Posted in end of days. prophecy, rapture

Prophetic conditions are being set for rapid fulfillment

Posted on by elizabethprata

Prophetic pieces are rapidly coming together. Very rapidly. Let me explain:

When the disciples asked Jesus what would be the sign of His coming, (Mt 24:3), Jesus sat them down and held the longest unbroken discourse He ever uttered besides the Sermon on the Mount. (Mt 5-7). He described in detail what the believers could expect prior to His return. This period of seven years is known as the Tribulation, and the second half of the period as it worsens is known as the Great Tribulation.

Revelation, and indeed, most of the other books of the New Testament and quite a few of the Old Testament, describe the judgments that will befall the people who are alive at the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, as the Old Testament calls it. (Jeremiah 30:4-7; Daniel 12:1).

But it’s important to note that the judgments Jesus describes in Matthew 24 (The Olivet Discourse, because He discoursed on the Mount of Olives) is judgment, and will occur after the rapture. Believers are not appointed to wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9). However the Olivet Discourse and the other Tribulation descriptors in Mark and Luke show us what conditions will be like then, and from that, we can back-engineer what conditions may be like immediately prior to the Tribulation. It is my opinion that the rapture is close in time to happening, though there will be no sign preceding it and no particular event has to happen before believers are taken out of the world by His power and promise.

That said, when Jesus explained the signs to watch for it’s not like there will be skywriting to say “THIS is a sign.” (Except the angel that flies at mid-heaven, lol, that will be pretty obvious. Rev 14:6). There will be some signs that will be obvious to people such as Damascus being destroyed (Is 17:1; the angel flying in mid-heaven that I mentioned, the Two Witnesses being resurrected in front of the eyes of the world, but for the most part, then and especially now, we have to  scrutinize the times and put pieces together to see where we’re at. However, people who are alert will know what is going on. (1 Thess 5:4).

For example, I’ve been speaking of a condition called wealth skew. In the Tribulation, a large portion of the population will be very, very poor. They will work all day and only able to afford a loaf of bread. Many will die of famine. (Rev 6:6; 6:8). Yet there will be people enjoying incredible luxuries, buying and selling in the world’s most expensive furniture, perfumes, wood, and foods. (Rev 18:12-15). I call it wealth skew or wealth gap because the middle class will have disappeared (which we are seeing now, actually) and the poor will be very poor while the rich will be very rich. Though in recent times it can’t be said that all wealth was distributed evenly, there had been a trend over the last 40 years of a growing and vibrant middle class, even in the Latin American countries and certainly north America and Europe, and many other western nations. And though the very wealthy have always occupied a small percentage of the top levels, that percentage has shrunk while those still occupying the top rungs of financial comfort are even more comfortable than ever. Rep. Nancy Pelosi was 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and her wealth grew by 62% even after the 2008 economic crash.

So we won’t see a something that we can point to overnight and say “There! that is a sign!” but we can read the warnings that the bible gives us and know that we’re given conditions to watch out for. Like this one in an article describing the US problem of flash mob robberies and the use of social media to plan these mob robberies and riots:

“You are essentially having a world where you have 25 million people who are underemployed and 2 percent of the population doing better than they ever have,” Taplin said. “Why wouldn’t that lead to some sort of social unrest?”

People are upset about their economic conditions, either being tired of always being poor and protesting, or the newly poor are shocked into violence to protest their new status.

This article from CNBC says “Riots break out around the world amid economic anxieties“. Global unrest…yet another condition that will permeate the Tribulation. Peace will be taken from the earth. (Rev 6:3-4). There will be no peace. There will be nations against nations (ethnic groups against ethnic groups) wars, and rumors of wars. We are seeing that prophesied condition being set in place for fulfillment now.

source

Another condition being set up for rapid fulfillment is this one spoken of in Luke. In Luke 21:25 Jesus is recorded as saying, “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;…” Though certainly the interpretation can be made that this is literally the seas roaring, indeed, there are so many natural disasters occurring now and will occur in the Tribulation it is more than possible, but I don’t think it means only that. In Isaiah it is explained what the metaphor means: “Isaiah 17:12 Oh, the raging of many nations–they rage like the raging sea! Oh, the uproar of the peoples–they roar like the roaring of great waters!”

There IS great uproar now.

London England riots (Tottenham) Source

Rasmussen recently conducted a poll  and the results were astonishing. Pollster Pat Caddella sea of anger is churning” among Americans who “want to take their country back” and that the nation stood on the brink of a “pre-revolutionary moment”.

Unwittingly he used almost exactly the phrase from the soon-to-be fulfilled Luke 21:25 verse of the seas roaring and tossing. We are very close to the rapture, but if it does not come for a month or a year, it still does not matter. He WILL come for us. Meanwhile, believers, do not fear. How many times are believers told not to fear? Many!

