Category: prophecy

Posted in false christ, jim murphy, messiah, prophecy

A man in Australia says he’s Jesus: and his cult is growing

Posted on by elizabethprata

In looking at the end time signs, there are a plethora to sort out and keep track of. They are not all only contained in Matthew 24’s Olivet Discourse, but we read them also throughout the rest of the New and Old Testament. For definition purposes, I define the “end time” as the time when Jesus is building His church, (Matthew 16:13-20, Romans 11:25), Acts 15:13-17), between Pentecost and the Rapture. After that it is the Tribulation period as it is known to the church and the Time of Jacob’s Trouble as it’s known to Jews. Halfway through the Tribulation it becomes the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:15; Daniel 9:27).

False messiahs are one of the signs Jesus told us about.

  • “And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray” (Mt 24:11);
  • “For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” (Matthew 24:14);
  • “For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.” (Matthew 24:5)

There is a man in Australia named Alan John Miller, who says he is THE Christ.

From his website:
“Because of my personal desire and passion for God, as I grew, I recognized not only that I was the Messiah that was foretold by ancient prophets, but also that I was in a process designed by God that all humans could follow, if they so desired. I called this process becoming “Born Again”. It is the process of the human soul being transformed into the Divine, the process of becoming At-One with God. Many persons who were connected with me in the 1st century came to know and follow this path while on earth, the most notable person being Mary Magdalene, who is my soulmate, and who was actually married to me in the 1st century, and was pregnant with our daughter when I died.”

I wrote earlier today about judging and being fruit inspectors, and even the most shrill believer crying “Judge not!” when a false teacher is named, will undoubtedly be able to use whatever vestige of discernment left in them to judge that this man is not Jesus. (If you decide that, aren’t you judging? Aren’t you being fruit inspectors? Yes, and that’s good. More here)

This Australian video news spot is called: “Aussie messiah questioned“. Actually, it is the second spot they did. There was one the night before and the news anchor said that the office had been deluged since it aired with concerned calls from family members who have lost dear ones to the cult.

In the news video, the journalist said, “AJ Miller’s claims to be Jesus Christ would be almost laughable if nobody believed him. The problem is, many people do.”

So back to the prophecy. Jesus said that many would come in His name, claiming to be the Christ, and this has occurred. AJ Miller certainly is not the first man claiming to be Jesus Himself. Remember the Russian-Siberian guy, Sergey Torop, known as Vissarion? I wrote about him in 2010. He claims to be the reincarnated Jesus also. His cult is still going strong. Vissarion’s sect is estimated to have some ten thousand adherents, with claims of up to 50,000 adherents in eighty-three communities spread over 150 square kilometers. (source)

And there have been many more. On Wikipedia, there is a list of people who have claimed to be Christ. The list starts in the 1800s, and you notice the 1900s list is a LOT longer than the previous one. And the list for the 21st century is growing pretty healthily too, despite only being 12 years old.

This entry sort of dovetails with the previous one I’d linked to about being fruit inspectors. It is all about discernment. I listened to a pastor online who had preached on Sunday in firmness and protection of his flock about how he has finally had it with the falsity permeating the global church body today. His sermon is called the Subtlety of Satan. I recommend it!

He gave a short but detailed history of beginning in the 1940s of the acceleration of the downward slide of the evangelical church, and named names (Beth Moore, Richard Foster, Rick Warren, etc) and named the titles of these false doctrines (Gnosticism, Contemplative Spirituality, Post-Modernism, Pantheism and Panentheism etc) and brought it up to the present day. He said he was going to root this stuff out of his church, by going through his library and tossing out the false. Going through every curriculum and tossing out the false. He killed the Beth Moore trip. He will examine every teacher and leader and monitor closely what they teach. He is purifying his church. How did all this false stuff get into the church in the first place? One charge he made to the congregation is that laziness and lack of discernment. It’s got to stop, he said. It is one of the reasons people get so deceived. People simply don’t read the bible any more. The pastor said the last thing people need is “another bible study” when they should just read the bible for themselves and appeal to the Spirit for understanding- and then actually apply the principles to their lives. Amen. You can listen to his sermon here.

Pastor Jim said discernment takes work, and you have to put in the time. I agree. It was a good sermon and I’m proud for him that he is protecting his flock.

Mentioning Pastor Jim’s sermon may seem like it doesn’t fit with the main point of the essay, that a man in Australia is calling himself Jesus, and with my essay yesterday about the outcry not to “judge” or be “fruit inspectors,” but it does. Mr Miller began his cult just a few short years ago, and it really accelerated in 2010. In Australia he already has branched out with cult locations springing up in Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia and Victoria.

And his influence is spreading around the world, to Europe,

And to the United States:

Any corporate business owner would be so jealous of having an expansion to three continents within two years! The problem is, that what is expanding out is false doctrine, which is actually poison.

