Showing posts with label tsunami. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tsunami. Show all posts

Saturday 8 December 2012

Syrian capital facing total destruction in the coming months

The final chapter of Syria’s bloody civil war may be about to begin, but this is bringing no sense of relief.
There is growing talk of a looming battle-to-the-death in the streets of Damascus. There is growing fear that President Bashar Assad may use chemical weapons in a final desperate effort to remain in power. And there is growing worry in many quarters that this next perilous phase, which may resolve nothing in terms of Syria’s immediate future, could also lead to a dramatic reshaping of the entire Middle East as we know it.

Growing fear that civil war in Syria could unleash the world's first use of chemical weapons in nearly three decades is based on two grim scenarios neither considered likely but both carrying risks of civilian massacre and a major escalation of violence.
The first is that President Bashar Assad, in a last-ditch effort to save his regime, would order chemical attacks either as a limited demonstration to the rebels of his willingness to use the internationally banned weapons, or in a large-scale offensive designed to turn the tide of a conflict that already has killed an estimated 40,000.
The second is that some portion of Assad's arsenal could be moved to Iran or Lebanon or fall into the hands of foreign fighters with ties to terrorist groups who are helping Syrian rebels.

The Syrian capital is “facing total destruction in the coming months”. This is the  remarkable statement in the Daily Telegraph report above. It is remarkable because this is exactly what the Bible says is going to happen to this city. However the scale of the coming destruction on Damascus is greater than anyone realises. It will actually cause Damascus to cease from being a city. How this destruction takes place and what exactly causes it we don’t know…. But we can see it cannot be long before it is fulfilled.
The Bible says that Damascus will cease to be a city, it will be a ruinous heap and all her men of war will be killed in that day. The rebels with their small explosives and light weapons could not bring about this cataclysmic destruction of a capital city. The destruction foretold requires weapons that only nations possess. Possibly even nuclear. We may not have long to wait before we see these things take place…

A respected weekly French magazine called “Le Point” has reported this week that France is preparing its special forces for a mission in war-torn Syria. The mission would only involve a relatively small amount of special forces, and a number of NATO countries — including the UK and the US — would be involved. Debkafile also reports this week that this action is to begin shortly. Whether these reports are true or not we can see how the crisis in Syria is moving towards a conclusion.
Russia we know is adamant that no military action should be taken. America, UK and France are increasingly adamant there must be. In Daniel 11 v 40 we read of the king of the south (America / UK) pushing at the king of the north (Russia). After the push Russia comes down. The word “push” could be seen as a military provocation…

Israel being a prime target as Syria’s arch enemy. Isaiah 17 speaks of Israel being greatly weakened when Damascus falls – Syria may weaken Israel by using chemical weapons against it.

Across the world lots of messages do remind people about sayings concerning times which people should warn that something serious was going to happen.
In the meantime nearly 300 people shed their clothes at Papamoa, New Zeeland,  to take part in a Guinness World Record attempt for the largest collective skinny dip and in Rotorua quite a crowd has been looking for a place to safely and comfortably socialise in the nude.
Rotorua's lakes are bursting with water with water levels across the region reaching all-time highs.

Further in the news:

A one-metre high tsunami wave has struck the city of Ishinomaki in northeastern Japan after a strong earthquake off the coast.  Buildings shook as far away as Tokyo following the tremor which took place in the Pacific Ocean at a depth of 23 miles, with the epicentre 285 miles from the capital. Japan's NHK television urged people in coastal areas likely to be affected to head to safety.

An unusually destructive tornado swept through neighbourhoods around New Zealand's largest city Thursday, killing three people and forcing 250 more to evacuate damaged and powerless homes. The small tornado hit Hobsonville and Whenuapai, western suburbs of Auckland, during a midday storm that also uprooted trees, damaged buildings and caused flooding that closed roads. Thursday's tornado was the deadliest in New Zealand in more than 60 years. 

What do the lunar landings, the Kim Dotcom saga, flying saucers and UFO sightings, the Mt Tongariro eruption, the Holy Grail, the 9/11 attacks and the war on terror, the Urewera raids and the Mayan calendar have in common?