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10)

“What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).

“This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’ (Haggai 2:5)

We have only joy in anticipation of His soon return, and only relief to know that we escape the wrath and are considered His children, washed clean and pardoned from the sentence we deserve of our wrongdoing in His eyes. The conditions we’re seeing in the world, far from worrying me, are giving me hope that we may soon see Him. Cling to that hope, for he is the Blessed Hope!
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Posted in bible jesus, end of days, rapture

It’s evening in America, and the sun is setting on the world

Posted on by elizabethprata

Well. Here in the good old United States, things are getting very severe. They are getting very crazy. I look at today’s headlines and I do not even know where to begin. I sit numbly in front of the computer screen, shaking my head.

I’m in awe of how the Lord works. How this little thing and that little thing over time now connect to make a worse thing. And this nudge is repeated and that connection repeated since time immemorial, the dots are connecting and it is all coming down. I’m amazed.

The stocks crumbled today in the aftermath of Standard and Poor’s downgrade of our previous AAA credit rating to AA+ with Negative Outlook. Gold is at record high on the stocks crash. The UK Daily Mail’s headline was screaming veritable panic: “Bloodbath! Panic grips Wall Street as desperate investors rush to sell and Dow goes into freefall”. The stock market is not only tanking, but the big financial corporations are turning on each other. Kind of reminds of the book Lord of the Flies.

The drought in the American central south is deepening. A Texas town ran out of water today. What a horror for the residents! Israel suffered the worst earthquake (4.2) they have had all year.

The killing in Syria continues. Jerusalem deals with enormous protests, 320,000 march in the streets. London is burning in massive riots. The damage is incredible.

Jesus warned that because of the increase in wickedness (sin), love of most would would wax cold (Mt 24:12). The godless want to be rid of us Christians so that they can be in ‘peace’ but even before the Restrainer (Holy Spirit) is taken out of the way (2 Thess 2:7) that sin is rising and giving rise to evil deeds. Like this one:

“Housekeeper Says Queens Monk Kept Her As “Slave” or this one, “Chained up with the dog: The Chinese boy kept as slave by uncle“. Or this one: “Elisabeth Fritzl was forced to help build the dungeon where she was kept by her sadistic father Josef, it emerged yesterday. For the first nine months of her 24 years in captivity, she was also tethered with a 5ft dog leash around her neck to prevent her escape.” So a dad turns sadistic, forces his daughter to build her own dungeon and then chains her up. Unbelievable.

Paul warned Timothy that in the last days people would be without natural affection, meaning, without the natural affection felt between kindred, as a parent to a child. Or an uncle to a niece. Headlines like these are not just headlines. They involve real people. Real people betrayed by the very people they should be able to trust most, and forced to live a horrific life devoid of humanity. I could continue with posting the headlines that would shock and cause anxiety and dismay to one and all. But the thing that really should cause anxiety and dismay is the fact that the Restrainer is still here, restraining, and these are already horrific headlines. The rapture has not occurred and the Days of Lot and the Days of Noah haven’t even begun yet. Meaning, it will get worse. A lot worse.

Please, please, please PLEASE repent. If you have not already confessed your sins and asked Jesus to be your Lord (who will forgive you), the tensions and distress of these days will be so much more magnified beyond all imagining. You will be left behind to wallow in your sins and everyone elses’s and if you still have any sentience, conscience, or morality, you will long for days when ALL they did was chain you up. The horror of daily life during the tribulation will be all riots. All brutality. All cold-heartedness.

But you can repent now and become part of the Bride of Christ, His church, His brethren. The rapture will take us out of all this and the worse part to come. See, He has told us ahead of time: “Come, my people, enter into your rooms And close your doors behind you; Hide for a little while until indignation runs its course.” (Isaiah 26:20). He wishes that no one perish in their sins, and that means you. He knows your name, and He wants for you to be one of His. Please do it now. The time is short.
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Posted in bible jesus, porn, prophecy, rick perry

"Is porn driving men crazy?"

