More Pangs
Last night I was at our church's high school weekly get together and had a great conversation with some friends there. We were talking about the increasing frequency of droughts, floods, quakes, storms, etc.... And we also commented on how most folks don't seem to know or care why this may be happening.
So this morning I was reading the weekly update of a major prophecy watcher and he had this to say;
One of the clearest indications of the progression of Bible prophecy is the frequency of end-time events. In Matthew 24:8, we are told that the last days will be the tail-end of an exponential curve of activity. Jesus mentioned a great variety of signs—spiritual, natural, societal, and geopolitical—and then He said that these signs will be like "birth pangs."
As the birth of a baby approaches, the birth pangs increase two ways: frequency and intensity. Thus, Jesus was saying that the closer we get to the time of His return, the more frequent and intense the signs will become. There will be more earthquakes and more intense ones. Likewise, things like famine, pestilence, and war will increase in frequency and intensity.
This year started out with monstrous earthquakes striking the nations of Haiti, Chile, and China. The death toll from the Haiti quake has now risen to more than 230,000. The Chile earthquake is in the record books as the seventh-greatest earthquake ever recorded.
In the past few weeks, there has been an upsurge in birth-pang activity. Three categories stand out:
Floods--Many have been struck by noteworthy flooding. In April, the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro had terrible flooding. But the most remarkable flooding has occurred in Pakistan, where the deluge has been of epic proportions: 20 million people have been affected, with more than 1,400 dead, 900,000 homes damaged, and 3.5 million children at risk for waterborne diseases. One-fifth of the nation is now under water, and the rains are continuing to fall.
Drought--A severe drought in Russia has devastated the nation’s wheat crop. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin banned all exports of grain until the end of the year. The ban has pushed prices to their highest level in two years in the United States. Russian grain exports totaled 21.4 million metric tons last year, about 17 percent of the global grain trade. The Middle East is heavily dependant on Russian grain. Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer, is left to wonder whether current contracts with Russia will be honored. If we should have a drought in another country that is a key grain exporter, global famine could become a real possibility.
Pestilence--The World Health Organization called on health authorities around the globe to monitor a multi-drug-resistant superbug that surfaced in South Asia and spread to Britain. The WHO said a new gene enables some types of bacteria to be highly resistant to almost all antibiotics. With some bacterial strains, the death rate is as high as 30 percent.
In the U.S., there is a growing problem with bedbugs. The city of New York had 11,000 complaints about bedbugs last year. Bedbugs have been discovered recently in theaters, clothing stores, hotels, housing projects, and posh apartments. They have even been found in the Empire State Building.
This level of activity is amazing when you consider that the year is only a little more than half over. The Lord certainly seems to be trying to get man’s attention, but I can see that man's stubbornness is a huge obstacle. It amazes me to see how quickly historic disasters fade from memory.
See it here; http://raptureready.com/rap16.html
It's funny....that's also what we commented on last night...the fact that when the tsunami happened in 2004 all of the world was glued to their TV's to watch this catastrophic happening...and now a catastrophe is happening in Pakistan...and most don't even know about it.
Catastrophes of epic proportion are happening on a weekly basis...and now we are simply growing numb to them because of the frequency with which they are happening.
Lord, please help to open our eyes. Please help us all to realize that these happenings are not simply a coincidence.
posted by dennis at
11:36 AM
1 Comments:
Thousands Flee Erupting Volcano in Indonesia
A volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra has erupted for the first time in 400 years, firing a plume of smoke and ash nearly a mile into the sky and sending more than 10,000 locals fleeing from their homes.
"We felt strong tremors last night. It was a volcanic quake," Red Cross worker Muhammad Isral told Indonesian news agency Antara. "After that, the crater of Mount Sinabung spewed glowing lava. And trees in the mount slopes were burnt. It was followed by thick clouds that caused visibility to be only about five meters."
Indonesian authorities issued a red alert after Mount Sinabung following the eruption on North Sumatra in the early hours of Sunday morning. "It's clearly dangerous so we've raised the warning to the highest level," the head of the nation's volcano disaster alert center, Surono -- who uses only one name -- told Agence France-Presse. "From the crater, it shot smoke and volcanic ash 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) into the sky. Initially we thought the ash and smoke were triggered by rain but now we know the driving pressure was from magma."
Binsar Bakkara, AP
Villagers who fled the erupting Mount Sinabung rest at a temporary shelter in Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia on Sunday. The volcano spewed hot lava and sand high into the sky in its first eruption in 400 years.
The Jakarta Post reported Sunday that the volcano has so far claimed one victim, a 54-year-old man who died from respiratory problems as he abandoned his village home.
Mount Sinabung has been inactive since the 1600s, but started to rumble back to life on Friday.
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