Newfoundland and Labrador shaken with unusual 4.4 magnitude earthquake “HAPPY VALLEY-GOOSE BAY, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador was hit with a 4.4 magnitude earthquake Sunday morning. A seismologist with Natural Resources Canada says the magnitude isn’t large enough to cause destruction, but it is significantly more than most earthquakes in the region. He says the earthquake hit around 8:13 a.m. local time along the Quebec-Labrador border, just south of Happy Valley-Goose Bay. Those in the immediate vicinity felt very strong shaking. Miners in Labrador City said the earthquake felt like a regular mine blast. Natural Resources Canada says the last time an earthquake of this size hit the province was 50 years ago.’ “
Newfoundland and Labrador have had numerous small quakes, but one of that size is unusual. “While earthquake activity isn’t unusual for this particular region of Labrador, Department of Natural Resources Seismologist Stephen Halchuk says a tremor that size hasn’t been recorded in 50 years.”
Before I was saved by Jesus grace, I used to wonder about our calendar and timing system. I wondered, if Jesus was of no account as my father used to say, why the world which uses the Julian and Gregorian calendars marks time from the moment of His death. Our calendar is AD and BC, Anno Domini (After Death) and Before Christ. The AD technically is translated in Medieval Latin, ‘In the year of the Lord’ but we summarize that to ‘after death’ in common usage. The US Constitution is signed with the full expression, “Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven”.
I like to think in word pictures. I think of the moment when He returns to earth and lands on the Mount of Olives as described in Zechariah 14:4: “On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.”
Here is an aerial view of the Mount of Olives. To the left of the pin is a valley and then another mount, the Temple Mount complex. North is to the top.
The scripture says the rupture will come from east to west, and half the split will move north and the other half, south, making “a very wide valley”.
Some scholars believe that the valley is so wide and combined with the details in the Ezekiel verses depicting the geo-physical changes, that the temple will be pushed toward Shiloh. Shiloh is 27 miles due north of Jerusalem and was the location of the first tabernacle, for 400 years. Who knows…but the valley will be wide enough so that the river that runs from the temple will go to the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea (which won’t be dead anymore, lol).
But I digress. The mountain splits under His feet. It is like the BC-AD thing. He split history. We count history as before He came and after He died. He ruptured it, actually. It was surely the universe’s most seismic moment.
Knowing that Christ’s appearance on earth is such a singular event, of course the secular world wants to delete the BC-AD designation. So they came up with BCE, or Before the Common Era. Sure, the designation doesn’t mention Christ, but they still count time from moment zero of the epicenter of His appearing. They can’t delete THAT! LOL.
But they will continue to try. There is a prophecy in Daniel. It is just part of one sentence, but I think it is interesting. “He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.” (Daniel 7:25).
Many scholars believe that the antichrist, who is the ‘he’ spoken of here, will try to change the calendar to reflect worship back on himself, instead of onto Christ. I believe this also. But I was listening to Steve Hadley last night and he proposed something that I think makes sense as well, and adds a layer of understanding to the situation. In his sermon “Preview to Revelation,” he preached on Zechariah 6. (July 1, 2012). Pastor Hadley mentioned that the antichrist will try to change times and dates and create a new calendar because he is moving the world toward a unified religion (one that will eventually point to himself). In wiping the calendar clean it also wipes out all the holy days. Christians mark Easter in April and Christmas in December, Jews have their calendar appointed holy days, etc. If a new calendar is instituted, all those memorializations will be changed, and as the antichrist will think, wiped from memory as they begin to worship him.
There is no erasing Jesus. His appearance was marked by shepherds, angels, and Kings; His death was marked by celestial signs and a large earthquake. The very calendar changed and we marked time from the moment of his death. His re-emergence will be marked with earthquakes. But the main earthquake that He represents is one that split the veil between this world and the next, rupturing time and space itself. Our calendar marks that rupture.
