I posted on Friday about a robot that has been developed which recognizes its own reflection. I’d mused on the implications of this, within the concepts of artificial intelligence, the location of the seat of consciousness, and recognition of sin and evil in ones’ self. The nearer implication is the use of computers and artificial intelligence during the Tribulation when a one world commerce system is prophesied to be in place. The greater implication is the use of robots (droids and drones) in hunting humans and other evil uses. The greatest implication is man’s Tower of Babel, and how far God will allow humankind to go in making a conscious creation.
Is it a coincidence that today I found a short (under 2 minute) Youtube video about the most human-looking robot ever created, and the discussion by its maker about where the seat of the soul is? In this video, the Japanese Professor who created a doppelganger robot says that it is because of their unique spiritual beliefs that they blur the boundaries between humans and robots. He says, “It’s a question of where the soul is. Japanese people have always been told the soul can exist in everything and anything. So we don’t have any problem with the idea that a robot, too, has a soul.”
The implications of this are enormous. More portentous, in my humble opinion, than the inflammatory rhetoric that will spark a Middle East war imminently. When man makes a human looking robot, declares it has a soul, and sends it forth into the world (as the Professor in the video said he does) we have truly reached a moment when man supplants God as sole creator. God said in Genesis 11 in response to man’s Tower building and claim of a “name”, “this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.” (Genesis 11:6b). The Tower was built satisfy the spirit of man. God knew man needed Himself to satisfy the spirit, and He wasn’t being a big party-pooper when He dispersed the people and confused the languages. “[N]othing they do will be impossible for them” means they will embark on a downward spiritual and societal spiral that will only lead to death, because they were doing it apart from Him.
Secondly, God is the only name. Man has no name. Man is the clay, he is the creation. God is the Creator, with all power and authority. Therefore God’s name is holy and perfect.
“For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 1:11).
“And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’ ” (Ezekiel 38:23
Man will never be allowed to share God’s glory apart from God, it is His alone. Psalm 84:11 declares that He may share His glory, but it is not man’s to claim, neither by “making a name” nor by creating creatures with “souls.”
Watch and be stunned:
PS: robot is called a “doppleganger robot.” Doppleganger is a German word for “double walker” , or a paranormal double of a living person, typically representing evil or misfortune.
I enjoy Hal Lindsey’s video report each week. He brings a credibility and a gravitas to the prophetic issues that I find refreshing. He also has away of synthesizing various news reports into a picture that no one else reports and is always illuminating. In short, he’s knowledgeable.
This week was particularly so. I found that the first segment, the 17 minutes he spent bringing us up to date on the Iran-Israel situation, was FULL of interesting insights. I won’t steal his thunder but I’ll mention only one thing that struck me.
The ‘hate Israel-wipe them out’ rhetoric from Iran is rising to a more obvious and frequent level than even Hitler’s was just prior to the Holocaust. More on that in the video. It occurred to me though as Lindsey was describing the diaspora, that the LORD has brought about a see-saw situation.
Prior to 1947, the Jews were dispersed all over the world, while Muslims were fewer in number than they are today and were concentrated in the Middle East. It would have been impossible to “wipe out the nation of Israel” (Psalm 83:4) because the Jews were embedded in nations all around the world and to wipe them out they’d have to start a war or a pogrom in every nation. Sure, there were pogroms and holocausts which attempted to do that very thing, but if Hitler had succeeded in wiping out the Jews in Germany, there were still Jews in the US, Australia, Russia, Norway, etc.
Now the situation is turned around. The Jews are concentrated in Israel and more are pouring in every day. The Muslims are concentrated in the Middle East of course, but their numbers are growing exponentially all around the world. Muslims are in the US in great numbers (just ask the Dearborn MI neighbors), France, Africa, China, Russia, and the Balkans among other places.
When Iran’s President Ahmadinejad says they can wipe out Israel with one storm, when the Ayatollahs say they will wipe the cancerous tumor that is Israel from the world and wipe out the Jews, when they say they long for even one nuclear bomb to drop on Israel, they have a better shot at fulfilling their hateful rhetoric now more than at any time previously.
Except that The Holy God of Israel is the protector of His people the Jews and they will never be wiped from the earth. All Israel will be saved, the remnant will acknowledge Jesus and be blessed with national salvation at the end of the Tribulation. (Zechariah 8:13; Zechariah 12:10; Isaiah 45:17).
However, the situation is dire and getting darker by the day. The stream of messages even in just this month regarding the Muslims’ intent to wipe out the Jews and the nation of Israel are serious and should be taken seriously. God did not include Psalm 83, Isaiah 17, and Ezekiel 38-39 in the bible for no reason.