Posted on by elizabethprata

Naomi Wolf’s article “Is porn driving men crazy?” poses a great question. I’ve seen several photos like this one below lately, (it isn’t part of Wolf’s article) which had made me ask the same question. I mean, really? Really? Looking at porn on a wide-open computer screen. In a crowded room? While live TV is happening? That’s just stupid, nuts, and dumb. You have to be crazy to be that stupid, nuts, and dumb. (I’d posted about this porn peeping bankster here)

CNN-is porn driving men crazy?
By Naomi Wolf:
“It is hard to ignore how many highly visible men in recent years (indeed, months) have behaved in sexually self-destructive ways. Some powerful men have long been sexually voracious; unlike today, though, they were far more discreet and generally used much better judgment in order to cover their tracks.Of course, the heightened technological ability nowadays to expose private behavior is part of the reason for this change. But that is precisely the point: so many of the men caught up in sex-tinged scandals of late have exposed themselves – sometimes literally – through their own willing embrace of text messages, Twitter, and other indiscreet media.What is driving this weirdly disinhibited decision-making? Could the widespread availability and consumption of pornography in recent years actually be rewiring the male brain, affecting men’s judgment about sex and causing them to have more difficulty controlling their impulses? … The hypothesis among the experts was that pornography was progressively desensitizing these men sexually”

She asks a good question. She offers a different possible answer to it than I would. I say it is the fallen-ness of our sinful world and the fact that satan inhabits it. He is actually the god of this world and operates within it through the boundaries that God sets. (more here). On the other hand, Wolf could be unknowingly exactly right, because of this verse in which Paul spoke of some people who, “Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;”

The full verse is: “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron”. (1 Tim 4:1-2). The Matthew Henry commentary on this verse explains, “The instruments of promoting and propagating this apostasy and delusion. It will be done by hypocrisy of those that speak lies, the agents and emissaries of Satan, who promote these delusions by lies and forgeries and pretended miracles, v. 2. It is done by their hypocrisy, professing honor to Christ, and yet at the same time fighting against all his anointed offices, and corrupting or profaning all his ordinances. This respects also the hypocrisy of those who have their consciences seared with a red-hot iron, who are perfectly lost to the very first principles of virtue and moral honesty.”

We get desensitized to sin. Once engaging in it, unless we repent and confess immediately, presenting ourselves for a spiritual bath by the Holy Spirit, we remain unclean in that little spot, and we get used to the unclean feeling. We decide that it wasn’t really so bad, and we do it again. And again. Until we’re so strewn with scar tissue from the searing of our consciences, we become inured to the effects of sin and never even feel its pricks any more. And before long we have men exposing themselves publicly in ridiculous ways that they have convinced themselves are fun because they have lost any ability to feel shame. (Anthony Weiner comes to mind ). I think that the effect of this culture’s perpetual exposure to and engagement in sin, our brains are being rewired to be desensitized to sin, especially the sexual sins of homosexuality and pornography.

God told Jeremiah to tell the Israelites:

“Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when they are punished,says the LORD.” (Jer 8:12). God told Jeremiah to speak that to God’s people at the end of a long list of sins they were committing, which also included deceit, straying from the ways of God, listening to false prophets who say all is well, being greedy, and rejecting God. He punished them. Will He do less with us? Surely not!

Edward Gibbon wrote the book The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. He spent twenty years researching it. Through his research Gibbon realized that all great nations, Rome included, have fallen for the same reasons. Those reasons can be boiled down to just five.

1. The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society.
2. Higher and higher taxes; the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace.
3. The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting, more brutal, more immoral.
4. The building of great armaments when the great enemy was within; the decay of individual responsibility.
5. The decay of religion, fading into a mere form, losing touch with life, losing power to guide the people.

This has been a somber week. We see continually that the sunset of the United States of America is upon us. Other nations are angry with us, and civil tumult abounds from within.

In the face of all this stood one man. Not a governor. Not a presidential candidate, not a high executive. A man. A man who believes in God and who led thousands in Reliant Stadium, yesterday in a day of prayer and fasting. TX Gov. Rick Perry, troubled by the terrible state our nation is in, prayed. He asked Christians to turn to God for answers to the nation’s troubles. This is the only correct response.

“Gov. Rick Perry called on Jesus to bless and guide the nation’s military and political leaders and “those who cannot see the light in the midst of all the darkness. Lord, you are the source of every good thing,” Mr. Perry said, as he bowed his head, closed his eyes and leaned into a microphone at Reliant Stadium here. “You are our only hope, and we stand before you today in awe of your power and in gratitude for your blessings, and humility for our sins. Father, our heart breaks for America. We see discord at home. We see fear in the marketplace. We see anger in the halls of government, and as a nation we have forgotten who made us, who protects us, who blesses us, and for that we cry out for your forgiveness.” (source)

Will you cry out for forgiveness? Jesus is listening, and His arms are open.
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Posted in palestinian state

UN upgrades Palestinian Authority’s Abbas to "Head of State"

Posted on by elizabethprata

From Montreal Gazette:

“The United Nations has assigned head-of-state status to the leader of the Palestinian Authority ahead of an anticipated vote by the world body on whether to recognize Palestinian statehood, a speakers list for the world body’s annual debate shows. An “HS” designation means that Mahmoud Abbas, as the Palestinian Authority president, can speak towards the beginning of the Sept. 21-27 summit alongside other heads of state — and ahead of most heads of government, such as Prime Minister Stephen Harper. In previous years, Abbas has been listed as an “HL” — or “high level” delegate — for the entity of Palestine, which holds UN Observer status.”

