against “the rebels,” most of whom are Sunni radicals (including al Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood forces). I don’t want any of them to win. Are there small numbers of rebels who might be better if they could really come to power? Perhaps. But the fact is they have very limited chances of getting to the top of the greasy pole. Indeed, if the wrong people seize control of Syria, the situation for the Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and the West could actually become much worse.”

Joel Rosenberg again from a different article,

Iran, Hezbollah are actively moving to take over Syria, says new Israeli report.
“A new analysis by an Israeli national security think tank argues that Iran not only sees Syria as strategically vital to the mission of the Islamic Revolution in the Middle East, and is determined not to let it fall into enemy hands, but is thus actively planning to take over the nation of Syria and effectively make it part of sovereign Iranian territory. The report, “Iran’s Plans To Take Over Syria,” suggests upwards of 150,000 troops from Iran, the Hezbollah terrorist movement in Lebanon, and some Shia forces from the Gulf states, are involved in the take over. The report was written by retired IDF Brigadier General Dr. Shimon Shapira and was recently published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.”

And yet, there is still talk of military intervention.

General outlines options for U.S. intervention in Syria
“As the U.S. begins to wind down the war in Afghanistan, some members of Congress are trying to pressure President Obama to take more direct action to stop the bloodbath in Syria. More than 100,000 people — mostly civilians — are believed to have died in the civil war. In a letter to the Senate Armed Services committee, America’s top military officer outlined several possible plans for U.S. intervention. But each plan comes with a heavy price.”

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I can’t remember a time when the headlines were so sick, depraved, atrocious. I know there has always been bad news, but not to this level. And no, these aren’t the worst. I choose not to read or publish the worst.

SHOCK VIDEO: Students sign petition to legalize abortion AFTER childbirth…
Neuroscientists plant ‘false memories’ in brain…
FEDS demand firms turn over passwords…
Small plane crashes into house in Indiana…
Dead body falls from plane preparing to land in Niger…
Train derailment kills 77 in Spain…worst disaster in 40 years…
North Korea floods leave 23,000 homeless, crisis worsens…

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I don’t have any prophetic insight, all that is contained in the bible, so you know what I know and I know what you know. But the spiritual pregnant pause is excruciating. The pressure is intense, it seems to me. Does it feel like something big is about to happen, or what?

Jesus has it all in hand. He is on His throne. Blessedly, we were given a glimpse of it! Truly, I can’t stop thinking about this scene

The Throne in Heaven

“After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.”

You know, WE WILL SEE THAT! If you are in Christ, born again and thus saved from the wrath of God, you will be in front of that throne, and Jesus will smile at you and say, “well done good and faithful servant, welcome home.”

discovery, gog magog, israel, oil, prophecy

Prophetic implications of Israel’s latest gas/oil find

Posted on June 5, 2012 by elizabethprata

ANOTHER major oil find in Israel was announced Sunday. I wrote about it briefly here. Now in this blog entry, I am giving more information.

There is an old joke that Moses took the wrong turn from Egypt, leading Israel to sand and leaving oil for the Arabs. Haven’t you ever wondered why the same geology that yields so much oil in Saudi Arabia and Iran and Iraq yields none in Israel? I have. However, the recent discoveries of oil and gas listed below have made that bad joke outdated. Israel produces 4,000 barrels per day, but has a 250,000 barrel per day demand. Therefore they must import, relying on ever-increasingly hostile neighbors and ever more vulnerable pipelines. It appears that reliance will no longer be necessary. I am sure Israel’s enemies will not be happy to contemplate her ever-growing fuel independence.

For decades, scholars and bible students have wondered what “spoil” could the Gog-Magog alliance possibly want. Israel feeds Europe with her fruit, growing oranges and figs and other fruits that are widely exported. I cannot imagine a war fought over figs, however. The verse in Ezekiel 38 says “A great spoil.” Hmmm.

“Thus says the Lord GOD: On that day, thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil scheme and say, ‘I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will fall upon the quiet people who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having no bars or gates,’ to seize spoil and carry off plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places that are now inhabited, and the people who were gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell at the center of the earth. Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all its leaders will say to you, ‘Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your hosts to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to seize great spoil?'” (Ez 38:10-13) [emphasis mine.]

What could the great spoil be? Until now, Israel has not shown much yield in anything except what she herself can coax from the ground with hard-won irrigation and sweaty toil. And Russia is the oil monster, with an output that until recently was prodigious. “Was” being the key word.

Jan 2009:
Israel Discovers Gas!
Israel’s Delek fuel company has discovered a huge deposit of natural gas west of Haifa that could change the face of Israel’s economy.

Dec 2009:
Israeli company finds oil beneath Rosh Ha’ayin
Givot Olam Oil Exploration Limited Partnership said that more than 60 percent gas was measured in the drill, indicating the first such find in Israel.

Dec 2010:
Gas Field Confirmed Off Coast of Israel
Exploratory drilling off Israel’s northern coast this week has confirmed the existence of a major natural gas field — one of the world’s largest offshore gas finds of the past decade — leading the country’s infrastructure minister to call it “the most important energy news since the founding of the state.”

Aug 2010:
Leviathan Oil Field Could Sustain Israel For Decades
All big oil and gas fields have geopolitical significance, but we haven’t seen a big oil find in recent years that could matter more than the Leviathan field in the Mediterranean Sea off of Israel. 4.3 bn barrels.

