And they overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death. (Rev. 12:11)
Watch, and pray
The talk of a Constitutional Convention has really just been a background whisper for years, but if this comes to pass, it could change everything regarding life in the U.S.A....
Entire founding document may be up for review after Michigan vote
Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com
The entire U.S. Constitution could be up for review after Michigan became the 34th state to vote in favor of a Constitutional Convention, satisfying a rule that states America’s founding document can be amended if two thirds of state legislatures approve the measure.
Article V of the U.S. Constitution states that Congress “shall call a convention for proposing amendments” should the two thirds requirement be met, which it was last week when Michigan lawmakers endorsed the move.
Following the vote, California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter called for a Constitutional Convention to be given the go ahead.
“Based on several reports and opinions, Michigan might be the 34th state to issue such a call and therefore presents the constitutionally-required number of states to begin the process of achieving a balanced budget amendment,” Hunter wrote.
While some would welcome the opportunity to amend the Constitution to institute fiscal conservatism, others fear the move could easily be hijacked to negate parts of the document that protect fundamental liberties, such as the right to bear arms and freedom of speech.
Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens recently called for ”improving” the Constitution by changing the second amendment so the right to bear arms only applied to those in a “militia” and not the general public at large.
“Nevertheless, in such a convention, the ENTIRE Constitution is subject to review and can be altered and changed. This could be everything from installing “social justice” to the dissolution of the federal government. Everything is on the table as if we were back in 1776 Philadelphia,” writes Martin Armstrong, adding that the Michigan vote represents an, “unprecedented event to amend the U.S. Constitution.”
Fox News’ Barnini Chakraborty notes that it is unclear whether the 34 state requirement has been met since some have rescinded their votes, but constitutional scholar Gregory Watson said there could be no take backs.
“If it is ultimately adjudicated that a state may not rescind a prior application, then Ohio’s 2013 application for a Balanced Budget Amendment convention would be the 33rd and Michigan’s 2014 application would be the 34th on that topic,” said Watson.
People often tell me to just "preach the Gospel" and not waste time trying to save the culture. What is the Gospel, and does it only apply to salvation?
Fluoride is a poisonous substance added to many municipal water supplies across the US, Canada, and elsewhere without the permission of the residents. Is there a model that communities can follow to remove it from their water supply? The short answer to this question is yes.
Dr. Paul Connett, a chemist by training and director of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN), is recognized worldwide as a leader in the movement to eliminate fluoride from municipal water supplies, and I'm pleased to be working with him to achieve this goal.
He's been active in this area for decades, becoming an environmental activist shortly after joining St. Lawrence University in 1983. In 1985, he got involved with the Zero Waste movement, fighting incineration and promoting alternatives to waste burning.
Those earlier efforts recently culminated in the publication of the book, The Zero Waste Solution: Untrashing the Planet One Community at a Time.1 Then, in 1996, his wife alerted him to the problems of water fluoridation.
"I started to read what she'd given me, and I was embarrassed that I had fallen victim of this American brainwashing," he says. "The American message from the public health establishment is that everybody in the world says fluoridation is great.
They forgot the fact that most of the world does not fluoridate; 97 percent of Europe does not fluoridate, thank you very much. The other tactic has been to denigrate opponents of fluoridation – flat earth society, crazy people. And I apologize, because I fell victim to that."
Countering the Status Quo
The book, The Case Against Fluoride, was the culmination of years of joint investigation by Dr. Connett and James Beck, an MD, Ph.D. physicist from Calgary, and Spedding Micklem, who has a doctorate in biology from Oxford. In addition to a clear discussion about the toxic effects of fluoride, it contains 80 pages-worth of references to the scientific literature on fluoride.
The primary strategy that promoters of water fluoridation use is to establish that authorities say: "It's good; it's safe and effective," and that "people who oppose fluoridation are stupid, stupid, stupid." This strategy is basically aimed at keeping you from looking at the actual science.
"What the Fluoride Action Network has done, and done in spades, is we made the literature readily available – not just a little of it, but all of it," Dr. Connett says.
"Even material that is pro-fluoridation is accessible through our website. If anybody wants to check that out, go to our website, FluorideAlert.org. On the top right hand corner of the homepage, you'll see a button that says Researchers.
