Posted in theology

Sinkhole in TN, explosions and seafloor collapse at oil blowout

Posted on by elizabethprata

This first incident happened a week ago in Canada. Note the use of the word “freak” and that the area was not known for sinkhole activity…
Horror as freak sinkhole swallows home and family of four
“There’s news of a tragedy today concerning a home in Canada which was engulfed by a giant sinkhole. All the four members of the family were killed in the incident which occurred while they were watching T.V. together. During a freak landslide in Quebec, the sinkhole opened up to swallow the French-Canadian family home. The family that lived there, the Prefontaines had been watching an ice-hockey game in the basement lounge of their home in Saint-Jude overlooking the Yamaska River. The two children killed were only around the ages of 9 and 11, according to the Timesonline.co.uk. Although rescuers launched a desperate attempt to save the family, late last night their bodies were finally found with Quebec’s emergency management co-ordinator, Michel Dore saying, “They were found very close to one another, some of them lying on the family couch in the basement.” The giant crater that formed completely destroyed the family home and five other houses in the area were evacuated. Apparently the house was in a location not considered to be at risk from sinkholes and the Saint-Jude Mayor, Yves Bellefeuille said the community was in shock. For more on this story go to the timesonline.co.uk. We send our thoughts to the extended family and friends of those killed.”

Today in TN a sinkhole on the Interstate opened up, swallowing half a lane:

I-24 reopens after sinkhole repair
A stretch of eastbound Interstate 24 between Nashville and Chattanooga has reopened after a massive sinkhole was repaired. The 25-foot deep sinkhole developed suddenly on Tuesday in Grundy County. Crews with the Tennessee Department of Transportation had to excavate 35 feet to reach the bottom of the sinkhole and remove unstable material. The area was filled in with more than 5,400 tons of graded solid rock and the interstate was repaved.

On May 14 I wrote here about Paul Noel’s assertion that eventually the sea floor under the BP oil well blowout would collapse. Mr Noel wrote for Pure Energy Systems that

…the situation is getting further and further out of hand. The nature of the crude had changed, indicating that the spill was collapsing the rock structures. If it is collapsing the rock structures, the least that can be said is that the rock is fragmenting and blowing up the tube with the oil. With that going on you have a high pressure abrasive sand blaster working on the kinks in the pipe eroding it causing the very real risk of increasing the leaks.

More than that is the very real risk of causing the casing to become unstable and literally blowing it up the well bringing the hole to totally open condition. Another risk arises because according to reports the crew was cementing the exterior of the casing when this happens. As a result, the well, if this was not properly completed, could begin to blow outside the casing. Another possible scenario is a sea floor collapse. If that happens Katie bar the door.

Well, according to the blogger Monkeyfister and his eagle eyed minions, it seems that is exactly what may have happened yesterday. Monkeyfister gives a blow-by-blow explanation as it happened over Sunday and Monday, beginning with the entry on Sunday May 23, “Major Change Down Below… ” here. (scroll down). The Moderate Voice summarized things here, if you do not want the blow by blow.

It seems that indeed the seafloor collapsed. This is a screenshot taken yesterday (Monday May 24)

Here is Monkeyfister’s guy who took a bunch of screenshots as it happened. Click for bigger.

Here is today’s screenshot from the BP live oil cam:

That seafloor looks a lot lower all of a sudden. A series of explosions appears in the shots above appears to have collapsed the seafloor and blown up the Blow Out Preventer (BOP) at the well head. Oil and gas are now gushing out of a crater in the seafloor where the BOP used to be at an exponentially greater rate than anything we have seen before. Attempts at a top-kill shot tomorrow brings only promises of BP cutting off the live feed when they enact the shot. All previous attempts at stopping the oil have failed. Here is the top kill explained and the locals’ skeptical reactions:

And here is our Friendly Corporate Overlord Organization preventing reporters from accessing the oil-drenched areas and boasting about close ties to local law enforcement, in a STUPENDOUS story for Mother Jones by Mac McClelland: “It’s BP’s oil“. I highly recommend you read it!

