Jul 3
The Gospel at One TeraHertz
Engineers at IBM and the Georgia Institute of Technology have set a new milestone for
the microprocessors. They created a chip that runs at 500 GigaHertz. The new record
was achieved by freezing it to 451 degrees (Fahrenheit) below zero.
While this new chip operates at a slower speed of 350 GHz at room temperature, computer simulations indicate that the SiGe technology used in this research might be able to power processors that run at frequencies over 1000 GigaHertz range -- even in warm environments. At this point, the only known barrier is the speed of light, and we are several decades from encountering that obstacle.
The odd thing about these higher speed numbers for microchips is that they have little
meaning to most people. In all honest, I have no idea what a trillion cycles per second would get you. All I know is it would do quick work at balancing my checkbook via an Excel spreadsheet.
We mostly track the performance of computer by using the speed of CPUs as a
benchmark. In recent years, the speed of the CPU has become a bit tricky. Advanced Micro Devices chips run slower than chips by Intel, but they tend to perform more calculations per clock cycle. Both of these manufacturers have also complicated matters by putting dual-core in their microprocessors. In the case where everything is equal, you can generally judge a computer that runs at 3.5 GHz to be much faster than one that runs at 1.5 GHz.
I keep a close watch on technology news for a very key reason. The faster chips become, the greater their ability to reach the world with the end-time message. I long for the day when the servers that host Rapture Ready will become so powerful that their ability to transmit data will become generally viewed as having unlimited bandwidth.
Right now, even the people who design computers may have a hard time conceiving the need for computation power anywhere near the one TeraHertz range. I have one event in mind that would thoroughly tax the capability of such a machine. When the rapture takes place, any server hosting Rapture Ready will be inundated with traffic.
When it comes to propagating information to a vast audience in a short period of time,
the world wide web seems like it was designed with the “blessed hope” in mind. In the blink of an eye, data can be disseminated from one location to another, while using a variety of paths to get around any potential disruptions.
Books are still the most popular means of distributing end-time information, but the lack capacity. When Tyndale was printing the eight book in the "Left Behind" series, I was told at a Dallas conference it took the company ten months to print just five million books.
In the aftermath of the rapture, I can easily see a billion people making some type of
online quest to find information. It is my hope that a sizable portion of this
audience will come to Rapture Ready.
Considering how the Christian community has dropped the ball on being ready for
the rapture event, there is no need to for modesty about the site's importance as a
last -days witness. There is only a handful of prophecy sites that provide useful
information to the public. The recognition the site has gained over
the year is largely result of apathy on the part of the Church.
We have no guarantee that God will wait until TeraHertz computers become the standard.
As chips continue to gain speed at an exponential rate, that milestone is not that far down the road. In 1965, Gordon Earle Moore established what has become known as Moore’s laws. He correctly predicted that microprocessors would double in power every two years. With the top speed of CPUs currently at around 4.0 GHz, it should only take 10 years to reach 1.0 THz.
In the end, there might not be a need to have faster servers. We already have a good network of mirror sites that can provide millions of people with access to the site. Once thousands of pew warmers get the shock of their life, they may prove themselves useful by reproducing the content of RR so many times it would be enough to serve the needs of a hundred times the earth’s population. When it come to the saving grace of Jesus Christ, there is no such thing as overkill.
"The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of
the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest" (Mat. 9:37-38).
--- Todd
Declaration of Dependence
America declared independence from its British masters 230 years ago this week. The struggle that ensued was mighty, and painful, even to the point of loss of many lives. The result of the savage war for independence was a republic that the patriot Benjamin Franklin was overheard to say the American’s people at last had, if they could keep it.
It was almost as if Franklin could look down through the decades of the nation’s future and foresee the difficulties the United States would encounter. And, encounter them we have –and we are continuing to encounter them.
There is one primary reason we the people who make up the United States of America are slamming into things that beg the question: Can we keep this republic the founding fathers handed us? The reason: We have, as a whole, again declared our independence –this time from the God of Heaven.
We have determined to allow a small segment of our society create a culture where any god but God rules. We consider banning the Creator’s name from every public venue as perhaps the fair thing to do. We have, through our acquiescence, made the Supreme Court the absolute master of most matters involving faith. It has been permitted to legislate from that bench the way we must carry our beliefs in public. The Supreme Court's decisions –for the most part—boil down to allowing any name but the name of Jesus Christ to be uttered in public schools and other governmental and public forums.
At the same time, the federal courts look the other way while certain state courts install religious inculcation within public school curricula. Of course, the religious inculcation involves the Islamic, or native American, or any other religion, rather than the one, true way to God and Heaven –the belief in Christ for salvation of the soul.
While God has been incrementally removed from public schools and governmental institutions, so has rational behavior, previously guided by the moral compass provided by God’s Word, gone the way of common sense that has deserted every civilization that has rejected the Creator of all things. The result is an increase in illicit drug use among even the very youngest among our numbers. Sexual deviance and hedonism have corrupted most every neighborhood in the nation, not just inner-city areas, where crime and illegitimacy once made them to be considered America’s cultural cesspools.
America is no longer the independent bastion of liberty that was envisioned, declared on that July 4th 230 years ago, then won through much patriotic bloodshed. Franklin’s concern seems very close to coming to pass. It looks like we the people might not be able to keep that republic he and the others sought to assure by the institution of the United States Constitution. This is because we have, as a people, through our malfeasance, failed to take steps to stop the erosion of freedom in this once great nation.
The most manifest point of malfeasance by we the people is our incrementally turning our backs on God, and on His one and only way to redemption. That redemption –whether for individuals or entire civilizations can be found in only one source. Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the father but by me” (John 14:6).
He said further about those who looked to Him for redemption: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free… If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:32, 36).
All true liberty, thus freedom, must be centered in Jesus Christ. The further individuals or nations remove from Him, the more enslaved they become. The ultimate end of such alienation from the God of Heaven will be the regime ruled for a brief time by the world’s most horrific tyrant –Antichrist (read Revelation, chapter 13).
Am I suggesting that we must turn this country into a Christian theocracy? No, but I’m putting forth the Bible truth that all men, women, and children must be free to come to the Savior for salvation. There should be no governmental impediment to that ability to hear God’s truth –and His call. This freedom is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, but has, through deliberate misinterpretation, been overridden by the U.S. Supreme Court.
America –as any people—must turn to Christ. There is no other way to true freedom –liberty found only in the Son of the Living God. Let’s declare our dependence upon Him. That’s our only hope. That’s America’s only hope.
--Terry