Please do watch the first 17 minutes of this week’s Hal Lindsey Report, it is heavy with prophetic insights. Lindsey makes a guess about what Israel’s intention may be in how to deal with Iran, and I think Lindsey is completely right about it. You’ll understand if you watch. The second segment deals with the terrible times and God’s promises, which is also a comfort.
I found a 12-minute Youtube compilation of natural disasters that are happening in the world. The disasters you are about to see all happened within the last month. There is nothing bloody or gory. Just a plethora of disasters that are coming upon the world like birthpangs. Note how often you hear comments in the audio from people who say things like “this is unprecedented” or “I’ve never seen this in all my life.”
I’ve reported on some of the disasters, like the Philippine floods or the Louisiana sinkhole. Below the video, is one news excerpt I expanded from the video that goes into more depth.
Here is a lengthier treatment of the moment in the video above where a sinkhole swallowed a man.
Sinkhole swallows man “As Typhoon Saola trounces Taiwan, surveillance camera footage showing an unidentified man being swallowed by a sinkhole in Sansia District, Taiwan, has surfaced. In the video, the man can be seen walking along the street until — within a split second — the ground gives way and he disappears. A rescue operation reportedly was attempted, but according to CNN the man later died of his injuries.”
I tried to screen cap it for those who can’t or don’t watch videos, but it really was a split second. On the video above, at second 7 he is walking jauntily along, and at second 8 on the video there is a gaping hole and a dead man under the rubble. Jonathan Edwards preached on this very thing in his famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
“If God should withdraw his hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost. … for awakening unconverted persons in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ. — That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell’s wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up. You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of hell, but do not see the hand of God in it; but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life, and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it”.
Now …here is something else. I’ve posted very few posts lately on the prophetic indicators for the Mark of the Beast partly because it depresses me and partly because by the time the Mark comes both the saved and the unsaved are so far along in the Tribulation these pre-rapture signs will mean little to the Tribulation survivors. But this one struck me.
Robot learns to recognise itself in the mirror “NICO spends a lot of time looking in the mirror. But it’s not mere vanity – Nico is a humanoid robot that can recognise its reflection – a step on the path towards true self-awareness.”
Now if that doesn’t give you chills, I don’t know what will.
I am part of an interesting generation. I was born in 1960, before the space age. I remember the US astronauts on the moon in 1968. I lived most of my adult life before the internet, and personal computers only came along after college. I wrote my term papers on a typewriter and used a lot of white-out. Audio cassettes weren’t even invented until 1962 and my family didn’t use them until I was nearly in my teens. CD music, cellphones, cable television…all very new. I was 12 when Pong was invented and my dad brought it home. Now look where we are with computer games…
The ATM wasn’t invented until I was nine and their use didn’t become ubiquitous until I was a teenager. For most of my life, the notion of a one world payment system was simply unbelievable.
Now we are closing in on Artificial Intelligence. The major question in robotics and computering is “can machines ever become self-aware?” I propose that it is a moot question, because God would shut down the whole shebang before another “creation” with consciousness and intelligence appears on the scene. Once a robot is self-aware, would they then have to become cognizant of their own sin and then choose a savior? Of course not, the premise that God would allow man to create consciousness is ridiculous. But if a robot is that close to recognizing itself, how close are we to AI, and how close to the rapture? What will the Mark of the Beast look like…how will it work? The world doesn’t have long to find out, I think.
Fortunately those who have repented of their sin will be carried safely up to heaven before all this crashes down and man lives with his folly. We will be made fully perfect, and that includes an awareness of the entire body of the Church to a degree we know about now cognitively but don’t directly experience fully (due to our sin nature.) Best of all, we will see, know, and experience a life with Jesus the Savior clearly, and not dimly like we do now. (1 Corinthians 13:12-13).
Any person who repents will be in that blessed group of the Church Age believers who are raptured out. For those who fence-sit, or who outright refuse to believe, well, just think on this. If robots are becoming self aware, how long do you think it will take before kings, dictators, and evil men use them to hunt you down? (“Open the pod bay doors, HAL. … I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”)
The disasters on the video, remember, occurred in just this last month. What does God have in store for the next month? We do know the near future holds wars and rumors of wars, pestilences, volcanic eruptions, floods, drought, hail, fires, pain, anguish and death. Doom and gloom? You betcha.