If you click on that, you'll get a menu of issues. In that menu, if you click on Health Effects Database, you get another menu of all the tissues that fluoride could interfere with. It's a tremendous database.
...My son is now going to archives around the country, digging up the information that's being suppressed. We now know that, for years, they've been suppressing information about the harm that fluoride causes.
The industry hid information that fluoride was damaging the workers of the aluminum, steel, and other industries, with the help of the Sloan-Kettering Institute and the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research.
These institutes do research for industry, but only publish the results that are favorable to industry, and hide the results that were not favorable. And of course, what's sickening about all of this is that there was collusion between these people that were hiding the information and the US Public Health Service. The very service that they set up to protect your health was colluding with industry to suppress information."
Sound crazy? Welcome to reality 2014. There is no official confirmation the video below is the two Russian diplomats it claims, but there isn't any denial either. And it would be quite an appropriate response from the U.S. for Russia's release of the Victoria Nuland conversation just before toppling the Ukrainian government. Notice that of the areas mentioned in the conversation and title, Venice has just voted for secession (see below) while Scotland is pushing for a vote for secession from the U.K., Alaska has a petition out to return to Alaska, Californians have considered dividing into 6 different states and Miami is, well, Miami, full of Russians, Cubans, and many others not born there.
Language warning for the video and translation below...
A leaked conversation between two Russian ambassadors appears to show the diplomats joking about the crisis in Ukraine and the possibility of future incursions in the United States and Eastern Europe.
The video posted under the YouTube account “Michael Berkan” involves Igor Nilokaevich Chubarov and Sergey Viktorovich Bakharev, the Russian ambassadors to the African nations Eritrea and Zimbabwe and Malawi, respectively.
The call begins with Chubarov congratulating Bakharev on Zimbabwe’s vote against the UN resolution that declared Crimea’s referendum invalid. Chubarov expressed surprise that Eritrea abstained from the vote.
After exchanging pleasantries, Chubarov then jokes he is trying to drive home the message to the EU Heads of Mission that the Crimea referendum and further Russian imperialism is only the beginning:
IGOR NILOAKAEVICH CHUBAROV: Now I have a very simple task, for the time being I’m saying the only key thing to those EU HoMs. I’m repeating: “Guys, we’ve taken away Crimea but it’s not the fucking end. [laughter] In the future we’ll take away your [laughter] fucking Catalonia, Venice, as well as Cattleland (Scotland), and Alaska. And we’ll never rest content with that” [laughter].
SERGEY VIKTOROVICH BAHAREV: At first stage we will.
CHUBAROV: Agreed, only at first stage, and later we’ll think it over. All those fucking limitrophes, e.g. Latvia, Estonia, and other Europeans as well as Romanians, and Bulgarians, we’ll kick their asses in the right direction – where they have to be.
VIKTOROVICH BAHAREV: Oh no, it’s better not to touch them, we are not going to kick them in. It’ll be better for us to disturb “Californialand,” “Miamiland,” that sort of desolated regions [laughter]
CHUBAROV: You’re right, there’s practically fucking 95 percent of our citizens in “Miamiland” [laughter]
VIKTOROVICH BAHAREV: Exactly.
CHUBAROV: We have full right to hold a referendum.
VIKTOROVICH BAHAREV: As well as “Londonland!”
CHUBAROV: Yes certainly, you’re right. We’ll leave for a while Romanians and Bulgarians, let them stay so far in the EU [laughter]
VIKTOROVICH BAHAREV: Together with the Baltic shit.
In a slightly more serious tone, Chubarov then tells his comrade that the EU told him Russia should take back Romania and Bulgaria:
CHUBAROV: By the way, the EU HoD and I recently had a chat, you know, about all kinds of things, just being lost in the crowd, and he asked: “Listen, take back those Romania and Bulgaria.” “Definitely, no,” I answered. “Guys, nothing will come of it.”
VIKTOROVICH BAHAREV: Enjoy yourself with all that stuff [laughter]
The leaked recording of the Russian officials follows the YouTube disclosure of a candid conversation between the State Department’s Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt.