How did we get here? Pastor Jim had asked the question rhetorically throughout his Sunday sermon. How did we get this far? As this blogger kindly transcribed, because we failed to discern. We don’t judge and we don’t inspect the fruit. We listened to satan’s subtle voice telling us:

“What is a Christian according to the contextually relevant teachers of today? “Someone who has made the decision to be an emotionally well adjusted self actualized risk taking leader who knows his purpose, lives a no regret life of significance, has overcome his fears, enjoys a healthy marriage, is an attentive parent, celebrating recovery from all of their lusts, their habits, their hangups and practices biblical stress relief techniques, is financially free from consumer debt, fosters emotionally healthy relationships with his peers, attends a weekly life group, volunteers regularly at his church, tithes off the gross and has taken at least one humanitarian aid trip to a third world country. That’s who a Christian is. What about the Gospel? Never once do you read in that modern contextualization that a Christian is one who sees their sin, confesses their sin, repents of their sin, and receives the gift of salvation in Christ alone. THAT IS HOW FAR WE HAVE COME.” (-Pastor Jim Murphy of First Baptist Church, Johnson City NY)

The bible says,

“At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.” (Matthew 24:23)

That is pretty clear. But Jesus made it even clearer:

They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. (Matthew 24:30b-31)

Did you see Jesus in the sky? No? Then AJ Miller is not Jesus. It’s amazing that such a lack of discernment exists when something is so obvious. How will they discern when it is not so obvious? Badly or not at all. Satan is the most subtle creature in the garden (Gen 3:1) but he doesn’t even have to be subtle anymore with a people who lack even a crumb of biblical knowledge and regularly fail to practice discernment. By now, Satan is just shooting fish in a barrel.

On still a serious note but two things that amused me in all this… in one of the videos I watched featuring AJ Miller AKA Jesus Christ, the Perfect Lord of Lords, you notice he is wearing glasses. Hmmm, he is two thousand years older now, so I guess his eyes are fail…NOT!

AJ Miller incorporated his Divine Teachings or whatever he calls it. He named it

God’s Way of Love…Ltd. You know LTD stands for Limited. God’s Way of Love Limited. LOL!

Jesus said there shall be ones coming in His name calling themselves the Christ. His word is so perfect and so true, than even though we mourn over AJ Miller and his wife Mary’s lost state, and pray that the light would come to his followers, we love the True God all the more, because, He said, “See, I have told you ahead of time.” (Matthew 24:25).

“So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.” (Luke 21:31)

Posted in change times and the law, jesus, prophecy

How will the antichrist try to change the times and the law?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Before I was saved by Jesus grace, I used to wonder about our calendar and timing system. I wondered, if Jesus was of no account as my father used to say, why the world which uses the Julian and Gregorian calendars marks time from the moment of His death. Our calendar is AD and BC, Anno Domini (After Death) and Before Christ. The AD technically is translated in Medieval Latin, ‘In the year of the Lord’ but we summarize that to ‘after death’ in common usage. The US Constitution is signed with the full expression, “Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven”.

I like to think in word pictures. I think of the moment when He returns to earth and lands on the Mount of Olives as described in Zechariah 14:4: “On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.”

Here is an aerial view of the Mount of Olives. To the left of the pin is a valley and then another mount, the Temple Mount complex. North is to the top.

The scripture says the rupture will come from east to west, and half the split will move north and the other half, south, making “a very wide valley”.

Some scholars believe that the valley is so wide and combined with the details in the Ezekiel verses depicting the geo-physical changes, that the temple will be pushed toward Shiloh. Shiloh is 27 miles due north of Jerusalem and was the location of the first tabernacle, for 400 years. Who knows…but the valley will be wide enough so that the river that runs from the temple will go to the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea (which won’t be dead anymore, lol).

Source

But I digress. The mountain splits under His feet. It is like the BC-AD thing. He split history. We count history as before He came and after He died. He ruptured it, actually. It was surely the universe’s most seismic moment.

Knowing that Christ’s appearance on earth is such a singular event, of course the secular world wants to delete the BC-AD designation. So they came up with BCE, or Before the Common Era. Sure, the designation doesn’t mention Christ, but they still count time from moment zero of the epicenter of His appearing. They can’t delete THAT! LOL.

But they will continue to try. There is a prophecy in Daniel. It is just part of one sentence, but I think it is interesting. “He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.” (Daniel 7:25).

Many scholars believe that the antichrist, who is the ‘he’ spoken of here, will try to change the calendar to reflect worship back on himself, instead of onto Christ. I believe this also. But I was listening to Steve Hadley last night and he proposed something that I think makes sense as well, and adds a layer of understanding to the situation. In his sermon “Preview to Revelation,” he preached on Zechariah 6. (July 1, 2012). Pastor Hadley mentioned that the antichrist will try to change times and dates and create a new calendar because he is moving the world toward a unified religion (one that will eventually point to himself). In wiping the calendar clean it also wipes out all the holy days. Christians mark Easter in April and Christmas in December, Jews have their calendar appointed holy days, etc. If a new calendar is instituted, all those memorializations will be changed, and as the antichrist will think, wiped from memory as they begin to worship him.

There is no erasing Jesus. His appearance was marked by shepherds, angels, and Kings; His death was marked by celestial signs and a large earthquake. The very calendar changed and we marked time from the moment of his death. His re-emergence will be marked with earthquakes. But the main earthquake that He represents is one that split the veil between this world and the next, rupturing time and space itself. Our calendar marks that rupture.