March 2011
Oil shale reserves can turn Israel into major world producer
THE JOKE has been told by generations of Jews, most famously Golda Meir, the former prime minister of Israel: ‘Why did Moses lead us to the one place in the Middle East without oil?’ … According to Dr Vinegar, Israel has the second-biggest oil shale deposits in the world, outside the US: “We estimate that there is the equivalent of 250 billion barrels of oil here. To put that in context, there are proven reserves of 260 billion barrels of oil in Saudi Arabia.”

Nov 2011
Russia output dropping
“Lukoil, which accounts for 15 percent of Russia’s 30-stock Micex index, extended its weekly decline to 6.6 percent after reporting third-quarter results that included a 2 percent drop in gas output and a 21 percent slide in net income. Oil production declined as flows from some wells in Western Siberia abated and falling demand from customers cut gas production, the Moscow-based company said in a Nov. 25 regulatory filing.”

Feb 2012
Another Gas Discovery for Delek, Noble Energy!
Noble Energy and the Delek Group announced on Sunday another significant discovery of a natural gas field off the coast of Haifa.The field, located in the Mediterranean waters 120 kilometers (74.5 miles) northwest of Israel’s northern port city, reportedly totals about 1.2 to 1.3 trillion cubic feet.

May 2012:
Forbes: Is Russian oil output plummeting?
“According to a recent Bloomberg story Saudi Arabia displaced Russia as the world’s largest oil producer, producing just about three thousand barrels a day more in March of 2012”

June 2012:
Israel discovers more offshore oil and gas
An Israeli company announced the discovery of another sizable offshore oil and gas field on Sunday.Israel Opportunity Energy Resources LP estimated the newest field at about 1.4 billion barrels of oil and 6.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.”The quantity of gas discovered in the licenses — and the high probabilities — make it the third largest off-shore discovery to date,” chairman Ronny Halman told Globes.

You see how this is going. You see that the “old joke” about Moses leading the Jews to the one place in the Middle East that doesn’t have oil is actually by this point kind of a blaspheme. God said He would provide for His people and He IS providing for His people. Furthermore, it demonstrates once again how perfect the LORD’S word is, how precise.

I watch with eager wonder and with bated breath as to what will be the tipping point for the Gog Magog prophecy to come true. When will Russia, Iran, Turkey et al get tired of holding back and pounce? At this oil discovery? The next? It can’t be long now…we see prophesies of Egypt in Isaiah 19 coming to pass and the prophesies of Isaiah 17 regarding Syria ready to come to pass. It is like a drawstring purse, the strings pulling the open neck ever closer, a closing which will end up being a noose around the necks of Israel’s enemies. How much more to go until the prophetic foundations are laid? God in His timing knows, but to me, this puny human, it seems ready today.

israel, oil

Israel Discovers New Giant Off-Shore Oil and Gas Field

Posted on June 5, 2012 by elizabethprata

Ed. Note: I wrote another article exploring the prophetic implications of this discovery here. It also lists the major oil/gas discoveries in the last 3 years.
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Israel has been blessed with gas and oil bounty these last three years. Several large discoveries have been made. Sunday another discovery was made, an oil field under the Red Sea off Israel. Officials say this one may surpass all the other finds in quality and in output.

Israel Discovers New Giant Off-Shore Oil and Gas Field
“An Israel energy company announced Sunday it has discovered an off-shore energy field that may even surpass previous finds in terms of the possibilities of developing commercial grade oil. Israel Opportunity Energy Resources LP announced that its Pelagic licenses indicate 6.7 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas and 1.4 billion barrels of oil. By comparison, the previously announced Tamar and Leviathan off-shore fields contain an estimated 9 and 17 TCF of natural gas. The amount of commercial oil, if any, has not been finalized, but estimates of possible oil in the Leviathan field have been downsized to 600 million barrels. Discoveries of oil and gas have made outdated the old joke that Moses took the wrong turn from Egypt, leading Israel to sand and leaving oil for the Arabs. … “The quantity of gas discovered in the licenses, and the high probabilities, make it the third largest offshore discovery to date,” according to Israel Opportunity chairman Ronny Halman, quoted by Globes.He added, ”This quantity guarantees Israel’s energy future for decades, and makes it possible to export Israeli gas, and boost the state’s revenues without worrying about gas reserves for domestic consumption.”

They are preparing wells now. It won’t take long to get it up and running with oil pouring out in export, officials say. Will the other exporting oil giant, the Russian Bear, get jealous? The bible has that answer.

In the Gog Magog battle of Ezekiel 38-39, Russia is one of the nations that attack Israel, for the purpose of taking a spoil, of seizing plunder. “Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all its leaders will say to you, ‘Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your hosts to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to seize great spoil?’ ” (Ez 38:13)

Things are surely lining up!

bp, end time, kalamazoo, oil, prophecy

Major oil leak causes state of emergency: 800,000 gallons spilled UPDATED

Posted on July 27, 2010May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Sad news today from Lake Michigan/Kalamazoo River

Oil spill update: State of emergency declared as 800,000 gallons of leaked oil begins flowing through Kalamazoo County
Kalamazoo County officials declared a state of emergency Tuesday afternoon as more than 800,000 gallons of oil released into a creek began making its way downstream in the Kalamazoo River “I just came from Fort Custer and you can smell it now,” Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Pali Matyas said. “… It’s all rolling downhill and there are a lot of complications.”