Nothing the secular people can do in juggling calendrical designations, and nothing the antichrist can do to think to change times and the law, will ever alter the fact that He is in control of time itself, and that His emergence into our world the first time and the second time are THE exceptional events in history.
Some Middle East news I thought was interesting. After June’s ramp-up on the Negev and Gaza Strip with Hamas bombs falling, and the last minute rush of UN’s Kofi Annan to try and get a peace going in Syria, and Turkey’s anger over Syria downing its jet, tensions were at a ridiculous height. Over the last two weeks that tension has ratcheted down a bit, but now are ramping up again. Iran has renewed its belligerence and has made some provocative statements. The US has made some decisions, and things are cycling back to new heights. The news regarding these things is below.
Please view all this through the lens of prophecy concerning the last days wars of Psalm 83, Isaiah 17 and 19, and Ezekiel 38-39. I say this because those prophesied battles have not yet been fulfilled in their entirety, and we see movement in these days toward that final fulfillment, for the first time ever in some cases.
Throwing in the towel on Syria:
Annan admits failure of Syrian peace mission “Kofi Annan, the joint UN and Arab League envoy to Syria, has admitted his failure in solving Syrian crisis, according to a French daily. “We have made significant efforts to resolve this situation by peaceful political methods. Obviously, we have not succeeded. And there is no guarantee that we will succeed,” Annan said in an interview with Le Monde.”
So America stepped in to make a few statements:
Clinton warns Syria violence must end to avoid ‘catastrophic assault’ “U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday warned time was running out to save Syria from a “catastrophic assault” after international envoy Kofi Annan admitted his peace mission was failing. The comments by the top U.S. diplomat came as 15 people, including 12 civilians, were killed across the country, according to a rights watchdog. “It should be abundantly clear to those who support the Assad regime their days are numbered,” Clinton told reporters on the sidelines of a conference on Afghanistan in Tokyo.”
And the US made a decision to send an aging carrier group to the Gulf instead of decommission it, like they had planned.
US beefs up Gulf naval force amid tension with Iran “A U.S. navy ship that had been slated for decommissioning has been sent instead to the Gulf to help mine-clearing operations, the U.S. Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain said, the latest move in a gradual U.S. build-up as tensions with Iran smoulder. A fleet spokesman in Manama said the USS Ponce, described as a “afloat forward staging base” (AFSB), had arrived on Thursday after undergoing refitting for its new mission.”
‘Floating base’ deploys to Gulf: US Navy “An ageing American naval ship converted into a “floating base” has arrived off the coast of Bahrain to support counter-mine operations in the Gulf, the US Navy said Friday.The deployment of the USS Ponce marks the latest in a gradual build-up of American forces in the region since tensions spiked with Iran in December over its nuclear programme, with Tehran threatening to possibly close the strategic Strait of Hormuz.Equipped with a helicopter landing deck and space for troops, the amphibious transport ship, in service since 1971, can support an array of missions as a “forward staging base” involving special forces, countermine operations or repair work for warships, officials said.”
Joel C. Rosenberg calls this area the prophetic “epicenter.” His language mirrors scientific language concerning earthquakes. The United States Geological Survey defines an earthquake epicenter as, “the point on the earth’s surface vertically above the hypocenter (or focus), point in the crust where a seismic rupture begins.”
We view prophecy through Jerusalem as the epicenter because that is the lens through which God acts. Jerusalem is His focus and Israel is His hypocenter. It is the point on earth where the prophetic rupture begins. Many scholars believe the initial rupture kick-starting the final 7 years of this present age will be either the Psalm 83 battle, Isaiah 17 event or the Gog Magog war described in Ezekiel 38-39; or a rapid succession or combination of all three. All three prophecies are located in and around Israel.
This is because despite having been continuously inhabited for almost 6000 years, Damascus (Isaiah 17:1) has never been destroyed. Because despite Israel’s enemies always and endlessly stating they will wipe Israel from the earth, never in documented history has that particular combination of allies attacked her, (Psalm 83) and the same is true for Ezekiel’s Gog-Magog war.