When the Montreal Gazette editor inquired about it, he was told it was “a typo.” Sure. Sure it is. Anne Bayefsky of the New York-based monitoring group Eye on the UN caught it. She told the editor of the Gazette, “The UN has pre-judged any vote that might take place on Palestinian statehood…”.

It seems that the boulder is truly rolling pell-mell down the hill toward the inevitable splitting of Jerusalem. The LORD takes this very seriously. He will judge all for their treatment of His people and His land. Read Joel 3! And this from Jeremiah 25:31

“The tumult will resound to the ends of the earth, for the LORD will bring charges against the nations; he will bring judgment on all mankind and put the wicked to the sword,'” declares the LORD.”

The LORD’S sweet promises never fail. Neither do His judgment promises. Make sure you are on the right side of the line, and repent! He is coming soon.
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Posted in bible, bible jesus, drought, prophecy

Drought picture essay

Posted on by elizabethprata

Picture essay.

source

Above, in an article published by The Economist, ‘Drought in the South [USA]: Bone-dry – Drought has blanketed nearly a third of the lower 48‘ the weekly said: “There are wildfires in the south-west and water restrictions in the south-east. Fields are scrubby and fallow, and in some counties the ground is riddled with deep cracks. Farmers are struggling to produce crops, and ranchers are worried about watering their cattle. As their losses mount, crop prices have risen.”

source

Above, The drought hit hardest in the Sahelian regions of Kanem, Bahr-El-Gazal, Hajer Lamis, Bastha and Guéra, Chad.

source

“Above, A dead cow lies on the ground as a bus travels past near the giant Dadaab refugee settlement on July 21, 2011 in Dadaab, Kenya. Famine brought on by the drought has killed tens of thousands in the Horn of Africa.” (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

source

Above, “The remains of a cow lay near a watering point in a pasture July 28, 2011 near Tulia, Texas. A severe drought in the region has caused shortages of grass, hay and water, forcing ranchers to thin their herds or risk losing their cattle to the drought. The past nine months have been the driest in Texas since record keeping began in 1895, with 75% of the state classified as exceptional drought, the worst level.” Photograph by: Scott Olson, Getty Images.

source

Above, USAID’s photo of drought conditions in Ethiopia, amidst the 2011 Horn of Africa famine.

source

The Cimmaron Grassland Director explains drought conditions in Kansas USA.

I believe it would be a fair statement that the USA is no longer being blessed.
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Posted in holy spirit, prophecy, regeneration

The lovely work of the Holy Spirit

Posted on by elizabethprata

When we repent and come into reconciliation with Jesus, He sends the Holy Spirit into us and the Spirit begins the work of regeneration. Because we are born dead, spiritually empty and carnally minded, when the Spirit comes, He revives us and begins the work of shaping us like clay, into the Lord’s likeness. Here are but two verses that remind us that He grows us sovereignly and perfectly:

“One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.” (Acts 16:14)

“For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (Rom 8:6)

The change is not instant, from one who is dead in the flesh to one who is bearing all the good fruit is that the Spirit nurtures in us (Galatians 5:22-26). Even the Apostle Paul battled flesh (Romans 7:15). But through constant submission, prayer, study of the word, and good works in His name, the Spirit leads us into good things, which will be completed on the day we are glorified in body at the rapture. (Gal 6:9; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

But sometimes it is hard to detect if we can see this change in ourselves. In growth by degrees you don’t see it at first. Our first day of school was Friday and I looked at the little kindergarteners I’d worked with last year. Some had sprung up like weeds! I noticed it because I had not seen them for 8 weeks. But do I notice growth or change in myself? No. But I’m sure others did, not having seen me for 8 weeks either.

I remember the first time I noticed a Christlike change in myself. I was saved 7 years ago and really started studying the bible and attending church 5 years ago. So I’d have to reach back in my mind ten years to go beyond the point when the Spirit began His regenerative work in me.

During my 30s I traveled to Italy once a year. I love Italy so much. The rolling Tuscan hills filled with sunflowers, the steep and somber Umbrian mountains, the castles, villas, architecture. I fell in love with the art. In the Accademia Galleria where the famous sculpture of David is housed, I was absolutely floored when I saw it for the first time. Since I was not saved, I had no idea, really, of the story behind it, other than the surface. David killed Goliath with a rock. That’s as far as my understanding went. But I did a great study of Michaelangelo, the sculptor of the statue of David, and the marble itself. I even went to Carrara to see where the marble came from and how it was extracted from the mountain.