This article reports, “U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer, D-Mich., said he discussed the spill Tuesday with President Barack Obama at the White House. He called the spill a “public health crisis,” and said he plans to hold hearings to examine the response. “The company was originally slow to respond and it is now clear that this is an emergency,” Schauer told reporters on a conference call.” Caption “A worker lifts oil-covered debris from the Kalamazoo River in Battle Creek Tuesday. A pungent odor is hanging over the Battle Creek area and the Kalamazoo River valley a day after 840,000 gallons of oil leaked into a creek that feeds into the river. The oil leaked Monday from a 30-inch pipeline that carries about 8 million gallons of oil per day from Griffith, Ind., to Sarnia, Ontario, in Canada. AP credit”

This MI situation is not minor. And of course the Gulf of Mexico BP oil spill isn’t minor either. In addition to these large and visible spills, there has been a spate of pipe breaks, leaks, and explosions spilling gas and oil onto land and water lately, from the upper Midwest to PA to TX to the Gulf. You can do a search on this blog for “explosions” and many results will come up, if you want to see the previous articles.

I have been thinking about today’s bible reading. He had led me to Obadiah. This is another of those chapters that have prophetic proclamations, then historical fulfillment of the events described, and are also waiting for its double fulfillment in the future. Here, Edom (Jordan) was a thorn in the side of Judah and Israel, often cheering on armies like the Assyrians when they battled the Israelites. More often, Edom allied with them, and worst, would pick and plunder the stuff that was left behind from previous plunderers. Edom laughed at Israel, and shouted self-confidently from their clefts in the rock (the great city of Petra). God saw this and made some promises in passages that not only spoke of retribution but exact retribution for exact deeds.

In verses 5-9 it describes thieves and pickers and robbers cleaning out Edom just as Edom had picked and robbed and stole from Judah. Even more clearly, God spelled it out in verse 12:

The Day of the LORD and the Future
“For the day of the LORD draws near on all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you. Your dealings will return on your own head.” (NASB)

These verses are cross-referenced to Habakkuk 2:8, “Because you have looted many nations, All the remainder of the peoples will loot you.” There is no escaping divine and exact retribution, It is repeated again in Jeremiah:

“Summon archers against Babylon, all those who draw the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her for her deeds; do to her as she has done. For she has defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.” (Jer 50:29) Perfect justice. Like-judgment for like-sin.

I was musing all day about what would be America’s fitting justice. Though we are not under judgment yet, because His wrath (judgment) has not begun and will not until the rapture and later Rev 6, we are still approaching that Day. The Day of the Lord is spoken of or referenced in almost every New Testament book. It is a time that most of the bible points to. That Day will come and America will be one of the nations to have perfect justice fall on her, as long-promised and as long-deserved. As we peek around the prophetic corner to that Day, perhaps we can already see some of the precursors and signs of what kind of judgment awaits the unbelieving left behind.

Would it not be fitting for a gluttonous and wasteful oil gobbling nation to be awash in oil that cannot be used? Would it not be fitting for us, who are so polluted by perversity and garbage, to have our lands become corrupted and trashed? I don’t know what the LORD has in mind for America nor any nation in particular in terms of exact judgment, but we KNOW that we will be repaid as we have done. And that is scary enough.

UPDATE

At 5:57 an update was posted regarding another spewing well…

Tug vessel hits abandoned gas well in Barataria Waterway
JEFFERSON, La. — The Coast Guard and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office are maintaining a two mile safety perimeter around a damaged wellhead in the Barataria Waterway south of New Orleans.
A mix of natural gas, contaminated water and light crude oil is spewing 100 feet in the air. According to the Coast Guard, the tug vessel Pere Ana C while pushing a dredge barge struck the abandoned wellhead around one Tuesday morning. “The issue for the region right now is we have gas coming out of an uncontrolled well head,” said Coast Guard Captain John Arenstam. “We don’t want to introduce into the region is an ignition source.”

bp, end time, famine, hurricane, oil, prophecy

Hurricane season and the Oil Slick

Posted on June 3, 2010May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Back on April 30, I pondered the implications of a hurricane season on the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico. The enormity of the disaster hadn’t hit home yet, since it was only days old at that time, and many people casually thought that the slick would be cleaned up by then. No one in their wildest dreams thought that not only wouldn’t it be cleaned up, but the the oil would still be pumping by the time hurricane season hit.

Now that hurricane season is upon us, having opened on June 1, let’s take a look at the outlook.

The 2010 Hurricane Season in the Atlantic Ocean began on June 1, 2010, and will end on November 30, 2010. Atlantic hurricanes affect the eastern and Gulf coasts of the U.S. and the Caribbean nations. The experts are predicting a busier-than-usual hurricane season for 2010. According to the forecast, there is an 85% change of an above-average hurricane season in 2010. We can expect an “active to extremely active” season. 14-23 named storms (winds 39 mph or higher)8-14 hurricanes (winds 74 mph or higher) 3-7 major hurricanes (winds of at least 111 mph)

So it seems that there will be a steady parade of storms in the Gulf, and only once in 12 years did NOAA’s prediction turn out to be an overestimate. Let’s take a look at the oil and where it is predicted to be:

The NY Times’s simulation reporting shows the oil going around Florida and up the East Coast. The University Corporation’s Atmospheric Research showed the oil going around Florida and up the east Coast. The oil is going to escape into the Atlantic, there is no doubt about it. Here is a computer simulation.

