“THERE WILL BE EARTHQUAKES”

The first four days of Easter Week saw Jesus making great prophetic statements. The majority of these were concerned with the Jewish nation and spoke of the judgement on the nation that would follow its rejection of him.That destructive judgement came 40 years after his death.

Other statements, however, had a much wider reach and a much longer time perspective; they encompassed the world, and reached to the “end” time. One of these wider prophetic statements is all too topical; Jesus said very simply that over the course of history “there will be earthquakes” (Matt24:7), or “great earthquakes” (Lk.21:11). He also said that there would be famines and plagues (widespread diseases). Furthermore he warned of “wars and rumours of wars”, with “nations rising against nations”. This was not an “optimistic”, “liberal” or “evolutionary” forecast, and could be seen as negative and best forgotten. But 2000 years of history have shown it to be a remarkably accurate statement. It is still as true to-day as ever it has been over those two millennia despite all the humanistic and well meaning declarations of the twentieth century about “a war to end war” and a “war on poverty” etc.

Jesus made it clear that these signs (earthquakes, famines and plagues) in themselves do not mark “the end” of the course of history(Matt 24:6). What he said was that “all these are the beginnings of birth pangs” (Matt 24:8). They are painful reminders of greater pain yet to come, an intense pain that will herald a new creation. In other words the culmination of the historic process in the world will be a period of much greater and intense cataclysm and pain than these "beginnings"No doubt part of that greater pain would be a far greater manifestation and intensity of these “beginnings”,of earthquakes, famines and plagues. For all its difficulties in interpretation this is a plain basic message of the book of Revelation – which itself, it must be remembered, is a prophecy from Jesus through his servant John.

However, Jesus made it clear that “the end” would be marked out by two features in particular. One would be “signs in the sun, moon and stars”, “with nations in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea” Lk. 21:23. The other would be “this gospel will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations (and then the end will come)” (Matt. 24:14). This latter feature we are able to monitor to a degree, and what we see today in the world should fill us with joy for we see an extraordinary and growing fulfillment of Jesus’ words. The former “roaring of the sea” etc. certainly does not seem unrealistic! As we learn more about the earth and the universe it gets more and more credibl.It is really a matter of time.

To describe such events as this as “birth pangs” makes Jesus' message one of great and very positive hope. It is not a “doom” story. These events are the prelude to something new. It is not going to be “the end” in the sense that after these cataclysms there will be nothing – it is not the finish of humanity or creation. It is the start of a re-birth. No one can possibly consider the present state of the world and humanity as being ideal. It has to be reborn. The real problem with the present creation is the warped nature of humanity, rebellious and out of touch with its Maker. The re-birth will deal precisely with that problem. It will bring creation and humanity to the place where God wants it to be. That is why the “end”, the moment of rebirth, will be characterized most of all by the return of Jesus. At the point of greatest pain and anguish he will appear to restore. He will come as Judge ,and the great birth pain will be an expression of his judgement, but he will also come as King, Saviour and Restorer. It will be a massive time of rejoicing. As he himself said, when a woman comes to the point of delivery there is great pain, but the pain is forgotten in the joy of the new child.

We need a perspective beyond the earthquakes – Jesus gave it.

Bob

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A LOUD WORLD WARNNG

It is almost exactly ten years ago (Spring 2001) that I was speaking at a representative gathering of praying people on the subject of national judgement. I remember it vividly, not only because of the strong prophetic impulse that I felt undergirded the subject, but also because on the day of delivering the message our nation was gripped by widespread foot and mouth disease. As I spoke thousands of carcasses were being burned on huge bonfires all across the country. I may add that the subject was chosen and the date of the gathering was fixed well before the outbreak of the disease. The bonfires seemed a clear vindication of the message.

My horizon on that occasion was our own nation, and the certainty and devastating nature of the judgement that lay before it. In the years immediately following, when I began to put the prophetic burden into writing, and eventually into this website, the horizon did not move very much; it remained essentially national. Perhaps that was appropriate.

