JULY 7 2018
THE STATE OF THE WORLD MIDWAY 2018.
Don’t call me a pessimist.
Yes, we live in a messy world, where every government is busy to hide the sorry situation, which will only succeed until reality, the crazy present, catches up to the ugly truth, the ugly truth being that matters out there are much more dire than the papers, the TV interviews, the sermons, make out to be.
There’s a biblical truth that neither society nor the church dares to acknowledge: God is no longer in charge of his creation. There are three instances in the Bible that clearly indicate that.
(1) Matthew 3: 8-9. There the devil tempts Jesus and offers him the entire world: “all this I will give you if you bow down and worship me.” This is clear proof that the devil calls the shots on the earth.
(2) Then, just before Jesus is arrested and put to death, he prays for protection of his so vulnerable flock, so easily deceived, as is all too evident today. All this is recorded in John 17, especially verse 15, “My prayer is not that you take them out of this world but that you protect them from the evil one.” Yes, the evil one is in charge and we need all the protection possible. Of course, just like DE NACHTWACHT, that famous Rembrandt picture, will always be tied to that great Dutch painter, but is no longer his, but the property of the Amsterdam Museum, so the world will also always belong to the creator, but now is in the temporary possession of the evil one. To buy it back Jesus died – see John 3: 16, the most relevant text for today’s circumstances.
(3) 1 John 5: 19 unequivocally states that “the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” That needs no further elaboration, because this situation is becoming more evident by the day. We may enthusiastically sing, “He’s got the whole world in his hand,” and that is ultimately true, but today, in this final human era, this is no longer the case.
People who say that THE HOLOCAUST was an act of God, and so have lost their faith, have it all wrong: it was an act of the pure evil one. When Jesus (Luke 8:28) ‘rebukes’ the wind, then he implies that the storm is caused by ‘the evil one’. 1 John 5: 19, “The Whole World is in the power of the Evil One”, is just another indication that Global Warming is Satan’s doing.
We must never forget that it is Satan`s foremost goal to destroy as much of the planet as possible before the Lord returns to renew it. The Evil One is a true fanatic, full-well knowing that he cannot possibly win but still he redoubles his efforts, and, sorry to say, in this venture we are his willing helpers.
I always find it puzzling that sincere Christians, fully exposed to biblical teaching, are nevertheless reluctant to admit that for the New Earth to come, the old earth has to go, and since God promised with the Flood, not to repeat this act, it is plain that this time around we, the human race, will be the culprit.
So….. what is the state of the world 2018 at this point, halfway the year? How far are we in our suicidal planetary demise?
Much worse off than even a year ago.
More up-to-date analysis based on NASA data shows that the earth has long crossed the 1.5°C increase set by the Paris Climate Agreement, which Obama joined, but from which Trump withdrew.
There is strong evidence that the world may also be crossing the higher 2°C guardrail later this year, with temperatures threatening to keep rising dramatically beyond that point.
Since we all are fully allied with THE EVIL ONE, nothing will be done to fight this phenomenal climate warming anomaly. Too strong a statement? Tell me, have you cut down your automobile use, still drive in an air-conditioned automobile to listen in climate-controlled comfort to a preacher, who promises heaven forever? Do you still fly everywhere in the world? Will you vote again for a president who has been married three times, who is the LIAR in chief, who insults friends, breaks promises, prefers the company of dictators and thugs, and so far has rescinded all laws to stall Climate Change, because “the Christians” don’t believe that creation ultimately belongs to God?
The state of the world midway 2018 is worrisome with worse to come.
Take TREES.
Every DAY, 365 days per year, an area the size of New York City is lost to cutting them down and other human interference.
Every 100 DAYS an area the size of Scotland is wiped of the tree map. Within one year an area the size of Italy is deprived of the trees which give life to us, humans.
Global tree cover losses have doubled since 2003, while deforestation in crucial tropical rainforest has doubled since 2008. A falling trend in Brazil has been reversed amid political instability and forest destruction has soared in Colombia.
In other key nations, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s vast forests suffered record losses.
Forest losses are a huge contributor to the carbon emissions driving global warming, about the same as total emissions from the US, which is the world’s second biggest polluter. Deforestation destroys wildlife habitat and is the key reason that wildlife ln the last 40 years has diminished by 40 percent, starting the Sixth Mass Extinction.
“The main reason tropical forests are disappearing is not a mystery – vast areas continue to be cleared for soy, beef, palm oil, timber, and other globally traded commodities,” said Frances Seymour at the World Resources Institute, which produces Global Forest Watch with its partners. “Much of this clearing is illegal and linked to corruption.”
Forest Fires.
When fires burn on Colorado and California, it is on TV. When far larger fires burn in Siberia and Northern Canada no TV crew is at hand to tell us about it.
