Well, God said “there will be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars. How much more clear can He get? First he promised it, then He fulfilled it, and man, oh, man, night turned into day!
Luke 21:25
“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.
The Lord will send signs and then He will rapture us in His greatest sign, and then the wrath. I pray you are heeding His warnings of imminent judgment and are saved by grace and the blood of Jesus. If you are not, there is time. Simply acknowledge you are a sinner, and if you truly feel bad about the bad things you have done, ask Him to forgive them. He will!! “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Mt 7:7) He is the door.
Locust plague hits Spain-sized area of eastern Australia
Swarms of locusts have infested a huge area of eastern Australia roughly the size of Spain after recent floods, ravaging farmland. Chris Adriaansen, head of the Australian Plague Locust Commission, said the quick-breeding creatures had hit from Longreach in Queensland in the north-east to Melbourne and Adelaide – 190,000 square miles. Mr Adriaansen said some swarms covered areas as large as 115 square miles, with about 10 locusts per square yard, “that’s a lot of locusts.”
Cyclone affects 50000, kills 67
A cyclone packing winds of more than 100 mph (160 kph) demolished ten of thousands of mud huts in northeastern India, killing at least 89 villagers, officials said Wednesday. The cyclone demolished nearly 50,000 mud huts in West Bengal and thousands more in Bihar, officials said. Devesh Chandra Thakur, Bihar state’s Minister for Disaster Management, said there was no cyclone warning from the weather department, so villagers were unprepared.
Iceland volcano erupts, triggers floods
After a brief respite, an Iceland volcano has erupted for a second time, but from a different, glacier-covered vent. Melting ice spurred an emergency nighttime evacuation of hundreds of people in the flood zone. About 800 people living nearby were evacuated as a precautionary measure at the first signs of the second eruption, said Páll Einarsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland’s Institute of Earth Sciences. There are no reports of casualties so far. But initial reports suggest glacial melt from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano, located about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from Reykjavik, has raised local rivers by as much as ten feet (three meters). A major road has been closed and, as of press time, water continues to gush into the ocean.
7.1 earthquake hits China
“Western China has been rocked by a powerful earthquake and strong aftershocks, which have claimed more than 400 lives. More than 8,000 people have been injured and many more people may be trapped in damaged buildings. The earthquake struck the western Chinese province of Qinghai early Wednesday, collapsing buildings in villages around the region. The China Earthquake Administration estimates the quake as being a 7.1 magnitude, while the U.S. Geological Survey puts it at 6.9.”
Massive Glacier Triggers ‘Tsunami’ in Lake
A huge glacier has broken off and plunged into a lake in Peru sparking a 23-meter high tsunami wave that destroyed a nearby town. According to the Indeci civil defense institute, 50 homes have been destroyed. A water processing plant serving 60,000 local residents was also devastated when the wave struck on Sunday.
The LA Times reports that earthquakes are increasing, and this, of course, has sparked rumors as to why. None of which, of course, mention that GOD predicted this. I find it a relief that the CalTech seismologists are being scientifically honest. USGS has been denying that there have been more earthquakes lately. In one article I recently linked to, USGS seismologist answered the question “Are all these earthquakes normal?” by saying “yes”, because 1) “You can expect earthquakes in locations where we are known to have earthquakes,” and 2) “earthquakes can also occur in clusters, which may explain why this year has been front loaded with so much activity.” and 3) “In the last 20 years the number of seismographs around the globe has increased dramatically.”
In this CNN article the same question was asked and the headline blared the answer from the seismologists: “Quake frequency normal” and the scientists interviewed in that article said “The USGS attributes our heightened awareness of earthquakes to a number of factors, including larger populations in more places, better global communication and media reporting, and a wider network of seismic detection devices. Another one, Kurt Frankel, an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, told CNN after the magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile on February 27 that there’s nothing unusual going on.”