What prophecies come to mind here? Well the obvious biblical incidences of sinkholes swallowing people unexpected and the earth veritably caving in on itself come to mind but more to the point, we were told by Jesus Himself in Luke 21:25-26 that the end time would be characterized by problems so great they throw men into peplexity and nations into distress, suggesting the problems are so vast that no one knows how to solve them. That corporations would be so greedy they would be unaffected by their workers’ cries for pay, for justice, but instead they would go right on making money.

“Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts. You have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.” (James 5:1-6)

Like this incident reported by McClelland:

“They take these bags to a plant and separate out the sand so they can process the oil.”
Posted in end time, pre-trib, prophecy, rapture

Pre-tribulation rapture in the Old Testament

Posted on by elizabethprata

1 Thes. 4:15, right at the beginning of the Rapture passage, verse 15 opens with the phrase “According to the Lord’s own word.” Here’s the whole rapture scenario from verse 15-18:

“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

Well, WHAT ‘Lord’s own word? Paul was referring to the Old Testament, because he was revealing the mystery of the rapture for the first time, and the Gospel of Matthew hadn’t been written yet, or if it had just been written was not widely disseminated yet. So Paul meant the Old Testament. It’s in Isaiah:

Isaiah 26:19-21. “But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead. Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by. See, the LORD is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins.”

More explanation here.

I didn’t make up the rapture doctrine. It’s “by the Lord’s own word!”

Posted in end time, end time. prophecy, jesus, mire, sin

Sin rising, mire deepening, Jesus coming!

Posted on by elizabethprata

Jeremiah was a faithful prophet. He preached the Word no matter the cost to himself. Even though the LORD had promised “Then I will make you to this people A fortified wall of bronze; And though they fight against you, They will not prevail over you; For I am with you to save you And deliver you,” declares the LORD” (Jer 15:20) it still could not have been easy for Jeremiah to go through all the things he went through. One day, he was preaching (again) in advance of the coming Babylonians, and the princes of King Zedekiah had had enough. They conspired to throw Jeremiah into a pit and they brought their petition to the King, who, though knowing Jeremiah was a prophet, did not stand for truth when push came to shove. The king said essentially, “go ahead, do what you will’ sort of like Pilate did later on.

So the princes took Jeremiah and threw him into what was probably an oubliette but is called a cistern in the NASB.

“Then the officials said to the king, “Now let this man be put to death, inasmuch as he is discouraging the men of war who are left in this city and all the people, by speaking such words to them; for this man is not seeking the well-being of this people but rather their harm.” So King Zedekiah said, “Behold, he is in your hands; for the king can do nothing against you.” Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchijah the king’s son, which was in the court of the guardhouse; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the cistern there was no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.” (Jer 38:4-6).

An oubliette is from the French meaning forgotten place and is a derivative of oublier, “to forget”. We also get the English word ‘oblivion’ from oublier. Prisoners whom their captors wish to forget were thrown into an oublier, which was deep with a hole and a grate over the top. The prisoner had no way of escaping. Some oubliers were bottle shaped so the prisoner could not sit down nor even turn around. One famous oublier had no grate but prisoners were simply hustled along a dark tunnel at sword-point until they fell into the hole, shocked and stunned at their sudden descent. In the illustration, notice the man in the right-oubliette (or cistern) with upraised hands.

Whether it was a cistern being used for prisoners or was a purposely built dungeon, the pit was a terrible place. Full of garbage, decay, and rats, being in the lower most parts of the castle, the pit was usually filled with water that seeped up from the earthen floor, making survival almost impossible. Which was the point.

I notice that though the princes hated Jeremiah’s words, they were careful not to toss him but carefully lowered him by ropes. However, once lowered, he sunk way down, (Josephus said that Jeremiah sunk in up to his neck) and then Jeremiah began his lamentation.

Lamentations 3:53-57
They tried to end my life in a pit
and threw stones at me;
the waters closed over my head,
and I thought I was about to be cut off.
I called on your name, O Lord,
from the depths of the pit.
You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears
to my cry for relief.”
You came near when I called you,
and you said, “Do not fear.”