But here is science for the third part of this study of oil and hurricanes: wind plastering it all over the United States. It’s hard to imagine the effects of wind-driven oil and chemicals on the farmlands in LA, TX, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, but not so hard to imagine there will be some. We know that salt-driven inland has devastating effects on vegetation up to 45 miles inland. (Photo: This satellite-based image shows brown areas along the Texas and Louisiana coasts where vegetation has been killed off by saltwater after Hurricane Ike pushed seawater inland. The brown area in the gulf indicates sediment taken from the coast when surge waters flowed back out.)

But what about the effects far inland? Yes, I said far inland. A NASA study conducted in 23 of the effects of wind-driven salt and plankton from the Pacific hurricanes of 1998 found that the winds had indeed driven them far inland. Like, from California to Oklahoma.

Hurricane Winds Carried Ocean Salt & Plankton Far Inland
Researchers found surprising evidence of sea salt and frozen plankton in high, cold, cirrus clouds, the remnants of Hurricane Nora, over the U.S. plains states. Although the 1997 hurricane was a strong eastern Pacific storm, her high ice-crystal clouds extended many miles inland, carrying ocean phenomena deep into the U.S. heartland. Scientists were surprised to find what appeared to be frozen plankton in some cirrus crystals collected by research aircraft over Oklahoma, far from the Pacific Ocean. This was the first time examples of microscopic marine life, like plankton, were seen as “nuclei” of ice crystals in the cirrus clouds of a hurricane.

National Geographic also studied the effects of hurricane wind-driven salt onto the far inland parts of the US, enough to change the local ecosystem. Answer: yes the hurricanes drive surface items such as salt far inland. It would likely do the same for oil. Wat I wrote back on April 30 was “As the hurricane makes landfall, the oil foam would be plastered on everything for hundreds of miles. When trees, grasses, plants, animals, etc. get pounded with the foamy winds they will get a thin layer of oil. That thin layer of oil mixed with sea water would likely kill any vegetation.” If it has been proven that salt carried far inland has devastating effects on the land and trees, then what of the effects of oil?

Thirty-seven percent of the Gulf is already closed to fishing. As the slick grows, that number grows. It was 31% only a few days ago. Fishing is food, and food is already scarce. As the farmlands inland receive chemicals and oil from wind-driven tropical force and hurricane driven winds, from the Gulf AND the east coast, it is not hard to imagine the end time warning of famine in Matthew 24:7 coming to fruition very soon.

brimstone, Does the oil platform explosion and oil spill have prophetic implications?, end time, oil, prophecy, sulfur

The Language of God: fire and brimstone

Posted on May 29, 2010May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Part 1 in the series “Language of God- Hail”

First, in unusual news, Spaceweather.com reports On May 1st, volcano photographers Steve and Donna O’Meara were stunned when they photographed a perfectly shaped volcanic smoke ring blown out by Eyjafjallajokull volcano in southern Iceland:

©Steve & Donna O’Mears, http://VolcanoHeaven.tumblr.com

“This is a rare phenomenon,” say Steve and Donna. “We’ve only seen it one other time at Italy’s Stromboli volcano in 2001.” Joseph Licciardi, an earth sciences professor from Oregon State University, was there to see it, too. “The ring was visible for five minutes and then fell apart,” he told the UK Daily Mail. “I am thrilled that I was present at the event.”

The Volcanology glossary defines the smoke ring phenomenon as “quite rare.” In other volcano news,

Arenal erupts
Costa Rica’s Arenal volcano has erupted, spewing geysers of lava, ash and toxic gases from its crater and forcing the evacuation of the national park where it is located. The 1633-metre-tall cone-shaped mountain in northern Costa Rica shuddered into activity at 4am this morning issuing eight successive rivers of lava that flowed down its steep slopes, National Volcanology and Seismology Observatory expert Elicer Duarte said.

Volcano eruption in Guatemala kills 1 injures 20 in Pacaya
President Colom declared Regions in Guatemala are in a “state of calamity” after the Pacaya volcano, 25 miles south of Guatemala City, increased its activity. Pacaya volcano, located about 15 miles (25 km) south of Guatemala City. Pacaya volcano erupted tonight and shut down Guatemala’s international airport in the capital and caused the urgent evacuation of several populations. President Colom said during a press conference that at least four people are missing after the eruption. Police said a local television journalist, who had been reporting on the volcano, died when he was crushed by falling rock. at least 20 people injured as volcanic debris fell on villages.

Ecuador’s Tungurahura erupts, causing evacuations
Lava and ash from Ecuador’s Tungurahua volcano forced the closure of Guayaquil Airport until Saturday afternoon, an airport spokesman said Friday. The glacier-capped, 16,478-foot (5,023-meter) volcano has erupted periodically since 1999, with major eruptions occurring in August 2006 and February 2008, the government’s emergency management agency said.