Jesus is HOPE and LIGHT! I prefer the hope and light to the doom and gloom. If you repent of your sins, and you are a sinner you know, and ask Jesus to forgive them, He will. He is a good savior. So when will the end come? Just because He hasn’t judged men in wrath does not mean He won’t. He has been patient up until now:
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9).
However that patience is coming to an end, and as a thief in the night, the end will come. The repentant will be given their reward and their relief, and the unrepentant will have given to them what they chose: the worst time the world has ever known or will ever know again. (Matthew 24:21). Like the Taiwanese man who was happily walking one moment and the next was dead under the rubble, Jesus will suddenly and without warning end His patience and begin His wrath. You really don’t want to be here for that.
On August 5, 2012, during the ceremony for the Tennis medal winners at the Olympics, the United States flag fell off the bar holding it aloft. The bar held three flags, one for Gold medal winner, one for Silver medal winner, and one for Bronze medal winner. The other two flags remained secured but the US flag fluttered down to the ground to the gasps of a shocked audience. The line of the American anthem had just been played was “that our flag was still there…”
It is a suitable omen, symbol and portent for us here in America. God can and does cast down nations. David cried out in Psalm 56:7,
“On no account let them escape; in your anger, O God, bring down the nations.”
“See how the evildoers lie fallen–thrown down, not able to rise!” (Psalm 36:12)
Whether this was God, a prank, or an accident, it seems a fitting metaphor for our nations’ fall from our previous place from on high down to the miry pit of sin where we dwell now.
“But you, O God, will bring down the wicked into the pit of corruption; bloodthirsty and deceitful men will not live out half their days. But as for me, I trust in you. (Psalm 55:23)
Here is the video. If you google flag fell Olympics you’ll find many Youtube results. This is just one. I was struck by the fact that the flag didn’t totter, didn’t hang, it gently and gracefully was released from the attachment and simply dropped instantly.
I read something interesting last night. Politico, the liberal news & opinion website has by now picked upon it. I want to look at this from first a secular, factual basis and then a prophetic basis. Politico’s story starts like this:
“A Texas judge said this week that a “civil war” could possibly erupt in the U.S. if President Barack Obama is reelected. “One of the things is he’s going to try to give the sovereignty of the United States away to the United Nations. What do you think the public is going to do when that happens? We are talking civil unrest, civil disobedience, possibly, possibly civil war, OK?” Lubbock County Judge Tom Head said Tuesday on FOX 34.”
Here is the News clip:
Of course, the liberals will make this sound outlandish, far-fetched, and assert that the judge is a crackpot, if they haven’t done that already. But the Judge is right. I wrote about what he was alluding to four years ago on my other blog. I’m thrilled people are talking about this openly now.
Here is the context. There are two programs you need to be familiar with which dovetail into the statement the Judge made. One is the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, and the other is US legislation titled Global Poverty Act. First, the global picture, the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG), from Wiki–
“The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. The goals are:”
–eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, –achieving universal primary education, –promoting gender equality and empowering women –reducing child mortality rates, –improving maternal health, –combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, –ensuring environmental sustainability, and –developing a global partnership for development.
Sound nice? Well…kind yes and kinda not. “Debate has surrounded adoption of the MDGs, focusing on lack of analysis and justification behind the chosen objectives, the difficulty or lack of measurements for some of the goals, and uneven progress towards reaching the goals, among other criticisms.”
The dastardly part comes in how the United States is aiding these Millennium Development Goals. I want you to remember that the UN is not a friend to the US and is openly hostile to Israel. It is a global organization under satan’s control.
The US legislation titled the Global Poverty Act is a dear piece of legislation to Obama, and is ideologically ground zero to his plans because the bill he proposed is specifically geared to supporting the UN Millennium Development Goals. He is totally on board with the MDG. What is the crime in that, you ask? Read on, and it is not only a crime but in my opinion, a HIGH CRIME. Here is the American Thinker’s summary of the US Global Poverty Act bill:
“On December 7, 2007, Obama introduced the Senate version of the Global Poverty Act of 2007 (S.2433). On February 13, the bill cleared the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, on which Obama and 6 (Biden, Dodd, Feingold, Hagel, Lugar, Menendez) of the bill’s 9 co-sponsors serve. The House version of the bill (H.R.1302) passed by a unanimous voice vote last September 25 [2007].
“Here’s an abstract of the proposed legislation”:
“To require the President to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the [U.N.] Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day.”
“If enacted, how much of a financial commitment would that represent to taxpayers?”