Louis Ginzberg’s Legends of the Jews says of the scene: “Hardly out of prison, he again advised the people to surrender, and the nobility seized him and cast him into a lime pit filled with water, where they hoped he would drown. But a miracle happened. The water sank to the bottom, and the mud rose to the surface, and supported the prophet above the water. Help came to him from Ebed-melech, a “white raven,” the only pious man at court. Ebed-melech hastened to the king and spoke: “Know, if Jeremiah perishes in the lime pit, Jerusalem will surely be captured.” With the permission of the king, Ebed-melech went to the pit, and cried out aloud several times, “O my lord Jeremiah,” but no answer came. Jeremiah feared the words were spoken by his former jailer Jonathan, who had not given up his practice of mocking at the prophet. He would come to the edge of the pit and call down jeeringly: “Do not rest thy head on the mud, and take a little sleep, Jeremiah.” To such sneers Jeremiah made no reply, and hence it was that Ebed-melech was left unanswered. Thinking the prophet dead, he began to lament and tear his clothes. Then Jeremiah, realizing that it was a friend, and not Jonathan, asked: “Who is it that is calling my name and weeps therewith?” and he received the assurance that Ebed-melech had come to rescue him from his perilous position.”

I am guessing that the first thing they did for him was give him a bath and clean him up. Gave him some clean robes to wear.

In thinking about the mire, I can’t help but wonder what bible symbol mire is used for in this case. Since bible interprets bible, I find Isaiah 57:20 -“But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud.” The sea is the wicked and what they toss up is mire, muck, and dirt. The mire is the “fruit” of the wicked. Moreover, the picture of the pit is one that has a soft bottom. Jeremiah didn’t land with a thud, he landed with a plop. Then sunk more and more and more, like we do in sin. We cannot get out of the pit by ourselves and indeed all our vain efforts will only succeed in getting us in deeper. But He will lift us out!

Psalm 40:2 – He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

NO ONE needs to be in the pit, ever. Jesus died so that He could lift us out of our sins of the pit would be washed away. If we ask Him, He establishes us on the rock and from which no one, not even the gates of hell, can toss us off. But you have to ask.

Jeremiah was cast into the mire, but Jesus volunteered to leave His heavenly abode and to not only spend three and a half wearying years among sinful humans, but He hung on the cross and BECAME sin. He allowed Himself to succumb to the mire and sink below it … for our sakes.

“Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary with my crying; my throat is dry; my eyes fail while I wait for my God.” (Psalm 69:1-3)

Imagine His horror, as He became miry sin for us all and the Father turned away … “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Psalm 22:1). For the first time since eternity began, Jesus was separated from the Father … His own throat dry and His own eyes not seeing His glory…but only mire.

Jesus was alone in sin, AS sin, but He does not leave us alone in it. We sink, but if we call out He raises us up out of the mire. As this old world becomes more and more sinful, does it feel to you, Christian, that we are up to our noses in mire? This entire essay began last night as a plea to Jesus to release me and all Christians and children from the sin so prevalent that feels like it is up to my nose. I can barely breathe because of the odor of sulfurous sin from all around, enveloping me. Suddenly the picture of Jeremiah came to me and how he was up to his nose in mire.

Do you feel the sins of the world are so high it strains the neck to stay above it? True repentance means hating the stench of sin, and realizing that all our actions are as nothing to wash away that smell. Only Jesus can wash it away. Well, blessings, He will raise us up! He will snatch us away and take us to the clean place and give us clean robes to wear. “And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (These are not the tribulation saints but the Church Age saints snatched out of the Tribulation, out of from the Greek word ‘ek’ meaning away from the time, place, and cause) Soon and very soon! Out of the mire, out from the fire, into clean garments and washed by His blood! And remember, though sins pile up all around us, Jesus sunk below that awful mire. He was alone in the universe, apart from the Father, and for that, we sing “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” (Rev 5:9)

Posted in burning down the shack, deception, doctrines of demons, end time, prophecy

Burning down The Shack

Posted on by elizabethprata

In July of 2008, at the height of Shack-mania, I wrote here that the best-selling book “The Shack” is a devilish deception. I wrote about it again in April of 2009 here, saying it is a book full of doctrines of demons. In November of 2009 I explained why Christians should not read The Shack, here. Are you getting the idea that I believe The Shack is not-good?

Tim Challies was one of the first to identify this book as a deception, back in January of 2008, and he wrote about it here. Another book has come along with a chapter-by-chapter rebuttal of the doctrines of demons contained in the best-selling book that has influenced millions.