It has been some time since we’ve heard about the rape of southern Europe by the banksters, so I am grateful to Ms. M.W. for sharing this article, for there are serious protests in Spain concerning that country’s BBVA bank’s evictions of families from their homes: Stop the Evictions: 55 Banks occupied March 24, 2014
Whatever the soundness (or more likely, the lack thereof) of Spain’s easy money policies and “social democracy” policies were that led to that nation’s continuing struggle, the fact remains that there are three guilty parties. Whenever governments promise things to its peoples that it ultimately cannot deliver, that implicates the peoples themselves(America, take note!). But the major players, the major responsibility, lies not just with “the people” but with the governments and capitalists, who for their own reasons, profit both from the easy credit and the misery to follow, and some Spaniards, like some Americans, know this. But thus far, the bankers themselves have all but avoided any jail time(except in Iceland of course), for their complicity in driving a meltdown.
So why am I drawing your attention to Spain?
It is because it is symptomatic of a growing problem in Europe, one that has spread from Greece, to Italy, to Spain, to Portugal, and I suspect will shortly break out in France. The growing disunion of the European Union has also spread to Italy, where Venice – in a rather dramatic touch of irony – has held a referendum where the city and region voted to secede from Italy and restore the sovereignty it lost when Napoleon Bonaparte ended the Serenissima:
Spain, of course, like Italy, has its own history of composition from smaller kingdoms after the Reconquista, with the final union of Castille and Aragon under Ferdinand and Isabella. But at one time, Aragon and Navarre were kingdoms, and of course the Basques in the former region of Navarre have been openly pushing for independence from Spain since the death of General Franco and the restoration of the monarchy. The Venetian referendum, and the Spanish occupations, signal what the real problem is: the super-state as a purely political creation where cultural and economic interests run counter to the political.
And the article hints at something that may be brewing globally as increasingly the centralized democratic governments of the west appear to be almost completely insulated from any real responsiveness to their peoples, and almost totally subservient to the national security/financial oligarchs:
“Given that Obama recently declared all secession movements illegitimate (except those supported by the US Government, of course) it’s unknown how much support Venice can expect from the international community.”
Secession movements typically require the support of some major power in order to succeed(witness the case of the Crimea and Russia), so one cannot expect the Stars and Bars to rise over the American South, or the Lion of St. Mark to fly from the towers and spires of Venice, again any time soon. But it’s a harbinger of tensions that will not go away because the sittuations creating them, central government indifference and non-responsiveness to its people, has not changed and does not appear to be set to do so any time soon. As a result, the movements of protest not only grow, so also does the order and magnitude of local defiance. Already in the USA many states are passing bills whose clear intention is to reaffirm their sovereignty vis-a-vis the federal government. In many localities, local gun control laws are openly flouted.
My point in all of this? Such movements, whether of occupation of banks in Spain, or secession in Venice, indicate socio-political discontent that is reaching a tipping point, and in such situations, the opportunity for covert operations penetration and manipulation of such movements always arises. And as I have been reminding people, the game of staged coups and covert-operations-driven revolutions is a game that not just the West, or the USA, can play. We may thus be entering, not just the information age, the transhumanist age, but also, the covert operations age.
You can learn all you need to know by reading Genesis chapters 5 - 7. However, in the interest of creating another list, we have 14 interesting facts that will help distract us from the movie Noah which had no interest in being scripturally accurate. So here we go...
By Michael Snyder
The new Hollywood blockbuster “Noah” has created a tremendous amount of interest in the story of Noah’s Ark. Traditionally, most people have regarded it as just a cute Bible story to tell children. But could it be real? Is there solid evidence that Noah’s Ark actually existed? If there is real evidence, would you believe it? What you are about to see is absolutely stunning. In fact, some of the things that you are about to see are so shocking that many people will simply refuse to accept them. Later in this article, you are going to see video footage of the physical remains of Noah’s Ark. This discovery has been known about for quite some time, but the mainstream media has mostly ignored it. A boat-shaped object that is the exact length that the Ark should be and the exact width the Ark should be has been found on the mountains of Ararat. Ground penetrating radar shows us how the Ark was laid out, and scientific tests have been conducted on wood and metal extracted from the gigantic buried boat. If you have never heard about any of this before, prepare to be blown away. The following are 14 cold, hard facts about Noah’s Ark that you probably do not know…
#1 The Ark was about 500 feet long. That would make it approximately the size of a World War II aircraft carrier.
#2 It has been estimated that the Ark had an internal volume of more than 1.5 million cubic feet.
