http://www.raptureready.com/rap16.html
Feb 5 2007
Global Warming and the End Times
In the past couple of months, global warming has a been a subject in the headlines.
A series of record high temperatures and new predictions about warmer days to come have sent the tree huggers into overdrive.
The records have been rather stunning.
We're not just talking about few new highs for some major cities. These weather events have been taking place all over the globe on a gigantic scale. Here is a short list of some of these events:This past year was the warmest ever for planet Earth.
In March, Cyclone Larry was the strongest on the intensity scale to make landfall in Australia.
Typhoon Saomai was the most powerful storm to hit China in 50 years.
The glaciers in Europe, North America, and Antarctica have all been rapidly melting away.
In the U.S. and Canada, many winter events had to be cancelled for the first time ever because of the lack of cold weather.
Much of New England shatters the record for the warmest December.
Australia is in the grip of the worst drought on record.
Here in Omaha Nebraska we had the latest measurable snowfall ever.
Northern Europe was hit by the strongest windstorm in 17 years.
January 2007 was the warmest year in Netherlands since temperatures were first measured in 1706.Higher water temperatures have harmonized with a greater of number of weather disasters.
The unusually warm water in the Eastern Pacific is blamed for energizing the southern Gulf Stream, which produced the deadly tornadoes in Florida.
Heavy rain in Jakarta, Indonesia has displaced more than 340,000 people.
What makes this flood suspicious is that it comes just five years after another flood of biblical scale.
There is no shortage of opinion on the legitimacy of global warming.
Rather than going into what each side is saying, the bigger issue is what actions should be taken.
If global warming is real, it will eventually silence all its critics.
The real problem here is how the left-wing folks will exploit this issue.
We're still in the early stages of the warming process, and this crowd has come up with some rather strange ideas for dealing with global warming. Some of them are just downright nutty.
The Eiffel Tower's lights account for about 9 percent of the monument's total energy consumption of 7,000 megawatt-hours per year. Last week, the lights on the tower were turned off for 5 minutes to symbolically reduce its production of carbon dioxide.
Residents of Richmon, a suburban London district, will soon pay an annual parking fee based on how much CO2 their cars emit, penalizing owners of gas guzzlers.
Some residents will pay as much as $700 a year for the privilege of parking outside their homes.
Several ski towns in the Rockies are trying to reduce their CO2 emissions by converting their public buses to run on electric, gas, propane, diesel, and bio-diesel.
President Jacques Chirac wants to put a carbon tax on U.S. goods because American politicians are against emission cuts.
California wants to ban the sell of incandescent bulbs by 2012.These steps being taken by liberals have no connection to reality.
Each year, humans produce 6.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide.
The idea of saving a few thousand tons is, at best, delusional. It's like people thinking they can raise sea levels by peeing into the ocean.
All the talk of set reduction goals is ridiculous.
The industrialization of third-world nations like China and India are pushing our production of CO2 higher and higher. In 1980, the growth rate was 1 percent each year. The rate is now 2.5 percent. In 25 years, the annual CO2 emissions will have increased by 70 percent.
For some people, global warming has become a new religion.
They pay homage to the god of conservation by purchasing energy saving bulbs; they view capitalists as the devil, and grant sainthood to people who share the gospel message.
This religion also has its hypocrites, like Al Gore the reigning pope of environmentalism.
When he went to deliver his famous warning at the U.N. Global Warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, he burned more than 439,500 pounds, or 65,600 gallons, of fuel flying on Air Force II. The most I've ever consumed in a single trip is 40 gallons. Oh, but there's more:He has large stock holdings in Occidental Petroleum.
Most of his personal property does not use green energy.
He owns multiple homes, one of which is a 10,000-square-foot behemoth.
While promoting his movie, he continued polluting the airways by traveling in his own private jet.
If we actually wanted to stop contributing to the greenhouse effect, nuclear power is our only workable option. The so-called green energy solutions like solar power, ethanol, and geothermal can only fulfill a fraction of our energy needs. Growing energy in farm fields would create the dilemma of deciding whether you want to eat or drive your car.
My personal views on climate change are darker than some of the most hard-core environmentalists. The earth is a mechanism of great complexity that reflects the handiwork of God. The actions of man have the potential to cause this elaborate instrument to go haywire.
Most reports on global warming fail to consider the possibility of feedback loops.
As the frozen sea surface of the Arctic Ocean melts back, there's less white to reflect the sun's heat back into space — and more dark, open water to absorb that heat, which then melts the floating sea ice even faster. This result probably explains why the outer edges of glaciers seem to be the most vulnerable.
The king of feedback loops is in the frozen tundra of the North. The permafrost in Siberia alone contains more than 500 billion tons of carbon. If any significant portion came out, it would dwarf the amount we are currently injecting into the atmosphere.
I think global warming fits quite well in Bible prophecy. God sees everything in advance, so He would have factored environmental changes into the end-times scenario. We're already seeing how environmental activists are using this as a pretext for global unity. I'm sure the Antichrist will be big champion of the environment.
Another indication that global warming might be part of a divine plan is the natural movement of tectonic plates and how they may line up with tribulation earthquakes.
