I saw this ad tonight….
…and it reminded me of a tweet I saw earlier today
“The only direction our culture is progressing is toward barbarism and slavery to our genitals.”
~John Rossomando
In January of 2012 I wrote a report of the global sky sounds people have been hearing. Variously called sky hums, sounds of the apocalypse, or sky quakes, they have appeared recently and have not only been heard by many, but have been recorded and reported on by mainstream news. I wrote:
Strange noises in the sky: hums, booms, and other apocalyptic escapades
“The noises are usually a low pitched hum that veritably drives the residents crazy, or a boom from the sky that people liken to a sonic boom. When they occur, the authorities receive dozens to hundreds of phone calls asking if there had been an earthquake. In most cases, the boom is not related to a military activity nor aeronautic exercise, not to a quake, and not to drilling or explosives. These things are checked out and the usual explanation is usually absent, leaving residents to wonder what is the cause of the noise. That’s why they are termed mysterious.”
Since the general emergence of these sounds; a few years ago, they have continued to perplex and frighten. Just this week in St. Paul, Minnesota, another spate of sounds frightened the residents there.
St. Paul Residents Ponder Loud, Mysterious Noise Heard Thursday Morning
“A loud, strange noise early Thursday morning woke up some residents in St. Paul and frightened others. People heard it for about an hour, in and around the Highland Park and Mac Groveland neighborhoods. KSTP called Ramsey County dispatch and sent a crew to investigate. Dispatch said they received about 10 calls from homeowners wondering what the noise was. They sent out a few officers to investigate but they couldn’t find anything. The howling traveled for miles, right through the walls of homes.”
Now, there is a difference between these particular sounds, and other sounds that normally occur and startle residents. For example, the transformer in front of my house was struck by lightning and blew up, and it made an enormous sound which scared me (and the cats) like to death. However, it was the suddenness of the sound and the loudness of the sound and not the sound itself which was startling. I recognized it as a normal, if very loud sound. The same with a thunderclap and the same with the boom associated with the earthquake that happened near GA this week, and the same with sonic booms that occasionally happen as jets takeoff at the Air Force Base some distance away. We have a catalog of sounds in our head and when we hear one we classify it. The brain immediately categorizes those sounds as infrequent but normal.
Not so with these sky booms. They aren’t even particularly loud, but it seems that is it the quality of the sound that spooks people. They are unclassifiable. Here are some quotes from people who heard the St. Paul noise-
Howling sound ‘creeps out’ St. Paul
–“It was kind of a howling, kind of a scraping, kind of a metallic sound,” said Aaron Buesing.
–Trudy Moloney explained it as “kind of a somber music and eerie sounding.”
MYSTERY HOWL: What caused haunting St. Paul sounds?
Although some likened the sound to a whale song, others admit the spine-tingling tones seemed a little ghastly.
St. Paul residents try to place eerie early morning noise
Part ocean waves, part wild animal call, part distorted howl
Descriptions included scraping metal, industrial grinding, voices over a loudspeaker, even music.
Quite often, the noises are described as metallic, spooky, and eerie. They describe them as chains clanking or sometimes, something straight from hell.
In this report from the UK, also from last week,
Coventry residents left baffled by mystery ‘Independence Day’ noise
“Reports have come in describing a loud noise in the sky which lasted around one minute and was heard by residents in Whitley, Walsgrave, Stoke and Wyken. Mitch Wise, 19, from Walsgrave, said the noise was so loud he could hear it inside his house despite all the windows and doors being closed. He said: “I did think it sounded like something out of Independence Day, that kind of noise.” [Independence Day, the alien invasion movie]
Or this from Kentucky, also this week:
Booms in the Night; Officials scurry to locate source; MSU professor offers explanation for strange sounds
“A series of strange noises awakened Murray-area residents in the pre-dawn hours Friday, causing law enforcement agencies to answer several calls related to mysterious sounds that were being reported. Dr. George Kipphut, chairman of the Murray State University Department of Geosciences, said he is relatively certain that a phenomenon known as a frost quake is the cause of the eerie resonance…. I’ve never heard one, and this is unusual for this climate we live in,” Kipphut said. Kipphut said frost quakes — officially known in the geological community as cryoseisms — are more associated with the extreme northern portions of the United States into Canada.”
