prophecy – Page 120

The plague of beasts

Posted on February 11, 2010January 26, 2022 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Gustave Dore, Vision of Death. 1865. public domain

I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth. (Revelation 6:8).

Consider those words for a moment…we are all familiar with plagues such as THE Plague, as in bubonic, Swine Flu and Dengue Fever and Malaria and all the other diseases and plagues throughout the centuries as well as biblical plagues of locusts and the ten plagues of Egypt. But one of the plagues loosed in Revelation 6 as the 4th seal is opened will be wild beasts.

Before we explore further, let’s go back to the beginning, in Genesis1:28 and Genesis 9:2. In Gen 9, God said “The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given.” In this verse, after the flood, God is making a promise to Noah and his descendants. God grants them power over the inferior creatures for their use and benefit. Man would have dominion over them. In Gen 1:28 God gave dominion over the animals but it was in harmonic governance. By Gen 9, the change is that He will now instill a fear into the animals, and fallen man shall rule over them through their fear and dread of man. “Those creatures that are any way hurtful to us are restrained; so that tho’ now and then man may be hurt by some of them, yet they do not combine together to rise up in rebellion against man” writes Wesley.

Have you ever pondered the thought that we can ride a horse and make it do our bidding using only our heels and a bridle? Or that we can cause a bull to do our will, or an elephant to prance around on two legs? Or train a lion using a chair? Or ride Killer whales at Sea World? These are huge animals who could stomp us in a second, yet they don’t (as a rule). Why? They are restrained because of their fear and dread of us.

By the time Revelation 6:8 comes, the LORD will have taken away that fear and dread and the animals will rise up. Animals are already being abandoned in great number, and not just the small animals of dogs and cats, horrifying enough as that is, but also horses and zoo animals. We read more and more of sharks attacking in closer waters, mountain lions poaching humans in the backyard suburbs, wolf attacks are increasing, even raccoons attacking daily in DE and FL.

Imagine what it will be like when the LORD removes the restraint completely and allows animals to willfully rise up and attack. Remember how Wesley interpreted it: “Those creatures that are any way hurtful to us are restrained; so that tho’ now and then man may be hurt by some of them, yet they do not combine together to rise up in rebellion against man.” In Revelation 6 they will do exactly that!

God has cursed man with the plague of wild beasts before. In Lev. 26:22 “God said ‘I will let loose among you the beasts of the field, which will bereave you of your children and destroy your cattle and reduce your number so that your roads lie deserted,” and in Ez 14:21 “For thus says the Lord GOD, “How much more when I send My four severe judgments against Jerusalem: sword, famine, wild beasts and plague to cut off man and beast from it!”

Matthew Henry commentary -“Hurtful beasts, noisome and noxious, either as poisonous or as ravenous. God can make these to pass through the land (v. 15), to increase in all parts of it, and to bereave it, not only of the tame cattle, preying upon their flocks and herds, but of their people, devouring men, women, and children, so that no man may pass through because of the beasts; none dare travel even in the high roads for fear of being pulled in pieces by lions, or other beasts of prey, as the children of Beth-el by two bears. Note, When men revolt from their allegiance to God, and rebel against him, it is just with God that the inferior creatures should rise up in arms against men.”

How horrifying that the wild beasts should hunt us, attack, and do so in great number! You, Dear reader, do not have to be among the number killed by claws and teeth. Jesus made a way. If you feel saddened and upset over your misdeeds, called ‘sins’ in the bible, then ask Jesus to forgive them. Sinners cannot attain heaven, God hates sin and always judges it. That’s what the Tribulation is about: judging Israel and punishing national and individual sin through His wrath. If you pray to Jesus to forgive your sins and do so with sincere heart, believing He and only he can forgive them because of His work on the cross, then you are saved! Saved from the plague of beasts sure to come upon the world and then a worse fate of an eternity without Jesus in heaven. It will happen soon, do not delay.

illustration source

end time, iran, nuclear, prophecy

Iran is a nuclear nation

Posted on February 11, 2010May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

The most important news of the day has got to be Iran’s announcement that they are now a nuclear state. I don’t know why this surprises the power-brokers, it has been widely touted that Iran would have a nuke by 2010. It’s now 2010. You do the math, lol. I wonder what Israel will do?!

I believe the bible foretells nuclear war. In Isaiah 17:1 it says “An Oracle concerning Damascus: “See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins.” Only nukes could obliterate a city thoroughly enough for the city to be uninhabitable and unrecognizable. Even the massive and continual German bombing of London in WWII didn’t raze the city.

The nuclear issue is hugely important. Though nukes have only been used twice since their invention (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) I believe the bible foretells their use in quantity during the Tribulation. There are many verses that could be interpreted that way, but here are a few:

In Matthew 24:29 it states “The sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky.” Joel 3:14-15 and Mark 13:24 say the same. Nuclear winter effects are similar. When Mt. Tambora erupted in 1815 it produced a volcanic winter known as “Eighteen Hundred and froze to death” (1816). Severe summer climate abnormalities destroyed crops in Northern Europe, the Northeastern United States and eastern Canada. Famine was the result. Sunsets were spectacular, brown and red snow fell all over the globe, the skies were dark and the cold persisted for two years. That was just one eruption. Imagine the effects on a globe where nukes are falling in number.