#3 According to brand new research conducted by scientists the University of Leicester, Noah’s Ark could have carried at least 70,000 animals without sinking…
Noah’s Ark would have floated even with two of every animal in the world packed inside, scientists have calculated.
Although researchers are unsure if all the creatures could have squeezed into the huge boat, they are confident it would have handled the weight of 70,000 creatures without sinking.
#4 Of course the Ark would not have needed to hold 70,000 animals. One conservative estimate puts the number of animals on the Ark at about 16,000. This would have allowed for more than enough room for food, supplies and lots of empty space.
#5 We have discovered at least 250 different ancient cultures that have a story of a massive, cataclysmic flood. Most of those stories have striking similarities to the Genesis account.
#6 If there really was a global flood, we would expect to find billions of dead things laid down in rock layers all over the globe. And that is precisely what we find.
#7 We know where Noah’s Ark is today. Yes, you read that correctly. As you can see from the YouTube video posted below, the remains of Noah’s Ark have been discovered on “the mountains of Ararat” in Turkey. This video footage is absolutely stunning…
#8 The remains of the Ark are just as long and just as wide as the Bible says they should be.
#9 Wood from the Ark has been tested, and the tests show that it does contain organic carbon. That means that the fossilized wood that was discovered was once living matter.
#10 Along with wood, metal was also used in the construction of the Ark. Iron fittings and aluminum have both been discovered at the remains of the Ark.
#11 Petrified animal dung, a petrified antler and and an ancient piece of cat hair have also been retrieved from the remains of the Ark.
#12 Historical records confirm that people have believed that this is the correct resting place of the Ark for a very, very long time…
The Gilgamesh Epic (650 BC) gives Mt. Nisir as the landing place of the Ark. The local name for the town where the Ark was found is Nasar.
The annals of Ashurnasurpal II of Assyria (833-859 BC) places it south of the Zab river (correct).
Theophilus of Antioch (115-185 AD) said the Ark could be seen in his day in the Arabian mountains. Later Church Fathers also mention the Ark as late as the mid 7th century.
In the 13th century, Willam, a traveler, stated for the first time that Mt. Masis was the Ark location (present-day Mt. Ararat).
Ptolemy’s Geographia (1548) mentions the mountains of Armenia as the place of landing. So does the traveler Nicolas de Nicolay (1558).
#13 A village near the remains of the Ark is known as “the Village of Eight”, and a nearby valley is known as “the Valley of the Eight”. There were eight survivors on the Ark.
#14 The site is now known as “the National Park of Noah’s Ark” and it has previously been officially recognized by the Turkish government.
If you are interested in learning more, you can find additional videos about this incredible discovery here and here.
When I was young, I desperately hoped that Noah’s Ark would be found someday, but I doubted that it would ever happen.
Well, it has happened.
We have found Noah’s Ark.
It is not just a story for little children.
So will you believe the evidence, or will you just dismiss it because it does not fit with your current worldview?
Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below…
So you thought it was just the Vatican looking for an alien savior? Clintons not even the first President. Remember Reagan, speaking before the U.N. in 1985 said basically the same thing. Aliens will bring us all together...aliens will help us willingly form a new world order....if only those darn aliens would hurry up and get here already....
During an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live Wednesday night, former President Bill Clinton said when aliens invade, he hopes it's not like Independence Day.
Clinton told Kimmel that while in office, he examined the Roswell and Area 51 files and confirmed we aren't hiding any extraterrestrial life there. But refuses to rule out the existence of alien life forms.
"I'm trying to tell you I don't know, but if were visited someday, I wouldn't be surprised. I just hope that it is not like Independence Day, " Clinton said.
But he says an alien invasion may not be a terrible thing.
"That may be the only way to unite this incredibly divided world of ours. They are out there - we better think of how all the difference among people on earth would seem small if we felt threatened by a space invader. That is the whole theory of Independence Day. "
It helps in understanding this video to be familiar with the CIA's MKUltra experiments that took place in the 50's and 60's, and who knows, probably still happening today under another name. Check out the second vid if you aren't familiar with MKUltra.
Monarch Programming - MK ULTRA Exposed Full Length
www.THE-COMPLETE-TRUTH.BLOGSPOT.co.uk
Celebrities are often born and influenced their entire young life, then put under this type of trauma-based mind control, and then ultimatley shot into stardom, as a way to control youth, remember if they control the mind, they control the person, they make the person they control famous, and they can influence MILLIONS, this is just a small part of what is happening today.