Destruction by humans causes virtually all deforestation in the tropics, a vast haven of both carbon and wildlife. Fires are dominant at higher latitudes, causing roughly two-thirds of losses in Russia and Canada, and may be becoming more common due to climate change.
SYSTEM FAILURE
This week I again picked up a book I bought in 2006 by Thomas Homer-Dixon, now a professor in Waterloo, THE UPSIDE OF DOWN.
The book outlines the problems we face and clarifies their scope and deep causes. He traces the FALL of ROME in detail and clarifies how this was inevitable. A city with a million and more inhabitants needed ever more food and logistic support, and in the end the then world was not big enough to sustain its population as everything had to come from ever further distances.
My question: when – not if – will our complex society collapse.
It is all too evident that the USA is engaged in a frenzy of self-destruction. In an age of increasing complexity and interlocking crises, the Trump administration has embarked on a mass deskilling and simplification of the state. It is defunding departments, disbanding the teams and dismissing the experts they rely on, shutting down research programs, maligning the civil servants who remain in post, and destroying the public protections that defend us from disaster.
Life expectancy is at best stagnating, as three times as many deaths are caused by pollution as by AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
Pollution now threatens the very survival of societies, while at the same time the Trump government systematically destroys the effectiveness of the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, guts the Clean Power Plan, nullifies standards for motor vehicles, and the list goes on.
What this really amounts to is that The Evil One, The Devil, also known as the Satan, has found a willing ally and an enthusiastic supporter in POTUS, the President of the United States who now has become his most important collaborator in destroying Creation and so, willy-nilly speeds up the coming of the New Heaven and Earth.
Here’s where we are.
Now, Mid 2018, in the USA we witness the pursuit of simplistic solutions to complex problems, as environmental protection is being dismantled by right-wing governments, resulting in accelerating destruction of natural habitat worldwide. In spite of the United Nations efforts to stem Climate Change the annihilation of wild life, the disappearance of insects and birds, the depletion of aquifers, the degradation of soil, continues at an astonishing rate. Don’t for a minute expect that these interlocking crises will not affect you.
The current 7.6 billion people on the Earth are alive in a very special moment of human history. It had never happened before and it will never happen again.
That so many people are alive today is because there exists a sophisticated and incredibly complex system engaged in keeping them alive. That apparatus is the stupendous transportation system that carries food from all over the world, powered by fossil energy and controlled by the financial and political system we call “globalization.” As long as fossil energy and globalization exist, people will be fed and population may continue growing.
But not for long.
The whole system is under heavy strain because of depletion and pollution. Natural resources are more and more costly to produce while fighting pollution – and now increasingly global warming – is becoming increasingly costly. Every day we witness more fires, larger storms, higher heat, and bigger floods. So far earthquakes have been absent, but for how long?
A major financial collapse will totally disrupt the transportation chain which ships food from all over the planet. Without this system, the food will rot where it is produced and the people at the other end of the chain will starve. It will be GOOD BYE to the whole system, including the human population. That may happen as soon as later this year, so be prepared.
ENTER THE BOOK OF REVELATION.
Here is what it says about TODAY.
The book is dominated by one theme: the things in this world are really not what they are in the final analysis. Everything in our world is fake, carries a mask, is disguised; everything is different than it is. Yes, John predicted the FAKE NEWS syndrome.
John points out is that at long last matters will become what they are, that their masks will be torn off. In the last chapter of Revelation (22:11), he really sounds the alarm bell: “Let those who do wrong keep on doing wrong, and those who do right continue to do so, and let those who are holy continue to be holy”. That really means that matters are fixed: Climate Change will remain, wars will continue, evil will accelerate. Out of all the chaos and collapse at long last the truth will emerge. All camouflage will vanish and everything will finally show the true character that corresponds with its ultimate essence. That is the melody that vibrates through the entire book of The Revelation of John and makes it so engaging and vibrant.
That’s what we see today.
Yes, we live in a messy world, where every government is busy to hide the sorry situation, which will only succeed until reality, the crazy present, catches up to the ugly truth, the ugly truth being that matters out there are much more dire than the papers, the TV interviews, the sermons, make out to be.
Matters are not what they seem. The prosperity, the riches, the fancy BMWs, the palatial homes, the pensions we enjoy, the healthcare we receive, the air-conditioning we need more than ever, all of this has been borrowed from the future, a future in which all this glitter will be exposed as phony, nothing but make-believe and sham.
Once this becomes clear, once this truth hits, society will collapse, as sure as Rome did 1600 years ago and, as Homer-Dixon writes, “That unraveling would make Rome’s decline pale by comparison.”
A children’s song comes to mind, “The Bible tells us so.”