Reflections

Those of us who watch the biblical-prophetic signs around us and the related world events aren't really surprised by recent events. But I always find it interesting when the "other", non-prophecy folks notice the same events and question what seems to be happening. In this context, there are two interesting reflections on last weeks events, but not from a prophetic perspective. The information is the same, the conclusions are basically the same, the understanding of the magnitude of these recent events is noticed, but without a biblical perspective:

"That was a war council in Damascus"

Quotes:

"The three-party meeting that took place in Damascus on Friday gathering the Syrian president Bashar al Assad, the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Hizbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was a war council to devise counterattack plans and assign tasks in the event of an Israeli offensive on one or all parties, wrote Abdelbari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab newspaper Al Quds al Arabi."

“The timing of the meeting, the way it was undertaken and the ensuing press conference that was held at its conclusion, all point to a strategic coalition being reinforced. This is the build-up of a new front that will spearhead the confrontation with the US-Israeli alliance and whichever Arab countries that may, expressly or implicitly, be affiliated with it.”

"The Iranian president said he expects war to break out somewhere between spring and summer of this year. Meanwhile, the Hizbollah chief vowed to strike the Israeli capital, its airports and power stations if Israel dared to attack Beirut’s critical infrastructure."

“Indeed, we are being exposed to a new discourse here, an unprecedented sense of self-confidence and an unheard-of preparedness for retaliation.”

"For its part, the Syrian leadership appears to have made up its mind to close off the US administration’s “trite and cheap” flirtation with Damascus and opted for bolstering its tactical partnership with Tehran."

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"Over 250 Significant Earthquakes Shook the World in Past 7 Days"

Quotes:

"In the past seven days there have been more than 258 recorded earthquakes of a magnitude higher than 4.5 on the Richter's scale. Chile alone has already experienced 81 aftershocks at a rate of 4 per hour since the first big earthquake of 8.8 struck on Saturday, Feb. 27. Tsunami alarms sounded across the world."

"Apart from the abundant seismic activity in Chile, moderate to strong earthquakes have occurred in several countries, among them: Ecuador (M5.3; 28/2/2010), Argentina (M6.3; 27/2/2010), Afghanistan (M5.7; 27/2/2010), Philippines (M5.7;26/02/2010), Japan/Ryukyu Islands (M7.0; 26/2/2010), Guatemala (M5.6; 23/2/2010), Haiti(M4.7; 23/2/2010), Iran(M5.1; 23/2/2010), Tonga(M5.7; 22/2/2010 with replicas of approximately higher than M5), and 2 earthquakes in Mainland China of M5.4 and M5.0 in the regions of Xizang, Yunnan on Feb. 26 and 27."

"More than 700 people have been reported dead so far since Chile's devastating earthquake of 8.8 on Saturday. Chile is now in a state of chaos as hundreds of people have been looting businesses and selling basic products like water and food at four times their cost. The authorities are currently trying to regulate the situation."

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Now, for a biblical perspective on last week's events from the Rapture Ready site, by Todd Strandberg which is worth posting

"Nearing Midnight"


Mar 1, 2010

Another Massive Earthquake

A huge earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 has hit the west-central coast of Chile, killing more than 700 people. The quake struck at 1:34 EST about 200 miles southwest of the capital, Santiago.

The epicenter was just 70 miles from Concepcion, Chile 's second-largest city, where more than 200,000 people live, and the coastal city Valdivia, with a population of 140,559, which is was at the greatest risk of the quake's tsunami.

It will take several days to get a full measure of the devastation caused by the quake. Because Chile has much better building codes than Haiti, it’s unlikely that we're going to see a death toll into the tens of thousands.

The Chile earthquake is already one for the record book. It is seventh on the list of greatest earthquakes ever recorded. In the past 250 years, there have only been two other mass casualty quakes with a greater magnitude.

Chile is no stranger to large earthquakes. In 1960, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded struck Valdivia. It had a magnitude of 9.5 and destroyed buildings from the earthquake can still be found today.

The news of the Chile quake is amazing when you realize it came just a month after the devastating 7.0 quake that struck Haiti, killing 230,000. Of course, this tremor is vastly more powerful. One geologist said it released 500 to 700 times more energy. Luckily, it occurred at sea and several miles from a major population center.

In my January 25, 2010, "Nearing Midnight" commentary, I took note of the narrowing time scale for several recent super earthquakes. It seems bizarre to reminisce about something I wrote just four weeks ago, but that is how strange events have become. Here I am saying the historic odds would tell us that another major quake is unlikely, yet I knew another factor was at work:

Normally, we could say by the frequency of earthquakes in the past that it will be many years before we suffer another super quake. There have been times when there weren’t ever major quakes. The Rapture Ready Earthquakes Timeline shows that between 1950 and 1960, there was no major loss of life from seismic activity. There was another gap between 1960 and 1970.

I don’t think we are going to see any let-up in the number of destructive earthquakes. We have reached the point at which every year is visited by some form military conflict, economic unrest, or natural disaster.

The upsurge in earthquakes has geologists and news reporters wondering what is going on. "Relative to the twenty-year period from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, the earth has been more active over the past fifteen or so years," said Stephen Gao, a geophysicist at Missouri University of Science and Technology. "We still do not know the reason for this yet. Could simply be the natural temporal variation of the stress field in the earth's lithosphere." A Fox news reporter asked a seismologist, "What's wrong with Mother Nature?"

I believe the "birth-pang" prophecy is why earthquakes are increasing in number. Jesus said the calling card of His return would be a spike in calamitous events: "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places, there will be famines; this is but the beginning of the birth-pangs" (Mark 13:8, RVS).

It certainly seems like the Lord is pressing a series of warning buttons. From 2004 to 2008, we had a historic number of tropical systems in the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Ocean basins. In 2009, we had the global financial meltdown. Here we are in 2010 with two historic earthquakes.

Any Bible prophecy worth its salt would point to the Haiti earthquake as a warning of our own need to be ready for eternity. Now that it seems we've had a double warning, it is all the more important for Christians to have a sense of priority in their witness to the world. God is very patient, but He is no fool. He is not going to send an endless number of warning signs. This event could very easily be the last one before the Rapture. -- Todd