Not a shocker if you have been following the work of Tom Horn and Cris Putnam. The Jesuit astronomers are anxiously looking through their billion dollar telescopes (including the one in Arizona named LUCIFER) for the coming of their savior, an "extra-terrestrial" Messiah. Be careful...you just might get what you wish for....
Why in the world is the Vatican searching for extraterrestrial life? Does the Catholic hierarchy know something about alien life that the rest of us do not? Why is the largest religious organization on the planet spending so much time and energy looking for "brother extraterrestrial"?
Earlier this month, the Vatican Observatory cosponsored a major conference on extraterrestrial life that brought together 200 of the leading astrobiologists in the world. One of the organizers stated that one of the goals of the conference was to figure out "how we can find life among the stars within the next two decades".
Certainly it would not be unusual for a group of astronomers and astrobiologists to get together and discuss such things. But why is the Vatican seemingly obsessed with this stuff? As you will see below, there are some high profile Vatican astronomers that seem quite confident that "something" is out there. In fact, one has stated that once it is revealed, "everything we think we know" may have to "be thrown out".
Normally, a conference that brings together several hundred scientists is not going to make headline news.
What makes this one different is the involvement of the Vatican. The following is how this conference was described on NASA's website...
Motivated by the rapidly increasing number of known Earth-sized planets, the increasing range of extreme conditions in which life on Earth can persist, and the progress toward a technology that will ultimately enable the search for life on exoplanets, the Vatican Observatory and the Steward Observatory announce a major conference entitled The Search for Life Beyond the Solar System: Exoplanets, Biosignatures & Instruments.
The goal of the conference is to bring together the interdisciplinary community required to address this multi-faceted challenge: experts on exoplanet observations, early and extreme life on Earth, atmospheric biosignatures, and planet-finding telescopes.
Asked if he was referring to beings similar to humans or even more evolved than humans, he said: "Certainly, in a universe this big you can't exclude this hypothesis."
"Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures on earth, there can be other beings, even intelligent, created by God. This is not in contrast with our faith because we can't put limits on God's creative freedom. Why can't we speak of a 'brother extraterrestrial'? It would still be part of creation."
Funes, who runs the observatory that is based south of Rome and in Arizona, held out the possibility that the human race might actually be the "lost sheep" of the universe. There could be other beings "who remained in full friendship with their creator," he said.
Wow.
So Funes is actually suggesting that when we do encounter extraterrestrial beings, they may not have fallen into sin like humanity has.
This is an argument that they continue to make and they're becoming more and more adamant about it, that what we know about ourselves is that we are fallen, right? But we cannot necessarily assume the same thing about our space brethren, and if they're unfallen, they're closer to God than we are. Therefore they have a better understanding of the Gospel and of the Godhead and of the nature of God. And when they started out three years ago, Funes was saying "I'd like to baptize an alien into the Catholic faith." Well that's not what they're saying today. What they're saying now is that they [aliens] are coming here and they're going to baptize us into their faith and it is going to require us to make changes to our knowledge, to our understanding, of the Gospel. In fact, some of their deepest theologians have said, "Perhaps everything we think we know about the Gospel is going to have to be thrown out."
"17 + 25 = 42," the student reportedly wrote. "I got the assignment by talking in my brain and I agreed of the answer that my brain got."
According to the Daily Caller, the unidentified San Jose school uses the GO Math! curriculum by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
"If you look closely under the math question, you will be able to see the Common Core standards in a blue-colored print that aligns to that particular question," the parent explained to the Daily Caller.
No additional details were provided by the Daily Caller about the student or school the assignment was given in.
"I have a bachelor of science degree in electronics engineering which included extensive study in differential equations and other higher math applications. Even I cannot explain the Common Core mathematics approach, nor get the answer correct," he wrote.
Fascinating stuff here. Make of it what you will. There is a long history of associating Gog and Magog with the Eastern European region that includes the Ukraine and recently annexed Crimea. That the ancient Scythians have always been identified with these names is only part of the story. I hope to bring more of the story to you in the next few days.
Not only Christian fans of Armageddon are buzzing: According to one rabbi, the Vilna Gaon himself predicted that when the Russians take Crimea, the steps of the Messiah will be heard.