Up in flames: Melting false teachings of ‘The Shack’: Professor takes torch to ‘blasphemous doctrine’ of best-seller is the subject of a promotion by World Net Daily. “Author James De Young says of The Shack, “its depiction of God as an African woman who suffered Christ’s crucifixion – and the book’s exclusion of any existence of Satan and hell – represent just some of its many dangerous deceptions.
If such deceptions, which upend biblical teachings on sin, redemption, salvation and damnation, go unchallenged, says De Young, this “feel-good novel” could prove terribly divisive and destructive to millions of Christians.” In my opinion it has already done great damage.

Here is another review of “Burning Down The Shack”, due out June 1:

New Book ‘Burning Down ‘The Shack” Exposes Great Deception Lurking in Church’s Blindside

It’s the feel-good novel about faith that millions of people love. And its warm and fuzzy depiction of God the Father is cherished by millions of Evangelical Christians who’ve embraced it as though it were gospel.

This mass adoration has helped seemingly cement William Paul Young’s The Shack to the stratosphere of numerous best-sellers list–where it’s remained for more than 100 weeks–a claim no other book can make.

Yet it is infused with counterfeit Christianity, says author James De Young in his new book, Burning Down ‘The Shack’: How the ‘Christian’ Bestseller is Deceiving Millions, and its depiction of God the Father as an African woman who bore the scars of Calvary with Jesus Christ is just one example of its many dangerous deceptions.

De Young isn’t only a New Testament Language and Literature professor at Western Seminary in Portland, Ore., he’s also a former longtime colleague of Paul Young, and was his Portland-area neighbor when Young wrote The Shack.

Burning Down ‘The Shack,’ which WND Books publishes June 1, challenges readers to consider the perilous religious beliefs of the author. While writing The Shack, Young, a victim of child molestation, had recently embraced “universal reconciliation” — a belief identified as far back as the sixth century as heresy — which emphasizes that Jesus’ loving nature renders him incapable of eternally damning people.

In “Burning Down ‘The Shack'”, De Young delivers a chapter-by-chapter evaluation of more than 15 heresies within The Shack. Chief among the errors is what Young left out. “A familiar, but deceptive maneuver is to give an aspect of a theological issue, while ignoring an equally important aspect that qualifies or limits the first one,” De Young writes to explain Young’s obvious exclusion of Satan and Hell.”

What does the bible say? 1 Timothy 4:1 – “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” And The Shack is one of them.

Posted in immorality

Crisis of immorality (nudity warning)

Posted on by elizabethprata

2 Tim 3:1-5 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

Cato Institute wrote, fourteen years ago: “The growth of government has politicized life and weakened the nation’s moral fabric. Government intervention—in the economy, in the community, and in society—has increased the payoff from political action and reduced the scope of private action. People have become more dependent on the state and have sacrificed freedom for a false sense of security. The most obvious signs of moral decay in America are the prevalence of out-of-wedlock births, the breakup of families, the amorality of public education, and the eruption of criminal activity. But there are other signs as well: the decline in civility, the lack of integrity in both public and private life, and the growth of litigation as the chief way to settle disputes.”

How much worse it is today?

Personal immorality:
Commuters travel to work naked
It was a cheeky and unexpected sight that greeted commuters as they boarded a Tube into work. But the four naked men and women certainly livened up the usually dull journey for many people – attracting gasps from stunned workers. Carrying handbags or briefcases to cover their modesty – and wearing shoes – the nudes travelled on escalators and rode in the carriages as though their lack of suitable attire was completely normal.

Venus Williams, Tennis star by day, dominatrix by night?

Religious immorality:
“For the Sake of God” — Must We Surrender Sexual Morality?
The ordination of Mary Glasspool as a bishop of the Episcopal Church on Sunday drives yet another wedge into the already fracturing Anglican Communion — and raises some of the most fundamental questions about the Church and sexual morality.

Fiscal immorality:
Bringing morality to Wall Street

Three-quarters of Americans say the country’s moral values are worsening, blaming a decline in ethical standards, poor parenting, and dishonesty by government and business leaders, Gallup reports.