 

“And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.” (Daniel 11:40 KJBPNV)

“The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.” (Isaiah 17:1 KJBPNV)

 “24 Damascus has grown feeble, and turns herself to flee, and fear has seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in labor. 25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy! 26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, says Yahweh of hosts.” (Jeremiah 49:24-26 KJBPNV)

“3 The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, says Yahweh of hosts. 4 And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall become lean.” (Isaiah 17:3-4 KJBPNV)

 “Consider you not what these people have spoken, saying, The two families which Yahweh has chosen, he has even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.” (Jeremiah 33:24 KJBPNV)

“25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; 26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” (Luke 21:25-26 KJBPNV)



 > CLICK HERE FOR THIS WEEKS WWW

Please do find:

Burman: If Syria splits apart, so might the entire region 

Syria's chemical weapons risk

 

Sunday 15 May 2011

Newsweek asks: How ignorant are you?

Apocalypse Now
“While he was sitting upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately, saying: “Tell us, When will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things?” And in answer Jesus said to them: “… and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another…” (Matthew 24:3-7)

In the March-April issue of Newsweek the question is posed who ignorant you are, and there is looked at the changing world full of earthquakes, tsunamis, meltdowns, economies on the brink, pestilences [disease epidemics], food shortages, so much fighting on in the world, revolutions, wars?

In the 20th century, well over 100,000,000 people have been killed in wars, more than four times as many as in the previous 400 years put together!, and that was just a start it seems. The killing continues and gets into extreme forms. (Hutus against Tutsis, Muslims against Hindus and Christians, etc) Yes even religion against religion. Does that not ring a bell?

The 21st century is still young, and it has already suffered a spate of catastrophic earthquakes across the world -- from Haiti to Chile and New Zealand. The numbers of people exposed to risk has risen from thousands to millions.
Tsunami risk is also growing in coastal mega cities. Videos of the unstoppable advance of the waves driving through Sendai were a terrifying reminder of a tsunami's power.

When we look around us we hear also a lot of stories of people enjoying a lifestyle which seems at first great to them but utterly destroys them.

Interesting would it not be to take the Newsweek article and compare all that being summerized to what is written in the Bible.

When you look into the Bible do you not recognise certain situation foretold? Bible prophecy foretold the moral collapse so evident throughout the world today: "In the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power . . . Wicked men and impostors will advance from bad to worse." (2 Timothy 3:1-13)

When you look at the signs: can you just stay ignorant?


Latest Earthquakes in the World - Past 7 days





Newsweek vraagt zich af of wij nog onwetend willen houden

Apocalyps Nu

"Terwijl hij op de Berg van Olijven zat, benaderden de volgelingen hem privé, en vroegen: "Vertel ons, Wanneer zullen deze dingen zijn en wat zal het teken van uw aanwezigheid en van het besluit van het systeem van dingen zijn"? En in antwoord zei Jezus aan hen: "… En er zullen tekorten aan voedsel zijn en aardbevingen in de ene plaats na de andere…" (Mattheus 24:3-7)

In het maart-april nummer van het tijdschrift Newsweek is de vraag gesteld geworden of wij wij ons onwetend willen houden of wij bewust zijn hoe de wereld onderhevig is aan verandering.

In de uitgave wordt er gekeken naar de vele rampen die er de laatste maanden over ons heen zijn gekomen. Aardbevingen, vloedgolven, afsmeltingen, economieën op de rand van het bankroet, epidemies, tekorten aan voedsel, zoveel problemen in de wereld, revoluties, oorlogen en andere vechtpartijen?

De 21ste eeuw is nog steeds jong en het heeft reeds een vloed van rampzalige aardbevingen over de wereld gekregen -- van Haïti naar Chili en Nieuw-Zeeland. Het aantal mensen die zijn blootgesteld aan de risikos is gestegen van duizenden naar miljoenen. Vloedgolfrisico's groeien ook in megasteden aan verscheidene kusten. Video's van het onweerhoudbare geweld van de golven die door Sendai heenklieven waren een angstaanjagende herinnering van de macht van een vloedgolf.