No one with eyes in their head and an electrical connection to tv or internet will accept that answer. There ARE more earthquakes and the CalTech data shows it:
“…researchers say there has been an uptick in earthquakes this year. The number of earthquakes greater than magnitude 4.0 in Southern California and Baja California has increased significantly in 2010. There have been 70 such quakes so far this year, the most of any year in the last decade. And it’s only April. There were 30 in 2009 and 29 in 2008. Seismologists said they are studying the uptick but cannot fully explain it. Major earthquakes tend to occur in cycles, and experts have said the region in recent years has been in a quiet cycle when it comes to sizable temblors.
Meanwhile, a 6.9 earthquake has just shaken the Chinese-Tibetan border. “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”(1 Thess 4:15). He soon comes!!! Are you ready???
Counter-Terrorism Bureau issued a travel warning to Israelis going to and residing in Sinai. Warning is based on concrete intelligence information about a plot to kidnap Israelis in Sinai. On Tuesday night (April 13), the Counter-Terrorism Bureau issued a travel warning to Israelis going to and residing in Sinai. “In light of this grave and immediate threat, the Counter-Terrorism Bureau urges all Israelis to leave Sinai immediately and without delay,” the advisory said. The decision was based on information that a terror cell in Sinai intends to abduct Israeli citizens and immediately transfer them to the Gaza Strip.
From YNet Israeli News
Counter-Terrorism Bureau issues unusually harsh warning, urges Israelis in Sinai to leave Egypt immediately in light of ‘substantive intelligence information’ about serious abduction plot.
The Sinai Peninsula
Israel in the end times:
Zech 12:2-3 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about… And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces.
A Christian nurse who lost a discrimination claim against her employer over her right to wear a crucifix has claimed the tribunal’s decision marks “a very bad day for Christianity”. An employment tribunal ruled in favour of the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust Hospital over a claim by nurse Shirley Chaplin that being asked to remove a necklace bearing a crucifix would “violate her faith”. Mrs Chaplin was then moved to a desk job in order to comply with the trust’s health and safety policy which viewed necklaces of any sort as a potential hazard which could be grabbed by patients. Mrs Chaplin, who wore the emblem at the tribunal hearing in Exeter, said she would stand by her convictions irrespective of the decision and continue to wear the crucifix.
Muslim staff escape hygiene rule, also can wear jewellry
Female staff who follow the Islamic faith will be allowed to cover their arms to preserve their modesty despite earlier guidance that all staff should be “bare below the elbow”. The Department of Health has also relaxed rules prohibiting jewellery so that Sikh members of staff can wear bangles linked with their faith, providing they are pushed up the arm while the medic treats a patient. The Department of Health has also relaxed rules prohibiting jewelery so that Sikh members of staff can wear bangles linked with their faith, providing they are pushed up the arm while the medic treats a patient.
Crucifix nurse accuses NHS of double standards over uniform rules for Muslims
The Christian nurse who lost her discrimination case against the NHS after refusing to remove her crucifix has accused the health service of “double standards” after it emerged Muslims doctors and nurses will be allowed to wear long sleeves [and jewelry] for religious reasons.
Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” A double standard for sure, but in these days when good is called evil we should know that we were told that there shall be godlessness in the last days, (II Timothy 3:1-5,) and that many would fall away from the faith and worship doctrines of demons (II Timothy 3:1-5,7)
In the Annual National Assembly Official Report for the Nation of Kenya it is transcribed that Minister for Lands, Mr. James Orengo said at the Parliament Assembly:
“If America was living in a situation where they feared ethnicity and did not see itself as a multiparty state or nation, how could a young man born here in Kenya, who is not even a native American, become the President of
America?”
Orengo was a former candidate for President of Kenya.
It’s just more stuff that makes me go hmmm…
In Gordon Brown’s speech, he is exactly right. We have suffered a speedy transformation of world economic systems. The last two years have been transformative. Read the following excerpted transcript, or watch the speech starting at 2:00 with the following in mind: the prophecy in Revelation will come true. A global financial system will be implemented. Revelation 13:16-17 – “He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.”