Dostoevsky wrote The Brothers Karamazov and in the early chapters, Ivan Karamazov encapsulates his belief that “If God does not exist, everything is permitted.” How true this is. Atheism is prophesied to rise in the last days: and apostasy prevails: “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for [that day will not come] until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction…” and “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8b) .In in these contexts apostasy means ‘defection from truth.’ As we hurtle headlong to the end of the Church Age, more people defect from the truth, and it is true- everything is permitted.

Posted in asymmetric war, damascus, end time, end time. prophecy, gog magog, psalm 83, tipping point, vallely

War is coming: Maj. General Paul Vallely interview

Posted on by elizabethprata

War is coming. I am sure of this, because the bible tells explicitly that a series of wars and battles will occur just prior to the rapture. The details are in Isaiah, Psalm 83, and Ezekiel 38-39. So war WILL happen.. and it seems from developments in the Middle East the last month, that the prophesied wars and battles are closer than ever. [Photo: Iran missile test April 2010]

[Photo: Damascus] We know that the capital of Syria, Damascus, will be obliterated in the end days. “The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.” (Isaiah 17:1) Damascus is the oldest continuously occupied city in the world so we know that prophecy has not been fulfilled yet. It is a future event.

Definition:
Hezbollah literally “Party of God”) is a Shi’a Islamist political and paramilitary (terrorist) organisation based in Lebanon. [Photo: Hezbollah salute.]

Hamas (in Arabic, an acronym for “Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamia” — Islamic Resistance Movement — and a word meaning zeal) is a radical Islamic fundamentalist organization which became active in the early stages of the intifada, operating primarily in the Gaza District but also in Judea and Samaria. Formed in late 1987 as an outgrowth of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Various HAMAS elements have used both political and violent means, including terrorism, to pursue the goal of establishing an Islamic Palestinian state in place of Israel.

Outline of some of the main war events around Israel prophesied for the last days:

  • Isaiah 17:1– Damascus (in Syria) destroyed.
  • Psalm 83: Israel’s near neighbors attack Israel. Israel is successful in warding off the attack, but not without damage. The Psalm 83 nations who attack Israel are Edomites (Jordanians) Ishmaelites (United Arab Emirates, Yemen and the Saudi Arabians), Moabites, Hagrites, Gebal, Ammon (So. Jordan), Philistia/Tyre (Lebanon), Assyria (Iran/Iraq tribes at northern border. However, Israel’s military victory success leads to a state of unpreparedness. She lets down her guard and it at this time that…
  • Ezekiel 38-39: Gog-Magog battle. (Ez 38:11 – “You will say, “I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people–all of them living without walls and without gates and bars.”) Iran, Russia, Turkey, Armenia, Sudan, Libya, and others attack Israel. Israel almost loses this battle, but God supernaturally intervenes to save Israel. It is this moment that Israel recognizes her God once again and she returns to the Old Covenant. The church is raptured by the time this battle ends.

Major General Paul E. Vallely, United States Army (Ret. ) is currently a senior military analyst for Fox News. Vallely has previously said that the war on terror is a war between Islam and Judeo-Christianity: “That’s what’s going on. If you don’t understand that, then you don’t get it.” He believes that Iran already HAS the nuclear bomb and they are just trying to figure out how to attach it to a delivery missile.

The Maj. General sat down exclusively yesterday with an interviewer on PJTV and for 11 sobering minutes outlined the serious, serious indicators of imminent war in the Middle East. (link to video below, cannot embed). He reveals many things that have been noticed over the last 10-30 days in Lebanon, Israel, and Iran, such as a Russian sub flying an Iranian flag docking in Beirut and offloaded by men in HazMat suits (chemical warfare). And that “Just in the last week, we have very definitive and confirmed information that Iran is planning a preemptive attack against Israel,” said Major General Vallely during the PJTV interview. Gen. Vallely tells PJTV’s Bill Whittle, that Iran has stockpiled “50 to 60 thousand rockets and missiles” in Lebanon.

