July 1 2017
GOING FULL CIRCLE.
To me it looks that the END will be like the BEGINNING. Then, millions of years ago, monstrosities roamed the earth, ferocious, crazily constructed creatures which, had they remained there and multiplied, would have needed several earths to keep them in existence, just like today when, if everybody would live as we all-consuming Westerners do, we too would need perhaps 2-3 similar planets to accommodate our totally destructive lifestyle.
Yes, it certainly looks that we have become like the dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, devouring whatever is precious and necessary to extend our stay on earth.
In my book DAY WITHOUT END (Google: Day Without End, Bert Hielema) I imagined that these outsized animals were created by the SATAN. Somewhere in my book I have the Satan ask God to let him try his hand at creating new forms of life on earth, so a gracious God let him but, since they proved to be too destructive, God caused a meteor to hit the earth and put an end to their existence.
Of course my assumption about the Satan then is just that: speculation. What is true, however, is that TODAY the Satan is in charge, and since that is the case, bad things happen all the time. 1 John 5: 19 unambiguously states that, “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.”
Better get used to it: that’s the state of affairs today. The current world is controlled by The Evil One, which means that our present situation will only go from bad to worse. At this point in history WE are earth’s all-devouring creatures, endangering the very source of life. That’s why we also are destined for total destruction, just as prehistoric eras were.
History will repeat itself.
This time too natural forces will do us in. Before we became the current destructive force, in prehistoric times those awesome creatures caused havoc beyond repair. Today we, with our bulldozers and gigantic power shovels and monster dump trucks with wheels taller than the tallest person, we too rip up the earth and move mountains, dam rivers, drill tunnels, all in the name of ECONOMIC GROWTH.
But these immense changes are minor compared to what takes place at earth’s extreme ends, on the highest mountains and at both poles: there trillions of tons of solid ice are melting and seeping into the oceans, and we have no clue what that entails, because suddenly our tiny planet is losing trillions of tons of solid ice, upsetting earth’s precarious balance.
Are they causing Earthquakes?
Just picture our globe, with on each pole immense frozen masses that have been there for millions of years. Then suddenly, in a flash, in a few seconds on the planet’s time-scale, warm water melts all that stuff. What happens? Earthquakes?
I don’t know, but the Scriptures tell me that THE END will come with enormous EARTHQUAKES.
Not only are earthquakes mentioned in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and of course in Revelation, but also repeatedly in the Old Testament, where it says in Joel 2: 10, “Before them the earth shakes, the heavens tremble, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine.” Ezekiel 38: 19-21 and Amos 9: 5 signal identical world-ending disasters.
The gospels are more explicit. Matthew 24 gives a terrifying description of the approaching last days. But curiously, while mentioning wars, famines, earthquakes, there suddenly appears the prophecy: “the Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
I really don’t understand how the Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed. Does the INTERNET play a role there? It certainly is not the message of the church today, a church that has no clue about the Kingdom being the New Creation, the real UTOPIA.
I could well be that the message will be primarily negative: “Look at all that destruction, those earthquakes and pandemics. Admit that humanity has bungled it all. Everything has failed. The only hope is the “U (good) – TOPIA (place)”. Repent and expect the Lord to return to rectify it all and establish perfection.”
Just as Genesis 1 and 2 tell us how the world began in terms understandable for an agrarian Jewish people, so too, in the New Testament, in Matthew 24 Jesus himself describes the END in great detail, while John in REVELATION does the same.
There it mentions how pandemics produce panic in the planet’s population, and how deadly droughts, hellish heat, drenching rains devastate the crops: all this is happening now. The culmination of these natural disasters and the pinnacle of pain are caused by an earthquake (Revelation 16: 18) “No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth.”
I can picture how the seismographs in the capital cities shake wildly and record numbers beyond any ever registered. I can visualize how the houses tumble, the McMansions are ruined, how no human technological expertise is any help. Nothing can withstand this force of nature: no nuclear bomb has this devastating power. Now an endless series of ever more frightening events roll over the world.
The catastrophes mentioned in Revelation 16 extend to the entire cosmos. They affect people everywhere. This last Bible book which shows the END as Genesis showed the BEGINNING reveals how in the disastrous happenings preceding the last things, two types of distress can be detected. These calamities are completely the result of our actions, are a direct consequence of us mistreating creation. We already see how CLIMATE CHANGE is purely our doing, but Earthquakes? Yes, they too are caused by us.
THE REVENGE OF THE PLANET
It is as if the tamed earth, given by God as a gift to humanity, as our own domain, is now rebelling, is now rising up against us, its tormentor. It is as if nature that, for so long, for so many centuries, has faithfully furnished humanity with all its needs, has now become recalcitrant, and full of revenge has thrown itself upon humanity. And these people, this so superior human race, with her nuclear energy, her mighty medical system, her military prowess, and her entertainment establishment all of which made her feel so immense powerful and strong, these same men and women are now in a total humiliating fashion confronted with the fact that in the final analysis they amount to nothing, that they are a mere rag that is thrown out as useless.
