There are two signs that rarely receive attention, yet they are equally important signs which were given to us for the purpose of keeping a watchful eye.
We get (appropriately) consumed with news of the Middle East, Gog-Magog alliances, Israel surrounded by her enemies as 'the nations' line up against God's chosen people, the set-up for Isaiah 17 to take place, etc...
But we rarely get any interest from the major surge in earthquakes during this generation and we rarely get interest from the growing problem with the spread of untreatable bacteria and the co-called "post-antibiotic' era that we seem to be entering.
Earthquakes and pestilence are two of the main signs that we should be watching and they are no less important than the above.
Additionally, there is an excellent video which relates to Genesis 12:3 and is appropriately entitled:
[This video is definitely worth watching]
“Historically, peoples and nations that fought and opposed the people and land of Israel were destroyed. Tyrants like Hitler or Stalin and others came to terrible ends!” states Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum, president of Azamra in Jerusalem.
In Genesis 12:3, God states his blessing for those who bless His people and His land as well as the curse for those who go against His people. This curse has played out through time from the extinct Philistines to the destruction of Nazi Germany.
Focus on Israel asks, if America demands Israel give up land for peace, will it suffer the same curse as previous empires who have done so?
In this revealing episode, host Laurie Cardoza-Moore dissects the powerful “Genesis Curse” through ancient history to today. Is it mere coincidence that some of the most horrific disasters in U.S. history – such as the “Perfect Storm” of 1991, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the deadly tornados of 2011 – occurred as American foreign policy turned against Israel? By pushing Israel toward a suicidal “two-state solution,” America has betrayed Israel and the Jewish people.
Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum comments from Jerusalem, “In the book of Genesis, God is teaching humanity that those who are associated with the mission of Abraham to bring the knowledge of God to all humanity through the ways of peace and hospitality and loving kindness will receive the blessing of Abraham. And those who don’t will be in a dark place.”
Mike Moore a successful international businessman further states, “If there’s a God in heaven that actually controls life on this planet, He has made some pretty bold statements about His people! God is not finished with the nation of Israel. God made some promises to them.”
As individuals, we are also given the choice to curse or bless Israel and the Jewish people. Learn more about the “The Genesis Curse” in this episode:
In the category of "Other Signs":
A MAGNITUDE 4.8 earthquake has shaken Yellowstone National Park and rattled observers of one of the world’s deadliest super volcanoes.
The quake — the most powerful in 30 years — struck near the Wyoming border with Montana yesterday, almost in the centre of the United States’ most famous national park.
Late last year a new study into the enormous super volcano found the underground magma chamber to be 2.5 times larger than previously thought — a cavern spanning some 90km by 30km and capable of holding 300 billion cubic kilometres of molten rock.
If the sleeping giant were to wake, the outflow of lava, ash and smoke would devastate the United States and affect the entire world.
NBC News this morning reported a spokesman for the USGS Yellowstone Volcano Observatory as saying the super volcano’s thin crust moved near the Norris Geyser Basin.
Geologists have been closely watching the enormous Yellowstone Plateau in recent years with increasing evidence the enormous underground magma chamber is gradually filling with molten rock.
In recent times the national park has been lifted an average of 7cm a year. This is three times more than when measurements began in 1923.
Why are fault lines and volcanoes all over North and South America suddenly waking up? Are we moving into a time when major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions will become much more common? For the past several decades, we have been extremely fortunate to have experienced a period of extremely low seismic activity along the west coast of the United States. You see, the west coast lies right along the infamous Ring of Fire. Approximately 75 percent of all the volcanoes in the world are on the Ring of Fire, and approximately 90 percent of all global earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire. Scientists tell us that it is inevitable that "the Big One" will hit California someday, but people have gotten very apathetic about this because things have been so quiet out there for so many years. Well, now it appears that things are changing in a big way - and not just along the California coast. The following are 12 signs that something big is happening to the earth's crust under North and South America...
Experts said that the earthquakes occurred on the Puente Hills thrust fault, which stretches from the San Gabriel Valley to downtown Los Angeles.
Last night's quake was shallow, which 'means the shaking is very concentrated in a small area,' said Caltech seismologist Egill Hauksson.
Hauksson revealed that the earthquake was unusual because the 5.1 quake was preceded by the weaker foreshock.
Scientists such as Hauksson are very concerned about the Puente Hills fault because it runs directly under downtown Los Angeles.