So we watch the epicenter. In earthquakes, scientists still cannot figure out when or where one will occur. But our God is the author and perfecter of time, precise in His word, and orchestrates all events on the earth and above it. He told us ahead of time when the final prophetic rupture will be (when we see the signs begin to happen- Luke 21:31) and what to do when we see the begin (Luke 21:28; 1 Thess 5:4-5).
As Jesus warned His people to watch, as Paul warned his people to watch, so we watch. And wait. Not impatiently, but expectantly, and in joy that the author and finisher of our Faith is coming to complete His word. Thy kingdom come…Thy will be done.
Some news today for you. Bible thoughts at the end.
103 Dead in Southern Russia Floods “Intense flooding in the Black Sea region of southern Russia killed 103 people after torrential rains dropped nearly a foot of water, forcing many to scramble out of their beds for refuge in trees and on roofs, officials said Saturday.” (Photo BBC)
“Torrential rain sweeping across much of Britain is bringing widespread flooding to homes and businesses in its wake. Some areas are expected to receive up to one month’s rainfall in 24 hours. Farmers have been urged to move livestock from low-lying fields, summer concerts have been canceled and the British Grand Prix at Silverstone is facing a washout.”
6.3 earthquake in Vanuatu yesterday. Some of the volcanoes have calmed down. Here is a volcano report:
“A sedate day in volcano land. The on-going volcano-seismic crisis at El Hierro (Canary Islands) while not over, appears to be on the wane. Bursts of spasmodic tremor have become less frequent and are of lower amplitude than when the crisis began last month. Tremor has dropped to even lower levels at Nevado Del Ruiz volcano (Colombia) and the once robust plume of SO2 emitted by the volcano has dwindled. A strong plume of SO2 over the Virunga volcanoes (DR Congo) which became visible (through satellite imagery) during the past few days is not evident on the most recent satellite pass. The plume was the only evidence of increased activity there. There have been no reports of an eruption in the region so far and no earthquakes associated with the plume (unlike that which accompanied plume activity there last month).”
Geologist/volcanologist Erik Klemetti has absconded to MA due to the storms in OH having knocked out his power. He writes that he is out of touch this week with volcano news but is on the way home tomorrow and hopes to get back to it this week, if power has been restored that is. Amazing how much we depend on electricity. I wonder if Edison had any clue?!
As of yesterday, officials are still scrambling to determine what the mystery disease is that is killing Cambodian children. The death toll is up to 64, and has only affected kids under the age of 7. It’s been reported in 14 Provinces.
A Golden Algae bloom has killed thousands of fish in Arizona for 20 miles along the Salt River. Experts say this is a first. It is such a shame when algae blooms and environment disasters like this happen. It really makes me long for the beauty that is coming, a perfect world with untold and unimaginable wonders! (1 Corinthians 2:9).
There is a bad wildfire in Bulgaria, and Israel has offered technology and help to quell it. The temps in Bulgaria are predicted to be very high over the next few days- at least 98 degrees F. But there is now a wildfire in Israel too, that has spread into Jordan.
Speaking of Jordan, King Abdullah has summoned the Parliament to “meet in an extraordinary session for an unspecified period for the purpose of deciding matters to be specified in the Royal Decree when the summons are issued. An extraordinary session shall be prorogued by a Royal Decree”.
What a relief, the Presbyterians voted not to ditch Israel. “By a razor-thin margin, the largest Presbyterian group in the United States rejected a proposal Thursday to divest from three companies that do business with Israel. Pro-Palestinian advocates vowed to try again.” It is clear we are losing the church. But not the bride! She is spotless and contains exactly the number of souls the Savior has determined since the foundation of the world. (Rev 13:8).
