Tuesday, March 15, 2011

[1621] TO BE HONEST- IT IS STRANGE TO BE HERE AGAIN- A few weeks ago I wrote a few posts on the ‘end of the world’ and the strange events of fish deaths and bird kills and things that seemed to be signs of the end of the world. Of course since that time many events have really unraveled and some of them are really big! So let’s talk a little. In Revelation chapter 8 we read about the plagues that will come upon the earth when God’s judgment is being released. I also spoke about Jesus words in Matthews’s gospel the other day. Do all these passages primarily speak of a future judgment? Not necessarily- though you can most certainly apply it that way. There are various views of interpretation that bible students use when reading these types of passages [types= apocalyptic- a certain genre of writing]. Some view the events through an historical view- others are what you would call Futurist- and some are a mix between the 2 [basically my own view]. I do think more people need to become familiar with the historical view a bit more. For instance many bible/history students have shown how many of the signs that Jesus gave about the ‘end of the world/age’ were fulfilled at the time of the destruction of the Temple in a.d. 70. It’s a bit much to cover it all here- but there are actual historical reports of people having seen visions of chariots of fire in the sky at the time of the incident- things that most certainly could fit into the signs in the sky imagery used in this type of writing. Okay- in Revelation chapter 8 John writes about the vision of these 7 angels blowing 7 trumpets- these trumpets are 7 judgments from God. The first 4 are spoken about in chapter 8. They begin with natural disasters- fish dying and stuff like that. Have we seen these things recently? Yes- as matter of fact right before the earthquake there was another story of a bunch of fish dying off the west coast- I remember it because they looked like a sea of dead anchovies- once again there was really no explanation. So in this chapter we see this sign as a judgment from God. When you get to the 3rd angel blowing his trumpet- there is a star that falls from heaven and it lands in the sea and causes the waters to become bitter [poisonous]. You also see an angel take a censor filled with incense and he casts it violently into the earth. The censor represents the prayers of Gods people- those who have been crying out for justice for centuries- and when the censor hits the ground there are flashes of lightning and thunder and yes- an earthquake. So all these images do speak about Gods judgment being manifest in the earth. One of the reports I heard about the Japanese earthquake was that the sea floor was examined and found to have a 150 mile long crack- 50 miles wide. That’s no minor event my friends. The earth has actually shifted off its axis and Japan has moved over around 8 feet [of course Japan is group of Islands]. The bible speaks about the ground/earth in a way that we are not familiar with in the 21st century. It speaks about the ground as being given to man by God- man is a caretaker of the things that transpire on the earth. When Cain killed his brother Abel [Genesis 4] the bible says the blood of Abel cried out to God from the ground- the book of Revelation speaks about all the blood of the martyrs [and innocents- like abortion] crying out to God for vengeance. In a strange way God hears the 'testimony’ of the innocent victims- it cries out to him from the ground. The new testament says the Blood of Jesus also ‘speaks’ [Hebrews] it says his Blood does not cry out for vengeance [like Abel’s] but it ‘speaks better things that that of Abel's’ blood. The Blood of Christ- shed on the Cross- says ‘God forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing’. Jesus’ blood offers forgiveness to mankind. As we see the shaking in the earth today- the huge crack in the foundation- it is a sign of pent up injustices- innocent victims who have been killed and brutalized for many years- Despots who have gotten away with murder- literally. Christians/innocents who have cried out to God for centuries. We are truly living in a unique time- many events converging at one time- let the Blood of Christ speak for you- the Blood that says ‘I forgive you’ if not- we will all be left standing with only the blood of innocents crying out for vengeance from the ground- the ground that has a fifty mile crack in it.

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