Nothing the secular people can do in juggling calendrical designations, and nothing the antichrist can do to think to change times and the law, will ever alter the fact that He is in control of time itself, and that His emergence into our world the first time and the second time are THE exceptional events in history.

Posted in bulgaria, israel, jordan, positive tweeters, prophecy, russia, wildfires

Being negative about positive tweeters is not a negative thing, I’m positive

Posted on by elizabethprata

Some news today for you. Bible thoughts at the end.

103 Dead in Southern Russia Floods
“Intense flooding in the Black Sea region of southern Russia killed 103 people after torrential rains dropped nearly a foot of water, forcing many to scramble out of their beds for refuge in trees and on roofs, officials said Saturday.” (Photo BBC)

UK hit with torrential rain, floods

Sky News, Pic: Graham Ross

“Torrential rain sweeping across much of Britain is bringing widespread flooding to homes and businesses in its wake. Some areas are expected to receive up to one month’s rainfall in 24 hours. Farmers have been urged to move livestock from low-lying fields, summer concerts have been canceled and the British Grand Prix at Silverstone is facing a washout.”

6.3 earthquake in Vanuatu yesterday. Some of the volcanoes have calmed down. Here is a volcano report:

“A sedate day in volcano land. The on-going volcano-seismic crisis at El Hierro (Canary Islands) while not over, appears to be on the wane. Bursts of spasmodic tremor have become less frequent and are of lower amplitude than when the crisis began last month. Tremor has dropped to even lower levels at Nevado Del Ruiz volcano (Colombia) and the once robust plume of SO2 emitted by the volcano has dwindled. A strong plume of SO2 over the Virunga volcanoes (DR Congo) which became visible (through satellite imagery) during the past few days is not evident on the most recent satellite pass. The plume was the only evidence of increased activity there. There have been no reports of an eruption in the region so far and no earthquakes associated with the plume (unlike that which accompanied plume activity there last month).”

Geologist/volcanologist Erik Klemetti has absconded to MA due to the storms in OH having knocked out his power. He writes that he is out of touch this week with volcano news but is on the way home tomorrow and hopes to get back to it this week, if power has been restored that is. Amazing how much we depend on electricity. I wonder if Edison had any clue?!

As of yesterday, officials are still scrambling to determine what the mystery disease is that is killing Cambodian children. The death toll is up to 64, and has only affected kids under the age of 7. It’s been reported in 14 Provinces.

Source

A Golden Algae bloom has killed thousands of fish in Arizona for 20 miles along the Salt River. Experts say this is a first. It is such a shame when algae blooms and environment disasters like this happen. It really makes me long for the beauty that is coming, a perfect world with untold and unimaginable wonders! (1 Corinthians 2:9).

There is a bad wildfire in Bulgaria, and Israel has offered technology and help to quell it. The temps in Bulgaria are predicted to be very high over the next few days- at least 98 degrees F. But there is now a wildfire in Israel too, that has spread into Jordan.

Speaking of Jordan, King Abdullah has summoned the Parliament to “meet in an extraordinary session for an unspecified period for the purpose of deciding matters to be specified in the Royal Decree when the summons are issued. An extraordinary session shall be prorogued by a Royal Decree”.

What a relief, the Presbyterians voted not to ditch Israel. “By a razor-thin margin, the largest Presbyterian group in the United States rejected a proposal Thursday to divest from three companies that do business with Israel. Pro-Palestinian advocates vowed to try again.” It is clear we are losing the church. But not the bride! She is spotless and contains exactly the number of souls the Savior has determined since the foundation of the world. (Rev 13:8).

Call me a curmudgeon but I am tired of the “positive tweeters.” I’m not talking about people who aren’t sarcastic or mean or who work hard at minding their tongue. All those are good things and we all need to work on them, including me. I’m not talking of either secular people who are happy to make conversation and spread cheer. Relentlessly happy people. I am talking of believers who think they are doing the world a service by ONLY tweeting positive about Jesus, the bible, and faith. Like this one:

“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier. Mother Teresa”

Aside from the fact that Mother Teresa was an enemy of God rebelling against Him her whole, long life, and likely residing in hell at this very moment, I am going to be blunt here, this is a ridiculous tweet. I tweeted back,

“What if we share the Gospel in love, and tell them of sin, they get convicted, and leave UNhappier?”

A believer’s language and life is not only a joyride on It’s A Small World or sitting in the Friends fountain clapping happy things.

Positive tweeting is a good thing if it is tempered with the notion that not everything we say or do in Jesus makes people happy. And that we have joy, but life is not always “positive.” As a matter of fact, there is a woe about people who constantly think well of you. “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” (Luke 6:26).

Expressing only what sinful man thinks is “positive” usually leaves out the talk of sin, conviction, and judgment. But those things are part of the Gospel. Our lives in Jesus are full of pain, mourning, lament, grief, and sorrow over our sins, others’ sins, the end of the world, and the persecution of our brethren. That is a fact. Whitewashing it by being relentlessly and exclusively “positive” doesn’t do justice to Jesus. I wonder if positive tweeters ever tweet John 11:35. Or Genesis 6:6.