Even when the loud booms and explosions are heard and there is likely a natural explanation, like cryoseisms, it seems that there exists something weird with these, as well. In the above story, they are happening in places where they don’t usually. In the article below, they are happening much more frequently than they ever have.
A cryoseism is a frost quake. As Wikipedia explains, “They may be caused by a sudden cracking action in frozen soil or rock saturated with water or ice. As water drains into ground, it may eventually freeze and expand under colder temperatures, putting stress on its surroundings. This stress builds up until relieved explosively in the form of a cryoseism.”
This past January in Vermont, apparently several cryoseisms occurred. As Gib Brown, who works as both a geology and physics educator, explains, “I thought a tree fell on my house,” Brown recalled. “I looked outside, I looked up and down the street, couldn’t see anything. It had to have been a cryoseism.” Brown likened the phenomenon to the way potholes can be formed by freezing water, except under the earth, where their invisibility adds to their mystery. Brown called the frost quakes fairly rare but not wildly unusual. “I would say the numbers this year are way above average,” Brown said.” [underline mine]
Let’s turn from the fact of these noises and the reaction to them … to the Bible. I’d said in the blog essay I wrote two years ago that the Bible specifically does not address the noises as a sign. Though officials have searched for an explanation (airplanes, drilling, ice, etc) they have come up empty. Neither biblical nor secular explanations seem to be coming to the fore. So from this paragraph forward there is only speculation on my part. However there is perhaps an application to the end times that I want to share.
First, there are these verses from Jeremiah 25:30-31
You, therefore, shall prophesy against them all these words, and say to them:
Verse 31, ‘the clamor’ also is translated ‘a noise.’ Pulpit Commentary says of ‘a noise’, the word is used elsewhere for the tumultuous sound of a marching army, or the roar of waters.
Many people say that the noise they’ve been hearing includes a clanking or a metallic sound. I’ve said before that I often wonder if it is leak-through from the unholy angels gathering for the great unleashing upon the world. When prophet Elisha asked God to open his servant’s eyes, I wonder if in addition to seeing the angelic army … if he heard anything too.
Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6:17)
There is fear of the LORD, which isn’t a scary fear for a Christian. CARM says of the fear of God:
Yes, we should fear God because He is the Almighty Creator who can discipline us should we rebel against Him. He is so holy and so awesome that being in His presence brings an inspiring fear. … When anyone experiences the Majesty of the Lord, he naturally is humbled and the awesome greatness of God automatically produces a normal and healthy fear.
But we do not need to fear God’s judgment. As for satan, we need not fear him because Jesus has already overcome satan. We only need resist satan and he will flee from us. (James 4:7).
The unsaved don’t fear God. They do not fear satan either. They unknowingly serve satan. If they happen to have encounters with the supernatural, often times satan’s ministers appear as angels of light, (2 Corinthians 11:14-15) or in new age terms, ‘spirit guides.’ Since satan chooses either to allow himself to be culturally diminished (as in a pointy horns and a red tail made fun of on Halloween) or as a gentle spirit guide, muse, or another kind of other worldly helper, the unsaved don’t fear satan.
What would people think whose incorrect notion of satan or spirit guides were to be unmasked and they say the demons as they really are?
I believe they are getting a taste of it with these sky noises. If these people who heard the sky noise for one second and were frightened out of their wits, what will happen when they see the very demons of hell unleashed?
And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.a 2He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. 3Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. (Revelation 9:1-3)
Read the rest of Revelation 9.
These demons are allowed to torment any person during the Tribulation who does not have the seal of God on their foreheads. How would you feel to see a demon chasing you? Biting you? Tormenting you? The Greek word for torment in the verse is literally “torture”.
These sky booms have no liken in the world. They aren’t made naturally. They frighten people, and I believe the sounds are made supernaturally.
Matthew Henry said of the Jeremiah verse, “Who can avoid trembling when God speaks in displeasure?” And who among the unsaved can avoid trembling when the demons of hell sound their chains their appearance?
You know how it energizes the arena when Queen’s “We will rock you” STOMP STOMP CLAP comes over the loudspeakers? Of course it would incite the demons’ maniacal glee to know the time is near. Because they know. (Matthew 8:29). I wonder if the restless demons in gloomy dungeons (Jude 1:6, 2 Peter 2:4) are chanting “we will, we will bite you!” CLANK CLANK CLAP
It’s interesting to think hypothetically of the sky booms as a demonic version of this:
The GOOD NEWS is that Jesus paid it all, and we no longer need fear God in a bad way nor fear what satan can do to us. If you repent, nothing on earth can frighten you. Not an eerie noise, not a demon masquerading as an angel of light, not even satan.