'This is the fault that could eat L.A.,' seismologist Sue Hough told The LA Times in 2003.
The fact that this fault appears to be waking up is really bad news.
According to seismologists, a major earthquake along this fault line could cause hundreds of billions of dollars of damage...
Video simulations of a rupture on the Puente Hills fault system show how energy from a quake could erupt and be funneled toward L.A.'s densest neighborhoods, with the strongest waves rippling to the west and south across the Los Angeles Basin.
According to estimates by the USGS and Southern California Earthquake Center, a massive quake on the Puente Hills fault could kill from 3,000 to 18,000 people and cause up to $250 billion in damage. Under this worst-case scenario, people in as many as three-quarters of a million households would be left homeless.
For years, we have watched as the rest of the Ring of Fire has been absolutely ravaged by major seismic events.
We all remember the earthquakes that caused the Indonesian tsunami of 2004 and the Japanese tsunami of 2011.
And the world mourned when major earthquakes devastated New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Japan and the Philippines.
Scientists assured us that it was only a matter of time before the west coast started to become seismically active again, and now it is happening.
If you live on the west coast, I hope that you will consider these things very carefully.
Just because the earth under your feet has been relatively quiet for a very long time does not mean that it will always be that way.
Something big appears to be happening to the earth's crust, and you won't want to be in the "danger zone" when things finally break loose.
EXPERTS say a bigger earthquake along the lesser-known fault that gave Southern California a moderate shake could do more damage to the region than the long-dreaded “Big One” from the more famous San Andreas Fault.
The Puente Hills thrust fault, which brought Friday night's magnitude-5.1 quake centred in La Habra and well over 100 aftershocks by Sunday, stretches from northern Orange County under downtown Los Angeles into Hollywood — a heavily populated swath of the Los Angeles area.
A magnitude-7.5 earthquake along that fault could prove more catastrophic than one along the San Andreas, which runs along the outskirts of metropolitan Southern California, seismologists told the Los Angeles Times.
The US Geological Survey estimates that such a quake along the Puente Hills fault could kill 3,000 to 18,000 people and cause up to $US250 billion in damage. In contrast, a larger magnitude 8 quake along the San Andreas would cause an estimated 1,800 deaths.
Part of the problem with the potential damage is that the fault runs near so many vulnerable older buildings, many made of concrete, in downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood. And because the fault, discovered in 1999, is horizontal, heavy reverberations are likely to be felt over a wide area.
About 150 aftershocks, including one of magnitude-4.1, have been felt since Friday night's quake, which forced several dozen people in the Orange County city of Fullerton out of their homes after firefighters discovered foundation problems that made the buildings unsafe to enter, authorities said.
Fire crews red-tagged 20 apartment units after finding a major foundation crack. Structural woes, including broken chimneys and leaning, were uncovered in half a dozen single-family houses, which were also deemed unsafe to occupy until building inspectors clear the structures. Seventy residents remained displaced, down from 83 after the initial quake.
One of the world’s most terrifying viruses is multiplying. Thus far at least 70 people have died from the Ebola virus in Guinea in recent weeks and though officials have taken steps to shut down the country’s border it may already be too late. The deadly strain of hemorrhagic fever has reportedly already spread to neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The virus is normally acquired as a result of the butchering of or consumption of meat from bats or monkeys, which has prompted Guinea’s government to issue a ban on, among other things, the sale and preparation of bat soup. But because the virus can be spread from human-to-human via feces, blood, saliva, or sweat, it’s possible that the virus is now spreading through the general population.
Frighteningly, while the virus has historically be contained in rural areas of Africa, the latest outbreak has spread to Conakry, Guinea’s capital city of two million people.
The disease has traveled 526 miles from Nzerekore to Conakry since Wednesday. It is a highly infectious disease and there are fears that community spread has already occurred.
With an incubation time between 4 and 21 days, and an average mean of 16 days, the amount of people an infected person has come into is considerable. Public transport is often overloaded and crowded living conditions give the disease ample opportunity to spread.
Because of an incubation period that can last nearly three weeks, it may be difficult to identify those who have contracted the virus, which is one reason that officials in Africa, Europe and the United States are watching closely:
What governments and clinicians fear is a person incubating Ebola travelling through an international airport, infecting people from around the globe, before boarding their flight. With the average incubation taking 16 days tracing contacts of an infected individual would be a logistical nightmare. Many believe it would be an impossible task as airports only hold names of those booked on flights, not friends and relatives who are seeing them, and thousands of others off on their journeys.