Is Katla Ready To Erupt And Bring Europe To Its Knees Again?
A report from University College London is pointing towards a near term eruption of Iceland’s giant volcano, Katla, according to MSNBC.com (heard through Zero Hedge). The President of Iceland has also cautioned against an imminent eruption saying that Europe, its governments, and its airline industry needs to prepare. Katla happens to be one of the largest, southernmost volcanoes in Iceland, potentially causing an even graver threat to Europe than Eyjafjallajökull.

Whether the author of the last headline knew it or not, the last headline hits close to the intent of the end time. In this period just prior to the rapture, God makes Himself known more directly and in a variety of ways. (Of course, He makes Himself even MORE known during the Tribulation). Those ways are listed in the bible throughout the New and Old Testaments, but particularly in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s Gospels. In Mathew 24, Jesus tells the disciples what the generation at that time can expect, and natural disasters are one of them. One volcano erupting does not mean we are in the end time, and regularly erupting volcanoes that erupt do not mean we are in the end time. But the totality of the volcanic activity combined with the suddenness of some of them, and the appearance of rare phenomena, indicates that God may be speaking, using one of His signature languages: fire and brimstone.

God’s signature use of hail, famine, pestilence, earthquakes, and “brimstone” (sulfur) are well-known throughout history. In a recent entry, we looked at God’s use of hail as a warning to the wicked. Now, let’s look at fire and brimstone.

The KJV of the Bible offers many examples of the phrase “fire and brimstone.” Brimstone is sulfur (British spelling, sulphur). In Genesis 19, God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah for their immoral homosexuality via a rain of fire and brimstone. In Deuteronomy 29, the Israelites were threatened with the same punishment if they abandoned their covenant with God. Divine judgments involving fire and sulphur are prophesied against Assyria (Isaiah 30), Edom (Isaiah 34), Gog (Ezekiel 38), and all the wicked (Psalm 11). The ultimate book of wrath, Revelation, shows God using the punishment with fire and brimstone throughout. Here is one example…

“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:10, KJV)

Interestingly, in Isaiah 30:33, the breath of God is compared to brimstone: “The Breath of Jehovah, like a stream of Brimstone, doth kindle it.”

“Brimstone,” used to be the common name for sulfur. The word when used today is almost exclusively in allusions to God’s fiery wrath, with one exception in popular culture being the underwater volcano named “Brimstone Pit.” But more on that later.

According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, “sulfur is … found in Palestine, in the region along the banks of the Jordan and around the Dead Sea, both in combination with other elements and in its pure state. In the latter condition it is still employed medicinally for skin-diseases by the wandering Arab tribes, who make further use of it in the preparation of gunpowder. Brimstone is also found in the hot springs that line both shores of the Dead Sea. In one of these springs (at Callirrhoe), Herod took baths in the hope of finding a cure for his ailment (Josephus, “Ant.” xvii. 6).”

In the biblical punishments, God rained down brimstone from the sky. Volcanic eruptions also contain sulfur in its solid and its gaseous state, which, when erupting, rain down fire and brimstone from the sky. And there have been a lot of volcanic eruptions lately.

In 2008 Volcano Chaiten in Chile erupted suddenly for the first time in 9500 years. (that’s the scientists’ dateline, not the bible’s). Have the number of volcanic eruptions been increasing lately? The world’s fevered attention on the Yellowstone Volcano’s quake swarm was only a recent reminder of some of earth’s more ferocious potential for disasters…I set about quantifying the answer to whether volcanic eruptions are on the rise, or not.

First, I found this:

“How many volcanoes erupt every day?”
“The Smithsonian Institution has the Global Volcanism Network and a monthly bulletin about eruptions. About 50 to 60 eruptions happen each month. Some volcanoes are in constant activity — Stromboli, Kilauea, or Sakurajima, for example. There are many examples of volcanoes which show some sign of renewed danger and then erupt within an hour, though more commonly, within one day. Most eruptions last hours but some continue for weeks and months.”

However, in looking further, I found data that gives a better view over time. It seems that the stated average of “50-60” is much higher than it used to be and lower than it is now. According to the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program data, in the 1910’s -1940s, only 30-40 eruptions occurred each year. In the 1980’s and 1990’s the average rose to 58 volcanoes erupting per year. In this millennium, an average of 70 volcanoes erupted each year. In 2010, with only half the year gone, fifty have already erupted. If the trend holds, the year will end with 100 eruptions.

Here is a graph with the data from the above source. It depicts decade average eruptions since 1850. Note, last bar is year only, 2010. I’ll tell you why below:

It is statistically inappropriate to mix apples and oranges, but I’ll tell you why I included the year-only for 2010 with all the previous bars representing ten years’ worth of data. At no time in all the years that Smithsonian has been collecting data, and I looked back to year 580 AD, there have been more than 78 eruptions in one year. That year-high was 2008. Yet in 2010 with only HALF the year gone, there have already been 50 eruptions. An additional eruption occurred overnight while I have been formulating this entry. If the trend holds, the year 2010 will end with 100 eruptions, a phenomenal high.

Biblically, God has used fire and brimstone to warn and punish. He has threatened to use fire and brimstone to punish. He will threaten to use fire and brimstone to punish (Revelation). It is part of God’s vocabulary to us humans.