All this was brought home to me when I read an article on the YELLOWSTONE SUPER VOLCANO.
Here’s what the article said:
“If you follow my writings on a regular basis, then you already know that I spend a lot of time documenting how the crust of our planet is becoming increasingly unstable. Most of this shaking is taking place far away from the continental United States, and so most Americans are not too concerned about it. But we should be concerned about it, because a major seismic event could change all of our lives in a single instant. For instance, a full-blown eruption of the Yellowstone super volcano would have the potential of being an E.L.E. (extinction level event).
There have been close to 800 earthquakes in the area. “They consists of one earthquake in the magnitude 4 range, five earthquakes in the magnitude 3 range, 68 earthquakes in the magnitude 2 range, 277 earthquakes in the magnitude 1 range, 508 earthquakes in the magnitude 0 range, and 19 earthquakes with magnitudes of less than zero,” the latest report said.
The biggest earthquake in this swarm occurred Thursday evening, June 15. It was initially measured to be a magnitude 4.5 earthquake, but it was later downgraded to a 4.4. It was the biggest quake in the region since a magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck close to Norris Geyser Basin in March 2014. This magnitude 4.4 earthquake was so powerful that people felt it as far away as Bozeman…
The main quake was centered about 5.8 miles underground.
The quake and aftershocks occurred just over 8 miles northeast from West Yellowstone, according to the U.S. Geological Service.
A witness reported that she felt the building she was in move.
Dozens of people reported that they felt it in and around West Yellowstone, Gardiner, Ennis, and Bozeman.
But by itself that one quake would only be of minor concern. What is troubling many of the experts is that this earthquake has been accompanied by hundreds of smaller ones.
There is normally a rise in seismic activity before a volcano erupts, and according to theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, a long overdue eruption at Yellowstone could “rip the guts out of the USA”…
Scientists currently believe that there’s a 10% chance that a “super volcanic Category 7 eruption” could take place this century, as pointed out by theoretical physicist Michio Kaku who appeared on a segment for Fox News.
Kaku said that a “pocket of lava” located under the park has turned out to be twice as big as scientists originally thought. I would like to try to describe for you what a full-blown eruption of the Yellowstone super volcano would mean for this country.
Hundreds of cubic miles of ash, rock and lava would be blasted into the atmosphere, and this would likely plunge much of the northern hemisphere into several days of complete darkness. Virtually everything within 100 miles of Yellowstone would be immediately killed, but a much more cruel fate would befall those that live in major cities outside of the immediate blast zone such as Salt Lake City and Denver.
Hot volcanic ash, rock and dust would rain down on those cities literally for weeks. In the end, it would be extremely difficult for anyone living in those communities to survive. In fact, it has been estimated that 90 percent of all people living within 600 miles of Yellowstone would be killed.
Experts project that such an eruption would dump a layer of volcanic ash that is at least 10 feet deep up to 1,000 miles away, and approximately two-thirds of the United States would suddenly become uninhabitable. The volcanic ash would severely contaminate most of our water supplies, and growing food in the middle of the country would become next to impossible.
In other words, it would be the end of our country as we know it today.
The rest of the planet, and this would especially be true for the northern hemisphere, would experience what is known as a “nuclear winter”. An extreme period of “global cooling” would take place, and temperatures around the world would fall by up to 20 degrees. Crops would fail all over the planet, and severe famine would sweep the globe.
In the end, billions could die.
So yes, this is a threat that we should take very seriously.”
THE BIBLE AND EARTHQUAKES
That’s the sort of disaster REVELATION is talking about. You should read the entire chapter 16. Let me quote verses 18-19: “No earthquake has ever occurred since humanity had been on earth, so tremendous was the quake….. and the cities of the nation collapsed.”
GOING FULL CIRCLE.
In essence world history is a circle. The beginning is in the end, and the end is in the beginning. The Bible starts with the Garden of Eden and beautiful perfection. Then there is the human experimental interlude, now about to expire, as the trial and error has resulted in mostly human failure. Fortunately Revelation 14: 13 tells us that, “Our good deeds will follow us.” Not all human ventures are lost. We have learned by trial and error and are able to apply our experience in the NEW CREATION, the KINGDOM TO COME, that same kingdom over which the first human pair presided in EDEN.
That is the future, a future where the new human race, with Jesus as the Primus Inter Pares, the First among Equals, will guide us in the perfect way, because God’s laws will be written on our hearts. We are going FULL CIRCLE.