The bible says for us to “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” (Col 3:2). So I do. I ponder heaven, and the Spirit and Jesus and the things He has told us in the bible. As I looked to heaven I mourned the loss of all the beautiful things in Italy. I’d think of the tribulation earthquakes and pictured in my mind the crumbling of the leaning tower of Pisa, of the Colosseum, of the castles that had stood for thousand years. “Gone…” I’d muse to myself. “How tragic!” I thought of the David, the most perfect man-made thing I’d ever seen, and though of how anything else could be more beautiful. For a long time I could not picture it and went around sad that my treasured Italy and everything in it would be destroyed.

So one day I was musing along in my mind and thought of the David again. “Gone…” I shook my head. Then another thought popped into my mind. “Hey! I can go over and see the REAL David!” It was then I laughed because I could detect the Spirit had grown me over time. My mind was no longer on earthly things but realized that a greater treasure was the resurrected, glorified and perfected David that the Lord had personally set as King of Israel! I laughed out loud. The real David, how about that! I began to get a glimmer of just how beautiful the Lord’s work is in us and that there will be many more things that will be stunningly beautiful that my brain can’t even conceive of but was just getting a tiny glimpse of. Slowly and surely the Holy Spirit does His work in us, praise God.

My mind was instantly set at ease as I realized I’d let go of earthly things and trusted the fact that no matter how lovely the things of earth are, the LORD is preparing a place for us that will be astoundingly beautiful, the foremost beauty of which are the glorified and redeemed people populating the place through the redemptive blood of Jesus Christ.

Do you have a moment when you came across a growth marker in yourself when you realized that your response to a thought or a situation was a direct result of the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit? Please share. Let’s celebrate Him!
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Posted in downgraded, mark of the beast, prophecy

Downgraded! What does it mean for the US economy? (UPDATE)

Posted on by elizabethprata

Here is an article from ABC that explains the effects of the US government’s credit rating’s downgrade from AAA to AA.

S&P Drops US Credit Rating to AA+: 5 Easy-to-Understand Effects of a Downgrade

—————-
“Standard & Poor’s announced Friday night that it has downgraded the sterling U.S. credit rating for the first time. The move came even though the Treasury Department said that it had found a math error in the firm’s calculations of deficit projections, according to a person familiar with the matter. S&P (Standard and Poor’s) decided to lower the AAA rating, held by the United States for 70 years, to AA+ after a bipartisan debt deal signed into law this week failed to assuage concerns about the nation’s growing spending. Analysts have said a downgrade could increase the cost of borrowing for the U.S. government and lead to tens of billions of dollars in more interest costs per year. That could translate into higher borrowing for consumers and businesses, too.” (source)

I’ve read plenty of economic analysis lately that explains what it means to be downgraded in terms of specifics to our economy. I can’t re-explain them to you now, because I understood them at the time but I’m not experienced enough to know the ins and outs to be able to recall it and then present the information. Here is one analyst’s version of what a downgrade will do to the economy. But I do know it will be bad, and right away, too. Where the article says it will cost us more to borrow it means disaster. That is the bottom line.

Here is the text of the S&P release that accompanied the downgrade:

“The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America’s governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy. Despite this year’s wide-ranging debate, in our view, the differences between political parties have proven to be extraordinarily difficult to bridge, and, as we see it, the resulting agreement fell well short of the comprehensive fiscal consolidation program that some proponents had envisaged until quite recently. Republicans and Democrats have only been able to agree to relatively modest savings on discretionary spending while delegating to the Select Committee decisions on more comprehensive measures. It appears that for now, new revenues have dropped down on the menu of policy options. In addition, the plan envisions only minor policy changes on Medicare and little change in other entitlements, the containment of which we and most other independent observers regard as key to long-term fiscal sustainability.” What to expect on Monday: ” it is possible that interest rates could rise if investors re-price relative risks. As a result, our alternate scenario factors in a 50 basis point (bp)-75 bp rise in 10-year bond yields relative to the base and upside cases from 2013 onwards. In this scenario, we project the net public debt burden would rise from 74% of GDP in 2011 to 90% in 2015 and to 101% by 2021.” And why all those who have said the downgrade will have no impact on markets will be tested as soon as Monday: “On Monday, we will issue separate releases concerning affected ratings in the funds, government-related entities, financial institutions, insurance, public finance, and structured finance sectors.”

The German magazine Spiegel published today the following opinion piece:

“This week, the United States nearly allowed itself to succumb to economic disaster. Increasingly, the divided country has more in common with a failed state than a democracy. In the face of America’s apparent political insanity, Europe must learn to take care of itself. The word “West” used to have a meaning. It described common goals and values, the dignity of democracy and justice over tyranny and despotism. Now it seems to be a thing of the past. There is no longer a West, and those who would like to use the word — along with Europe and the United States in the same sentence — should just hold their breath. By any definition, America is no longer a Western nation. The US is a country where the system of government has fallen firmly into the hands of the elite. An unruly and aggressive militarism set in motion two costly wars in the past 10 years. Society is not only divided socially and politically — in its ideological blindness the nation is moving even farther away from the core of democracy. It is losing its ability to compromise. America has changed. It has drifted away from the West.”