(At this point you may have to sign up to receive Haaretz News to read the original article, but Tom Horn has summarized it as read below.)
New Book “Cauldron” Was Released Just In Time As Rabbis And Prophets Around World Open Up On An Ancient Rabbinic Secret -- Russia’s Invasion Of Crimea Was Specifically Identified By Top Jewish Sages For OVER TWO-HUNDRED YEARS AS THE SIGNAL THAT WOULD HERALD MESSIAH'S COMING & END TIMES! Josephus Flavius, the turncoat Jewish historian who chronicled the Masada saga, had a prophetic theory about the Scythians and the lands in which they lived. He concluded that their land was the Magog, as in Gog and Magog, as in the war of Gog and Magog, as the biblical prelude to the End of Days. Which is one of the many reasons why recent events in the Ukraine have created a buzz among legions of apocalypse-anticipating true believers. […] According to a report catching fire over the weekend in the haredi press in Israel, the Gaon Rabbi Moshe Shternbuch told his disciples this week that the times of the Messiah are upon us. And who is the source for his amazing analysis? None other than one of the top Jewish sages of all time, the Vilna Gaon himself, the Gra, “the genius of Vilnius”, the famously harsh critic of Hasidic Judaism. According to Shternbuch, he is privy to a closely guarded secret handed down from the 18th Century Vilna Gaon through generations of revered rabbis: “When you hear that the Russians have captured the city of Crimea, you should know that the times of the Messiah have started, that his steps are being heard.
I have to give a lot of credit to Youtube user TheUnitedKnowledge. He started his statistical observations about 4 years ago, but he noticed something that others had missed. That between February and April each year there were large increases in earthquakes, volcanoes, magnetic field anomalies, tsunamis, fireballs and mystery booms/cracking from various areas of the globe. Why?
The most logical answer is that something is coming closer to our spring orbit that can affect the Earth's magnetic field and create great gravitational stress on the planet. You can call it Planet X, Herculobus, Nibiru, or Wormwood, but whatever it is, the data is undeniable. It continues to happen year after year. And the really big one is yet to come....
This is the long version of a video from Dutchsinse and Tatoot1009 concerning the growing tectonic issues at Yellowstone. This will tie in to the next article from TheUnitedKnowledge youtube user, who has been tracking the spring tectonic upticks for the past 4 years. Chile was hit with an 8.2 earthquake tonight and possible small tsunami wave to follow. But three areas in the U.S. bear watching for volcanic interest. Yellowstone, by far the most frightening for the massive lava field that lies beneath it. Mt. Hood, which has shown greatly increased activity in recent days, and the Salton Sea area, which has a volcano just below it's surface which could erupt at anytime. Why are these areas heating up? Watch the next video to find out...
This is actually part 5 in Freeman's presentation, with part 6 below. Is Obama a clone of Pharaoh Akhenatan? Did the Stargate tv show foretell the Obama administration. You can't make this stuff up folks. Fascinating stuff...
Have we made contact with extraterrestrial beings? What would the Pope do if aliens graced the Vatican? Quit?
Part 5 of Freeman at Free Your Mind 2
This is the final part of Freeman's presentation, part 6. More here about how our culture has programmed us to embrace war, and even darker things. Note the connection between the ancient Egyptian Council of Nine (Ennead) and Star Trek. Interesting also is the connection between the nine and Kenneth Arnolds 1947 sighting which ignited the modern UFO age. Very interesting...
The Nine gods of Egypt were channeled by the elite. How have Space Command, the FBI, and the CIA influenced our children to bring warfare to mankind? Part 6 of Freeman at Free Your Mind 2.
This article is from Chuck Missler, but let me add my two cents here. I do believe these are signs, but not signs of the immediate return of the Lord Jesus. Rather these are signs of the soon approaching end of the age which will include the Lord's return, but there are still a number of prophecies awaiting fulfillment before His return. Watch and pray!
A number of well known (and not a few not-so-well known) Christian writers have written of late that the coming “blood moons” are Biblical harbingers of Jesus’s imminent return and will fulfill Joel 2:31. I have what for lack of a better term I’ll call a “minority report” view regarding the approaching astronomical and calendar phenomena labeled “The Blood Moons”: they have nothing to do with the imminent return of Christ. That I hold this view does not mean that I do not believe we live in the last days. The existence of Israel seems to me to be conclusive proof of that opinion.