“One estimate is 0.7% of gross national product, or an additional $845 billion over 13 years in addition to existing foreign aid expenditures. So far, this proposal is barely on the MSM radar, but we’re likely hear more about it as a full Senate vote approaches.”
“Obama said of his bill, “With billions of people living on just dollars a day around the world, global poverty remains one of the greatest challenges and tragedies the international community faces,” said Senator Obama. “It must be a priority of American foreign policy to commit to eliminating extreme poverty and ensuring every child has food, shelter, and clean drinking water. As we strive to rebuild America’s standing in the world, this important bill will demonstrate our promise and commitment to those in the developing world. Our commitment to the global economy must extend beyond trade agreements that are more about increasing corporate profits than about helping workers and small farmers everywhere.”
The American Thinker editorialized at this point in their article, saying to the above, “In other words, other nations will like us better if we give them our money. And, our trade agreements should not be about business profit, but benevolent social action.”
Sound like Obama? I thought so. It is taxation without representation. So why is it a high crime to give 0.7% of GNP to an outside entity who will call the shots with our money? I believe it is a high crime because it cedes US sovereignty to an entity outside the US. It subsumes the US interests to a so-called higher authority without the US people voting to do so. Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. For centuries past, the idea that a state could be sovereign was always connected to its ability to guarantee the best interests of its own citizens. [sovereignty definition from Wikipedia]. Giving a portion of the US interests to the UN to control and then worse, be allowed to raise a tax on us without our say-so, is therefore the high crime of treason due to deliberate loss of US sovereignty. This assessment is my opinion.
The bill died in Senate committee and was never passed, but I wanted to bring it up because it is essential that you understand where Obama’s heart is and where his heart always has been. It is NOT to reduce poverty. The bill, if it had passed, would have ceded sovereignty to the United Nations. DO NOT let concept that pass unnoticed!
On May 31, 2008, I’d written on The Quiet Life, “The Global Poverty Act” would require the U.S. to initially direct .7 percent of the GNP of the United States into the United Nations coffers for distribution as they see fit, for food to third world nations. Under earlier agreements this would evolve into a national tax on the U.S. with the UN attempting to levy this on all first world nations. The U.N. would have the power to increase this rate of taxation. The U.S. would be required to surrender some of its sovereignty over foreign aid by putting it under UN control. The bill would force the U.S. to sign onto the U.N.’s Millennium Declaration, which would commit us not only to “banning small arms and light weapons” but many other collective acts. In other words, the very act of voluntary charity would then be under the control of government ownership.”
Whenever I hear words like “collective” and “global” I think ‘socialism.’ And do you know from when I hear these ideas the most lately? From Barack Obama. Back in 2008, saying Obama is a socialist got you soundly crushed on debate boards and anywhere else you “dared” to say it. But people with two eyes and a love for America spotted the buzz words right away, and just a little digging unearthed the Global Poverty Act. A bit more digging linked the Global Poverty Act to the Millennium Development Goals. It was all there for any person to research.
A few months before Obama was elected I wrote about it again,
On Oct 22, 2008 on The Quiet Life, I wrote about this Global Poverty Act, saying, “A report from Cliff Kincaid at Accuracy in Media published a critique asserting that while the Obama-sponsored Global Poverty Act sounds nice, the adoption would “result in the imposition of a global tax on the United States” and would make levels “of U.S. foreign aid spending subservient to the dictates of the United Nations.” It dedicates 0.7 percent of the U.S. gross national product to foreign aid, which over 13 years he said would amount to $845 billion “over and above what the U.S. already spends.” The UN could raise that tax on the US at will, and spend it at will, with no say from the US, which is taxation without representation. It’s also forced charity.”
I was outraged that Obama would propose ceding sovereignty to a global, non-governmental organization. I thought that any sensible person would not vote for him. But he was elected, much to my shame. Author, philosopher, and frequent defender of capitalism and of promoter of free speech, Edward Cline, was outraged, too. He wrote,
“I rarely write commentary from anger, preferring a properly objective, pseudo-dispassionate approach to a subject deserving my attention. But news of the details, nature and scope of pending legislation in the U.S. Senate has caused me to make an exception to that rule.”
I feel your pain, Mr Cline. Continuing:
RE Obama’s 2007 legislation the Global Poverty Act, Cline said, “Americans will be delivered into a state of indentured servitude as laborers for the UN. Perhaps “indentured servitude” is too kind a term, for as horrendous a condition as it is, there is usually a time limit to such servitude. Slavery would be the more accurate term in this instance, for what Congress is considering is servitude by Americans in perpetuity, in exchange for nothing but the privilege of laboring to “save” the world without thanks or reward, of filling the alleged needs of others, of performing unlimited “community service” for the offense of merely existing.”