All these preparations and others discussed in the interview according to Vallely and other experts, point to Iran preparing a preemptive strike against Israel that is designed to preempt Israel’s preemptive strike against Iran. In one piece of news divulged for the first time, the General said that Iran is planning to rain down SCUD’s on ALL Israeli airfields, civilian and military, to deny Israeli flight capability in response, a tactic Iran learned from the Israelis when the Israelis used it on the Egyptians. Remember there were SCUDS delivered to the Syrians three weeks ago. And it is announced that the U.S. is postponing appointment of ambassador to Damascus ‘until further notice.’ At one point, the interviewer asks the General what is different in Lebanon, Israel and Iran and Syria over the last month that hasn’t been seen before, and is given specific answers. Then Vallely is asked if Iran is “nutty enough” to use the bomb, the Maj General says “Absolutely, plus I believe they will load up container ships and attack the US rather than use the ICBM method.” I believe this as well.

Lots to digest here and pray over! The Maj. General said “the whole chessboard has changed THIS YEAR, and the Summer of 2010 is pivotal. It could change the whole world.”

Vallely believes that the summer of 2010 will be “the tipping point for the Middle East”—that “the summer of 2010 is pivotal—it can change the whole world.”We know from the bible that at long last, war erupts in the Middle East and there are protracted battles, damage, and death on a scale that finally prompts the world to cry out for a treaty once and for all. It will happen, and the words of Daniel the prophet say that “He will confirm a covenant with the many for one week [7 years]…

Scary, scary stuff, delivered in calm, measured interview with substantive facts. It is MUST SEE TV for all Israel lovers! All prophecy lovers! All Christians! Watch!

link to video interview

And supporting Vallely’s facts are more facts in the news today:

IDF preparing for mass evacuations in case of Hezbollah strike
The Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command is putting together a plan for the mass evacuation of civilians in the event of missile and rocket attacks. Hezbollah’s rockets can currently hit practically everywhere in the country.

Hezbollah on high alert ahead of IDF drill
Thousands of Hezbollah fighters have been ordered to maintain a heightened state of alert ahead of a large-scale Israel Defense Forces exercise which begins Sunday, the Shiite group’s representatives in southern Lebanon, Nabil Qaouk, told the AFP news agency on Friday.
Spain says Mediterranean Union summit postponed
A meeting to bring together European and Middle Eastern governments has been postponed to give Israeli-Palestinian talks time to achieve results, officials said. Israel on Friday called the reason for the delay ridiculous. … The newspaper El Pais says Syria and Egypt threatened to boycott it if Israel’s hardline foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, attended.

The situation in the Middle East is so hot right now you could fry an egg on top of the map of it.

Posted in bp, end time, end time. prophecy, oil hurricane, oil spill

Hurricane season in the Gulf, will the oil be airborne?

Posted on by elizabethprata

On April 30, day 10 of the oil spill, I quoted Op-Ed News here regarding the likely reality that “Hurricane season starts June 1 and it will likely contain storm whipped oil splattering across the gulf towns from shorelines to well inland. “The strong winds in hurricanes, sweeping across the surging waves they have created, such up a considerable amount of surface water and blow it inland. This time, however, those winds could also end up picking up a considerable amount of the oil slick floating on the sea’s surface, which would be deposited as rain well inland, damaging croplands and forests, too.” Think about it- What happens when you mix oil with salty water? It results in a mayonnaise like light foam, an emulsion. A lot of foam can be created from a small amount of oil. The emulsion could become easily airborne under high winds. As the hurricane makes landfall, the oil foam would be plastered on everything for hundreds of miles. When trees, grasses, plants, animals, etc. get pounded with the foamy winds they will get a thin layer of oil. That thin layer of oil mixed with sea water will kill any vegetation. Normally Texas receives its first tropical storm on average around June 6.”

Above, oil splatter on a screen from Chinese oil fields, article by Sean Gallagher, “The Sea of Death”

It seems now more than ever that since the oil has not been capped but is in fact gushing more and more each day, that the “Gulf Faces ‘Difficult Reality’ of Storm-Whipped Oil“

As oil, tar balls and dead wildlife wash up on the coast of Louisiana from a leaking well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, another threat looms on the horizon — hurricane season, which officially starts June 1. “It is a very difficult reality for people to fathom right now,” said Courtney Howell, 32, the executive director of Bayou Grace Community Services in Chauvin, Louisiana. “They know how big this threat is, but trying to think about that on top of a hurricane is too much to bear… If one or more storms hit the slick before making landfall, work on plugging the leak would have to stop and oil may be pushed miles inland, soiling beaches and marshes or even spreading all over the Gulf, said Barry Keim, Louisiana’s climatologist and a professor at Louisiana State University. Waves of about 25 feet can come with a tropical storm and 50 to 75 feet with a hurricane, Keim said.”

