All posts tagged: Apocalypse

The World keeps on Churning

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Churning is not a word that most of us in daily conversation. When’s the last time you heard this: “Hey, Bob. What’s you got churning?” And that famous old song, Proud Mary encourages the “big wheel to keep on turning and Proud Mary to keep on burning” as the old paddlewheel travels down the river. It doesn’t say keep on churning. What is churning anyway? According to the Cambridge dictionary, churning means to move something, especially a liquid, with great force. Dairy farmers know it also means mixing milk until it becomes butter. If your stomach is churning, you feel nauseated or ill. Churning means to work up or to agitate. Did you know it is also used on the Bible? Nehemiah, Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Habakkuk, and Jude all mention it. Perhaps the one that is most well-known is from Proverbs 30:33. “For as churning cream produces butter, and as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife.” Churning is not fun and it can be frightening to watch. When we …

Caribbean island volcanoes awaken

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The prophet Joel wrote of events leading up to the coming Day of the Lord and in one of his visions marking the endtimes he saw column(s), plural, of smoke/ash pouring into the sky that darkened the sun and caused the moon to turn red (Joel 2:30-31). Along that theme, a recent article in the Daily Mail reports that volcanoes in the Caribbean are starting to come to life: Residents of St Vincent and the Grenadines have been told to evacuate their homes as a volcano begins to spew ash from a newly formed dome after lying dormant for decades. Authorities have issued an alert for the area, affecting more than 100,000 people, as scientists assess the latest eruption.  On Tuesday officials warned of strong gas emissions, formation of a new volcanic dome and changes to its crater lake at the La Soufriere volcano.   Today the alert level was raised to an orange, with suggestions the volcano could erupt within a day and advising people from Fancy in the north of the island to Georgetown …

Who or what is the restrainer of lawlessness mentioned by the Apostle Paul?

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One of the signs that Jesus spoke about indicating that the end times were near is that there would be an increase in lawlessness (Matthew 24:12-13). The Greek word ‘amonia’, translated lawlessness, refers to a complete disregard for the law. It is a time when there is nothing restraining illegal behaviour. It is similar to a period described in the book of Judges, when we are told that people did what was right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25). But the English word ‘increase’ really doesn’t do the Greek word ‘plethyno’ justice, because it means multiply. Derivatives of this word are used to describe floods. So, Jesus was stating that one of the signs of the end times would be a rapidly rising state of lawlessness. In 2 Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul provides a more detailed explanation informing us that the “mystery” source of this push towards lawlessness is satanic: 6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at …

Video: Does the Bible speak of nuclear war in end times?

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I recently produced a video discussing Bible verses that may suggest there will be nuclear war in the end times. When dealing with Bible prophecy, we need to understand that many of the prophets were seers, meaning they were having visions of what they were seeing. If they were seeing visions of things that would be taking place thousands of years in the future, how would they describe nuclear weapons and their devastation when the most advanced weapons of their day were swords and spears. This is why we need to look for other clues when studying these visions of the end times.

Are we entering the ‘Time of Jacob’s Trouble’?

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An old saying suggests that if we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. So what happens if we don’t remember it? A survey conducted of adults between the ages of 18 to 39 (millennials and Gen Z) by Claims Conference (Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany) discovered that nearly 66% of young Americans were not aware that the Nazis slaughtered six million Jews in concentration camps during the World War II Holocaust. And the survey also revealed other disturbing news: 23% though the Holocaust was either a myth or was exaggerated or had no opinion. 36% believed less than two million Jews were killed. 12% said they had definitely never heard of the Holocaust. 48% could not provide the name of a Nazi concentration camp. But what is equally concerning is that in New York nearly 20% of millennials blamed the Jews for the Holocaust. It was Jew’s fault that the Nazi’s slaughtered millions of them in the gas chambers. This type of thinking does not bode well for the …

Beirut: What is God doing?