Wanneer wij rond ons kijken horen wij ook veel verhalen van mensen die van een levensstijl genieten die eerst geweldige schijnt voor hen, maar hen volkomen vernietigt .

Het kan interessant zijn om de artikelen van Newsweek ter hand te nemen en te vergelijken met wat er in de Bijbel is geschreven. Vele duizenden jaren geleden werden er reeds een heleboel voorspellingen gedaan, waarvan er trouwens al een heel pak zijn van uitgekomen. Maar er zouden er nog tot uitvoering moeten komen. En als wij nagaan zou een voorstelling over de eindtijd eigenlijk aan de gang kunnen zijn.

Als u in de Bijbel kijkt doet het in het artikel beschrevene dan niet denken aan een zekere voorspelde  toestand?
In de Heilige Schrift kan men de Bijbelvoorspelling vinden waarbij de morele instorting die zo  duidelijk in de wereld is vandaag voorspeld : "In de laatste dagen zullen er kritische tijden zijn, hard om om mee te leven. Mannen zullen minnaars van zichzelf zijn, minnaars van geld, zelf-ingenomen, hooghartig, trots, lasteraars zijn, die ongehoorzaam zijn naar hun ouders toe, ondankbaar, ontrouw, zonder natuurlijke affectie, niet open voor overeenkomsten, spotters, zonder zelf-controle, hevig, zonder liefde van goedheid, verraders, koppig, vol van trots, minnaars van genoegens in plaats van minnaars van God, die wel een vorm van goddelijke toewijding lijken te hebben, maar aantoont als fout te zijn naar haar macht. . . Kwaadaardige mannen en bedriegers zullen van slecht naar slechter gaan". (2 Timotheus 3:1-13)




When you look at the signs: can you just stay ignorant?


Latest Earthquakes in the World - Past 7 days




Engelse versie / English version: Newsweek asks: How ignorant are you?

Friday 15 April 2011

We are ourselves responsible

We are ourselves responsible Originally placed on Apr 12, '11 1:58 PMe
Dutch version / Nederlandstalige versie: Wij zijn zelf verantwoordelijk

In the magazine of the Leuven Hospital Gasthuisberg in an interview by Jan van Rompuy with elder patients I could read that an elderly couple was not pleased with God about not helping them after they prayed so much and burned so many candles. The man of the lady with cancer has lost any hope in God and had abounded Him because He clearly would or could not help him.

Every time we hear about a disaster and we are confronted with a lot of disastrous pictures on television people shout that this is because of a terrible and injustice God. Others shout that it is a punishment of God. But when they would read the Bible properly they would be able to find out that it would probably not be a penalty from God.

 Genghis Khan said: “I am the punishment of God...If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.”

Many religions say that their gods send punishments to those or these.

On the occasion of the Intensity 9 earthquake and the devastating tsunami  that ravaged Japan some time ago, and the threat of toxic radioactivity emerging from the damaged nuclear reactors, friends of mine have asked me whether we could consider these calamities as punishments from God.

First of all we have to question if punishment by God is compatible with the biblical affirmation that “God is love”. It is true that we find examples in the Bible where God brings over a punishment to certain persons or even several people or even towns. In the Bible we can find how the Jewish race developed and were given laws. They could accept those laws or ignore them. We learn how they settled in ancient Israel, and how it says God sometimes punished them for disobeying his commands, which led to them changing their ways. (e.g. Read 2 Samuel chapters 12 & 13 and look what happened after the king and one of his sons became estranged: 2 Samuel chapter 15-19, 21)

Often wickedness in places are mentioned as the reason why god came to punish them. The  conservative group Repent America in the US for example claimed that the hurricane Katrina in New Orleans was an 'act of God' in judgement on the city because there was the annual event 'Southern Decadence' which brought together thousands of homosexuals, enabling them to celebrate their sexuality. The hurricane hit New Orleans and flooded up to 80% of the city, taking up more than a month just to clear the water and still now you can find debris and not restored placed yet.