Yes it is almost too much to bear. Yet we know that in the end time that we are to encourage each other and to lift our eyes to Jesus. The tough times that are upon us are difficult but nothing like what will be for those left behind in the Tribulation. So, Christians, this is the time to urge repentance. Disasters such as the long, slow-moving oil spill disaster are opportunities to look at our inward parts and see our sin for what it is, rebellion against God.

Posted in end time, prophecy, quake rainbow

LA quake rainbow appeared, and then there was a quake

Posted on by elizabethprata

On May 15 I wrote that people had spotted what has come to be known as a “quake rainbow” over Los Angeles. Weatherspace.com was reporting that a “quake rainbow” hovered for hours over the city, which some say portends an upcoming earthquake. Similar rainbows had been spotted over China before their quake and also Peru prior to theirs. An alleged quake rainbow is a rainbow that does not arc in bands of color, but instead is a colorful patch that hovers. Of course, Discover Magazine debunked the phenomenon (if it is one in the first place) here. But Physics Forums maintained a scientific inquiry into the quake cloud issue, here, and excited sky watchers of all stripes exclaimed over the coincidence: here. Maybe quake rainbows are a thing, and maybe they are not.

But then a day or two later there was a 5.1 quake in LA. Coincidence? Could be, LA is very seismically active. Not a coincidence? You decide.

Posted in atheist, bp, end time, oil, prophecy, ted turner

About that Ted Turner comment…

Posted on by elizabethprata

The End Time, technically since the moment Jesus ascended and the angels told the onlookers He’d be back (Acts 1:11), and especially since Israel was created in 1948, are ramping up like the birth pangs we’re told will come. God is making Himself more evident in the world and will do so until the rapture and then things will go forward on warp speed.

Though God is speaking to us not only through the Spirit but through the events listed in the end time discourse, and are loud and clear to us Christians. But for most lost people, they are part of the background din satan successfully weaves into “normal life” so that the mind remains blinded. That was why it was all the more extraordinary that super-atheist and billionaire Ted Turner thinks that the BP Oil Spill could be a message from God. Is the Spirit speaking to Mr Turner? And if He is, is the message being received correctly?…

Turner has been openly hostile to Christianity in the past, once famously saying “Christianity is a religion for losers,” and as reported here, “Seeing CNN employees wearing ashes on their forehead on Ash Wednesday, he remarked, “What are you, a bunch of Jesus freaks? You ought to be working for Fox.” He is so viscerally uncomfortable with the Christian faith that he blamed his divorce from his third wife, Jane Fonda, partly on her decision to become a practicing Christian.” He joked that he has been “born again seven times, so one of them is bound to take.”

This week in an interview with CNN, he said that the BP Oil spill may be God trying to tell us something. Now, for a super-hostile atheist to liken earth’s events to the divine hand of God is a great glimmer of light to the blinded mind. But oftentimes, it is not enough.

What Turner said was, “Could be, He’s sending us a message.” Turner sat down with Harlow recently to discuss the energy policy in the United States. He continued, “I’m not a real religious person, but I’m somewhat religious. And I’m just wondering if God is telling us he doesn’t want us to drill offshore,” he said. “And right before that we had that coal mine disaster in West Virginia where we lost 29 miners,” as well as repeated mining disasters – “seems like there’s one over there every week” – in China. “Maybe the Lord’s tired of having the mountains of West Virginia, the tops knocked off of them so they can get more coal.”

Most people do not make the connection between things that happen in the world and God’s Divine Hand and Plan. The end time is a time where God, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance, rolls out opportunity after opportunity for us to do so. Note that the verse is often misquoted ‘not willing that any should perish but all come to everlasting life…” but this is not correct. The goal is REPENTANCE. The end time is a time for all to see a Holy God pouring out His warnings and to make the connection to self, our sin and rebellion against God. The first step is repenting.