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown World Economy Speech “Only in retrospect do people see the significance of the times in which they are living through. But in the last two years our world has been suffering not just an ordinary economic downturn but what will be remembered as the first crisis of globalization. It’s the first crisis of a world being totally transformed by the scale of global financial flows, but the global sourcing of goods, and by the speed, the scale and the scope of globalization itself. And it’s a world of massive new opportunities that I want to talk about. But also as we found it is a world of massive new uncertainties and insecurities too. What we have experienced is not just the inflation-driven economic crises, such as we have seen in t he past 50 years, but a wholesale crisis that has gone right to the heart of the global financial system itself. And so it is time for us, as we reflect on these events, to draw conclusions about te new framework and the new policies we do need to build a stronger and a fairer world economy that will meet the need of its citizens in this new global age. … Without radical change…we will not be able to emerge… So here are my proposals for discussion: First of all, I believe we need nothing short of a World Constitution for the Global Financial System.”
Most prophecy serves a dual purpose, a near-fulfillment and a future fulfillment. Like the two floors on a double decker bus, the same prophetic utterances in the bible can have two fulfillments far apart in time. One example is in the fulfillment of a Messiah for the Jews. Prophecies said that the Messiah would be both a suffering servant and a conquering king. The Essenes, a strong sect during John the Baptists’ day, interpreted the prophecy incorrectly, believing that there would be two Messiahs, since the Torah had described such diferent (seeming) Messiahs to fulfill the prophecy.
John the Baptist asked in Luke 7:20 “Are you the One or are we to expect another?’ just to clear up the Essenes’ misunderstanding. That is also why the 12 Disciples thought Jesus was there to conquer Rome and overthrow the Jews’ oppression by that nation-state, since 483 years of the predicted 490 had passed in Daniel’s prophecy as to when the King would arrive. Little did the Disciples know that there would be a two-thousand year pause in the proceedings for the Jews! But Jesus has/will come twice, first as the suffering Servant and then again as the Conquering King. Zechariah 9:9-10 spoke of a humble messiah speaking peace to the nations, but in Zechariah 14:3-4 it tells of a King who defeats nations in war and makes the earth tremble. Two Kings? No, one King, two fulfillments, spaced apart by two thousand years.
Hosea prophesied. Many of his prophesies are dual but some may be single. It takes study and prayerful appeal to the Holy Spirit to correctly discern which are past prophesies and which are dual and which are single only. For example, Isaiah 17:1 says that Damascus will be destroyed, completely cut off from being a city. Since Damascus is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, that prophecy obviously has not been fulfilled yet. Hosea 3:4-5 speaks of the Second Coming, which again, obviously has not occurred yet: “For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king.”
In another Hosea prophecy, Chapter 4:1-3 tells of God’s controversy with Israel. It begins:
Listen to the word of the LORD, O sons of Israel,
For the LORD has a case against the inhabitants of the land,
Because there is <sup class="xref" value="(C)”>no faithfulness or kindness
Or knowledge of God in the land.
There is swearing, deception, murder, stealing and adultery
They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows bloodshed.
Therefore the land mourns,
And everyone who lives in it languishes
Along with the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky,
And also the fish of the sea disappear
The curses go on for quite a length of time, but you get the idea.
Though God has forever blessed His people and their possession of the land, their enjoyment of the land is conditional on how well they obey. The forever covenant of the land is known as the Abrahamic Covenant, and the conditional covenant based on obedience is known as the Mosaic Covenant. The conditions of the covenant God gave to Moses for the People is outlined quite specifically in Deuteronomy 28. It is seen that God does withdraw His blessing. Indeed, the Tribulation is known as the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, and it’s the period when God deals with the Israelites. Many terrible things happen during that time to the Jews. They are hunted, overcome, invaded, killed, persecuted, ravished, and more. Zechariah tells of a future time, the Tribulation, when “I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.” So we can see that though Israel is forever blessed to possess land and to be His people, at times God curses them because of disobedience or to draw them back to Him. Hosea 5 finishes this way:
“I will go away and return to My place
Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face;
In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”
Does it surprise you to know that God does withdraw blessings of abundance from His people? That the Tribulation is totally about bringing the People to their knees in acknowledgement of His sovereignty over them? Back to the news I wrote of yesterday that the Sea of Galilee is closed to fishing. In Hosea 4:3 we read that as God withdraws His blessing on Israel their abundant fishing that has been so productive for so many years goes away. “And the fish of the sea disappear.” Is this a sign that The Time of Jacob’s Trouble is about to begin? Only God knows for sure, but we are commanded to watch, and to know the signs.