If this tragedy occurred because God is angry at New Orleans, what was the point of the awful devastation and loss of life wrought in Mississippi and Alabama? Why was then the French Quarter, the district where the event was to be held, one of the least devastated parts of the city so far?
Also the disbarred lawyer Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr. (born November 13, 1929) an American pastor heading the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), an independent Baptist church based in Topeka, Kansas,  claims that many devastating events, such as September 11th, the December 2004 Tsunami, deaths in Iraq, and the horrific Hurricane Katrina are the result of God's wrath against gay people.

Also for the Indian Ocean earthquake and following tsunami in December the 24th 2004 with a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3, the third largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph in the world, people said it was God punishing the Muslims and unbelieving Hindus. but also a lot of Christians lost their life.

Some people argue that if God is the same yesterday, today and forever why are we not punished in the same ways?

God has revealed Himself in history in His Covenant and through His covenant to Abraham and his descendants as a helping, delivering, guiding sympathetic positive God with a nice design for His creation. God had given men freedom, but new he was not going to make much of it. For the misstep of the first men God set up a sacrificial system that pointed to the future in which He would redeem man back to Himself. Under the law, man was shown how God dealt with man's sin nature. Mankind was accountable to God depending upon which dispensation they lived. Was there Innocence, Conscience, Human Government, Promise, Law, Grace or shall it happen in the time of Divine Government.

With the coming of Jesus Christ and his finished work on the wooden stake we have come in the time of Grace. Jeus' offer  has liberated all humankind. Today God deals with us through the finished work of Christ. Jesus has offered his body as the ultimate Lamb and therefore God does not require any offers any more. Now, men are held accountable, not by their conscience but by their acceptance or rejection of God's grace. Grace is the unmerited favour of Almighty God. He provides through Christ, the means by which we can receive eternal life. The judgement God will send over the stubborn and bad people shall come when Jesus returns and when God will raise them up at the last day. No punishment before that time, not on this earth, not in a purgatory or in a hell.

God has not changed and for Him those who can hear the voice of those who preach the Good News, the Gospel of Good Tidings, the Liberation by Christ, and do not want to listen, repent and come to God shall have to face their punishment and destruction after Armaggedon and the resurrection, to face the second death.

God's will is that all be saved, yet He will not override the free-will of every person to accept, or reject His salvation. He is not a tyrant and does not want to force anybody in His ideas. Everybody has received a free will and can do as he or she likes. But every person shall have to be responsible for their own deeds.

What ever we fabricate we shall have to bear the consequences of our acts. We can not escape our responsibility. The only problem is what certain individuals do can affect more then one person. That is not Gods fault, but it stays the fault of human, who thought he could manage it on his own. Therefore we have to be very careful with what we do. Not only for ourselves but also for those around us.

We do have to be careful with our behaviour and reactions to others, but also with our use of natural products. We should calculate the risks of all things. Because whatever we do or use it can affect us but also our neighbour, even the whole earth.

Do you want to go on your own? Would you prefer to come under the wings of Christ Jesus and accept God as the only one God to whom belongs the earth?

What risks are you willing to take and how do you want to safeguard yourself?



Continue reading in following articles:


Japan’s nuclear disaster reason to think twice

A risk taking society

Securing risks



In Dutch you can find:

Nucleaire ramp in Japan doet mensen twee maal nadenken

Energie met vergiftigd geschenk

Nemen van Risico door de maatschappij

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2014 January update:


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Thursday 11 November 2010

Weekly World Watch 24th - 30th Oct 2010‏



CLICK HERE FOR THIS WEEKS WWW

In this weeks WWW

  • Pope makes comments about Israel
  • The latest diplomatic battlefield between Israel and the United Nations. Known as Rachel's Tomb to Jews and the Bilal Rabah mosque to Muslims, the site was included in a resolution by Unesco
  • Pope Benedict XVI has urged Israelis and Palestinians to push for peace in the Middle East and not to give up hope of a settlement.
  • Russia's troubled nuclear weapons programme is back on track after the Russian Navy successfully test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile for the second time in a month.
  • An international terrorist alert over an al-Qaeda parcel bomb plot has been triggered following the discovery of a package containing explosive material at a British airport.
  • Terrorism has gone quiet for the Western world for some time but we know that those who want to bring destruction have not been idle.
  • The Creator’s promise in the Bible that the Promised Land belongs to the Jewish People is no longer valid, a Catholic synod declared.(2)
  • After fires in Russia, now water raging with Tsunami in Western Indonesia which strikes and kills over 400 (sea in the Bible symbolic of nations and people.)