But I’m not convinced that four lunar eclipses, even if they will occur on two consecutive sets of Jewish festivals, is the fulfillment (or even a fulfillment) of Joel 2:31. I take very seriously the Hebrew context and grammar of Joel 2:31 and the Greek grammar and context of Jesus’ comments about the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. In failing to consider the grammar, people are missing the point of the passage.
Let’s take a close look at the prophecy of Joel:
The sun will be given over to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and terrifying Day of the Lord.
— Joel 2:31
As you can tell by reading this rendering of Joel’s prophecy cited by the Holy Bible: International Standard Version, there are two events described by one verb. The sun turns dark, and the moon turns red, both at the same time. There are not two actions going on at the same time, one affecting the sun and one affecting the moon. There is only one event going on, and it’s affecting both heavenly bodies at the same time.
The red moon isn’t being caused by sun light being filtered through the earth’s atmosphere to create an oft-observed reddish appearance to the moon. If the moon turns red in the earth’s shadow, by definition of the term eclipse, the sun is shining brightly on the other side of the earth!
Notice also that Joel doesn’t predict four lunar eclipses that will come a year apart. There’s only one event: the darkening of the sun, followed by a red hue coming to moonlight. The red hue is coming from a startling, if not downright terrifying, diminished output of visible light from the sun itself that causes the moon to turn red in appearance. Observers on earth will see a shift toward the red end of the light spectrum of the entire sun, not merely a lunar eclipse.
Whether the sun turning dark is an unexpected shift of our sun’s behavior to be like that of a red giant, or some other phenomenon that’s completely supernatural is anybody’s guess. Personally, I hold the view that the entire universe is electrical in nature, and that stars are an electrical phenomenon, powered by thermoelectric currents contained in interstellar and interplanetary plasma.
I don’t think our sun works by fusion of hydrogen into helium. I think its energy output is electrical, not thermonuclear, in origin. Maybe at the end of days God just turns off the switch?
At any rate, Scripture is completely silent on the cause of the phenomenon. It isn’t silent as to the purpose—it’s to serve as the final harbinger of the end of days, as Jesus pointed out in Matthew 24:29:
“Now immediately after the troubles of those days, ‘The sun will be darkened, the moon will not reflect its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers from the heavens will be disrupted.’”
— Matthew 24:29
The reader will notice that in this quote by Jesus from Joel 2:31, he renders the Hebrew phrase “the moon into blood” (which does not have a verb associated with it in the Hebrew text) by adding the Greek verb “will not reflect its light”. The pronoun “its” in the Greek refers to the light coming from the sun, not the moon. Jesus knew the moon reflects sun light. It does not shine with its own light.
Jesus is saying that the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy will not be light from the sun being reflected through the earth’s atmosphere. That’s what lunar eclipses contain. Instead, the moon will experience a diminution of light from the sun.
Now let’s look at what happens after the sun and moon are affected. According to Matthew 24:30–31:
Then the sign that is the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all ‘the tribes of the land will mourn’ as they see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven’ with power and great glory. He’ll send out his angels with a loud trumpet blast, and they’ll gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to another.”
— Matthew 24:30–31
Do notice, won’t you please, how what Jesus has to say regarding the sun and moon flies in the face of current views about the events surrounding his return. Notice that:
First, the sun and moon being struck appears at the end of the time of trouble, not before it begins.
Second, the stars throughout the universe will fall from their courses. Heavenly “powers” (whatever that may entail, the text doesn’t say) will be disrupted.
Third, after all of these events occur Christ descends from heaven.
Our takeaway lesson from observing what Jesus had to say about the darkening of the sun and moon during the end of days should call us all to take our Biblical studies a bit more seriously. Maybe the next time something that has the appearance of being an end of days’ phenomenon pops up on our radar, perhaps we should take a closer look at what the Biblical text is saying. All sorts of troubles may be avoided by doing so.
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Dr. William Weltyis a Greek and Hebrew scholar and serves as a board member of Koinonia House. He is the Executive Director of The ISV Foundation of La Mirada, California, producers of the Holy Bible: International Standard Version. He also serves as Manager of SWANsat Holdings, LLC, a satellite-based telecommunications project currently headquartered in Southern California.