H.R. 1302 passed the House by voice vote, but was killed in committee in the senate.
You might be breathing a sigh of relief, because Obama’s 2007 bill has not passed and never will, apparently. Do not breathe a sigh of relief. The bill is merely an external representation of the hatred Obama has for this great nation, for capitalism, for the future of its people, and for life and liberty itself.
Texas Judge Tom Head nailed it. He knows full well what is ahead for America. Anyone saying what the Judge said in 2008 at the height of Obama’s Hope N Change stupidity would likely have been run out of town on a rail, but today, today we see how far we have fallen. After all, “You didn’t build that.”
Judge Head said, if Obama is re-elected, “Now what happens? What happens? Now I’m not talking just talking riots here and there. I’m talking Lexington, Concord, take up arms, get rid of the dictator. OK, what do you think he is going to do when that happens? He is going to call in the U.N. troops, personnel carriers, tanks and weapons,” Head added.
The American Thinker said of Obama’s Global Poverty Bill, “He says, “It’s not too late to claim the American dream,” and they cheer wildly, and some even cry. Don’t they know that the American dream isn’t a wish granted by a politician, or an entitlement from the government? Do they need a political seer to tell them what to hope for, and dream of, because they are unable to find it for themselves?”
Yes. Yes they do need someone to tell them. And the bible tells us they will find it in the antichrist.
Why are they are unable to find hope for themselves? They can’t find it because it only comes with Jesus. Only Jesus is hope. (1 Tim 1:1; Titus 2:13). Yet those without Jesus and thus are without hope keep hoping the next politician will offer that elusive hope to them and then really come through with it. In the end, one politician WILL come through, the antichrist. But in the end he will only bring hope’s first cousin, disappointment, and then he will bring death for the unsaved, where there will be no hope forever.
You might be thinking, after this long slog through legislative bills and global programs, old news and Texas Judges, that I am exaggerating. I am not. Look to the bible to see our future. A one world government will exist, led by one man, supported by one false prophet, and will initially offer that elusive hope to the world. The whole world will go after the beast, even the Jews. (Rev 13:13; Rev 18:23). For a global infrastructure to be in force, the world has to have been prepared to accept it. Obama is part of that preparation.
The judge is right. There will be civil war. Jesus said the time of the end will be characterized by war (Matthew 24:6; Revelation 6:4). Nation will rise against nation, but people will rise against people, even internally inside a nation. (Mt 24:7). The world will be in such disarray that when the antichrist proposes whatever solutions he proposes, the people will clamor for them. Global rule will come- it is prophesied.
From what quarter will it come? The vehicle for global rule could emanate from the Vatican. The Vatican is the seat of the pope, who is an absolute monarch on earth, who rules with impunity until he dies or resigns, and governs the world’s largest non-governmental agency, having a tight organizational infrastructure in every nation on every continent.
The global rule could come from the United Nations, another large, non-governmental entity with tentacles in each nation on earth. Wiki explains, “The United Nations Charter gives the United Nations Security Council the power and responsibility to take collective action to maintain international peace and security. For this reason, the international community sometimes looks to the U.N. Security Council to authorize peacekeeping operations.”
1 Thessalonians 5:3 says, “While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”
Did you catch that? The UN Security Council’s charge is to maintain “peace and security.”
And don’t forget NATO’s army. The groundwork for global rule could come from the generals among that large, international army.
The vehicle on which the antichrist rides to global dictatorship could come from a heretofore unknown or unsuspected quarter. But it will come. And Obama will be leading the charge, I guarantee it. Listen to that Texas Judge, listen to those who are saying the time is near. Listen to the Holy Spirit prompting you toward repentance. THEN you will really have hope, because you will have Jesus! His hope is sure. If you don’t repent, all you’ll be stuck with is Obama, and where is his hope and change now?
On August 14, 2012, I’d posted a news article about the Mississippi River drying up. I’d reported that the marine traffic was having difficulty in places with navigating the low waters of the river, and noted how much food is transported along that vital artery of America.