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Right now, we are in this year 2020, and this is the year when the world changes. We all know about a virus from China, and violent demonstrations in the streets. Life has changed in a big way. And then we had an explosion in Beirut Lebanon. At this time, more than a hundred are confirmed dead, and searchers are still looking for bodies. Apparently, a ship filled with Ammonium Nitrate was abandoned in Beirut harbor a few years ago. High nitrogen fertilizer, if that was the product, is very dangerous. I have worked in transportation safety, and that fertilizer mixed with petroleum, is as explosive as dynamite. It was used by terrorists to blow up a government building in Oklahoma City, and do you know the meaning of TNT? That powerful explosive is Tri-Nitro Toluene. Toluene is petroleum, and nitrogen is in products like fertilizer. Beirut was just waiting for the explosion, and it was like an atomic bomb without the radiation. READ: Beirut explosion: Angry protesters storm government ministries Lebanon is in the …

Are you ready for the 2020 COVID famine?

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It’s impossible to miss the virus pandemic that has spread around the world. I remember hearing the first rumours about a virus in China, in February of this year. Those rumours quickly became a fact and the disease spread to every place in the world. We all know this. Did you know this is qualifies as a biblical famine? Our reaction is now as dangerous as the disease. People will suffer from a virus infection, and some will die. Also, our social controls to resist the disease have disrupted the world economy. Now, more people will die from the remedy than from the disease. We are really hurting ourselves: READ: Coronavirus-linked malnutrition is killing 10,000 more children a month, UN warns When we think of a famine on a biblical scale, we always imagine a lack of food. That is partly true, but in ancient times, food was the economy. Everyone worked on a farm and lived by the food they produced, except for a few who lived in a village, close to the farm …

What are the odds? 1 in 7,000 chance asteroid will hit earth in September, 2019

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I don’t like these odds. But the European Space Agency (ESA) is reporting that there is a one in 7,000 chance, an asteroid the size of the football field will hit earth on September 9, 2019. The ESA maintain a list of asteroids posing the greatest threat to earth, and this asteroid is fourth on ESA’s list of the most concerning asteroids. There was no mention of the odds of the top three asteroids slamming into the earth. The asteroid known as 2006 QV89, estimated to be 164 feet (49 meters) in diameter, was first discovered in August, 2006 and according to ESA’s computer model, it will pass within 4.2 million miles of earth in early September. There is of course a margin of error leading to the odds. Unfortunately, this list is only made up of the known asteroids. Though space agencies are tracking asteroids, they are not aware of all of them. The asteroid that exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February, 2013 was a complete shock. In fact, space agencies …

St Paul's Cathedral, London, England during the Great Fire attack during World War II, December 29, 1941 Credit: National Archives/New Times Paris Bureau/Public Domain

Apocalypse 4: The Atheist Wars

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I don’t believe in Santa Claus. If Santa was God, I would be an atheist. When my children were little, I took them to the mall before Christmas, where other families brought their children to see Mall Santa. Those children had fun, and got coloring books and candy canes, all for free. So where were my children? In the line up with everyone else. With my Scottish name, it must be clear that I love not spending money, and free anything is attractive to me. I don’t believe in Santa Claus, and I told my children that he was not real, but fake Santa sure was fun. And my wallet stayed safe in my pocket. I have met one atheist who truly did not believe in God. I am a Christian and he was a friend of mine. I never saw him in church, but he probably would not object to a visit. He was an atheist, not a hater. Have you noticed that most people who call themselves atheists are angry at God? They …

Credit: L Geoffroy/Flickr/Creative Commons

Apocalypse 3: The Eco-Apocalypse

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Doomsday cults, and doomsday predictors are everywhere. Some are Christian, but the end of the world is a big thing in most religions. The tradition in Islam is that Jesus will return and rule the world, and the teachings of the Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses are built around preparing for the end. Secular scientists have a Doomsday Clock, and climate change activists have their warnings about the end and our extinction. RELATED: The Doomsday Clock It seems like we all believe, and that makes us targets for cult groups that can manipulate us and ruin our lives. One group from Korea recently moved to Fiji to escape the coming apocalypse and the leaders are accused of abusing their followers. RELATED: ‘I lost my entire family to a cult’: How one woman escaped Grace Road: BBC Note that the Korean group, like most doomsdayers, are concerned about en eco-apocalypse. They were hiding in Fiji, from a coming famine. I have a serious warning for you: we all believe and we are all …