Now as to the BP oil spill. On April 30, 2010, I asked “Does the oil platform explosion and oil spill have prophetic implications?” I didn’t answer that questions definitively at that time, it being too soon and having formulated no conviction after prayer. I have now decided that the answer is YES. Here is why. Brimstone is sulfur. Sulfur exists on the earth in solid and gaseous states. In 2004 the world’s deepest volcano was discovered, underwater, and it is constantly erupting at that. They named it “Brimstone Pit.” Brimstone pit emits huge amounts of sulfur.

“View of a de-gassing event at Brimstone Pit at NW Rota-1 volcano releasing an extraordinary number of bubbles probably carbon dioxide. The yellow parts of the plume in the background contain tiny droplets of molten sulfur. Credit: NOAA”

It reminds me of a photo that the world has become all too familiar with: BP Oil Leak under the Gulf of Mexico:

The amount of sulfur (hydrogen sulfide) emitted from the oil leak is making crews on boats sick and making those on shore sick too. Sulfur = Brimstone. When the people of the Gulf smell that distinctive “rotten egg” smell, it is sulfur, or brimstone. The LORD will destroy the earth by fire in the end, said Peter in 2Peter 3:10. And Isaiah said “For the LORD will execute judgment by fire And by His sword on all flesh,” (Isaiah 66:16) Brimstone is the language of God, and it is being thrown upon the earth from north to south, in all hemispheres, from volcanoes in high latitudes to those under the sea. Are we listening?

atheist, bp, end time, oil, prophecy, ted turner

About that Ted Turner comment…

Posted on May 19, 2010May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

The End Time, technically since the moment Jesus ascended and the angels told the onlookers He’d be back (Acts 1:11), and especially since Israel was created in 1948, are ramping up like the birth pangs we’re told will come. God is making Himself more evident in the world and will do so until the rapture and then things will go forward on warp speed.

Though God is speaking to us not only through the Spirit but through the events listed in the end time discourse, and are loud and clear to us Christians. But for most lost people, they are part of the background din satan successfully weaves into “normal life” so that the mind remains blinded. That was why it was all the more extraordinary that super-atheist and billionaire Ted Turner thinks that the BP Oil Spill could be a message from God. Is the Spirit speaking to Mr Turner? And if He is, is the message being received correctly?…

Turner has been openly hostile to Christianity in the past, once famously saying “Christianity is a religion for losers,” and as reported here, “Seeing CNN employees wearing ashes on their forehead on Ash Wednesday, he remarked, “What are you, a bunch of Jesus freaks? You ought to be working for Fox.” He is so viscerally uncomfortable with the Christian faith that he blamed his divorce from his third wife, Jane Fonda, partly on her decision to become a practicing Christian.” He joked that he has been “born again seven times, so one of them is bound to take.”

This week in an interview with CNN, he said that the BP Oil spill may be God trying to tell us something. Now, for a super-hostile atheist to liken earth’s events to the divine hand of God is a great glimmer of light to the blinded mind. But oftentimes, it is not enough.

What Turner said was, “Could be, He’s sending us a message.” Turner sat down with Harlow recently to discuss the energy policy in the United States. He continued, “I’m not a real religious person, but I’m somewhat religious. And I’m just wondering if God is telling us he doesn’t want us to drill offshore,” he said. “And right before that we had that coal mine disaster in West Virginia where we lost 29 miners,” as well as repeated mining disasters – “seems like there’s one over there every week” – in China. “Maybe the Lord’s tired of having the mountains of West Virginia, the tops knocked off of them so they can get more coal.”

Most people do not make the connection between things that happen in the world and God’s Divine Hand and Plan. The end time is a time where God, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance, rolls out opportunity after opportunity for us to do so. Note that the verse is often misquoted ‘not willing that any should perish but all come to everlasting life…” but this is not correct. The goal is REPENTANCE. The end time is a time for all to see a Holy God pouring out His warnings and to make the connection to self, our sin and rebellion against God. The first step is repenting.

Turner said it could be that God is sending us a message. Yes, He is. But what message? The message is not that He doesn’t want us to drill or mine. It is that He wants us to repent. It’s all too easy for the blinded mind to understand there is a God but never make the connection to sin, self, and Jesus’ work on the cross as the only way to heaven. The end time is a period where we pray that the lost not only acknowledge a Holy God’s warnings to an unbelieving world, but to have them understand that without Jesus we are nothing and worse, we are destined for hell forever.

Before we get over-excited about Turner’s possible conversion remember that even the demons believe in God, and tremble. But they do not repent. If the Spirit is working in Turner, and in others during the end time, who see these things coming to pass and wonder about God, pray for them. But pray that the most important step is taken, that they repent of their own sins. It’s hard to imagine the man who re-wrote God’s Ten Commandments and carries them around in his wallet (and by the way they are all “earth”- oriented, none recognize his personal sin) is the same man who would get down on his kneels acknowledging Jesus and submitting his life to Him, the next step after repentance. Always keep repentance in mind. Acknowledging a God-sent message is not enough, and satan strives to misquote God’s messages to us at every turn.