Call me a curmudgeon but I am tired of the “positive tweeters.” I’m not talking about people who aren’t sarcastic or mean or who work hard at minding their tongue. All those are good things and we all need to work on them, including me. I’m not talking of either secular people who are happy to make conversation and spread cheer. Relentlessly happy people. I am talking of believers who think they are doing the world a service by ONLY tweeting positive about Jesus, the bible, and faith. Like this one:
“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier. Mother Teresa”
Aside from the fact that Mother Teresa was an enemy of God rebelling against Him her whole, long life, and likely residing in hell at this very moment, I am going to be blunt here, this is a ridiculous tweet. I tweeted back,
“What if we share the Gospel in love, and tell them of sin, they get convicted, and leave UNhappier?”
A believer’s language and life is not only a joyride on It’s A Small World or sitting in the Friends fountain clapping happy things.
Positive tweeting is a good thing if it is tempered with the notion that not everything we say or do in Jesus makes people happy. And that we have joy, but life is not always “positive.” As a matter of fact, there is a woe about people who constantly think well of you. “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” (Luke 6:26).
Expressing only what sinful man thinks is “positive” usually leaves out the talk of sin, conviction, and judgment. But those things are part of the Gospel. Our lives in Jesus are full of pain, mourning, lament, grief, and sorrow over our sins, others’ sins, the end of the world, and the persecution of our brethren. That is a fact. Whitewashing it by being relentlessly and exclusively “positive” doesn’t do justice to Jesus. I wonder if positive tweeters ever tweet John 11:35. Or Genesis 6:6.
We do love our enemies (Luke 6:25) but we are to be salt as well. Salt has a medicinal quality that stings when applied. Speaking only positive things and not the whole counsel of God leaves us unbalanced as only Light and not Salt AND Light. Positive tweeters want to give lemonade without the lemons. Anyway, it is a Twitter thing that bugs me. Oh, and I never got a reply to my question.
Don’t forget to read the bible. Not just to listen to good preachers, or read good commentaries, or sing good hymns. All those are edifying but don’t let them substitute for reading the bible straight up for yourself.
I am going through Judges. I re-read chapter 3 & 4 today before going on to chapter 5. Deborah was amazing, wasn’t she! So was Jael. Here is How Judges 5 ends. It is the last line in Deborah’s song:
“Thus let all Your enemies perish, O LORD! But let those who love Him be like the sun When it comes out in full strength.”
His wrath will be full strength (Rev 14:10) but His glory is full strength too! Believers will not have to endure the former and will cry with joy when we experience the latter in full strength. He is most worthy to be praised.
I’m reading a novel now, called “The Last Seven Years” by Carol Balizet. It was written in 1979. The author novelizes the time immediately prior to the rapture and goes through the next 7 years of the prophesied Tribulation. I am about a third of the way through and I am enjoying it very much. I find it so interesting that despite being published 33 years ago, and perhaps written some time before that, the events she is showing as the status quo on earth prior to the rapture are exactly the conditions we are experiencing now. It is spooky, really. She even nailed the colony collapse disorder. Though CCD was known beginning in 1972, the proportions of bee disappearances didn’t reach drastic levels (with attendant impacts) until 2006.
It is interesting to read such conditions as an extended and inexplicable heat wave, that, combined with astronomically high utility bills people cannot pay, means people are suffering in heat and tempers are short. That the inflation of food is so high that grocery stores are fairly empty and robbers wait in the parking lots to steal housewives’ bags. That the police are so overwhelmed with crime that vigilante ‘protective agencies’ are springing up. That nudity, drugs, and immorality are such a part of the landscape that people barely detect it any more. That parents are hesitant to discipline their rebellious teens because the public schools have a powerful agency called Student Rights Services where parents can be arrested on the basis of child complaints.
It takes a special author to be able to project ahead the conditions from three decades ago. Her book was written before even the strong emergence in the US of the homosexual agenda, but the book shows the ill effects of a culture adopting and accepting all manner of perverse lifestyles.
I liked the way she handled the rapture itself. A giant meteor hit the island of Cyprus, and causes global earthquakes and tsunamis. It was during the height of the impacts that the people disappeared. Some were seen leaving, by having a white glow just before disappearing, others were simply not found when the rescuers came to clear rubble. In that way, the disappearance of millions were just part of the general havoc and in some cases, not even the primary news.