We do love our enemies (Luke 6:25) but we are to be salt as well. Salt has a medicinal quality that stings when applied. Speaking only positive things and not the whole counsel of God leaves us unbalanced as only Light and not Salt AND Light. Positive tweeters want to give lemonade without the lemons. Anyway, it is a Twitter thing that bugs me. Oh, and I never got a reply to my question.

Don’t forget to read the bible. Not just to listen to good preachers, or read good commentaries, or sing good hymns. All those are edifying but don’t let them substitute for reading the bible straight up for yourself.

I am going through Judges. I re-read chapter 3 & 4 today before going on to chapter 5. Deborah was amazing, wasn’t she! So was Jael. Here is How Judges 5 ends. It is the last line in Deborah’s song:

“Thus let all Your enemies perish, O LORD!
But let those who love Him be like the sun
When it comes out in full strength.”

His wrath will be full strength (Rev 14:10) but His glory is full strength too! Believers will not have to endure the former and will cry with joy when we experience the latter in full strength. He is most worthy to be praised.

Posted in bird flu, prophecy, storms

Random thoughts on a hot day, plus some news

Posted on by elizabethprata

A while ago someone kindly sent me a link to a website that keeps track of landslides. If you follow this blog for very long, you know that I often state that Jesus graciously answered the disciples’ questions in Matthew 24:3 “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” by presenting a lengthy answer in the rest of Matthew 24.

In His answer, and also in many, many other New and Old Testament verses, geo-physical storms and changes are part of His warnings that the end will be near. Weather, earthquakes, volcanoes, celestial signs, etc. all indicate the end of the age. Though those things have always occurred since the Fall of man in Genesis 3, His constant use of the metaphor that the signs will be as birthpangs tells us that the majority of noticeable warning signs (and then actual judgments) will crowd the latter part of the Church age.

So being interested in end time warning signs, to see if the things happening are indeed unusual in number or type, I have a lot of bookmarks that immediately lead me to information about current news of meteor sightings, volcano eruptions, earthquake activity and the like. So I placed the landslide bookmark within that list…and then forgot about it.

Until a few days ago. I clicked on it…and was immediately struck by the number of rain-driven landslides and the disruptions they are causing. Wow! The first story on the top of the list was from June 30 and the opening lede goes like this:

“Yesterday more details emerged of the landslide incident on the West Highland line in Scotland that derailed a freight train. The incident came during the exceptional rainfall associated with thunderstorms that passed across northern Britain – a final hurrah for the wettest second quarter of the year on record in the UK.”

Source Daily Mail

That is news I didn’t know. Then today comes this news from the UK Telegraph:

“Flood warning: UK faces a month’s worth of rain today. Today is forecast to be the wettest day of the summer so far with the UK facing a month’s worth of rain in 24 hours, bringing a severe risk of flooding and chaos.”

Flooding and chaos…chaos seems increasingly to be a component of weather forecasts these days, doesn’t it?

Here is some other news for you today.

Another small earthquake shakes Johnson County (TX)
“Yet another minor earthquake shook Johnson County overnight. The 2.7-magnitude quake struck shortly before 3:30 a.m. between Cleburne and Alvarado, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. No injuries or significant damage was reported. Generally, it’s tough to feel anything below magnitude 3. It was the fourth temblor in three weeks in the county and the latest in dozens in that area.”

I saw that there was a small one in GA a few days ago too! In Deepstep, GA 66 miles from where I live, a magnitude 2.7 at 9:51 PM EDT on July 3. As a matter of fact, a few days ago, not July 3 but before that, I was sitting quietly at my table, reading the bible. The bookcase next to my table began to shake and the coaster skittered, making a jiggle on its notepad. A truck was not going by and a train was not going by and I do not live near a quarry and no one was using an auger or drill.  “Hmmm, this is an earth tremor,” I thought. I discovered that about 50 miles away, a temblor had occurred at only 1.7 mile depth. Perhaps that was what I had felt. Though earthquakes happen in Georgia USA, I had never felt one. Now, perhaps, I have.

The Washington DC heat is the worst-ever heat wave for them. Well, SOMEONE has to turn up the heat on those politicians, I guess!

There is a mysterious disease that is killing children in Cambodia. I’ve been reading about it for a few days now. The issue with this disease is the high mortality rate. Only 2 of the 64 children who contracted the disease have survived. CNN has more.

An 8-year-old girl died of bird flu in Indonesia. Did anyone notice Drudge’s hat-tip to threes in one day? Three children drown in river, three children die in capsized boat, three children electrocuted while swimming. All threes, all kids, all water based deaths.

Anyway, I read stuff like that and worse, in just the headlines, even, and I pray more fervently for the rapture so the children will be safe at last. Those in the womb, the neglected, the abused, the molested, the hungry, the enslaved…all safe!!!!

There have been fish kills in Georgia USA, South Dakota, South Carolina, Dexter MO, Delaware, etc. but in this case, unlike the fish die-offs in 2011 and 2012, the experts say that the excessive and successive heat has sucked the oxygen out of the water and the high temps are just too much for the fish. Which makes sense.