So USA has reduced economic credibility in fact and is seen to have reduced economic stability in perception. We’ve been said to have cooked the books (according to AP), our debt is 100% of Gross Domestic Product, we are now toxic (being a failed state), and former economic allies are backing away as fast as they can pedal. The USA’s economy is the world’s biggest, so this downgrade will have monumental impacts to the rest of the world’s economy. (As stated by the last line of the S&P release).

I do not know what that impact is or how long it will take to permeate, but I have a feeling it will not be long. I DO know that the book of Revelation in chapter 13 describes an economy that can be controlled by one man down to the specifics of who is participating in it and prevent any person he chooses from buying or selling if they refuse to worship him- the antichrist. In order for the economy to be that tightly controlled, I’ve long been saying that the present economy must collapse, in order to make way for the new economy AND the man proposing to solve the global economic problems which preceded it. Is that time here? God knows, but it really feels like things are not just fraying, but ripping to shreds.

Tomorrow Gov. Rick Perry of TX is calling for a day of prayer and fasting. It is a day that’s been set aside for those purposes since last December, so it is not a response to this current economic crisis, per se. It is a forward thinking Christian man who saw the train coming down the tracks and knew that it was headed in the wrong direction spiritually, economically, politically every way. Here is Joel Rosenberg’s plea for participation in the day of prayer and fasting, even if you are not in Texas. Prayer is not an alternative, it is the only response to a world that is getting further out of control, our control. It is all in God’s hands. If we clasp ours and repent, we will be in His hands, too. And that is a very good place to be.
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Posted in noaa, prophecy

Official NOAA space weather video explaining upcoming solar storm impacts

Posted on by elizabethprata

UPDATE from Spaceweather.com:
“CME IMPACT–NOW: NASA’s ACE spacecraft, which measures the speed of the solar wind just upstream of Earth, indicates that a CME impact on our planet is in progress. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras in the hours ahead. Aurora alerts: text, voice.

UPDATE from spaceweather.com: Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab report a strong compression of Earth’s magnetosphere in response to the CME impact. “Simulations indicate that the magnetopause separating magnetospheric and solar wind plasma is close to the geosynchronous orbit starting at about 19:20 UT on August 5th. Spacecraft [in these] orbits may be directly exposed to solar wind plasma and magnetic field.””

———————————————
After a long minimum of little-to-no activity, sunspots are back, and with them come the coronal mass ejections and solar storms affecting earth. (geo-effective). There are several classifications of sizes of these ejections from the sun. C, M, and X are respectively small, medium and large. Over the last few days, as the sunspot has turned to a position where any ejections would affect earth, three CME’s have been sprung, one of which was a hairs-breadth away from a X-class. Once the strong M’s and the X-class flares/ejections start to reach earth, we feel their effects. Spaceweather.com wrote yesterday, “On August 4th, active sunspot 1261 unleashed a strong solar flare, the third in as many days. The blast, which registered M9.3 on the Richter Scale of Flares, hurled a bright coronal mass ejection (CME) almost directly toward Earth. Click on the image to view a movie of the expanding cloud recorded by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).

And they wrote again this morning-
“As predicted by analysts at the GSFC Space Weather Lab, the first of three CMEs produced by the recent spate of flare activity reached Earth during the late hours of August 4th. The impact was weak and is not expected to produce strong geomagnetic storms. Two more CMEs are still on the way and, as described below, they may have merged into a single cloud that could produce significant storming when they reach Earth on August 5th at 10:00 UT (plus or minus 7 hours). A new model of all 3 CMEs is now available; stay tuned for updates.”

The National Atmospheric and Oceanographic Administration (NOAA) put out an explanatory video this morning to explain the impacts. In it the NOAA physicist said that the average person will not feel the effects from the three ejections hurling toward earth, but the systems we depend on will be impacted. For example, the power grid will certainly see fluctuations in the transmission part of the grid but the power operators will handle them so they never hit your home. Airlines have already seen some communications outages, as a result of these eruptions…” Click on the video to see more.

I saw yesterday that Texas’ brutal heat ave is causing power operators to call for an energy emergency. Normally, a strong M-class or even an X-class flare may not damage the power and communication systems here on earth, but the fact is, the power and communication systems have been under sustained attack for a long time. These attacks are either due to heat, cyberattack, or aging infrastructure and the old fashioned attacks of rust, cracks, and leakage.