It was interesting to read that in the aftermath the officials were writing a news report, and were developing theories on where the disappeared people went. The usual theories that we are familiar with were discussed. The one that was discussed the briefest amount of time and given the least credence was the rapture. It was stated that there were a good many clergy remaining, along with their congregations, so a Christian rapture couldn’t be the answer. Sad!
The book is out of print but available through sellers on Amazon and of course your local Inter-Library loan would be able to get it for you. It is my kind of book.
What is NOT my kind of book are most Christian novels. I’m not a sentimental person and usually avoid books with quilts on the cover, or sisters, or sunsets. I loathe triteness. An essay I’d read this morning linked from Challies titled Master craftsmen 2012 Books Issue talks about how Christian novels are not all treacly or badly written, that they can deal with mature themes and have a gritty undercoating but remain moral and sensitive. A list was offered of recommended books. You can click on the master Craftsmen link for that reading list and synopses of each book. I haven’t had much luck with enjoying a recent Christian book lately, except for the classics that are on his list, such as CS Lewis, John Bunyan, Tolkien, and several others. I remain skeptical. But the list is there for you to check out, it’s a long one, and likely there will be something on it for your quality summer reading.
I do recommend John Grisham, who doesn’t write Christian legal thrillers but his Christian background produces a moral book clean of language and sexuality. They’re just good stories. I’ve enjoyed Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness. Actually one book with a sunset on it was pretty good. It was authored by Tracie Peterson and Michale Landon Jr called One More Sunrise. It was very well written. Another good series is the Tides of Truth Series by Robert Whitlow. They are slow moving but then again, in the summer, it is a slow moving time anyway 🙂
A non-Christian series I really enjoyed was the Barker and Llewelyn novels starting with Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas. They are clean but gritty underbelly detective novels of the early Victorian era. Thomas promises his next Barker and Llewelyn is due out soon!
As I finish Balizet’s “Last Seven Years” I’ll let you know if the later portions hold up with continued good writing and good theology. Don’t settle for bad theology! I know it is a struggle these days, and women are swooning over Justin Bieber and watching Magic Mike. Stay pure.
A while ago someone kindly sent me a link to a website that keeps track of landslides. If you follow this blog for very long, you know that I often state that Jesus graciously answered the disciples’ questions in Matthew 24:3 “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” by presenting a lengthy answer in the rest of Matthew 24.
In His answer, and also in many, many other New and Old Testament verses, geo-physical storms and changes are part of His warnings that the end will be near. Weather, earthquakes, volcanoes, celestial signs, etc. all indicate the end of the age. Though those things have always occurred since the Fall of man in Genesis 3, His constant use of the metaphor that the signs will be as birthpangs tells us that the majority of noticeable warning signs (and then actual judgments) will crowd the latter part of the Church age.
So being interested in end time warning signs, to see if the things happening are indeed unusual in number or type, I have a lot of bookmarks that immediately lead me to information about current news of meteor sightings, volcanoeruptions, earthquake activity and the like. So I placed the landslide bookmark within that list…and then forgot about it.
Until a few days ago. I clicked on it…and was immediately struck by the number of rain-driven landslides and the disruptions they are causing. Wow! The first story on the top of the list was from June 30 and the opening lede goes like this:
“Yesterday more details emerged of the landslide incident on the West Highland line in Scotland that derailed a freight train. The incident came during the exceptional rainfall associated with thunderstorms that passed across northern Britain – a final hurrah for the wettest second quarter of the year on record in the UK.”
“Flood warning: UK faces a month’s worth of rain today. Today is forecast to be the wettest day of the summer so far with the UK facing a month’s worth of rain in 24 hours, bringing a severe risk of flooding and chaos.”
Flooding and chaos…chaos seems increasingly to be a component of weather forecasts these days, doesn’t it?
Here is some other news for you today.