The fish from Galilee figures prominently in the ministry of Jesus. The early followers of Jesus were called followers of The Way, and were known by the symbol of the fish. Jesus called four of His disciples who were fishermen to His ministry as apostles. He told them they would instead be fishers of men. Jesus fed 5000 with two fish caught from the Galilean sea. He rebuked the sea of Galilee when it struck up a storm like to drown the men on the boat (though Jesus slept). He called Peter to His ministry by telling fishless and dispirited Peter to drop his nets on the other side of the boat and so he did and drew in many fish. He answered the question about temple taxes by telling Peter to get a fish and then extracted a coin from its mouth, using it to pay the temple tax. That fish has become known as St. Peter’s Fish to this day. He made His resurrected self known to His disciples by cooking them a supper of fish and ate with them on the shores of the sea of Galilee. Fish from the mosaic of a third or fourth-century church floor from Megiddo, only recently discovered in 2005
The importance of the fish in the bible and especially from the New Testament through the emphasis by Jesus and His use of the fish as a means of parable, work, food, and symbol cannot be overstated. Though the Sea of Galilee is only 33 miles in circumference, 13 miles long, and 8 miles wide, it has supported fishing in abundance for over 2000 years. The first-century historian Josephus was so impressed by the area that he wrote, “One may call this place the ambition of Nature.” Josephus reported a thriving fishing industry at that time, with 230 boats regularly working in the lake.
A preacher in the later 1800s, visiting the Sea of Galilee noted, “the density of the shoals of fish in the Sea of Galilee can scarcely be conceived by those who have not witnessed them”. That abundance has kept pace with the population increase through 2005.
Indeed, the Sea of Galilee yielded about 300 tons of fish in 2005. However, disaster has struck. The haul for 2009 was only 8 tons. The drop has been precipitous, and thus in a drastic move, now Fishing is banned on the Sea of Galilee “Fishing in the Sea of Galilee has been banned, Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture has announced, amid claims stocks have fallen to a dangerous low. …The decree ends a tradition which has continued virtually unchanged since Biblical times”
It feels sad, and also spiritually agitating. No more fish to catch! Anyone who knows that the call of a Christian to be fishers of men knows that this is a terrible loss, metaphorically speaking. The fish of the Sea of Galilee is such an important part of what Jesus did to show us His principles, that to lose the fish after so long and so unexpectedly almost feels like God is withdrawing His blessing on Israel. It feels like it is a signal … of something. I have no words. Except, pray for Israel.
UPDATE: I’m not sure exactly what the verses mean in relation to the story but I feel they do have relation to it.
“Why have You made men like the fish of the sea, Like creeping things without a ruler over them?” Hab 1:14
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a large net thrown into the sea. It collected every kind [of fish], and when it was full, they dragged it ashore, sat down, and gathered the good [fish] into containers, but threw out the worthless ones.” [Matthew 13:47-48]
UPDATE 2:
More here
I am “holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.” [Phil 2:16] Are you running well, or toiling in vain? Christian, are you able to say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;”? [2Tim 4:7] The journey is long and we are small, only humble servants and wretched sinners. There are obstacles and there are hindrances to our course. Some stumble when hindrances are met. “You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?” [Gal 5:7]. Keep running! Keep one step in front of the other! The time is but a vapor, so short, and what is hunger or cold or discomfort to us when we have an eternity of peace and joy to look forward to?
“Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.”
“so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.” [Mt 24:32-33]