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)
Repent, for the time is near.
Yesterday I wrote a blog essay covering the news that a “first of its kind earthquake” had hit Oman. I also reported about the large-ish quake that had struck the UK, where quakes occur, but not all that frequently.
Today KOCO of Oklahoma City published a news article about the earthquake swarm that has been going on in Oklahoma. The KOCO article had the following headline:
OGS: 150+ quakes in one week in Oklahoma
“There have been more than 150 earthquakes in the past week in Oklahoma, according to the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS). That’s not normal. Before 2009, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported Oklahoma would typically get three or fewer 3.0+ magnitude quakes a year. In the last few years, the average jumped up to about 40 significant quakes a year. Less than 2 months into 2014, Oklahoma has had more than 25 quakes registering 3.0+ magnitude in Oklahoma. Michael Lewchuk, an earthquake expert with Casady School, told KOCO, “For Oklahoma that is an unusually large amount. We typically have somewhere between 50-100 in one full year.”
The quake swarm is so perplexing and problematic (for geologists AND for homeowners/residents) that the Oklahoma Geological Survey has released a position paper specifically addressing it.
There has been a significant increase in seismic activity (earthquakes) in Oklahoma since 2009. And although the majority of these earthquakes are not strong enough to be felt, the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) recognizes that the increase in “felt” seismic activity is of interest to the citizens of the state. …
–Since 2009, the earthquake activity in Oklahoma has been approximately 40 times higher than in the previous 30 years.
–Based on reported “felt” earthquakes prior to the establishment of the OGS network, this recent level of seismicity is significantly greater than the past 100 years.
–The energy released by earthquakes is thousands of times greater than the energy that may have been added by water disposal, which demonstrates that the earthquakes themselves are, ultimately, the result of the release of natural stresses. [Ed Note: as opposed to fracking]
—The “Jones Earthquake Swarm” appears, in part, to have shown some activity that statistically deviates from the regional stresses and other general observations of seismicity in Oklahoma.
“The earthquakes keep coming in Oklahoma. Many of Oklahoma’s temblors are too small to be felt by humans, but their frequency and intensity seems to be growing.” (source)
So the upshot is, since 2009 Oklahoma has had a monster increase in earthquakes. The Geologic Society recognizes that residents are spooked. They are looking into it. They haven’t come to a reasonable conclusion as to why OK is jumping and cracking.
“According to the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS), there were more than 2,800 earthquakes in Oklahoma in 2013. That’s twice the previous high, established in 2011.” (source)
If these unusual quakes aren’t part of the birth pangs, then I don’t know what! (Matthew 24:8).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Further Reading
The Beginning of the Birth Pains
Opinion Editorial: The State of Oklahoma needs an earthquake task force
This is an opinion editorial.
Pam Terrell runs the blog “The Secret Life of a Pastor’s Wife“. Mrs Terrell recently published a critique of Beth Moore, here. The same thing happened to her as happens with anyone who says anything negative about Mrs Moore. Her next post was titled “The Day My Blog Blew Up.”
 |
| Wikipedia CC |
Mrs Terrell explained what happened, and how many comments she had received. Some were positive, along the lines of ‘thank you for posting this discerning information about a false teacher.’ Others were rabidly angry that their idol had been poked.
I sympathized with her. I had previously quoted Mrs Terrell in one of my many, many, MANY essays about Beth Moore but I had not seen the follow up. Every other blogger that I’ve read who posted something negative about Beth Moore (and they were few & far between for a long while, whistling in the wind) ALL got the same reactions, the same content in the comments, even. One thing I read recently that hit me is “to see if something is an idol, poke it and see how the followers react.”
One comment that people who try to defend Moore’s teaching say a lot is that “you’re jealous.” The ‘you’re jealous’ comment perplexes me the most. Commenters reacting to my pieces on Moore also say that I’m inhibiting people from delving into the word, it’s just my opinion, and I need to stop being critical. Not one ever comes up with a biblical reason to rebut my biblical reason for taking issue with Moore’s teachings. That’s because there aren’t any.