It is a certainty that at some point in the coming Tribulation when the anomalies from the sun, moon, and stars that are predicted to happen,(Luke 21:25; Rev 16:9) will negatively affect us here on earth. Whether we are beginning to see those impacts is for God to know. But I found it interesting that NOAA put out a video to explain to us what will happen. (Which is think is good and responsible.) Here is the video:

NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center issues watch for geomagnetic storms; potential impacts to begin tonight, Aug 4. video by NOAA – directed and produced by NOAA’s Katy Human and Will von Dauster.

Posted in berean, bible, end of days. prophecy

Paul: What does it mean to be a Berean?

Posted on by elizabethprata

“In Berea”

“As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.” (Acts 17:10-12).

I think this is an extraordinary verse. LOL, regular readers will chuckle because I always think the verse I’m reading now is extraordinary. But I feel an affinity to Paul, and I think this verse deserves exploration. I will explore it again in a near future essay from a different angle.

How many times have we heard some celebrity caught in a traffic stop or in an indiscretion and when called to account on it, says “Don’t you know who I am?” They balk and they yell and they squirm and try to escape accountability due to their position. Quite often, their ego is inflated to a large enough degree that they never expect they’ll be asked to support their views or explain their mistake. Even more often, the person calling them to account are seen as the ones with the problem. “Don’t you know who that is?” they are told. “Don’t ask him to explain himself!” as if there ever comes a point when someone is above the law.

If any person on the planet had cause to balk and say to those who questioned him, “Don’t you know who I am??” it was Apostle Paul. Paul was a cold legalist who persecuted Christians, but was instantly transformed into a hot believer on the road to Damascus. After Damascus, Paul went to Arabia for three years, and there the record is fairly silent on what he was doing. He usually met with those in the synagogues to preach so he could have preached while in Arabia. He may have begun his missionary journey in Arabia but nothing is recorded in the bible on that so we don’t know for sure. What we do know is that he learned the Gospel. Paul said he had received it from Jesus Himself.

“But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 1:11-12).

Paul did not learn the Gospel from any fellow apostle:

“But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.” (Galatians 1:15-17).

2 Corinthians 12:2 is another indicator of who Paul may have been meeting with!
“I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven.”

It wasn’t until three years after the Road to Damascus conversion that Paul even met with another apostle and his two-week stay at that time wasn’t long enough for him to learn it from them:

“Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. (Now concerning the things which I write to you, indeed, before God, I do not lie.) Afterward I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ” (Galatians 1:18-23).

“The point is that Paul stated he learned the gospel directly from Jesus Christ. He proved this by pointing out that he never was with the other apostles long enough to have been taught by them. This is a part of Paul’s claim to being an apostle — he was a direct witness to Jesus’ resurrection and Jesus’ teachings.” (source)

When Paul and Silas taught the Bereans, they searched the scriptures to see if the things they were being taught were true. Though they were being taught by a couple of famous luminaries in the blossoming Christian faith, the Bereans did not take what was bring taught on their authority alone but checked the ultimate authority to see if it was so. Though the Jews he taught knew had been a Pharisee and a son of a Pharisee (Acts 23:6) and therefore knew the scriptures backward and forward, and though his conversion was dramatic and instant, and though his rhetoric skills were well-known, the Bereans were not swayed by any of it. They searched the scriptures, period.

On Paul’s side, Paul’s response was not an ego-inflated, insecure, blurting, flesh ridden response of  “Don’t you know who I am? I was taught by Jesus himself!” but instead, he commended them!

The lesson tonight is two-fold. If you are receiving a teaching from anyone from a big-time Christian luminary, to a small-time layman, don’t just accept what they teach you. Search the scriptures to see if the things they are telling you are true.

You see the rest of the story in the remaining part of the verse I opened with: “Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.” The Word, either taught, or received and verified by checking, is powerful. I urge us in these waning days where deception abounds and false or casual teachers of the bible permeate the faith from top to bottom, to have a noble character and an open mind, check the teaching, and then prepare to be moved and transformed by the Word!
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Posted in kilamanjaro erupt, prophecy, silent bank run

Peoples’ lives are changing radically

Posted on by elizabethprata

Here are a few random notes for you as I peruse today’s news:

“Confidential Wal-Mart Memo Discloses Substantial Drop In Store Traffic Compared To Year Ago“
From the guys at Zerohedge: “As if we needed another confirmation that the US consumer is running on empty, here comes Bloomberg with valuable disclosure from an internal, and supposedly confidential, Wal-Mart memo on store traffic patterns which indicate that in US store locations open for at least a year have seen a 2.6% drop in traffic in the February to June period compared to a year earlier. While this may not sound huge, keep in mind the company is massively leveraged to even the smallest marginal moves in traffic, courtesy of already razor thin margins. Specifically, the Wal-Mart stores in question had “82.8 million fewer visits through the first five months of the company’s fiscal year.” More than anything this is an indication of just how exhausted the US consumer is becoming if even the most beloved, widespread and cheapest option for purchases is now being shunned outright.”