I hope you’re staying cool today. I am, but it is a struggle. I went out to the Dollar Store for my weekly stocking up , this time choosing the store location a mile from me instead of 7 miles, because I wasn’t also going grocery shopping at the same time. Even with that minor trip, which included the bank, veggie stand, and the Post Office, when I came home I was hot, cranky, sweaty, and hot. Did I say I was hot?

Ahhh, but the mercies of Jesus continue. He gave me my daily manna, and I have food and fresh fruit & veggies, a comfortable home, and pleasant days in which to study His word. Here is a great essay from Jesse Johnson. He is a DC pastor, who was affected by the terrible storms that occurred the other day in our nation’s capital. He compares the inconveniences of that storm to the one that is coming that will be far, far greater. “Storms come and Storms Go“. May it bless you and may we all have perspective in these perilous times that we dwell in His hand and He is in control.

Posted in authoritarian axis rising, dumb church, prophecy

Authoritarian axis rising, land temperatures, the dumb church, Bethlehem in danger

Posted on by elizabethprata

The Diplomat has a good article out this week. It explores the new axis of power and the reasons for its emergence. Any student of prophecy who understands the prophesied main aggressors and players in the run-up to and through the Tribulation will immediately understand the implications analyzed in this article.

Russia is a major player as well as the Kings of the East, the Asia-Pacific nations of the Orient. (Ezekiel 38:2-3; Daniel 11:44; 9:13-21; 16:12-16). Though throughout all of history the East has never formally allied with the Middle East, the Euphrates being a divider as well as a border. Russia has always been an aggressive force through history. We are seeing these important prophetic pieces coming together as this article outlines. The reasons for the authoritarian emphasis are also prophetic. The group rising to power certainly isn’t democracy-friendly and we see that fact in the Tribulation with first the formation of the ten kings (Rev 17:12; Daniel 7:7-8) oppressing the world and then the final king of the antichrist as the ultimate expression of authoritarian power.

An Authoritarian Axis Rising?
“It isn’t the “axis of evil.” But a number of authoritarian states are showing a troubling tendency to look out for each other. It takes time for societies and policymakers to understand that a major shift in global affairs is afoot. But what we see clearly, in recent months, is the emergence of a new constellation of powers.By coordinating their policies, this grouping of powers is beginning to profoundly reshape global affairs, especially in the Asia-Pacific, Indo-Pacific, and Eurasian regions. Who are the members of this group? Today, it includes China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela. Such a concert of nations can only inject turmoil into the international system. It is a relatively new phenomenon that represents a radical shift in international politics, perhaps as momentous as the Soviet Union’s collapse two decades ago.”

Why are the youth leaving the church in droves? Robin Schumacher explores the answer to this question in the Christian Post:

The Tragedy of the Dumb Church
“In short, it happens because much of the Church today is dumb. Don’t misunderstand me, I mean no disrespect when I use the term ‘dumb’. What I mean is that the Church is dumb in that they aren’t well educated in what they believe, fail miserably in fulfilling 1 Peter 3:15 that says all Christians should be prepared to give a reason for why they believe, and are woefully unable to handle any challenge to Christianity that comes from unbelievers or the cults.”

This interesting article below talks not about the air temperatures, but the land temps and how these sparked and supported the many wildfires going on now in the American Midwest.

NASA’s sizzling map of U.S. heatwave displays the burning temperatures that in just eight days broke the last 11 years’ average
“While blazing wildfires throughout the central United States consume hundreds of homes and force thousands to flee into this weekend, a sizzling map captured by a NASA satellite only days before helps reveal why. … Painting the central U.S. in red, the same area currently battling unrelenting wildfires, the map taken by NASA’s Terra satellite brandishes a depiction of what they politely call: ‘unusually hot weather.’

Below is a different map showing broken heat records, and the one I clicked on is where I live. It was 109 degrees yesterday.

One of only two borders in the Middle East under a peace treaty (Jordan is the other) Israel now looks to the ominous events in Egypt with the election of Mursi the Islamic Brother, and gulps. Israel Behind the News has an analysis-

Morsi Is Israel’s Nightmare, But The Sun Will Come Up Tomorrow“We have reached the moment feared by generations of Israeli Intelligence and GSS chiefs. The ultimate nightmare scenario is playing out in front of our very eyes -the same narrative that played a major role in the terror scenarios that starred in the secret war games of the IDF and the Israeli defense system for an entire generation. The moment when Egypt fell – into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood. The inconceivable is materializing in front of our eyes. The “cliff” – Shimon Peres,[the Israeli President]‘s, nickname for Hosni Mubarak – has been washed to sea, and is being replaced by the Muslim flood. All this transpires in the largest Arab country, Israel’s major strategic peace partner, the regional anchor, the neighborhood balance factor. It’s over.”