Saying ANYTHING negative about Beth Moore provokes a rabid-push back. Lately though, and thankfully too, some men have been speaking out against her methods and her false theology. Todd Friel, Mike Abendroth, Justin Peters, Jim Murphy, Tim Challies and Matt Slick at Christian Research and Apologetics Ministry (all pastors) have all recently said negative things about Moore in one aspect or another, based on her handling of the bible and what/how she teaches. I wonder if these female commenters would say that the men are “jealous” too!
Moore makes weak disciples because her teachings promote straying from from sola scriptura, providing a poor model for the new Christians coming up. She makes doubters, offers legalism, and puts in lots of conditions to faith. As a result, people wander from Jesus-the-rock and becoming scared of their doubts (i.e ‘am I doing faith right?’) they go back to Moore. It’s why she has so many groupies.
It’s hard, as a discernment person, to see so vividly how the false ones are damaging the faith and striking the sheep. I worry deeply and almost every day for women in my own congregation. So my fears are not just for the women ‘out there’ but also ‘in here’.
Moore, Rick Warren and formerly Billy Graham have been the 20th century’s worst wolves, and I am sad to say I have to put Osteen in that category too now. I say ‘sad’ because it’s so OBVIOUS Osteen is false, but increasingly, people don’t see it. At least Moore, Graham and Warren hid their apostasy for so long that it took a keen eye and a God-delivered wisdom to detect it. In other words, props for subtle cunning. Osteen is just blatantly blasphemous. However the bible does say that apostasy will increase, and Osteen certainly is evidence of that.
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables”
(2 Timothy 4:3-4).My sadness with Moore is now she is passing into the grandma stage, an elder woman of the faith, meaning she has been around so long she has birthed spiritual daughters…just like Revelation 2:20-23 says of the false prophetess-type Jezebel.
This is a subject near to my heart. I just want to run around to every woman and put my arms around them to protect them. But my arms are too short. The way to do that is prayer. Jesus’s arms are long enough.
This news from the Times of Oman:
Muscat: A tremor which occurred in a Muscat suburb on Tuesday evening was the first of its kind and can be classified as a “non-warning” earthquake, the Director of the Earthquake Monitoring Centre at Sultan Qaboos University said in an interview. … The epicentre of the tremor, which occurred at 08:06 p.m. on Tuesday, was about 30 km from the city of Muscat and felt by part of the population because it was shallow,” Dr. Issa Al Hussein said. The earthquake was recorded 2 on Richter Scale by the Seismological Centre of the Sultan Qaboos University.
I don’t know what is meant by “non-warning” earthquake, unless it means the residents don’t need to be warned because another quake is not expected…but then again, quakes never are expected. And I don’t know what they mean by first of its kind in the headline when the article later says that the mountain range in the area had experienced tremors in 2010. If you go to the short article, you’ll see.
However, there was a concerted effort to collect data as to the seismicity of Oman and “through these efforts, it has been established that a major fault exists in the Gulf of Oman (offshore Muscat).” (source .pdf paper, Earthquake Hazard Potential in Oman). The paper goes on to report,
“There are practically no instrumentally-recorded earthquakes in Oman. The global database, however, lists an earthquake of magnitude 5.1 (Richter Scale) in AI-Kamil area in 1971. There are numerous reports of felt earthquakes in Oman (Table 1).”
I’m focusing on Oman because seismicity, or any activity, in the prophetic epicenter is always highly interesting and important to monitor. You might recall in Dec. 2011 I reported a new island had emerged in the Red Sea. In June of 2011 a spectacular volcanic eruption took place in Eritrea, where the previous eruption had occurred way back in 1861. To say the 2011 eruption was sudden and surprising is an understatement
In other earthquake news, there was a quake in the UK today.
Devon earthquake: Biggest tremor in the UK for SIX YEARS shakes the South West
“The nation was hit by its biggest earthquake in six years today, shaking homes and leaving residents frightened and confused. The 4.1 magnitude quake was felt over hundreds of miles, with thousands of people caught in the tremors across the West Country and South Wales.“
As always I believe that earthquakes are an important warning sign from God- whether He directly caused it or allowed it to happen. Keep watching the signs. Yes I know I’m a broken record, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. One of these days the rapture will happen. Meanwhile the anticipation of both living for Christ on earth and looking forward to glorified life with Him in heaven is what it’s all about. Do you long for His appearing? I hope so.