Regarding how this meshes with the prophetic and the times in which we live, I’d written, “Food can become unavailable in many ways. It can be unavailable due to extended drought or heat. (Deuteronomy 28:22; Jeremiah 14:1-3; Haggai 1:11). It can be available but too expensive for most people to acquire. (Rev 6:6). Food can be eaten by locusts, worms, crickets. (Deuteronomy 28:38-29, 42). It can become unavailable due to difficulties of hostile armies surrounding the people and destroying the crops (Deut 28:48-51). Maybe the rivers dried up. “A drought on her waters! They will dry up. For it is a land of idols, idols that will go mad with terror.’ (Jer 50:38). There are lots of ways that food is kept from the people. But there is only one reason:”
“All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees He gave you.” (Deuteronomy 28:45)”
Well, it’s a week later, and the heat and drought continues unabated in the Midwest, and the river is even lower now. Today, the news is that the Mississippi River has been closed to marine traffic along an 11-mile stretch.
Fox News reports, “Low water levels close 11-mile stretch of Mississippi River “Nearly 100 boats and barges were waiting for passage Monday along an 11-mile stretch of the Mississippi River that has been closed due to low water levels, the U.S. Coast Guard said. New Orleans-based Coast Guard spokesman Ryan Tippets said the stretch of river near Greenville, Miss., has been closed intermittently since Aug. 11, when a vessel ran aground. Tippets said the area is currently being surveyed for dredging and a Coast Guard boat is replacing eight navigation markers. He says 40 northbound vessels and 57 southbound vessels were stranded and waiting for passage Monday afternoon. … Thousands of tons of material are shipped on the river each day. Shippers who move material up and down the river on a daily basis have complained that the shallow river is forcing them to lighten the loads on their barges to avoid hitting bottom. Lighter loads mean less revenue for the shippers, who still have to deal with costs such as labor and fuel.”
The barges are not the only marine interests to be impacted by the continuing drought and heat, as this article tells us, the “Mississippi River Too Low For American Queen Steamboat To Travel“ “The Mississippi River is just days away from reaching record low levels. River traffic is moving at a snail’s pace and some barge companies can no longer transport goods. Even the American Queen Steamboat can’t safely navigate the river. The huge vessel is tied up at the north end of Harbor Town, unable to finish a trip to Vicksburg.”
Passengers disembarked and were taken to Vicksburg by bus.
The river is so low in places that salt water is running UP the river and contaminating the fresh water supply in several towns. This news article quotes the Army Corps of Engineers, “The extreme drought in other areas has caused extra low river levels here and the saltwater intrusion. It’s a stark difference on the river compared to what we saw this time last year. “A year ago, we were looking at the flood of record, 17 feet on the Carrollton gauge, and here, we are now looking at drought conditions with below two feet on the Carrollton gauge. It’s amazing what the Mississippi River can do,” said Col. Ed Fleming with the Corps.”
Remember all that flooding last year? A distant memory now. Amazing is right.
The news report above said on August 10th that the river was “days away from record low.” How is the river level today, ten days after that statement? Pretty bad.
Army Corps: Low Mississippi River levels to continue into fall, water levels near record-low “Low water levels that are restricting shipping traffic, forcing harbor closures and causing barges to run aground on the economically vital Mississippi River are expected to continue into October, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials said Tuesday. Meanwhile, more than 100 tow boats and barges remain backed up near Greenville, Miss. due to the low river. The U.S. Coast Guard opened an 11-mile stretch of river that had been closed near Greenville, replacing it with a 5-mile zone where only lighter vessels can pass. Speaking at a meeting of Corps officials, water control managers and business people in Memphis, Major Gen. John W. Peabody said that five harbors — in Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi — are closed, and several others have limited access due to low water levels along the nation’s most important inland waterway.”
Barges and their towboats accumulate alongside the Mississippi banks of the Mississippi River near Greenville, Miss. ASSOCIATED PRESS
“Peabody said he receives reports of vessels running aground on a daily basis. He also says that river levels will likely remain low into October, which is typically when levels are the lowest each year. “The worst is ahead of us,” Peabody said.”
Major General Peabody said that the worst is ahead and he is right as far as the weather and engineering goes, but the worst is ahead also means spiritually. The river is not going to get better. The weather is not going to get better. Everything, including the sinner’s rebellious spirit, is going to get worse and worse, until Jesus comes. We Christians are on the downward slide, the home stretch.
As these news articles discussed the impacts of the events they reported on, did you notice how much of it is interrelated? The drought and heat causes crops to fail, which causes grass to wither, which causes the roots to dry up and the topsoil to be able to blow away. Dust storms start and bring more dust. Meanwhile the river levels are dropping, and shipping, labor, and food transport is affected. The laborers still have to be paid, even though the barges carry less, and that cost is passe down to the people, who cannot afford food as it is. Even the salt water problem of running upriver and contaminating fresh water supplies is an interrelated event from the high temperatures in places far away from the river. Someone has to pay for that water to be trucked in…with money that is becoming as scarce as food is getting. So it is all related.
