Nov 7

Waiting for the Next Birth Pang

From all indications, it appears we are ready for another end-time birth pang. After the surge of interest generated by Hurricane Wilma and the deadly earthquake in Pakistan, things have once again returned to normal.

In case you are new to the site, a birth pang is a dire event that occurs as one of the end-time warning signs. The general idea is the greater the frequency of calamities, the closer we are to the tribulation hour.

"For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows" (Mark 13:8).

One way I measure normalcy is the level of prophetic interest before and after a calamity. Right after a birth pang, there is always a surge in people seeking end-time information. As time passes, people lose interest in prophecy and go back to what they were doing before the incident.

In recent years, I've noticed the birth pang cycle shrinking at a very rapid rate. It amazes me that people are able to so quickly erase recent catastrophes from their memory.

The drop in interest is all the more dramatic when compared to activity in the '70s and '80s. Back then, a Katrina-type of disaster would hold the attention of prophecy buffs for at least a year. Despite the compounding of warning signs, the footprint of curiosity can only be measured in months.

Another problem is smaller birth pangs being written off. In the light of recent disasters of a much more massive scale, the deadly tornado that struck Indiana Sunday night and the rioting in France don't even seem to be factors for consideration.

The lack of repentance is really what concludes the loop. God allows calamity to remind man of his need for redemption. Once the indication is made that men are not going to listen, God gives the go-head for stronger warning signs to be set into motion.

The absence of repentance is the same mechanism that will guide the judgments of tribulation.

"And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts" (Rev. 9:20-21).

Another indication that the repentance cycle has ended is the chronic example of donor fatigue experienced by many charitable organizations. Every time there is a new disaster, people have become less interested in offering assistance. Because of the unprecedented needs that resulted from Hurricanes Katrina Rita and Wilma, the American Red Cross has been forced for the first time in its 124-year history to borrow $500 million to continue its disaster relief work.

Birth pangs may be the reason the bird flu has not turned into a pandemic and why terrorists have not begun using weapons of mass destruction. For several years now, epidemiologists have warned about a series of deadly viruses. So far, none has turned into a widespread killer. Nearly every day, Islamic terrorists carry out a suicide bomb attack using conventional explosives. If they switched to chemical weapons, far more people would die in each attack.

One possible reason we have not seen a deadly flu pandemic and terrorists using chemical or biological weapons is that they don't yet fit the timeline of escalation. As the birth pangs progressively worsen, we may soon see their occurrence.

At this point, I am very interested in seeing if the trend set by 2004 and 2005 will continue in the coming months. If 2006 turns out to be an equally active year, I think it would be wise conclude that the Master is at the Door.

I have always received a continuous amount of email from people who do not believe in Bible prophecy. Lately, many of them have been admitting that all these disasters are coincidentally worked in my favor. I often write them back with this warning, "If my luck with the end-time signs doesn't run out soon, yours will."

"Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2).

---

Israel Forever!  

All the world’s diplomatic community, it seems, is determined to divide the land given by God to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Israel’s enemies are much more than determined to divide that land. They seek the complete annihilation of every Jew in the world.

The most recent manifestation of the satanic rage against those perpetually persecuted people surfaced just within the past weeks. Rather than outrage from the nations of the world, the chief perpetrator honest enough to declare the true aim of Israel’s enemies received little more than a diplomatic slap on the wrist.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke his hatred against Israel during Iran’s annual hatefest. That is Iran’s “Jerusalem Day,” a carnival-like event during which Iranians openly express hatred for Jews. As part of the celebration, the revelers burn Israeli flags and actively recruit suicide bombers for jihadists (those intent on waging holy war).

Ahmadinejad declared that all Jews should be "wiped off the map." The outcries against such hate rhetoric from Israel’s Arab neighbors were either very muted or non-existent. And, rather than tone down the Iranian president’s vitriol, Iran’s supreme leader had some fuel to throw on the fires of hate.

"’It is the resistance in Palestine which will undoubtedly lead to the fall of the Zionist regime,’ said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a statement carried by the student-run news agency ISNA” ("Israel will fall from within." The Daily Telegraph, October 31, 2005).

We have watched with considerable vigilance, from the perspective of Bible prophecy, the world making the turn against Israel. From Jews casting out of some parts of the former Soviet Union, and later from Russia, to the anti-Semitism growing in all of Europe, Zechariah, chapter 12 has been coming more and more into view. The Bush Administration’s insistence on Sharon giving in to demands of the PLO and other of Israel’s enemies –forcing the trading of land for a promise of peace—has added to the volatile mixture that almost certainly is destined to produce fear of nuclear holocaust that will bring on the false peace covenant of Daniel 9: 27, and Isaiah 28: 15 and 18.

By this, I mean that Israel is being forced to shrink its already miniscule territory by the international community, and this might well make the nuclear option Israel’s only option at some point. Imminent threat of nuclear war is the one element within the mix of geopolitics that might convince everyone to accept a peace, even a peace where great compromise is required by all parties. Such compromise might include a Temple being allowed on Mt. Moriah, and Jerusalem becoming a joint capital of Israel and the Palestinians. Of course, it could be that this peace might come about only after a nuclear exchange or two.

God plainly says through Joel the prophet that His land will have been divided by the end of human government's rule on earth. That can refer to none other than the land He promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Despite that dividing of His land, however, God gives His Holy Word that Israel will be His forever. His land will be the Jews’ land forever!

Genesis 17:7-8 states: "And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. And I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."

Israel continues to undergo territorial contraction while other kinds of contractions –birth pangs like a woman in travail about to deliver-- convulse a very troubled planet. These are prophesied to come much more severely as Antichrist’s regime draws nearer to its time upon the stage of human history.

We have God’s Word on the truth that Jacob’s Trouble, as foretold by Jeremiah in Jeremiah 30: 7 and by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 24: 21, will last only a brief time. Israel will survive the worst Satan and his Antichrist can throw at God’s chosen people.

God will bring all nations of the world to account for their dastardly dealings with Jerusalem and all of Israel.

“For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land” (Joel 3:1-2). --Terry