Turner said it could be that God is sending us a message. Yes, He is. But what message? The message is not that He doesn’t want us to drill or mine. It is that He wants us to repent. It’s all too easy for the blinded mind to understand there is a God but never make the connection to sin, self, and Jesus’ work on the cross as the only way to heaven. The end time is a period where we pray that the lost not only acknowledge a Holy God’s warnings to an unbelieving world, but to have them understand that without Jesus we are nothing and worse, we are destined for hell forever.

Before we get over-excited about Turner’s possible conversion remember that even the demons believe in God, and tremble. But they do not repent. If the Spirit is working in Turner, and in others during the end time, who see these things coming to pass and wonder about God, pray for them. But pray that the most important step is taken, that they repent of their own sins. It’s hard to imagine the man who re-wrote God’s Ten Commandments and carries them around in his wallet (and by the way they are all “earth”- oriented, none recognize his personal sin) is the same man who would get down on his kneels acknowledging Jesus and submitting his life to Him, the next step after repentance. Always keep repentance in mind. Acknowledging a God-sent message is not enough, and satan strives to misquote God’s messages to us at every turn.

In an ironic statement, when Turner created CNN, he said, “we won’t be signing off until the world ends. We’ll be on, and we will cover the end of the world, live, and that will be our last event–and when the end of the world comes, we’ll play ‘Nearer my God to Thee’ before we sign off.” He is likely right. During the Tribulation when the Two Witnesses are killed, they lay in the street of Jerusalem for three days and then are miraculously resurrected and ascend to heaven before the astonished eyes of the world. (Rev 11:8-9; 11-12) It may well be true that an intrepid reporter with a CNN microphone will interview the fearful crowd as the Two Witnesses stir from having received the breath of life from God and float up to heaven upon His command to “Come up Hither!” I hope that by then Mr Turner is a participant in Jesus’s Kingdom and not just a scoffing observer. For Christians are not “losers,” but are winners. “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.” (1 Cor 9:24)

Posted in end time, God, hail, oklahoma city, prophecy

The language of God: Hail

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Throughout human history (post Fall), there have been “natural disasters.” Insurance companies call these Acts of God.

“An act of God is an uncontrollable event, such as tornadoes, floods, or tsunamis, not caused nor controlled by humans. Insurance companies often limit or exclude coverage for acts of God.” (Source)

How does God get our attention? Through many ways, and one of them is hail. God uses hail to demand attention, it is one of His signature calling cards. It behooves us to return to the Bible to see when and how He uses hail to make His name known.

God has storehouses of hail (Job 38:22). He uses hail as a just warning to those who refuse to acknowledge Him, notably Pharaoh. “Throughout Egypt hail struck everything in the fields–both men and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped every tree.” (Exodus 9:25) Initially awed by God’s power, Pharaoh acknowledged that he had sinned. However when the rain and hail stopped, He sinned again.  God specifically used a massive hailstorm to indicate His power over the earth, and to know that the earth is the LORD’S. Pharaoh did not acknowledge God’s sovereignty.

God uses hail to warn the unrepentant to come back to Him. ” ‘I smote you and every work of your hands with blasting wind, mildew and hail; yet you did not come back to Me,’ declares the LORD.” (Haggai 2:17).

He uses hail to render justice upon the wicked. “I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place.” (Isaiah 28:17). In one example, the LORD hurled hail down onto the Amorites at Azekah, as a vengeance against the wicked (Joshua 10:11)

God plans to use hail again in the future: “The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered great Babylon, to make her drain the cup of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found; and great hailstones, heavy as a hundred-weight, dropped on men from heaven, till men cursed God for the plague of the hail, so fearful was that plague.” (Revelation 16:18-21)

It is evident that from His storehouses of hail God has used it for a variety of reasons and will use hail for the same reasons again. Job’s verse continues from this “Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, “Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?” The ‘Time of Jacob’s Trouble’ is also known as the Tribulation, (Jeremiah 30:7; Daniel 12:1; Matthew 24:15-22 ) and the Revelation verse is the one that promises another plague of hail, one most especially severe with hailstones weighing a hundred pounds.

Terrible hail storms have always been and will be part of God’s language to an unrepentant and wicked people. Was the hail storm in Oklahoma City and in China His warning to us? Could be. We look to the bible and see such warnings many times over in the past so we would be remiss is we did not at least let the thought into our mind that He may be speaking again right now. Are you listening?