With the record floods last year and the record drought his year, it just makes me wonder what Jesus will do next. I stand in awe of Him, and His ways. The bible forecasts much more in store for the world. I feel the pressure building. Do you?
Most of the world is rebelling, so the pressure of the Spirit who guides and nudges is being resisted in ever greater quantities by both the Spirit-filled Christian and the godless sinner. At the same time, “During the present age he and his demon host dominate, pressure, and control every person who is unsaved. He is the personification of spiritual death because he is the personification of rebellion against God—and so is the system he designed.” (source).
This pressure we feel from the satanic system is going to be crushed.
My car died. It was resurrected with lots of money. Apparently that is all it takes to resurrect a car. What happened was, I drove to school yesterday and all was well. When I left at 3:15 it wouldn’t start. I called AAA for a jump. The guy had gotten lost and was given wrong address so it was quite late when he did arrive. Improbably, he arrived in a small Z28 red sports car and even more improbably, he unfolded his wheezing, 6’4″ 300 lb frame out of his car and then limped over to my car, explaining his truck was broke and his ankle was sprained. I said, “Oh.” He had me try to start my car, and it clicked but didn’t turn over, apparently the major clue it was the starter and not the battery. I said “Oh.” After fooling around with the car it was 5:00. I took a friend up on her offer of a ride home and left my 1993 Ford Explorer hulk sitting in the school parking lot, to think over his evil, non-starting ways.
Today I got a ride in to school with a friend and went to the training session I’d been scheduled for. At lunch time I called AAA again, this time for a tow. The guy arrived pretty quickly (in 58 minutes) and he backed his truck up to mine to get in position, got out to chain my car up, and that’s when his truck stalled. He mumbled something like “not this again”, dropped to the ground in what was obviously a well-practiced move, rolled his string bean, jean-clad body under the front wheel-well, jiggled something, and the truck started up again. He returned to chaining up my car. The stop-drop and roll move was performed two more times as his truck stalled and was re-started in this entertaining and unique way.
I watched my car be towed off into the sunset, admiring my frugality in wringing out as many miles as possible from it (215,345 and counting) but wondering if the old dear will now be my albatross money pit. It also occurred to me as my woes were added to the sprained ankle broke truck guy’s and the string bean jiggle the truck guy’s, that times are so tough we are all really hanging on with dental floss and duct tape.
Be kind to one another. We never know the other guy’s troubles. We’re in tough times, so we know he’s got ’em. Jesus said the Golden Rule is, “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12)
Marriage was the second covenant God made with man. (The first was in Genesis 2:16-17 where God told Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.) God made Eve from Adam’s rib and told them to cleave together and become of one flesh. He outlined certain standards of behavior and expectations for them both, and that was marriage, the foundation of society. Why is it the foundation? “Because it is not good for man to be alone, I shall make a helpmeet for him.” (Gen 2:18). Together, they formed the first society.
So of course satan targeted for destruction that good and solid foundation of one man and one woman married and bearing children. Satan immediately incited the woman, Adam followed, and off we go toward the Fall of Man into sin.
From that moment in the garden, we have had a constant and direct attack on marriage, specifically its definition. Any variance satan can get from the biblical definition suits his purposes. Look at this-
The recipe for happiness? An enduring marriage and an affair with lots of sex In an extract from her new book, the controversial sociologist says it is time to redraw marital rules – with a radical rethink on fidelity “As dating websites open up a global shop window of sexual possibilities, as life expectancy continues to rise and we become increasingly sexually aware, how can we still take the crushing old rules of fidelity, that turn marriage into a prison, for granted? Why should we not be able to recapture the heady thrills of youth, while protecting a secure home life? The time has come, alongside the technology, to redraw the rules of marriage for the 21st century. Just as the Pill opened up premarital sex in the Sixties, the internet is opening up a whole new culture of affairs among married people. Sex has become a major leisure activity of our time, accessible to everyone, married or not, rich and poor. It’s time to start honing our seduction skills and join the playground. Yet it is the most puritanical nations, including Britain and America, that have traditionally resisted the notion of adultery most rigorously. Here, couples endure the challenges of child care, work pressures, mid‑life crisis and dwindling marital sex against a backdrop of repressive Anglo-Saxon hang‑ups about infidelity, seen always in pejorative terms such as “cheating”. “
How’s THAT for a total repudiation of everything God stands for in marriage??