————————————-
Further reading
Why does God allow natural disasters, i.e. earthquakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis?”
I grew up in the 1970s and I was teaching first grade in the 1980s when the “self-esteem” movement hit education. Suddenly there were no winners or losers, no achievers or laggards. There were only winners, and everyone was supposed to be rewarded for ‘trying.’
Well, even Psychology Today now says in their 2011 article, The Gift of Failure, “The self-esteem movement has done an entire generation a deep disservice.“
If I may be allowed a moment of snark…well, duh.
The article recounts the movement’s beginnings.
It started with the best intentions. In 1969, Nathaniel Brandon wrote a paper entitled “The Psychology of Self-Esteem” that suggested that “feelings of self-esteem were the key to success in life”. Hearing this, many people started to find ways to confer confidence upon our children. This resulted in competitions where everyone gets a trophy and no one actually wins. “New games” attempted to engage children without any winners or losers. The parents who embraced these efforts did so out of love and with the most noble of intentions. The only problem is that these efforts simply do not work. Self-esteem is not something conferred, it is earned through taking risks and developing skills
An attitude of ‘we’re all winners’ was directed toward children and played out on the soccer field, Cub Scouts, and elementary schools. It was not constrained to just children, though, as it was perpetuated in adults by the publishing of and subsequent runaway success of the 1970s’ most popularly selling book, “I’m OK, You’re OK” By Dr. Thomas Harris, MD.
It was the era of self-help and the above paragraph sums up nicely the feeling of the times. Harris’s work extended Abraham Maslow’s, a psychologist in the 1950s who published a seminal book outlining the human’s hierarchy of needs. Maslow created a pyramid in which a hierarchy of needs was proposed. In Maslow’s schema, once man meets his own needs, he can reach his full potential. You hear this a lot in today’s self-esteem preachers: ‘full potential’.
That feeling of everyone being OK, needing a self-esteem boost continued into the 90s and into 2000s when Joel Osteen, king of the Self-Esteem booster sermon, began preaching.
It seems Osteen’s aim is to let everyone know they’re OK. More than OK, a masterpiece!
“See Yourself as a Masterpiece”…” all those thoughts of insecurity, inferiority and low self-esteem won’t have a chance!”
Now self-esteem had finally come to Christianity. We know that depraved man in the secular world has always sought ways to feel better, via mind-altering drugs, to pop psychology. There is no way to feel better apart from God. However for the Christian it’s a different story. This feeling of needing to have an ego boost is a new aspect of false doctrine. Paul wrote the first chapters of Romans expounding on how depraved and lost we are. In other words, we’re NOT OK.
Before we know Jesus, we are depraved, sinful, and unable to do anything worth anything that pleases God.
 |
| Maslow’s hierarchy of needs |
After we are in Christ, we don’t need self-esteem because we are co-heirs with Christ in heaven. On earth, we must strive to be humble, forgiving, live a quiet life, and serve others. All our esteem is Christ’s, not ours, and it is He who helps us live as Christians.
However it was very important for the secular world to cling to the self-esteem movement and there is a reason why this also very negatively impacts Christianity: As Abraham Maslow observes,
“any doctrine of the innate depravity of man or any maligning of his animal nature very easily leads to some extra-human interpretation of goodness, saintliness, virtue, self-sacrifice, altruism, etc. If they can’t be explained from within human nature—and explained they must be—then they must be explained from outside of human nature. The worse man is, the poorer a thing he is conceived to be, the more necessary becomes a god.”
So you see, if there is no innate goodness in man, any goodness that exists, and man intuitively knows there is (Ecclesiastes 3:11), then that goodness must come from deity. If man is not good, then the good must be God. Therefore, psychology says in its everlasting denial of God, man is good, therefore we don’t need God. ‘I’m OK, You’re OK’ really means we’re all OK without God. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Colossians 2:8
It’s no wonder that men like Maslow and Harris knocked themselves out with trying to construct philosophies that deny man’s innate depravity. It’s why even preachers who call themselves Christians today like Osteen or Joyce Meyer etc cling to the self-esteem, full potential, we’re all really OK mantra.
Seeing that the post-WWII world became more First World and wealth was abounding, especially in America, and people were reaching the top of Maslow’s pyramid and self-actualizing, evil still existed. People were not OK. Later in life, Maslow was concerned with questions such as, “Why don’t more people self-actualize if their basic needs are met? How can we humanistically understand the problem of evil?” He also wondered why evil existed in the majority of the people. Toward the end of his life, Maslow decided to study evil, so as ‘to understand it’.