(1) In Dutch about
United Nations making comments about Israel: Het graf van Rachel
(2) Synod: Jesus cancelled Biblical ‘Chosen People’ > Synode: Jezus annuleerde Bijbels 'Gekozen volk'

Saturday 20 February 2010

Reacting to Disasters


Reacting to Disasters
Whenever there is a disaster in the world, we find ourselves both troubled by the suffering and loss of life involved and by the questions asked about why God allows such things to happen. 

There are no ‘easy’ answers, as Job was to discover as he struggled with the catastrophes that overtook him and his family. Of course his friends were convinced that he was being deliberately punished by God. But their understanding was discredited by God himself, who declared they had “not spoken of me what is right” (Job 42:7). 

Many years later, the Lord Jesus Christ was asked about the massacre of Galileans in Jerusalem by Roman soldiers. The case of the Tower of Siloam, also in Jerusalem, was also fresh in their minds. It had collapsed and killed eighteen people. Jesus asks the rhetorical question: “Do you think that [the people who suffered] were worse sinners than all other men?” He provides the answer: “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:1-5). 

> > > Click to read the full article

Also of interest: Read:  Haïti: did God cause the earthquake?

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2013 update: 

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Saturday 10 January 2009

Certainty in a troubled world

Be Prepared




For the inhabitants of Pompeii on a certain day in AD79 it was simply just another day, or so it seemed. Little did they realise that the very next day a volcanic eruption would bring a sudden end to their existence. Similarly the thousands of people killed by the tsunami in December 2004 were taken by surprise.
The uncertainties of life
Our lives are full of uncertainties and we do well to remember that. The Apostle James, in his usual direct manner, writes in James 4:13-15 “Go to now ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there, and buy and sell and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that': In a world of uncertainty it is important to look to the eternal and unchanging truth revealed in God's inspired and living word, the Bible.


The certainties of God's Word
The Gospel of Luke opens in chapter 1:4 with a reference to “ ... the certainties of those things wherein thou hast been instructed':
There is no question about the truth and importance of the gospel message. The death and resurrection of Jesus marks the central point of God's master plan for the world. This is still a work in progress as we await another crucial step, namely the return of Jesus. It is recorded in The Acts of the Apostles that as Jesus ascended into heaven a promise was made in the most plain and simple words as follows:
" ... Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven': (Acts 1:11). For all of us the return of Jesus cannot be more than our lifetime away and in fact is likely to be near at hand as the signs show.
The signs
The Bible tells us of signs indicating that the return of Christ is near. The Apostle Paul, writing to Timothy in


2 Timothy 3:1-3 states 'This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, (without self-control; NKJV.), fierce, despisers of those that are good': This looks like a perfect snapshot of society today when man places himself and his desires at the very centre of God's universe.
Jesus spoke of the similarities of the days of his second coming with the days of Noah when, as we are told in the book of Genesis that the earth was filled with violence. In Matthew 24:7 Jesus speaks of the time when "Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places': which ultimately will herald his return. Does that picture seem familiar? With the world economic situation full of uncertainty the words of the prophet Haggai seem relevant. "Ye have sown much but ye bring in little; ye eat and have not enough ... and be that earneth wages earneth wages to put in a bag with boles':
(Haggai 1:6).


What a good description of inflation! The plain words of Paul give certainty in a troubled world.
God will act
Paul told the Athenians that God
" ...hath appointed a day, in the which be will judge the world in righteousness by that man that he hath ordained,' whereof be hath given assurance to all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead': (Acts 17:31). Writing to the believers in Thessalonica Paul says "But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night': (1 Thess 5:1-2)
While none of us knows his/her immediate future God has revealed His ultimate purpose in the pages of scripture. God is not the author of confusion but He gives us a hope that cannot be shaken and a promise that is sure and certain. Let us believe God's message in this day of our opportunity and prepare ourselves for the return of Jesus by serving him now.
RICHARD BUCKLER