Like:
fidelity
trust
vows
promises
self-sacrifice
modesty
resistance to temptation
purity
unity
From the Center for Christ and Culture, we read from the article published in 2006, “Why is Marriage Important?“
“Marriage is far more profound than our contemporary culture would lead us to believe. It is a life-long commitment that restrains self-centeredness, self-indulgence and self-gratification. It is the one relationship that effectively prepares and conditions us for community. By restraining self-centeredness and promoting love of another, marriage becomes the foundation for social order. When this commitment labeled “marriage” is reduced to nothing more than a mere contract between two consenting persons, or worse just another option, it ceases to restrain our self-centered passions. Self-centeredness harms not only that relationship but also others as well until it spreads throughout society like ripples in a pond. Abandoning the “others before self” concept of marriage for the self-serving concept of contractual relationships between autonomous individuals makes us increasingly narcissistic, ultimately leading toward moral and social collapse. Across America the institution of marriage is being assailed, reduced to nothing more than a sentimental ceremony between consenting adults, radically redefined, or simply abandoned altogether.”
Yup. All that abandonment is contained in the article we read above and what we see enacted every day.
In the distant past, we were given biblical verses about how the world would be in the far future. There are specific prophecies about the coming perilous times, and there is no doubt we are living in those perilous times now. Conditions that we see all around us that did not exist at all or didn’t exist to the degree we see them today, such as the blatant and constant pressure to dispense with traditional marriage, are all around us. This disposal is a tragic and irreversible mistake.
That satanic urge to dispose of marriage the way God intended does not come only from the homosexual agenda but from all quarters, as we saw above. Once the foundational block of society is done away with then all else can crumble. Is this not happening now? Of course it is. The excessive narcissism that homosexual or triadic or polygamous or adulterous marriage definitions promote lead inevitably to societal collapse. And thus, society is collapsing. Paul wrote of the conditions we were to expect:
“Godlessness in the Last Days
1But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5)
You notice the last part of verse 5 says “having an appearance of godliness”. The people perpetrating the perilous acts will be people who seem good, having a godly appearance, pious and sincere. Yet they will be in the inside, brutal, selfish, without-self control.
The article about marriage I linked to above concludes:
“Marriage is simply the highest of all human relationships and therefore must never be entered into lightly. It is the means of procreating humanity, nurturing and training subsequent generations, producing social order and for the Christian, the best means for perpetuating the Gospel. … If marriage is allowed to die in America as it is in other Western nations our posterity will inherit a godless culture.”
I maintain that THIS GENERATION is the inheritor of the godless culture. The constant barrage of marriage redefinitions (among other horrifying conditions) hath wrought godlessness in the last days. The only good news to this statement is that as the culture becomes ever more like it was in the Days of Noah (Matthew 24:37) and the Days of Lot, (Luke 17:28), it means the Day of the Lord is even closer and that means the rapture of the saints is even closer than that! But for the sinner, The Day of the LORD is near, said Zephaniah! Consider his words, ye sinners!
The great day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements. I will bring distress on mankind, so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth. (Zephaniah 1:14-18)
Hans Memling: Christ surrounded by musician angels
Our love for Him does not rest on positive circumstances. It does not rest on signs or gifts or prosperity or works. It rests on the simple fact that He is the only One deserving of all glory. He is the Sinless, Perfect One, and He came down to the dirt and the mire to life a life under submission to God and to die an unjust agonizing death so our sins would be propitiated.
Be humble in yourselves but boast of Jesus. Be meek in attitude but be confident in His promises. He is coming soon, and all promises will soon be fulfilled. Won’t it be awesome when we see Him as He is?
“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2)
“So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.” (Mark 16:19)
Here is an illustration of the inside of the Temple of God when it was at its best. It has a lot of furniture in it. Tables for showbread, lavers for washing, tables for the sacrifices, the ark, etc. There is something missing. Look for it. If you don’t notice what it missing, then scan below for the answer-
Figure it out yet? The verse was the clue. The piece of furniture missing from the inside of the Temple was a CHAIR. A stool, a couch. Anything to sit on. There was nowhere to sit. Priests were always at work because sin always had to be atoned for. It was endless.
When Jesus accomplished His work on the cross, He ascended to the heavenly temple and He SAT. IT IS FINISHED!!!! Sin is finally atoned for via the one Holy Sacrifice and God accepted it, signifying His acceptance by raising Jesus from the dead.
“And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10).
Jesus is the sacrifice. He is sitting because He magnificently and perfectly finished the work. Your work is to repent. Will you?