All is not well over at the other border, that is, Jordan and Syria. Turkey borders Syria too and Turkey hasn’t been happy with the spillover for a while. Now it’s Jordan’s turn to ratchet up their concern. The Jordan Times has the news-

Jordan ‘tightening borders’ amid Syria spillover fears
“Jordan has tightened entry restrictions along its northern borders, security officials say, amid concerns that the ongoing influx of Syrian refugees may become a threat to the Kingdom’s national security. According to a security source, authorities have imposed a new policy barring the illegal entry of unaccompanied Syrian males between the ages of 18 and 40, turning away “dozens” from the border in the last two weeks. The new policy comes amid growing concerns in Amman of attempts by opposition activists and regime agents to infiltrate the growing refugee community — whose numbers officials place at over 140,000 — to carry out political or military activities on Jordanian soil. “There are fears that as the number of rebels and regime loyalists increases, Jordan may become a new battleground for their conflict,” said the security source, who preferred to remain unnamed.”

Earthquake Shakes Baja, California
“News 11 has reports of a 4.9 magnitude rolling earthquake that shook Yuma and Imperial Counties around 8:30 P.M Saturday evening. It was centered near Guadalupe Victoria, Baja, California with the nearest larger cities being Yuma and El Centro. News 11 also recieved calls from viewers as far as Welton and the Foothills who also felt the rattle.There have not been reports of any damages or injuries but News 11 will continue to track down the details.”

There actually have been 14 quakes at Baja, near Mexicali, where the large 7.2 quake occurred 2 years ago.

Bethlehem was in the news earlier this week too. When Russia’s Putin visited  there Palestinian Authority’s Abbas held a ceremony honoring Putin with a street in Bethlehem named after the Russian Czar.

Birthplace of Jesus added to UN’s World Heritage in Danger list
“The United Nations (UN) Scientific, Cultural, and Educational Organization (UNESCO) has listed the Church of the Nativity, which sits on the site identified by Christian tradition as the birthplace of Jesus, on its list of sites in danger, officials said on Friday.”

Aren’t you glad Jesus was born to seek and save the lost? I am. So those were some headlines for today. Enjoy your Lord’s Day of worship, prayer, study, and family.

Posted in heat wave, judgment, prophecy, storms

(Updated 2X) Have you forgotten about Debby already? Fires, Derechos and heat make Debby seem like old news

Posted on by elizabethprata

Update #2: In an ironic twist to the fulfillment of what I said below regarding media’s use of ever-topping superlatives to try and explain the outsized events occurring almost daily now, the derechos that occurred yesterday and reported on this morning, are by this afternoon called SUPER-derecho. From Accuweather: “Deadly Super Derecho Strikes Midwest, Mid-Atlantic“

———————————

UPDATE #1 from the Weather Channel summarizing last night’s storms:

We are awakening to reports of some severe weather here in the eastern US overnight.
“As storm reports continue to come in from the severe storms, meteorologists say the storm reports from this event are the 2nd highest reported in a single day in 2012. Millions are without power and travel has been impacted. AMTRAK service has been suspended from Washington D.C. to Philadelphia and Washington D.C to Baltimore due to downed trees and signal power. At least two have died from storm related injuries as of early Saturday morning.”
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Original post:

Meteorologist Heather Brinkmann wrote, “Check out this radar composite of the derecho that went thru the Ohio Valley today”

NOAA defines derecho as “a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms. Although a derecho can produce destruction similar to that of tornadoes, the damage typically is directed in one direction along a relatively straight swath.”

This is what a derecho looks like in real life:

source

Source NOAA

Definitely a scary looking storm.

Although derechos are not unheard of, they are not an everyday occurrence, either. See this frequency map from NOAA. Yesterday’s derecho occurred in exactly the place they most likely occur, “along the “Corn Belt” from the upper Mississippi Valley southeast into the Ohio Valley, and the other from the southern Plains northeast into the mid Mississippi Valley.”

Source NOAA

Yesterday’s storms were damaging, especially to the people in Washington DC. This morning millions are without power, and in some cases, it will take multiple days to get them hooked up again. This is bad news, because the extreme heat is supposed to continue. Today’s temps are predicted to be triple digit again. A dangerous situation for sure.

The weather has continually been outsized. I often talk about the language newscasters and meterologists use to describe what they are seeing. Increasingly since 2009 they use superlatives such as “greatest,” “biggest”, “most damaging”. But even those top superlatives don’t describe what is happening any more. The events keep topping themselves. They now say “Apocalyptic,” “epic”, “biblical,” and “record breaking” or “historic.”

The power of words diminishes the more you use one, and the term ‘record-breaking’, after a while doesn’t mean much if records are being broken every day. And they are. Even the Guardian UK asked what is going on:

America in grip of fire and floods
“Natural disasters are wreaking havoc across the US, with the entire state of Florida on emergency flood watch – while, in Colorado, half of the country’s entire firefighting force is battling massive blazes that have displaced thousands.”

Floods? What floods? Tropical Storm Debby. Oh yes, that’s right. Forgotten in the face of the Colorado wildfires, and then immediately after that, the extreme heat and then the derechos. Four disasters in one week, and the brain tries to maintain a sense of perspective, but it can’t. Something has to give. Debby’s devastating flooding is now relegated to the dustbin of old news, even though it happened just 5 days ago.

I wonder how quickly the plagues of Egypt happened, how long in between them they occurred. Maybe the first few started slowly but by the time the 7th, 8th, 9th plagues came they were overlapping.