Revelation 6:15 – “Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.” Why do they hide in caves in mountains? To shield themselves from the effects of nuclear blasts and fallout? Otherwise they would hide in homes and buildings, no? Mount Weather is the underground bunker to which the President and Congress is evacuated in the event of an emergency, such as when copters flew them to the facility on 9/11. Also, Cheyenne Mountain is another cave-like bunker facility to which the military would continue operations in case of nuclear exchanges.

Rev 6:14 “And the sky receded as a scroll…” this effect actually occurs during a nuclear blast. The continuing force of a nuclear blast wave drives everything away from its super-heated center, with winds up to 400 miles per hour. After a few seconds the winds rush back to fill the partial vacuum left from the blast.

Rev. 9:18 “A third part of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur.” Sulfur also known as brimstone, is a by-product smell of bitter fallout.

Revelation 8:7 we see that “A third of trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.” Joel 2:30 says, “I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood, and fire, and billows of smoke.”

Revelation 8:10-11 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

Zech 14:12 “Now this will be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth.” John Hagee mentioned that this scenario is a perfect example of the effects of a nuclear blast on the human body.

It seems likely that nukes will be used liberally during the Tribulation…pray now to receive Jesus as savior and forgiver of your sins, and you will dine with Him at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb rather than hide in caves shivering from nuclear winter.

Prophecy note: The rise of Iran, Russia, and China in these articles below coincides with the players that the book of Revelation says will be belligerent, powerful war-mongers in the Tribulation. Iran and Russia being the leaders of the Gog-Magog war and China being the land of the Kings of the East (Rev 16:12) mounting a 200 million man army.

President Ahmadinejad declares Iran a nuclear state
Iran is now a nuclear state, President Ahmadinejad told a huge rally of supporters on the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that Iran had produced a first batch of uranium enriched to a level of 20 percent and that it was capable of achieving much higher levels of purity – up to 80 per cent.

Iran: Destroy Israel if it strikes
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Syrian President Bashar Assad that Israel “must be resisted” and finished off “once and for all” if it launches a military operation in the Middle East, Reuters cited an Iranian report on Thursday.

China threatens to dump US Treasuries over Taiwan arms sale
Majors General Zhu Chenghu and Luo Yuan and Colonel Ke Chungqio of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army were quoted in an official Chinese publication calling for the Chinese government to retaliate against the United States economically for the recent decision to sell $6.4 billion of arms to Taiwan. China has already announced unspecified sanctions against U.S. companies that participate in the sale.

Twitter diplomacy: Envoy says Russia will ‘kick ass’ of US
Russia’s ambassador to NATO said Wednesday in a post on his Twitter feed that the proverbial Russian bear would “kick the ass” of the United States and its allies if cornered by a new US missile shield.

Nations are rising, as the bible said they would be!

end time, iran punch, prophecy

What will Iran’s ‘punch’ be?

Posted on February 10, 2010 by elizabethprata

For a little under two weeks now, Iran’s top leaders, either Khamenei or Achmadinejad, have been threatening the west with a blow and a punch on Feb. 11 that will leave us stunned. Feb. 11 is the anniversary of their revolution. Though hot air always emits from those quarters, it is unusual to have a date assigned. Though they usually posture, they rarely issue empty threats. Speculation as to what this punch may consist of was slow to begin but is now rampant along the fringes of the internet conspiracy groups.

George Ure at urbansurvival.com thinks that Iran will launch a missile from a satellite and blow an electro-magnetic pulse over America, immediately throwing us back to the stone age as all electricity and anything with a chip in it becomes immediately fried. Though that scenario sounds outlandish, the fact that America is not mentioned as a nation participating in any end time or tribulation war seems to indicate our country is incapacitated throughout. An EMP would do it. Couple that with the fact that the UK recently increased their threat level to severe, the second highest level, indicating a terrorist attack is “highly likely”. Joel Rosenberg postulated this scenario of sorts in his last book, Dead Heat, where a rogue nation lobs nukes at us from container ships anchored close to shore. So a terrorist act is not out of the question, given Rosenberg’s track record with fictional end time political thrillers that come true, the UK threat level elevation, and America’s absence from world stage in the end time/Tribulation.