What got me started thinking about self-esteem is a verse that happened to pierce me deeply.
“For there was not left to Jehoahaz an army of more than fifty horsemen and ten chariots and ten
thousand footmen, for the king of Syria had destroyed them and made them like the dust at threshing.” (2 Kings 13:7)
Do you know how small of a mote threshing dust is? Small. The LORD God had allowed the King of Syria to make His people into dust.
And not just the Israelites, but all people are in fact from dust and will return to dust.
“All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.” (Ecclesiastes 3:20)
Isaiah 40:15 says
“Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.”
DUST. Remember our former position and remember that even in Christ, He will grind the nations down like dust eventually. He is God. We are not, no matter how much self-esteem we try to load into our mind.
Our self esteem must always be tempered by the awareness of our own sinfulness, goes this good advice from a study of self-esteem from Romans 12:3 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche.
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. (Romans 12:3)
And if you start thinking more highly of yourself than you ought, remember the dust.
————————-
Further Reading
I enjoyed Rapture Ready editor Terry James’s essay this week called Tribulation Technologies Tightening. The title is evocative, isn’t it? Mr James said, “Things are progressing so quickly in the area of people-control technologies that I must admit I simply can’t keep up.“
What he is referring to is the fact that during the prophesied 7-year tribulation period at the end of the end of days, certain technologies will have been developed which will aid certain events to come to pass. For example, this verse:
“He required everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. And no one could buy or sell anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name.” (Revelation 13:16-17)
For it to come to fruition, first, there must exist some sort of tracking and identification technology that the antichrist and false prophet can even begin to catch up to and track each person, “everyone”, in order to force them to take the mark. Second, there must be some sort of technology in place that tracks financial purchases at every point of sale so that people without the mark will be banned at that point of sale from buying anything.
Here is another verse where some sort of technology will exist that will become part of the verse’s fulfillment:
“For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb. and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.” (Revelation 11:9-10)
This was an ancient way of saying ‘the whole world.’
And how will the whole world gaze at their bodies for three and a half days, the mews getting around so fast that people have time to go out and buy and exchange gifts? Television. Satellite. Cell phones. But even then, there are many places in the world where people don’t have electricity, or tv’s or cell phones or cell phone coverage. Additionally, countries like China and North Korea have censored online activity, denying their citizenry the opportunity to view and participate in world news.
But now there’s the following interesting news:
“There’s really nothing that is technically impossible to this.”
Company plans to beam free Wi-fi to every person on Earth from space
“[O]ne ambitious organisation called the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) is planning to turn the age of online computing on its head by giving free web access to every person on Earth. Known as Outernet, MDIF plans to launch hundreds of satellites into orbit by 2015. And they say the project could provide unrestricted Internet access to countries where their web access is censored, including China and North Korea. Using something known as datacasting technology, which involves sending data over wide radio waves, the New York-based company says they’ll be able to broadcast the Internet around the world. The Outernet team claim that only 60% of the world’s population currently have access to the wealth of knowledge that can be found on the Internet. This is because, despite a wide spread of Wi-FI devices across the globe, many countries are unable or unwilling to provide people with the infrastructure needed to access the web.“
Well, the so-called outernet would certainly take care of the problem of 40% of the world not having access to instantaneous news, wouldn’t it.
In other news I’ve been amazed at the speed with which America has declined. I was born in 1960, at a time when there was the gold standard, US astronauts zooming to the moon and back, winning the cold war, beating the Russians at Olympic Hockey, and being the world’s sole superpower. Nothing was impossible and it seemed like the US could and would go on forever.
That was an illusion, as the 2007-2008 economic crash showed us. The National Review has a good article on the US decline.
The United States of Decline
America unravels at an increasingly dizzying pace. America is unraveling at a stunning speed and to a staggering degree. This decline is breathtaking, and the prognosis is dim. For starters, Obama now rules by decree. Reportedly for the 27th time, he has changed the rules of Obamacare singlehandedly, with neither congressional approval nor even ceremonial resolutions to limit his actions. Obama needs no such frivolities. “That’s the good thing about being president,” Obama joked on February 10. “I can do whatever I want.” In an especially bitter irony, Obama uttered these despicable words while guiding French president François Hollande through Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson — a key architect of America’s foundation of limited government.