I've noticed that there are many key areas around the world which are in danger of being struck by massive earthquakes. Some of these quake zones have cycles that are 80, 100, 150 or 200 years in duration. Some of these areas are Tokyo, California, Eastern Turkey, Rome, The American Midwest, and Jerusalem. The one due for Israel's capital might be the one mentioned in Revelation:
"And their dead bodies [shall lie] in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified" (Rev. 11:8).
"And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven" (Rev. 11:13).
--- Todd--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jesus Foretold First Signals of End TimeJesus’ words of forewarning ring in spiritually attuned ears today as never before.
When His disciples came to Him on the Mount of Olives and asked the Lord when He would come again, and what would be the sign of His coming, the very first and second indicators He gave in answer were the following:
"And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matt. 24:4-5).
I’m sometimes teased by my family –those closest to me--when I get on a soapbox to talk about Bible prophecy, world conditions, and what the Bible says about this or that.
Perhaps, sometimes, my pontification is espoused just to be heard, rather than being of any spiritual good. We are all human, and we say things that mean little.
We sometimes waste our and others’ time with our verbiage.
Jesus’ words were powerful every time He spoke. He wasted none of His or others’ time, like we do with our verbosity on occasion.
So, when the Lord who created all that is –who IS the Word (John 1:1) says that the first sign to look for in terms of watching for His return is those who come saying “I am Christ,” we had better take heed.
Thus, because what follows is the second sign –deception of an unusually virulent sort.
Jesus, by forewarning that people would come in His name, saying “I am Christ,” is, I believe, saying two things we should carefully analyze.
First, He is saying that people will come in His name.
They will invoke the name of Christ to get the ears and minds of many interested and to encourage belief in what they are claiming.
Second, Jesus meant, I am convinced, that these people will be saying:
1) they, also, believe in Jesus Christ;
and, 2) some will also claim that they are actually Jesus. These will claim to be Jesus, the Christ, returned to earth.
The first of these indicators are in abundance, in my view.
As a matter of fact, those signs are right in front of us every time we channel through our television programming. The false teachers and false prophets are there every night.
They claim Christ as being at the center of all their ministries' activities.
In the name of Jesus Christ, they preach and teach false doctrines that feed on viewers who believe the lies that God is like a genie in a bottle.
He will give us anything and everything we want, if we but use the power that is in our tongues. We speak it, and God must fulfill our fondest desires.
We put our “faith” into action by sowing a seed –usually dollars in significant amounts—into their ministries.
They claim we are guaranteed healing, no matter what, if we just believe strongly enough in our own “faith” that God will heal upon command.
They sound for real, because they use the name of our Blessed Lord Jesus.
They make merchandise of the foolish in their audiences, just as the Apostle Peter forewarned:
“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not” (2 Pet. 2:1-3).
The second of the first two forewarnings Jesus gave involves evil ones who will, the Lord said, say, “I am Christ.”
The first meaning of that statement is, I believe, that these will say –in their deceptiveness—that Jesus is indeed Lord. They will be deceivers, nonetheless.
But, the application to Jesus' prophecy I would like to consider here is the other meaning wrapped up in the statement “I am Christ.”
There have been many who have claimed the title of “Christ” down through the centuries. However, that claim has become particularly pronounced in these latter times, as we see all the other end-time indicators simultaneously developing, and coming wave after wave –like convulsing birth pangs of a woman in labor.
The following excerpted pieces of a recent article will illustrate the point:
“At first glance, the congregation gathered in a warehouse in Doral, Fla., seems like a typical Hispanic evangelical group.
There's the 10-piece band, the singing and swaying, the whooping and hollering.
But look a little more closely.
There's not a cross in sight.
The lectern is emblazoned with a near replica of the U.S. presidential seal, except that it reads in Spanish, government of god on earth.
Off to the side stand three burly guys in dark suits with Secret Service-style earpieces. When a door by the stage opens, the guards leap into action. They surround the man with slicked-back hair who emerges and escort him to his seat. When the crowd spots him, it goes wild.
People chant, ‘Lord! Lord! Lord!’
It quickly becomes clear that they're referring to him. ‘It's Jesus Christ himself!’ a preacher on stage announces.
‘Let's welcome Jesus Christ Man!’
In the rapturous eyes of his flock, Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is, in fact, the second coming of Christ.
As the head of the Growing in Grace International Ministry, he presides over a sprawling organization that includes more than 300 congregations in two dozen countries, from Argentina to Australia.
He counts more than 100,000 followers and claims to reach millions more through a 24-hour TV channel, a radio show and several Web sites…”
(Arian Campo-Flores, "Meet the Minister Who Says He Is Jesus Christ," by Newsweek, Feb. 5, 2007).
Jesus foretold that these two things –counterfeit Christians and counterfeit christs--will mark the days just before His return. He told believers how to react to such deception:
“And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not:
For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect” (Mk. 13:21-22).
Point is that, just as the Lord predicted, these deceivers are among us –and are right up in the face of this generation. Sadly, rather than following Jesus’ instruction, “Believe him not,” regarding any person who makes these false claims, huge numbers within Christianity are embracing the deceivers and the feel-good gospel they proclaim.
A sure signal –among all the others—that we are nearing midnight.