In an ironic statement, when Turner created CNN, he said, “we won’t be signing off until the world ends. We’ll be on, and we will cover the end of the world, live, and that will be our last event–and when the end of the world comes, we’ll play ‘Nearer my God to Thee’ before we sign off.” He is likely right. During the Tribulation when the Two Witnesses are killed, they lay in the street of Jerusalem for three days and then are miraculously resurrected and ascend to heaven before the astonished eyes of the world. (Rev 11:8-9; 11-12) It may well be true that an intrepid reporter with a CNN microphone will interview the fearful crowd as the Two Witnesses stir from having received the breath of life from God and float up to heaven upon His command to “Come up Hither!” I hope that by then Mr Turner is a participant in Jesus’s Kingdom and not just a scoffing observer. For Christians are not “losers,” but are winners. “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.” (1 Cor 9:24)

bp, end time, oil, pollution, prophecy, sin

Man’s failure at stewardship

Posted on May 18, 2010May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

The BP Gulf oil spill is heart-breaking. Knowing that the Gulf economy is wrecked, the fishing industry is kaput, tourism is gone, and the lovely and stunning beaches and marshes are oil-slicked ruins is completely disheartening. Also knowing that the animals are suffering is also hard to watch, because they are innocent. What did a dolphin ever do to us?

As a matter of fact, God set it up so that they would depend on us and our stewardship. He gave dominion of the animal world to us, saying to Adam, “have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” The bible talks a lot about stewardship, and many people take that to mean money and tithing, and it is, but it also means conscientious handling of the earth. [Above, An oil soaked bird struggles against the side of the HOS Iron Horse supply vessel at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP (Guardian / UK) – May 10, 2010.] We are definitely failing in our stewardship charge.

Today I saw some photos of an ‘illegal highway’ in Arizona, a path where Mexicans apparently go across the border and when they do, they drop what they are carrying so as to blend in better with the local illegal and legal population once they emerge from the desert. The photos were accompanied with the typical “Good for Arizona and Oh gosh those filthy Mexicans” kind of tripe. Here is one photo example making the rounds:

But then thanks to Coyote Blog‘s entry ‘Glass Houses”, I started thinking of other areas of the world where such trash piles accumulate. Left unpicked-up, trash accumulates in National Forests,

In bucolic New England towns, from people too lazy to cross town to get to the dump, where they leave “Bags of trash, mattresses, cardboard boxes, metal barrels, tires, and car seats were just some of the items found on a quick inspection of the area on Tuesday. [K]ids found dead animals in trash bags a few years ago. Typically the trash has been household garbage, washers and dryers, tires and sometimes adult magazines…”

And from rich Americans and Europeans atop Mount Everest, where a massive expedition has been undertaken to remove it.

From the forests to the prairies, from the mountains to the sea, we’re pigs. We have totally abandoned God’s call to stewardship of the planet and of the animals.

It reminds me of a great Twilight Zone episode called “The Masks.” In it, a rich guy with an attractive and well-tailored but craven and evil family summons the gang to his deathbed. He tells them that if they wear some Mardi Gras grotesque masks until midnight they get all his money but if they don’t all they get is train fare home. Uncaring of his imminent death and wanting the money, they comply. As the evening progresses, they writhe under the unbearable discomfort the masks afford, and beg to remove them. Reminded that the riches will not be theirs until the appointed hour, they reluctantly leave them on. The patriarch dies after making his final speech. Joyous that they could now remove the grotesque masks, they reach up only to find that the masks had morphed into their faces, rendering their outward likeness as a mirror of their interior character and nature.

In Matthew 23:26 Jesus said, “Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.” What is on the inside of us will come out as filth. Unless our insides are cleaned by Jesus, it will always result in filth. The photos of the trash and death and destruction of the earth are simply an outward representation of what is inside us, for “Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. (Isaiah 59:7). As long as the world is ruled by a fallen man, the fruits will surface, and the fruits of fallen man are trash. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” (Isaiah 64:6).

However that is not the end of the story. He will make all things new!! “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.” (Rev 21:5). He is true and faithful, He will remake the earth that we have messed up in our sin and filth, and forevermore sin will no more pollute the earth- or our souls! Hallelujah.

bp, end time, oil, prophecy

Can you say "dead zone"? More plumes than can be counted

Posted on May 17, 2010 by elizabethprata

“Researchers have found more underwater plumes of oil than they can count from the well, said Samantha Joye, a professor of marine sciences at the University of Georgia. “The discovery of these plumes argues that a lot more oil and gas is coming out of that well every day, and I think everybody has gotten that fact except BP,” she said. The hazards of the plume are twofold. Joye said the oil itself can prove toxic to fish, while vast amounts of oxygen are also being sucked from the water by microbes that eat oil. Dispersants used to fight the oil are also food for the microbes, speeding up the oxygen depletion.”

Full article here. What does it mean, prophetically? I believe it means that United States Christians, as well as Christians globally, will be in for some very tough times before the rapture comes.