I think that is an extremely concise summary of the memo. And its stark simplicity is depressing.

I’ve been saying that volcanic activity is up over the last few years. (data here). The Chaitén volcano entered a new eruptive phase for the first time in about 9,500 years on the morning of May 2, 2008. Just one day it went BOOM. In June, Eritrea’s Nabro volcano erupted and it never had before. Many other active volcanoes became even more active. Because of this (one surmises from the article below), a report was made to the Parliament of Tanzania regarding whether Kilamanjaro is exhibiting any signs of eruption. Some ash had been spotted recently. So because of that, and the fact that volcanic activity in other parts of the world, they decide they better go and check it out. Here is the story-

Government Wants to Research Mount Kilimanjaro for Possible Eruption
“The government, through Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa), will soon conduct a research on Mount Kilimanjaro’s Kibo peak to check signs of volcanic eruption following recent volcanic incidents in different parts of the world. State Minister in the Vice-President’s Office (Environment) Terezya Huvisa revealed this in Parliament yesterday when responding to a question by Betty Machangu (CCM). She said that there was not any thorough research conducted to look into the possibility of volcanic eruption at Kibo peak, but following recent eruptions in different parts of the world, the government through Tanapa intends to conduct research at Kibo peak. … She further explained that Mt Kilimanjaro had three peaks which occurred due to volcanic eruptions about one million years ago. “Experts’ reports have confirmed that Mawenzi and Shira peaks had dead volcanic and there is no possibility of eruption,” she said. However, Huvisa said the Kibo peak was reportedly active as ashes and fire had been spotted recently. “The last incident of eruption at this peak occurred 200 years ago resulting in ash pit which exists until today,” Huvisa said.”

Big Think had a recent story about the Pisgah-USGS-DutchSinse dust-up. I reported on that here. The article makes a statement about the issue of how far to go with trusting citizen-interpreted data, and even whether it is a good thing to have such data available to people. I believe it is, of course, but you can read the Big Think article yourself to get the flavor of the discussion. What I took away from the piece is that there is a blunt reminder that the desert east of LA and south of Bodie is a hugely active seismic and volcanic field.

Bank runs are no longer enacted like the scene in the old movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”:

Nowadays it is called a “silent bank run” as in the Guardian UK’s article about Greece’s silent bank run this week.

“Official figures back him up. In May alone, almost €5bn (£4.4bn) was pulled out of Greek deposits, as part of what analysts describe as a “silent bank run”. This version is also disorderly and jittery, just not as obvious. Customers do not form long queues outside branches, they simply squirrel out as much as they can. Some of that money will have been used to pay debts or supplement incomes, of course, but bankers put the sheer volume of withdrawals down to a general fear about the outlook for Greece, one that runs all the way from the humble rainy-day saver to the really big money.”

Here is a story from Yahoo News:
US borrowing tops 100% of GDP: Treasury
“The new borrowing took total public debt to $14.58 trillion, over end-2010 GDP of $14.53 trillion, and putting it in a league with highly indebted countries like Italy and Belgium.”

I’m no economist, but that seems kinda bad to me.

Weimar Republic: German businessmen carrying armfuls of worthless money during the great depression. source.

So…there’s a lot going on. I really wonder how anyone who is not saved explains the plethora of unusual and extreme events occurring all over the world. It is the nearing of Jesus to come in judgment for our sins. I was watching an apologetics show recently, and there was a professor in a college railing against Christianity. When confronted, he’d said that Christianity has caused more wars than anything else in all of history. The response to the professor was to ask him if he believed that the present age (20th century and forward) is more, or less, Christian than in prior centuries and epochs. He said “less Christian.” Then how can Christianity have caused more wars when by his own admission, the world was less inclined toward Jesus than previously, and yet the 20th century has seen an increase in wars to an extent seen like no other? And the basis for those wars was not Christianity, but atheism, Marxism, Communism, nationalism and civil wars?

These articles sum up a clear pattern to me. Peoples’ lives are changing radically. What we knew before is going away, not to return. A calm earth, a stuffed bank account, purchasing merchandise at will, all gone. Now we have silent bank runs and empty stores and governments nervously eyeing the volcano with teams crawling up its sides to take a peek if it is coming alive or not.

The facts are clear. The road ahead will be very bumpy for those not reconciled in pardon to Jesus, but instead who stand in rebellion against Him as criminals. He is coming soon, please repent of sins and choose life everlasting. Please.
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