Sept 11
How Much Worse Can Things Get?
For the third time this year, a region of the globe has been visited by a tropical storm of unusual strength. This time around, supertyphoon Ioke made its mark in the central Pacific.
Ioke was the first Category 5 hurricane to develop in the central Pacific since record keeping began in the early 1960s. It also was the most powerful storm to pass through the central Pacific since hurricanes Emilia and Gilma, both in July 1994.
Ioke made a direct hit on the island of Wake. Before the storm arrived, the Air Force evacuated all of the island's roughly 200 residents to Hickam Air Force Base. It's still unknown how badly the structures on Wake have been damaged by the storm’s 155 mph winds and 20-foot storm surge.
Just to refresh everyone's memory about the other two events: In early August, China was struck by Typhoon Saomai. It was the worst typhoon to hit the nation in 50 years. The official death toll stands at 450 people; however, this number is widely questioned by China's history of covering up disasters.
In March, Larry was the most powerful tropical system to hit Australia in 31 years. At landfall, it was a Category 5 storm with winds of 180 miles per hour. Larry destroyed more than 90 percent of Australia's $252 million banana crop.
This chain of record-breaking tropical storms began in 2004 when Japan was hit by a record number of typhoons and Florida being hit by a record number of hurricanes.
The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season set three major records: (1) Katrina was the most costly hurricane in history; (2) Rita was the most powerful storm as measured by barometric pressure; (3) hurricane watchers recorded the most number of storms in one season.
Global warming has been generally cited as a possible cause of the deadly storms, but the even the strongest advocate of global warming are unable to explain why there would be a sudden surge in tropical activity. Global warming change will occur over several decades.
Just this past week, the world's top climate scientists have cut their worst-case forecasts for global warming over the next 100 years. After fearing a 6 degree centigrade rise of average global daily temperature by the end of this century, if no action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they now believe the increase will be limited to 3 degrees.
I believe that Bible prophecy is the key to understanding why we are seeing so many deadly disasters. The Word of God says that warning signs of the tribulation will increase like birth pangs in the last days.
It not just weather that is showing us signs of the end times. Another indicator is the advent of suicide bombings. Not since the development of explosives has man found a more evil use for this substance. Suicide bombings occur on a daily basis in Iraq. This madness is spreading to other nations.
One news report shows the growth in this type of terrorist attack in Afghanistan. Here is the yearly incident rate for suicide attacks:
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0
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2002
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2
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2003
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4
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2004
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16
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2005
|
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32
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2006 (so far this year)
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There is said to be a suicide bombing cell operating in the Afghan capital with the aim of targeting foreign troops. This fact was confirmed after a suicide car bomber rammed into a U.S. military convoy near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, killing 16 people, including two American soldiers.
The golden question in prophecy has always been, "How close are we to the end?" At this stage, a better way to know the nearness of the tribulation hour would be to ask, "How much worse can things get?" With many end-time signs, the ominous answer is “not much.”
"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; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth" (Lk. 21:25-26).
--- Todd
History’s Most Troubling Name
Many names come to mind when thinking of individuals who have caused great consternation among the generations of earth-dwellers over the millennia.
We can immediately bring them to the surface of our cogitations. Adolf Hitler stands pretty close to the top, does he not, so far as people who have troubled humanity during their time is concerned. His was perhaps the most genocidal regime ever, although if we could hear from some of the other generations of human history–for example, that under the regime of Antiochus Epiphanes—we might hear good evidence for those tyrants being the worst ever. Christians under some of the Caesars and holy Roman emperors could also tell horror stories, giving names of dictators who bedeviled them.
Josef Stalin, the Soviet dictator, is another who has troubled the minds of historians and the rest of us in more recent times. He murdered, it is estimated, between 30 and 40 million of his own people, based upon his paranoid concerns that they were out to topple his rule.
Mao Tse-tung, the beast from China, Pol Pot, of Cambodia, and the man on trial for crimes against humanity, Saddam Hussein, the incarcerated Iraqi strongman known as the “Butcher of Baghdad,” are other troublesome names of recent vintage. And we might throw in guys like Iran’s late Ayatollah Ruhollah Kohmeini and even its current tyrant, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as candidates for the most troubling names in human history.
It is such an agonizing thing to do, writing about the next troubling name after bringing to mind all of the above horror-blighted names of history, that I can scarcely do it. But, I feel I must, because it is a name that is growing in disrepute, and in hatred among this present generation. The person whose name I will write about is dividing the peoples of Planet Earth, just as He said His name would do.
It is doubly agonizing for me to write, because evidence of this growing hatred is already well underway, even in the heartland of America. It is, as a matter of fact, manifesting itself in my own community. So, I didn’t have to go to far distant sources or lands to make the prophetic point that we are indeed nearing midnight of this Church Age (Age of Grace).
Proof of the growing antagonism to the name is observable in the excerpted portion of an article from a newspaper very near my own home. That’s right. Right in the heart of the Bible Belt. And, I must tell you that Arkansas was just listed as one of three of the states that have the most people who believe that the Bible is the Word of God, a supernatural book directly from the mind of the Creator.
Little Rock city directors should apply discretion in the words they use when praying before board meetings, Mayor Jim Dailey said Tuesday night. Dailey’s statement followed the board’s receipt of a memorandum from City Attorney Tom Carpenter in which he cautioned board members about using certain words in prayers.
Prayer to open a board meeting is not unconstitutional but can cross the constitutional line of separation of church and state if the prayer emphasizes one religion over another, Carpenter wrote.
In the memorandum, Carpenter advised board members to avoid phrases such as "In Christ’s name we pray" or "In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost” ("LR directors discuss prayer options,"Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Thurs. Sept. 7, 2006).
The above report, I realize, doesn’t equate with people considering the name of Jesus in the same castigating way people view Hitler, Stalin, et al. But, again, the marginalizing of the name of Christ is taking place in the heart of the Bible Belt. The world at large is on the fast track to bring that holy name into hated status on a global scale. The being with the worst of all names –Satan—wants the name of Jesus to become the equivalent of the worst, most terrifying figures of history. Satan has sown –and still sows— in the minds of men that Christianity should be seen as narrow-minded bigotry and hatred, as proven in the Crusades, where, Christ-haters imply, many were murdered in the name of Christ. The tactic continues to work. Tragically, it is becoming a tactic that even convinces some pastors in churches who fall for and preach the line that to hold to thought that there is one way to God is foolish at best and hatred at worst. By preaching and teaching that there are many ways to God and heaven, that the Bible is actually just a book written by men in order to show us how to just get along, these preachers and teachers are calling Christ a liar –thus putting His holy name in the category of the many tyrants of history who led people down the pathway to destruction.
But the Scripture says:
“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
There is coming a time at the edge of eternity that is awesome in its prospect. Every human being who has been born on this fallen planet will give absolute acknowledgement of the name that is above every other, the blessed name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
“For it is written, [As] I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God” (Rom. 14:11).
-- Terry