The Joy Jesus Church in Likoni, Kenya was attacked by gunmen during the recent Sunday’s morning services, resulting in the deaths of four church goers and the wounding of 17 others. The attack was no random robbery, but a purposeful effort to murder the church members. The gunmen moved on to Redeemed Gospel Church down the road but were prevented by armed guards at the door. The Somali-based Islamic terrorist group Al Shabaab has committed enough religiously-motivated attacks against its neighbors in Kenya that Kenyan churches must behave like Nehemiah, posting guards while the work of God is being done. Not all live in the freedom we take for granted in the West, where we can gather with our fellow believers to worship Christ any time we like.
“The ruthless attack on a church, as men, women, and children were gathered simply to worship God, reveals the hatefulness and emptiness of the ideology that motivates these terrorist groups,” said Todd Daniels, International Christian Concern Regional Manager for the Middle East. “The Kenyan military and security forces must continue their efforts to root out terrorist groups and provide protection to their civilians.”
The weekend before St. Patrick’s Day, more than 150 people were killed in Islamic attacks on Christian areas of Nigeria. Open Doors reports that many of the victims were burned beyond recognition and were buried in a mass grave. Herdsman disputes are part of the problem, with West African Muslim ethnic herdsman attacking communities of Christian farmers.
“The gunmen invaded our village at about 10 o’clock in the evening on Sunday, they started shouting “’God is Great,’” Nigeria’s Vanguard newspaper quoted one villager. “In some houses, they did not shoot at the residents but ordered them to vacate their houses and set them ablaze, saying ‘We are here for God work.’” Two churches were burned along with the houses.
Persecution spreads across Nigeria. That same weekend, militants suspected of connection to the Boko Haram insurgency killed two people in Nigeria’s northeast. Boko Haram is considered responsible for the deaths of thousands of Nigerians since 2009 with the intended purpose of setting up Islamic law in the north.
Half a continent away in Libya last month, seven Egyptian Christians were found dead on a beach. “They were killed by headshots in execution style,” a police officer told Reuters. “We don’t know who killed them.” The government still struggles to maintain order three years after the Arab Spring led to the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi, and Islamic militants freely take their revenge on those they perceive as enemies. Witnesses said that the men go door-to-door and ask people if they are Muslim or Christian, then drag out the Christians and execute them.
Africa is rife with violence, but Christian persecution can be found across the world. Those of us who freely attend church any day of the week we like, we who may own three or four or five Bibles, we may not truly appreciate the extent of the struggle faced by our brothers and sisters every day.
But, we can help.
Open Doors, the organization Brother Andrew founded, has arms in many countries, reaching out with love to the persecuted church all over the world. Groups like Voice of the Martyrs and International Christian Concern also do great work in offering help to Christians suffering under religious persecution.
There are many things we can do to help our brothers and sisters. The first of which is prayer.
Prayer
What should we pray then? We can pray for those in prison to be filled with the Spirit of God to minister to others while there. We pray for faith and courage and peace for those who attend church every weekend knowing they might die for it. The joy of the Lord is our strength! We pray the same for the little Christians and churches in Laos and Burma, China and Iran, Maldives, Eritrea, North Korea and Cuba. Most of all, we can thank God. Thank Him for the Spirit of God who moves in might and shines the light of Christ more brightly than ever in great darkness.
Honor Freedom
We must also take advantage of the freedoms we have. Do we own Bibles? We need to read them every day, growing in our love of God’s Word for the precious treasure that it is. Do we have the freedom to meet with other believers? Then we should, enjoying their company and taking advantage of opportunities to fast and pray and study together.
Donate
We can give our funds or volunteer time to ministries that offer important assistance to the Church around the world. Ministries that reach the persecuted church help the orphans and suffering families of the disenfranchised, imprisoned and slaughtered Christians. They provide support to underground pastors, providing Bibles and teaching materials. They stand with devastated communities and help them rebuild after massive attacks on the populace. We can further this vital work by giving of our funds and time. [See links below.]
Speak Up
We can raise awareness of others to the persecution that is happening right now. The Holocaust may have ended in Germany and Poland, but modern day concentration camps exist, where people are being starved and tortured and executed every day. People need to know. They need to be aware, so that more can be done to help.
Let’s not forget our brothers and sisters, instead remembering them daily as though suffering with them. We are a body.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
“Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; [and] them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.”
Paul Joseph Watson
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