Though these are not eschatalogical (end times) judgments per se, like the biblical plagues were, they seem pretty bad as it is. In reading newspaper articles about them, people often refer to the bible. Here is a quote from the Guardian article:

“Local Amanda Rice said: “It was just this God-awful orange glow. It was surreal. It honestly looked like hell was opening up.”

This is from the Colorado Springs Gazette:

WALDO CANYON FIRE: Hell in the rearview mirror

“And there I sat in traffic. It’s a memory I’ll never forget. I teared up as I scanned the surrounding cars. Everywhere were children, scared and crying, their parents looking deathly afraid and, in my rearview mirror, a view of the gates of hell.”

I want you to think about the heat wave. Here in North GA we had actual temps of 111 yesterday, though the predictions were for 105. Today the predictions are for 109 but I wonder how high the actual temps will be. They are saying that heat indexes (real feel) will be over 114. Yet it will get worse.

During the tribulation, one of the bowl judgments will be to heat up the earth so that people are literally scorched. “The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.” (Revelation 16:8-9).

Bu that time they know and understand that it is God making the crazy weather, not “mother Nature” or “global warning”, because the verse says they curse Him. I wonder if it will be that He makes it so hot that asphalt and wood spontaneously combust…or if solar flares actually singe the earth itself…I don’t know. But you can imagine the havoc in DC this morning with no electricity yet all this heat. People are going to die today if they can’t get cool, it is just a fact. The elderly and the infants and sick will succumb in hot apartments where no air stirs and they can’t seem to catch a breath. And yet the bible shows us how much worse it will get.

One thing is better. All this crazy weather activity seems to be making people whose hearts are not closed to Him think of Him. Twitter is the current iteration of vox populi, a Latin term literally meaning ‘voice of the people.’ Broadcasters use it, a man on the street kind of thing. What are the people saying? Well, this morning I woke up to find on the trending list, “Zechariah 14:9.” I can’t tell you how rare it is for biblical things to be trending. That means enough people have to be talking about a certain thing over all the world’s twitter users, to make the subject one of the top ten of all the things that vox populi could be talking about. Almost always the trends list  is stuffed with celebrity news, sports, and meaningless jokes.

Zechariah 14:9 says:

“And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and his name one.”

The saints know Jesus is coming soon. We are excited to see what He is doing in the world. Not that people are in pain, obviously, but that His name is on the lips of many, His glory and power are noticed, and that His word is repeated online between and among believers and non-believers alike. This ‘crazy weather’ isn’t crazy. It is a controlled series of events from the Creator of weather, the Creator of the earth and all that is in it. He is telling us something. How many warnings will there be? Not many more, I fear. He has been patient with us, kind and generous. That period of warning will end and after the rapture, the judgments will begin.

I pray you are among the blessed who have already made Jesus your Lord and King. Repentance is the key. Repenting of your sins and appealing to the One Sacrifice who has the ability to forgive them is the way to heaven. The only way. For as the verse in Zechariah says, the LORD will be King over all the earth. Will you face Him as friend, or enemy? Repentence is the key.

Posted in prophecy, sounds of the apocalypse, strange sky noise

Strange Sound Reported in San Diego

Posted on by elizabethprata

The sound was felt or heard in all corners of San Diego County

“Residents from Chula Vista to Oceanside are reporting a large rumble around 12:45 p.m. Friday. Some people describe it as sounding like a door slamming while others said it was strong enough to rattle windows. A check of the U.S. Geological Survey website shows no earthquake activity. One San Diego resident mentioned the sound via Twitter “Uh… La Jolla just shook. Or at least my street did. Big boom too.” Sometimes, a military exercise known as chaff can cause a similar sound. On Friday, however, Tina Stall with the National Weather Service said there was no visible chaff in the area at the time the noise was reported. A spokesperson from Camp Pendleton said Marines are not training with anything unusual. They often train with various military equipment and will be training with tanks both Saturday and Sunday.” (more at source)

I think this is the first time that these worldwide sounds, heard in Russia, Ukraine, Canada, etc have been heard and documented so thoroughly over such a major metropolitan area in the US. People have been calling the strange sound “Sounds of the Apocalypse.” I don’t know if these sounds are a progressive fulfillment of the following verse, but it certainly gives one pause for thought with all the other historic, apocalyptic, and unusual things happening today on earth. Even the UK Daily Telegraph noted, “America in grip of fire and floods“

“A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD.” (Jeremiah 25:31). 

Please continue to be in prayer for missionaries, the lost, and the weakening of faith and of strength. The LORD made this promise to Israel but He also will do the same for his Bride:

The Ransomed Shall Return
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God.
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.”
 Isaiah 35:1-4

Posted in egypt, jerusalem, prophecy, wildfires

Editorials in Major Newspapers increasingly point to prophecy

Posted on by elizabethprata

Israel National News: Jerusalem the Immovable Rock
“The call of the world at this time then, is the attempt to lift this ‘Immovable rock’, but in return, to only find that the word of G-d is the unshakeable truth. All who burden themselves with pressuring Israel in changing what G-d has said in His word concerning Jerusalem, will find themselves facing nothing less than G-d’s judgment. Jerusalem will be a cup of trembling to the surrounding nations attempting to take it over from Israel; the June,1967 ‘Six Day War is an example of the supernatural protection around this Holy Land. His word is faithful and true.’