Another scenario is making the rounds that I personally think is more likely. Speculation is Iran will announce they will pull out of the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty. Though opinions run the gamut that Iran is expected to announce another Shahab-3 missile launch, a series of drones they’ve built, bought a nuke from Pakistan (who is not in the NPT), or even a nuke test itself, announcing they would withdraw from the NPT does the most good for Iran and the most damage to the west. It would come on the heels of their announcement they are enriching uranium to 20%. That enrichment frenzy indicates without a doubt that their intentions with nuclear power are not peaceful. They know that the West has reached the end of their rope with Iran, and more nations are calling for harsh sanctions, even war, so the announcement they are withdrawing from the NPT would put them out of reach of the west. They could even blame the west and/or Israel for ‘forcing’ them to withdraw. Iran has spent six fruitful years developing nuclear power and ICBMs all the while keeping the West dancing to their tune, it had to end sometime. Withdrawing from the NPT is one way to keep the west dancing and free Iran to pursue what is universally acknowledged as a near end to their goal of a nuke.

Whether it’s only hot air, posturing, a let-down, or a real punch, we only have another day to see which prophecy (if any) would be fulfilled on Thursday with this threatened punch. Meanwhile, the end time is fraught with deception and attendant anxiety in attempting determining what is real and what is a lie. Angst and perplexity over the violence and ugliness happening in the world are very real results when the god of the age is running wild against all humanity. The Texas A&M newspaper says it well:

Iran’s threat elevates world anxiety
“Scholars, government officials and military officers worldwide call Iran and its nuclear operations a ticking time bomb. Iran may have hinted how much time is left before 00:00.”

end time, prophecy, psalm 83

Eerie; Psalm 83 language comes alive in today’s political rhetoric

Posted on February 9, 2010 by elizabethprata

I think the language in the Psalm 83 prophetic prayer is remarkably similar to the language Achmadinejad and Khamenei are using today!

For behold, Your enemies make an uproar, And those who hate You have exalted themselves. They make shrewd plans against Your people, And conspire together against Your treasured ones. They have said, “Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation, That the name of Israel be remembered no more.” Psalm 83:2-5

‘Israel’s obliteration is certain’
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday the destruction of Israel was assured, while pledging to “defend Palestinians due to their heartfelt beliefs.” ”Israel is going downhill toward decline and fall and God willing its obliteration is certain,” Khamenei said…

And Iran conspires against its enemies…

Iran will punch West, leave them stunned
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that Iran is set to deliver a “punch” that will stun world powers during this week’s 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution. “The Iranian nation, with its unity and God’s grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned,” Khamenei, who is also Iran’s commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel.

end time, iran, prophecy, punch

The punch heard round the world?

Posted on February 8, 2010 by elizabethprata

Iran is a huge end times player in prophecy: Persia is prophesied to surprise attack Israel in the last days in a coalition of nations that seem as though they will prevail. At the time Persia/Iran attacks, Israel is surprised because ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’— to take plunder and to take booty…” (Ez 38:11-12.) At the time of the propesuied attack, Israel is dwelling securely. Israel is not dwelling securely at this moment in time, but the point is, Persia/Iran is shown to be sneaky and belligerent in their hatred against Israel. They will attack.

That prophesied dastardly belligerence is on display now. On Feb. 1st, Iranian President Achmadinejad said that Iran is prepared to deliver a “telling blow” to the Western arrogant powers. He did not elaborate. Today, a new statement of the same kind: this time from the Muslim Clerical Supreme leader, who said “Iran anniversary ‘punch’ will stun West: Khamenei” “Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that Iran is set to deliver a “punch” that will stun world powers during this week’s 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution.” Khameni did not elaborate. “The Iranian nation, with its unity and God’s grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned,” Khamenei, who is also Iran’s commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel.”

This threat comes at the time when Iran again rejected Western pressure to cooperate in the nuclear issue and instead defiantly said they would ramp up their uranium enrichment to 20%. And for the first time in many decades the heated exchanges between Lebanon/Syria and Israel were pointed and nearing a flashpoint. Todd Strandberg at Rapture Ready said, “I’ve been following prophecy for thirty years, and I’ve never seen a time when so many hostile statements have been made between Israel and Syria.”

Things are very tense. With the prophecies of the Isaiah 17:1 statement of Damascus being destroyed and the Psalm 83 war looming, praying for peace right about now seems like a good idea…

end time, prophecy

"He told me all that I ever did"

Posted on February 8, 2010 by elizabethprata

The “Woman at the well” passage always blesses me when I read it. The verses in John 4:1-42 are rich with lessons of all kinds. Dwelling on each one could be enough sermons for a year. However, today the phrase the woman uttered “He told me everything I ever did” stays with me and it is the focus of this essay.

The woman went to the well at midday, instead of early morning and late afternoon with all the other women, likely because she was a known sinner and shunned from respectable company. When Christ asked her for water, she said as much, “the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” (verse 9). She had had five husbands and the man she was living with then was not her husband. Six husbands/lovers in even a mid-sized city is a lot of men.

Thus began their conversation that rings through the ages. During the conversation, the woman’s spiritual awareness grew and grew, until she realized just Who it is that she was talking to, which Jesus confirmed. The woman marveled, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”(verse 28)