Desert in Qatar Credit: Sam Agnew/Flickr/Creative Commons

Apocalypse 2: Really, It’s their Fault

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Have you ever thought about the future of war? The experts predict future combat that will be much worse than anything we have seen before. RELATED: Future war will result in destruction ‘beyond our comprehension’, says US General The Bible has been saying the same thing for thousands of years. Human beings have always been good at self destruction. We think we will succeed by conquering and stealing from the neighbors, and we always bring down destruction, in the end. The Christian Bible ends with the book of Revelation. Most people know about images from the book, but most people do not know the book. For example, if I mentioned the Antichrist, or the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, people everywhere would have some cultural knowledge, but it’s hard to find even a committed Christian who has read the whole book. Let’s change that. Revelation is one narrative, a story that progresses from a beginning to an end, and it is useful for us to read the whole big picture. Those images that we all …

Storm near Garden City, Kansas, US Credit: Dave Sills/Flickr/Creative Commons

Apocalypse 1: The Boring Part

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Is it possible for people call themselves Christians to fail? Can we be wrong? That’s not a serious question, and the answer is yes. The famous Pentecostal television preacher Jim Bakker went to prison. RELATED: Jim Bakker And the Roman Catholic Church is trying to recover from the scandal of sex abuse by priests. RELATED: Child sexual abuse and the Catholic Church: What you need to know Sometimes we fail, and our failure has two sides; if we do something wrong, we are prevented from doing good things. Damage control to recover from our failures doesn’t leave room for all the good that we should be doing in this world. I think that is a good starting point to understand the Apocalypse. Everyone should read the book of Revelation. In the Christian Bible, it’s the last book, and one that we often talk about. What we seldom do is read the whole book. For me, that is the best starting point to understand the last book in the Bible. “Revelation” gives us images like the …

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (L to R): Death, Famine, War and Conquest. by Victor Mikhailovich Vasnetsox (1848-1926) Credit: Wikipedia/Creative Commons/{{PD-US}}

Yemen and the First Horseman of the Apocalypse

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Did you know that the world has a huge war right now, involving millions of people? The best estimate is that twenty-two million people are directly affected by the war, and two million children are at risk from severe malnutrition. There is a real danger that the war could expand in the region, and there are reports of long-range missiles landing in wealthy countries in the Persian Gulf. RELATED: Yemeni Civil War I live far away from this civil war in Yemen, and the both sides are Arab Muslims, so I can’t criticize one faction or take sides. I know that the suffering is terrible and the UN sees no end in sight. Apparently no one is winning this “Vietnam War” of the Middle East. Did you know this war was happening? Many people in the world know nothing about it. The fighting started in March of 2015 and soon after that foreign powers intervened, or invaded. Saudi Arabia and Iran are powerful nations in the region and they are on opposite sides, with the …

Storm near Parana, Argentina Credit: Emilio Kuffer/Flickr/Creative Commons

Is the end really nigh?

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On Sunday I went to a picnic-barbecue for a place where I work. The afternoon was beautiful, and we sat around talking about things, like old friends. We agreed that we would not talk about work, and the made the time almost perfect. One friend spoiled the happy mood by saying “I think the apocalypse is going to happen soon.” I don’t think he’s a Christian, but he drives long distances with a truck, and he visits a lot of places. His summary is simple, we can’t continue like this. He was just saying what he feels, and he spoke sincerely. My friend was watching people and nature, and sometimes I think the whole world is one big argument. People are divided. Nations like Turkey, India, Brazil, and Argentina are struggling with debt and economic collapse. Apparently, the Yellowstone Caldera, a super volcano, is larger and more ready to erupt than we thought, and there are other super volcanoes. We had so much smoke last week from forest fires in the west, that we called …