Uganda The Observer: Are we seeing a prophecy on Damascus?
“Around 720 BC Isaiah prophesied that in the fullness of time (end times), Damascus, the Syrian capital, would cease to be a city and become a ruinous and useless heap of rubble. In the wake of the wider Arab Spring – a wave of upheaval throughout the Arab world – are we really going to see the fulfilment of this damning prophecy in our lifetime?”

” In Isaiah 17:1–3 the Bible declares: “Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city. And it will be a ruinous heap. The cities of Aroer are forsaken. They will be for flocks which lie down and no one will make them afraid. The fortress also will cease from Ephraim, the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria. They will be as the glory of the children of Israel.” Whether in our lifetime or not, these words will surely come to pass because they were declared by God Almighty’. … What is the key message in all this? In Matthew 24, our Lord Jesus said that during the end times, there would be famines (brought about by economic hardships), wars and rumours of wars, earthquakes, etc.”

“Exactly what is happening now. He also said that nobody would know the day or hour (Matthew 24:36), but we would see the signs. For those with casual relationships with God Almighty, it is high time you repented (Acts 3:19, Jeremiah 2:13), asked for God’s forgiveness and began living a Christ-centred life. Time is really short and all of us will stand before God to give an account of our deeds, words and thoughts.”

EPIC FIRES IN COLORADO: Is God using natural disasters to get our attention?
‘Catastrophic. Epic. Historic. Apocalyptic. Is it possible God is using natural disasters to get our attention? As I write in Implosion, “Natural disasters continue unfolding one after another here in the at home and around the world as they always have. But have you stopped to notice that so many recently are described as ‘historic’ and ‘unprecedented?’

“Thousands of years ago, God told the Hebrew prophet Haggai to write down these words: “For thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. I will shake all the nations. . . . I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations’” (Haggai 2:6-7, 21-22). This is Bible prophecy. This is an intercept from the mind of the all-knowing, all-seeing God of the universe. It is a weather report from the future, if you will, a storm warning. It was given to us so that we would be awake and ready and faithful and walking close to Jesus when the tempests come. God told us well in advance that he was going to “shake all the nations.” That certainly includes the United States.”

Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) The Fight for Egypt’s Future
“To see how Egypt’s revolution has changed the lives of its 8 million Copts (Egyptian Christians), walk one block from its epicenter: Tahrir Square. Pass between the effigies hanging from street lamps, past the ramshackle tents of demonstrators, and turn right at the graffiti-covered concrete blocks barricading the newly elected parliament and loathed police headquarters. Here sits the largest evangelical Arabic-speaking church in the world–6,000-member Kasr El Dobara (KDEC).”

“The sturdy white sanctuary, lined with tall stained-glass windows depicting New Testament stories of Jesus, is half full on the Sunday evening before the first anniversary of military dictator Hosni Mubarak’s February 11 downfall. Attendance is low. Four days earlier, more than 70 soccer fans were massacred in the coastal city of Port Said. A short distance away, angry demonstrators clash with police. … Are Christians fleeing Egypt? Some, yes. Nearly every church can name a family that has emigrated. Many more families desire to follow suit but cannot. But the closer one looks, an irony emerges. Coptic leaders report that a significant number of Christians, especially in rural or poor communities, do fear the future. But many of the most ardently Christian–former Muslims who now follow Christ and have the most to lose under an Islamist government–are the most eager to stay. They hold to their love of country–and to their belief in God’s promise in Isaiah 19: “Blessed be Egypt my people.” But rather than seeking the first opportunity to leave Egypt, he and others like him choose to stay and exert influence behind the scenes. “Doctors stay in medicine; politicians stay in politics; advocates stay in advocacy,” he said. “The salt put in warehouses will just go stale. The salt needs to be in the food.”

1. God’s word is true and more people are noticing the news lining up with the prophecies because of it
2. We’re members of a local church (hopefully) but we are also members of a global church body that extends back to the 3000 saved at Pentecost and into the future when the Church Age ends. There are millions of Christians all over the world right now in pain, jail, torture or loss because of their witness for Christ. Please continue to remember our brethren, and that we are the member of the most glorious Bride of the Lamb, and we should each bear each other’s burdens as members of that worldwide, and soon to be heaven-wide, church.

Posted in gaza, prophecy, truce

Gaza truce immediately broken, 4 rockets fired, also, Bethlehem street named after Putin

Posted on by elizabethprata

June 17-22: More than 150 rockets fired from Gaza have struck southern Israel since the cross-border attacks began.

June 22:Hamas seeks truce with Israel

June 24: Netanyahu: Ready to Hit Gaza If Truce Broken

June 26: Rockets fired from Gaza hit Israel despite truce

Will Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu make good his threat to hit Gaza if the truce is broken?

News is breaking fast and furious. Syria declares it is in a state of war. Turkey is incensed and warns Syria to beware its wrath in return of downing their jet plane, and moves its tanks to Syrian border, Muslim Brotherhood representative won’t speak to Israeli journalist, Putin is in Jordan with King Abdullah while a ceremony is held in Israel to name a street in Bethlehem after Putin…