…
Earth’s sole superpower is sagging where it should be No. 1. America has slouched to No. 12 on the 2014 Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal Index of Economic Freedom. “Now considered only a ‘mostly free’ economy, the U.S. has earned the dubious distinction of having recorded one of the longest sustained declines in economic freedom, second only to Argentina, of any country in the [20-year] history of the Index,” the report states. “The U.S. is the only country to have recorded a loss of economic freedom each of the past seven years.”
In my personal opinion, having been an active and acute observer of American life and cultural mores for 50 years, the end is near. I am daily amazed at the implosion of just about every aspect of both American and global life. The decline of morals, the persecution of the Christian religion (higher now than ever in history), declining economy, craven entertainment, unscrupulous personal and governmental finances, rising lack of conscience, the emergence of technologies, church tares over-running the pews, extreme weather, geo-political collapses (Kiev anyone?), natural disasters, all occurring at once and so constantly, and with ever increasing extremity, all serve to show me and perhaps you too that truly the end is near.
The Lord has given his world 2000 years to heed the words of Messiah. What a gracious and long-suffering Savior we have. He said that He would build His church and that when it is complete the rapture would come and He would then turn His attention to finish the transgression of Israel. (Matthew 16:18, Romans 11:25, Daniel 9:24).
I believe the time is short to repent and become folded in to the beauty and certainty of the Lord’s church. He will whisk His bride home and then unleash the worst wrath and times upon the earth that ever was or will be. (Matthew 24:21). Please heed these things. Please, please repent.
What is repentance and is it necessary for salvation?
Are you righteously angry? Even personally angry? It’s OK … within limits.
“Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,” (Ephesians 4:26)
Why should we deal with our anger right away? Because it is deceitful and it hardens us faster than you can say Jack Robinson.
“But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” (Hebrews 3:13).
And why should we take care of our anger or other sin as long as it is “today”? Because it takes our eyes off Jesus.
“And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” (Matthew 14:30).
How long did it take for Peter to sink after he took his eyes away? Immediately.
Ultimately the only thing our anger does is prevent us from producing righteousness.
“because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” (James 1:20)
Only God’s anger produces righteousness. Barnes Notes says of the James 1:20 verse, that human anger “Does not produce in the life that righteousness which God requires. Its tendency is not to incline us to keep the law, but to break it; not to induce us to embrace the truth, but the opposite…A man is never sure of doing right under the influence of excited feelings; he may do that which is in the highest sense wrong, and which he will regret all his life. The particular meaning of this passage is, that wrath in the mind of man will not have any tendency to make him righteous.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Further reading
How can I know for sure that my anger is righteous indignation?
We know that the church is a body, a united body of believers.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:12)
The Holy Spirit ordains where each believer is to be and what gifts he is to have. He ordains where we are in the body so as to contribute to the good of the whole.
All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills (1 Corinthians 12:11)
It could be said that the Lord is painting a picture.
If you’re familiar with the Impressionist movement of art that emerged in the late 1800s in Paris, then you’re familiar with the works of Monet, Manet, Sisley, Renoir, & etc. These artists used short brush strokes to convey movement and impression, rather than precision. There was a sub-culture of the Impressionists called the Pointillists. Here is Georges Seurat’s famous pointillist painting, “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte“
As the website IncredibleArt.org states,
Strictly speaking, Pointillism refers to the technique of using dots of pure color in such a way that, seen at the appropriate distance, they achieve maximum luminosity.
(source)“Georges-Pierre Seurat made this technique famous. His painting,
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-1888) is one of the most famous paintings in the world. … At left you see a closeup of Seurat’s painting. It is a closeup of the the man laying down on the lower left. Even thought he appears to be wearing white pants, as you can see, the part of the pants in the shadow just above the grass has no white in it. It’s only when you look at it from a distance that the colors blend in. Seurat spent two years on this painting. He carefully planned it out with several sketches first.“
It could be said, that the earth is the canvas and the people are the points of paint He daubs precisely here and there, working toward an end.
I’ve seen pointillist paintings at museums. You look very closely and all you can see are daubs of color. Dots. If you back away to a distance, you can see the scene clearly. It’s amazing how the colors blend to make a seamless and beautiful picture.