As for God’s promises, His comfort is always with us. Sure, we’ll have a few days or weeks or even a year or two of tough times, but He made us a promise, actually, many promises. First, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” (2 Cor 1:3-4.) FOr we are not here long, actually. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Cor 4:17) Do not worry, God has everything under control. Soon and very soon, we will SEE HIM and we will understand all things. Meanwhile, it is OK to mourn this world, as long as we are not attached to it…“those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.” (1 Cor 7:31)

bp, end time, end time. prophecy, oil, paul noel

Watching our own demise, live on the internet

Posted on May 14, 2010May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

By now everyone knows the oil rig explosion on April 22, 2010 off Louisiana was a horrendous event. Lives were lost, and oil immediately started spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. Initially the Powers That Be (heretofore known as TPTB) told us at first, here and here, no oil was leaking at all. Then they said that the oil leak was stopped, then, the magnitude of the spill was downplayed. However, thanks to the internet, by April 30th the leaking oil quantities first put forth were quickly debunked as headlines like this one were published: Gulf oil leak reaches crisis proportions and lead sentences blared, “The massive oil well leak in the Gulf of Mexico abruptly turned into a national crisis yesterday, when scientists realized oil is probably gushing from the seafloor at five times the rate they first thought.” Or this one, which said flatly “Size of Oil Spill Underestimated, Scientists Say“

Anyone with eyes could see that more oil than TPTB said was leaking into the Gulf. Photographs showing the animals struggling in their dirtied environment soon made the rounds, and after that, hundreds of dead and dying animals soon washed ashore.

A pod of Bottlenose dolphins swim under the oily water Chandeleur Sound, Louisiana, Thursday, May 6, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

An oil soaked bird struggles against the oil slicked side of the HOS Iron Horse supply vessel at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana Sunday, May 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Current estimates of the leak are 200,000 barrels per day. Yes, that’s barrels, not gallons. There are 42 gallons per barrel. 8,400,000 gallons a day.

Paul Noel, works as Software Engineer (as Contractor) for the US Army at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. He has a vast experience base including education across a wide area of technical skills and sciences. He supplies technical expertise in all areas required for new products development associated with the US Army office he works in. He supplies extensive expertise in understanding the Oil and Gas industry as well. He writes for Pure Energy Systems today:

I…think that the situation is getting further and further out of hand. The nature of the crude had changed, indicating that the spill was collapsing the rock structures. If it is collapsing the rock structures, the least that can be said is that the rock is fragmenting and blowing up the tube with the oil. With that going on you have a high pressure abrasive sand blaster working on the kinks in the pipe eroding it causing the very real risk of increasing the leaks.

More than that is the very real risk of causing the casing to become unstable and literally blowing it up the well bringing the hole to totally open condition. Another risk arises because according to reports the crew was cementing the exterior of the casing when this happens. As a result, the well, if this was not properly completed, could begin to blow outside the casing. Another possible scenario is a sea floor collapse. If that happens Katie bar the door.

The deposit is one I have known about since 1988. The deposit is very big. The central pressure in the deposit is 165 to 170 thousand PSI [pounds per square inch]. It contains so much hydrocarbon that you simply cannot imagine it.

The oil industry has knowledge of the deposit more than they admit. The deposit is 100 miles off shore. They are drilling into the edge of the deposit to leak it down gently to be able to produce from the deposit. The deposit is so large that while I have never heard exact numbers it was described to me to be either the largest or the second largest oil deposit ever found. It is mostly a natural gas deposit. The natural gas that could be released is really way beyond the oil in quantity. It is like 10,000 times the oil in the deposit.

It is this deposit that has me reminding people of what the Shell geologist told me about the deposit. This was the quote, “Energy shortage…, Hell! We are afraid of running out of air to burn.” The deposit is very large. It covers an area off shore something like 25,000 square miles. Natural Gas and Oil is leaking out of the deposit as far inland as Central Alabama and way over into Florida and even over to Louisiana almost as far as Texas. This is a really massive deposit. Punching holes in the deposit is a really scary event as we are now seeing.

If there are two things to remember from Noel’s comments they are: that the rock wall surrounding the deposit may be crumbling, and that the size of the original deposit covers 25,000 square miles. Think on this! The finances of a multi-million dollar company that brings us oil (which is in most products we use today), the economy of an entire region of the US, and the environment of millions of innocent sea animals are devastated. They may be devastated forever. This certainly isn’t something from which a nation recovers from quickly. It’s death and destruction and devastation on an enormous scale. Personally I believe that the impacts have not yet even begun to be felt and that it will be a lot worse than most realize.

One of the judgments is when “The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood,” (Rev 8:8; 2nd Trumpet judgment which occur after the 7 Seal judgments). By the time Rev. 16 bowl judgments roll around, all the seas will be as blood and all the creatures will die. Now, think on this for a moment: the Revelation judgments haven’t even BEGUN. The above photos are of the end time warnings, they are not judgments (because we are not appointed to wrath), and it’s still pretty awful to bear!

If you think the above looks bad now, later during the Tribulation you know how much worse it will get. I encourage all non-believers to ponder the gravity of the present situation, and decide if you really want to stick around or not. Because you do not have to be here to watch the planet’s demise, live and unfolding on the internet.

You can choose to repent of your sins, which means that you are really sorry for the bad things you have thought, said, and done. Badness is rebellion against God, and He hates it. But He loves you and He made a way for you to be reconciled to Him. You ask, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” and all you need do is “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:31). Believe that He died for your sins, believe that He has the power and ability to forgive them, believe that He lives now after being resurrected on the third day. Believe. And be saved. Or stick around and watch the planet’s death throes. God leaves it up to every individual to make that decision. And know this: not deciding is deciding.