After three decades in the health care environment I am not easily scared by bacteria and viruses. Out of all the diseases that are capable of doing us harm, Ebola scares me the most, in fact it terrifies me.
The Ebola virus seems to remain isolated in Africa for the time being, but if one infected individual boards an international flight to Europe, South America, Asia or the USA then all bets are off. With cramped quarters on an airplane over a period of several hours you could potentially end up with scores of cases, and most of those infected would have no idea. From there we could have a spread of deadly contagion unlike any we’ve seen in modern times.
If even a single case pops up in the United States or Canada it could cause mass panic, and for good reason. Nine out of ten people who contract the virus would likely perish.
The following video reveals the reach and rapidity of pandemic spread originating at a major international airport:
The models rely on the concept of ‘effective distance,’ and the belief that contagion now travels much more quickly and effectively between busy airports in different countries than between cities and more rural areas in the same country.The maps show various routes travelling from a given airport which is the source of the contagion (in this case London Heathrow).Circular diagrams show the radial distance from the disease source and the expected spreading path a contagion phenomenon will take – including other airports that might become gateways for the disease. (Exclusive News)
The Palestinian leadership presented an offer to American mediators – that Israel release 1,000 more prisoners, of the Palestinian Authority’s choosing and in exchange, peace talks would be extended until the end of 2014. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also demanded that Israel freeze settlement construction and transfer some Area C regions to the Palestinian Authority’s control.
On Saturday, some sources claimed Israel was holding off on freeing the prisoners because of rumors that the PA would back out of peace talks once the fourth group of convicts was released. Israel has also balked at releasing Israeli Arabs.
As of Saturday evening, however, Abbas was insisting that the prisoners be released before he would consider extending the talks beyond their current deadline.
Saturday’s offer had stipulated that Israel would determine which additional 400 security prisoners would go free, Palestinian sources said.
Germany has said its air force is ready to increase security on Nato’s border with Russia, despite Moscow’s promise not to escalate the crisis in Ukraine.
A German defence ministry spokeswoman told the Reuters news agency on Sunday (30 March) “the army could take part in flights to patrol airspace with Awacs machines [surveillance planes] over Romania and Poland as well as training flights in the framework of a Nato air policing mission over Baltic states”.
The statement comes after Denmark and the US in the past few weeks agreed to send more than a dozen extra F-16 fighter jets to the region.
It also comes after the Pentagon, on Friday, told Nato’s military chief, US general Philip Breedlove, to return from Washington to the Nato HQ in Brussels.
There are many competing claims at play in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the simple question of who was here first, as childish as it might sound, remains central to the contest.
That is precisely why, in addition to leveling all sorts of other accusations at Israel, the Palestinian Authority is engaged in an effort to invent a new historical narrative that puts the Palestinians in the land long before the Hebrews ever arrived from Egypt.
If, as the Palestinians also claim, they are part of the wider Arab world, then this new narrative is easily debunked by any number of historical documentation and archeological finds. And yet, it is catching on at an alarming rate with those who would likely consider themselves cognizant of regional history.
One of the latest proponents of what can only reasonably be labeled a “fairytale” is chief Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat, who told a diplomatic gathering in Munich last month that his particular tribe had been residents of Jericho thousands of years before the arrival of Joshua Ben Nun, the Israelite leader following Moses.
In a thorough expose, Ambassador Alan Baker of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs picked apart Erekat’s assertion and those like it.
In summary, Baker noted that Erekat’s own genealogy, which is easily researched, puts his ancestral Huweitat tribe back in the Arabian peninsula as recently as the 19th century. Only after the Jews began returning to the land en masse did the Huweitat tribe take up residence near Jericho, Jerusalem and other parts of what are now Israel and Jordan.
“Several leading scholars of Middle Eastern studies and Islamic history have confirmed that the Palestinians do not have ancient roots in the area and are trying to invent origins for themselves that predate the Jewish people’s presence,” wrote Baker.
By contrast, “the historical presence of the Jewish people in the ‘Holy Land’ is well-documented, not only in the scriptures of all three monotheistic religions, and visible in extensive archeological remains, but also in historic writings by early Greek, Roman, pagan, and other visitors to the area,” he continued.