We can think of ourselves as dots. We can’t see the whole picture, we don’t have the right perspective. God does. He puts a pink next to a blue and though all we can see is the blue next to us, we have to trust that the Great Artist is making something beautiful. Even if you don’t like the color pink, you know and trust that the Artist’s purposeful placement of it next to you will make the picture as a whole perfect when it is complete.
Just like heaven.
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. According to this summary from Christian Book Summaries,
Writing in the mid-1500s, John Foxe was living in the midst of intense religious persecution at the hands of the dominant Roman Catholic Church. In graphic detail, he offers accounts of Christians being martyred for their belief in Jesus Christ, describing how God gave them extraordinary courage and stamina to endure unthinkable torture.
From the same link, the book’s purpose was fourfold:
Text from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
We are looking at the ten primitive persecutions. Foxe developed his chronicle in chapters from the first martyr, Stephen, in chapter 1: “History of Christian Martyrs to the First General Persecutions Under Nero” and now we are nearing the end of chapter 2: “The Ten Primitive Persecutions“. This brings us up to 303AD.
Vitus of Sicily was taught the principles of Christianity by a nurse who raised him. When his pagan father, Hylas, discovered this, he tried to convert him to paganism but failed. To appease his gods for his son’s insults to their deity, he sacrificed Vitus to them on June 14, 303.
I looked at just one man today, Vitus. I want to examine the nature of the family relationship for a moment.
The bible says, “You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death.” (Luke 21:16)
This became a sad truth for Vitus, but also a joyous one. He died for the name of Christ! And he is given the Crown of Life, also known as the Martyr’s Crown. (Revelation 2:8-11, James 1:12)
We often believe that family ties are the strongest ties we can have on earth, but it is not true. We read old secular proverbs like”Blood is thicker than water”, indicating that family ties will outlast and be stronger than any other ties. We read Mario Puzo’s book The Godfather and the indelible memory of Vito Corleone’s son Michael (another Vito from Sicily, this one fictional) saying “Fredo, you’re my older brother, and I love you. But don’t ever take sides with anyone against the Family again. Ever.”
But we know what happened there, money was thicker than blood, and poor Fredo went fishing…and then slept with the fishes.
The family is an institution Christ set up in the garden. He married Adam and Eve and told them to be fruitful and multiply. He likened the sacrificial love of a husband for his wife and family to the love Christ has for His bride. And the same with the wife. Jewish progeny was supremely important in order to perpetuate the race and to keep the tribes intact. Deuteronomy 25:5 makes provision for keeping the family name alive, in commanding the widow of one brother to marry the other in case of death, so the name will be kept going.
All of this is beautiful and true. However, the fact is that whether a person is an unsaved person or a saved person, family is not the main relationship. Unsaved people serve satan, and when push comes to shove, the unsaved person will serve satan out of hate rather than their family out of love. Vitus is but one example. The Luke 21:16 verse proves that family ties will matter little when faced with a push from satan. Here are two more examples-
“They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (Luke 12:53)
“Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death,” (Matthew 10:21)
So the unsaved serve satan above his family. Alternately, the saved person serves Jesus above his family.
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26)
“And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:31-35).
We should be aware that secular relationships are filled with betrayal, because they serve satan. Just look at abortion, putting babes in the fire for sacrifice to Molech. Infanticide is horrible and satanic.
Yet though Christian family relationships are modeled after Christ, and are a picture of the glory to come, they won’t last. As John Piper said in his tremendous sermon Single in Christ: A Name Better Than Sons and Daughters, when we attain heaven, there will be no marriage. We will not marry nor procreate. Our relationships will be complete. Through Christ, we will be one family. We won’t need the picture when we are face to face. Here is a snippet from Piper’s sermon, where he is outlining his main points:
For poor martyred Vitus was killed by his father in the name of a satanic god, but Vitus held fast to the value of a relationship with Christ, His true Father. Vitus not only attained the crown of life, but look what else is given to Vitus, and to all of us:
“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.” (Matthew 19:29)
You and I will have a hundred-fold mothers, and not just any mothers, perfect mothers. Perfect brothers and perfect sisters and perfect children…
While your blood ties on earth are temporary and imperfect, and even if you have experienced betrayal and heartbreak, awaiting you in heaven is the perfect family. What a blessing we can have a taste of that family life now, in the family of Christ on earth. The family of God is eternal and everlasting and forever, amen.
the-end-time.org 