Another small earthquake shakes Johnson County (TX) “Yet another minor earthquake shook Johnson County overnight. The 2.7-magnitude quake struck shortly before 3:30 a.m. between Cleburne and Alvarado, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. No injuries or significant damage was reported. Generally, it’s tough to feel anything below magnitude 3. It was the fourth temblor in three weeks in the county and the latest in dozens in that area.”
I saw that there was a small one in GA a few days ago too! In Deepstep, GA 66 miles from where I live, a magnitude 2.7 at 9:51 PM EDT on July 3. As a matter of fact, a few days ago, not July 3 but before that, I was sitting quietly at my table, reading the bible. The bookcase next to my table began to shake and the coaster skittered, making a jiggle on its notepad. A truck was not going by and a train was not going by and I do not live near a quarry and no one was using an auger or drill. “Hmmm, this is an earth tremor,” I thought. I discovered that about 50 miles away, a temblor had occurred at only 1.7 mile depth. Perhaps that was what I had felt. Though earthquakes happen in Georgia USA, I had never felt one. Now, perhaps, I have.
Anyway, I read stuff like that and worse, in just the headlines, even, and I pray more fervently for the rapture so the children will be safe at last. Those in the womb, the neglected, the abused, the molested, the hungry, the enslaved…all safe!!!!
There have been fish kills in Georgia USA, South Dakota, South Carolina, Dexter MO, Delaware, etc. but in this case, unlike the fish die-offs in 2011 and 2012, the experts say that the excessive and successive heat has sucked the oxygen out of the water and the high temps are just too much for the fish. Which makes sense.
I hope you’re staying cool today. I am, but it is a struggle. I went out to the Dollar Store for my weekly stocking up , this time choosing the store location a mile from me instead of 7 miles, because I wasn’t also going grocery shopping at the same time. Even with that minor trip, which included the bank, veggie stand, and the Post Office, when I came home I was hot, cranky, sweaty, and hot. Did I say I was hot?
Ahhh, but the mercies of Jesus continue. He gave me my daily manna, and I have food and fresh fruit & veggies, a comfortable home, and pleasant days in which to study His word. Here is a great essay from Jesse Johnson. He is a DC pastor, who was affected by the terrible storms that occurred the other day in our nation’s capital. He compares the inconveniences of that storm to the one that is coming that will be far, far greater. “Storms come and Storms Go“. May it bless you and may we all have perspective in these perilous times that we dwell in His hand and He is in control.
Scientists say that they are 99.999999% sure they have found the elusive Higgs boson particle, AKA their dubbed “God” particle.
Why do they want to know if the Higgs boson exists? Because:
A picture with a zoom effect show a grafic traces of proton-proton collisions events measured by European Organization for Nuclear Research in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experience on May 25, 2011 in the search for the Higgs boson.
“The Higgs boson has long been thought the key to resolving the mystery of the origin of mass. The Higgs boson is associated with a field, called the Higgs field, theorized to pervade the universe. As other particles travel though this field, they acquire mass much as swimmers moving through a pool get wet, the thinking goes. “The Higgs mechanism is the thing that allows us to understand how the particles acquire mass,” said Joao Guimaraes da Costa, a physicist at Harvard University who is the Standard Model Convener at the LHC’s ATLAS experiment. “If there was no such mechanism, then everything would be massless.”
The origin of mass is no mystery. Read Genesis 1:14-19. Even better read Genesis 1:1. Scientist Herbert Spencer said that “all reality, all that exists in the universe can be contained in five categories…time, force, action, space and matter. Time, force, action, space and matter. That is a logical sequence. And then with that in your mind, listen to Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning,” that’s time…”God,” that’s force, “created,” that’s action, “the heavens,” that’s space, “and the earth,” that’s matter. Everything that could be said about everything that exists is said in that first verse.” (source).
I’ve always thought that the Large Hadron Collider and the activities around the search for the God Particle are one of the best benchmarks for where we are in the prophetic timeline nearing judgment. This is because in my opinion, the LHC is a post-Shinar Tower of Babel.
In Genesis 11:1-9 we read the story of the dispersal from the Tower of Babel.
“Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.”
“And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.”
The people had been told to go forth and multiply and fill the earth. But instead they “settled” at Shinar, rebelling against the Lord’s command. There, they determined to deepen their rebellion by building a city for themselves, (so they could be socially satisfied) and to make a name for themselves (to satisfy their pride) and to build a tower that will touch the heavens (to satisfy their false gods).
There is no excuse for them. There still lived the people who had lived before the flood, Noah’s sons. They estimate the Tower was built a mere 100 years after the flood, so rebellion again began quickly. They could still listen to first hand accounts of life pre-Flood and know what a Wrathful God would do. They suppressed the Truth in unrighteousness (Rom 1:18) and determined to build a monument to touch the heavens so their false gods would be honored. But instead of God judging them via flood again, which He said He would not do, He judged them by separating them.
The Large Hadron Collider is the world’s most expensive science experiment, costing about 10 billion dollars. The aim is, according to the article here, five-fold:
1.The origin of mass “This discovery bears on the knowledge of how mass comes about at the quantum level, and is the reason we built the LHC. It is an unparalleled achievement,” Caltech professor of physics Maria Spiropulu, co-leader of the CMS experiment, said in a statement.”
Let us make a name for ourselves.
2. The Standard Model The Standard Model is the reigning theory of particle physics that describes the universe’s very small constituents. Every particle predicted by the Standard Model has been discovered — except one: the Higgs boson. “It’s the missing piece in the Standard Model,” said Jonas Strandberg, a researcher at CERN working on the ATLAS experiment. “So it would definitely be a confirmation that the theories we have now are right.”
Man seeking to confirm himself through his own wisdom? “Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.” (Proverbs 28:26)
3. The Electroweak Force “A confirmation of the existence of the Higgs boson would also help explain how two of the fundamental forces of the universe — the electromagnetic force that governs interactions between charged particles, and the weak force that’s responsible for radioactive decay — can be unified.”
“And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.” (Gen 11:6)
4. Supersymmetry Another theory that would be affected by the discovery of the Higgs is called supersymmetry. This idea posits that every known particle has a “superpartner” particle with slightly different characteristics. … “If the Higgs boson is found at a low mass, which is the only window still open, this would make supersymmetry a viable theory,” Strandberg said. “We’d still have to prove supersymmetry exists.”
We already know that the universe is orderly. “For God is not a God if disorder but of peace.” (1 Cor 14:33). James 3:16 says that disorderliness is of every evil work. To come that close to acknowledging the harmony, symmetry, and orderliness of God but not acknowledge that it IS God, is the height of blasphemy.
5. Validation of LHC “The Large Hadron Collider is the world’s largest particle accelerator. It was built for around $10 billion by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) to probe higher energies than had ever been reached on Earth. Finding the Higgs boson was touted as one of the machine’s biggest goals.Finding the Higgs would offer major validation for the LHC and for the scientists who’ve worked on the search for many years.”
It’s an achievement if man can validate man? The Tower’s ends were to feed on itself, too. Of the Tower of Babel affair, “The contrast in this brief text is between what man desires to achieve directed at self glory, self fulfillment, and what God does to show man’s impotence and emptiness before him. It is man at his best and his noblest trying to achieve his greatest anti-God act and God steps in and undoes the whole thing.” MacArthur
Listen to physicist Michio Kaku on the implications of the God Particle’s discovery with an ear to the aims of man in building the Tower of Babel. It is an end to feed on itself:
The difference is that when comparing the LHC achievement to the United States’s original moon shot achievements, particularly on December 24, 1968, in what was the most watched television broadcast at the time, the crew of Apollo 8 read in turn from the Book of Genesis as they orbited the moon. Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman recited verses 1 through 10. They acknowledged God, and took one giant leap for mankind- as His witnesses.
The people who are active in and who are around and who report on the doings in the lab under the Alps at Switzerland, use God language, refer to God’s creations but do not acknowledge God. Here is one example:
Lisa Randall wrote a book called “Knocking on Heaven’s Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World” and in it she refers to the LHC — “Despite my resistance to hyperbole, the LHC belongs to a world that can only be described with superlatives. It is not merely large: the LHC is the biggest machine ever built. It is not merely cold: the 1.9 kelvin (1.9 degrees Celsius above absolute zero) temperature necessary for the LHC’s supercomputing magnets to operate is the coldest extended region that we know of in the universe—even colder than outer space. The magnetic field is not merely big: the superconducting dipole magnets generating a magnetic field more than 100,000 times stronger than the Earth’s are the strongest magnets in industrial production ever made.”
Isn’t man great!! We can do things!
Algernon Swinburne, English poet, wrote a poem in 1871 called Hymn of Man. In the book, Swinburne and His Gods: The Roots and Growth of an Agnostic Poetry we read this quote about why Swinburne wanted to make a poem called “Hymn to Man”: to sing the human triumph over ‘things’, the opposing forces of life over nature, and over the God of his own creation. It might end somehow thus with a cry of triumph over the decadence of a receding deity:
“And the love song of earth as thou diest sounds over the graves of her kings, Glory to man in the highest, for man is the master of things.”
Yet the bible says, “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 1” (1 Cor 2:6-10).
The lesson of the Tower of Babel, and I suspect the LHC also, is that when man searches the deep things of God without and apart from the Spirit, worshiping the creation and not the Creator, look what happens:
“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” (Romans 1:21-23)
“They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” (Romans 1:25)
Today in the United States it is the Independence Day AKA the Fourth of July. This is a national holiday where we gather together and celebrate the birth of our nation and celebrate all that she stands for. We do this by assembling at community spots where we applaud parades, have family or community cookouts, wave flags, proclaim all that is good about our nation by speeches, declarations and songs, and we honor veterans dead and alive who fought to keep us free.
I love America. I thank God that He allowed me to be born here. My great-grandparents and my grandparents, all 4, were immigrants. They took advantage of the wonderful opportunities America affords to create a good and comfortable life. That life was passed to the next generations and is still ongoing with the little ones in my family coming up.
But if we are truthful we know that America, once great, is still great but not quite so shining from sea to sea as she once was. We’re tattered, a bit downtrodden, faltering. We are not a juggernaut any more. This is because we are under the Wrath of Divine Abandonment. We forsook God and He is forsaking us. He gives individuals over to their sin and He gives over nations, too. (Romans 1).
I’m so glad that I was born in 1960. I remember the moon landings, the thrill of all the new inventions the latter half of the Twentieth Century offered (internet, CDs, VHS, cancer advances, satellites). I stood amazed at the pace that inventions were popping out that made our lives easier. I loved seeing America’s military might police the world. You know that the world does need a policeman, right? Just as communities do. And without one, there would be global anarchy. Well, we stepped up. I was proud.
But I am also grateful because I am now seeing the vivid and unmistakable decline. The Lord is stripping away my clinginess to earthly things, including patriotism, and He is gently turning my head to the heavens, where there is a better country.
“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” (Hebrews 11:13-16).
Christians are already residents of a better country, and we have prepared for us a place in a heavenly city!
If you are reading this and you’re in America, let’s celebrate our God-blessed heritage, our veterans, and our communities today. We have so much to be thankful for and proud of. But let’s temper that with celebration and honor of and to our God who has in reserve for us a better country, one where we are truly free- in JESUS.
The Herodian version of the model shows visitors how excavators believe the Temple Mount site appeared prior to its destruction by Roman troops in the year 70 CE. The focus is on the southern portion of the enclosure, and includes reconstructions of Robinson’s Arch (an early overpass linking the top of the platform with the major city street below), the Hulda Street gates and passages onto the platform, the Royal Stoa, and the Second Temple. The reconstruction is based on the excavations at the Temple Mount under the direction of Ronny Reich and regional archeologist Gideon Avni. On view at the Davidson Center.
the-end-time.org 