I have to acknowledge some movement beyond the purely national horizon after the 9/11 event of 2001, though in retrospect I can see that my horizon ought to have moved much more quickly and strongly than it did. The 9/11 event struck me immediately as a judgement and made me begin to widen the horizon to the U.S. and then to Western Europe, where one could very clearly see the same kind of degenerate things that were calling for judgement on Britain. It became plain that our whole western society was blatantly under the word of Amos, “I will spare them no longer”.

However, it was the world-wide events of 2010 and particularly the relentless kaleidoscope of shaking events in the first 3 months of this year that have given the most severe jolt to my horizon and turned it into a world horizon. The Lord has a quarrel with the whole world, and is speaking to the whole world. The selfish venal, violent, sexually obsessive, arrogant, God-denying sins that brought condemnation on Amos’ generation abound in all corners of the earth, whatever the political or economic shape of each nation may be. They are not just in the Western world.

This year’s staggering onslaught of natural events, culminating in the unparalleled disasters in Japan, is shouting much more loudly than 9/11. The Japanese disaster starting with earthquake and tsunami has finished with equally devastating human threats and fears in the form of fresh world economic collapse and nuclear meltdown. It is undoubtedly the loudest warning blast that we have had in ten years, and there have been more than a few such blasts. It is contrived to leave us speechless and unnerved. It will have lasting consequences, though we are adept at forgetting.

It is not just natural catastrophes that are shouting at us; it is also the man made “shakings” that are resounding in our ears. The Japan tsunami has pushed to one side events which at another time would be absolutely at the forefront. Gaddafi’s fight for power and western intervention, coming on the back of Egypt’s revolution, are accompanied by a rather more sinister use of force by the Saudi Arabian rulers to maintain their dominance. All this is a huge threat to what has become the crucial life source of the western economy, namely oil. The stakes could not be higher.

The divine pressure on the world is getting bigger and louder at an increasing rate and the world seemingly takes little heed or note. Judgement, like most other issues, is now a global issue.
Pray! – “Lord, in wrath remember mercy”.


Bob

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NUMBERING OUR DAYS

“Who knows the power of your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due to you. Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom”. Psalm 90:12

The earthquake and tsunami that have devastated parts of Japan are yet another huge reminder of our human predicament on this planet. They are a jolt to the whole world! The photographic coverage has been so wide and detailed that it has surpassed anything previous. We have all been visually right in the middle of the appalling chaos and destruction; cars, houses, ships, all piled on top of each other. Thousands of people swept away in minutes. Now Japan faces nuclear threats, and huge, widespread economic dislocation in the third largest world economy. All this happening in just twenty four hours or less!

One could put alongside this the wanton killing and destruction in Libya as Gaddafi holds on to an evil rule, and then add to that a whole string destructive events over the last few months, all of which have come to us with both the vividness and the speed of the technological age.
As I’ve thought over these events I have had very much in mind the words of Ps 46:8, “Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth”. Not a popular scripture, I imagine, for many. Nor is it an easy one to process. But it’s there! It is not only astonishing that the psalmist unapologetically and directly attributes desolations to the LORD (the great I AM), but that he should also beckon us to “come and see”, to take note of them. The television screen has certainly made sure that there is no way we can miss those desolations!

Why should he want us to take a long hard look? The answer to that question is given in the same book of psalms, in the prayer, “teach us to number our days”. God wants us to come to a sober recognition that life is very uncertain and always limited. This is not in order to depress us or make us morbid. It is simply to help us to face up to reality and to face the questions, “what is my life for?” and, “What am I doing with it?” He doesn’t want us to bury the questions and miss the point of life. Unhappily, humanity’s pleasure loving and selfish bias rarely allows us to address such questions unless some disaster or scourge breaks over us. The point of life is not in pleasure loving. The desolations have a remedial intent.

The point of life is to find wisdom and walk in it – something infinitely more satisfying than mere pleasure! It is again the psalms that tell us that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. Wisdom is in knowing God, what he is like, and walking in his ways of righteousness. Wisdom is godly living. The “fear of the Lord” comes from a recognition that a failure to love him and to love others will cause us to end up in desolation and judgement. A proper numbering of our days and an application to “wisdom” is, however, the pathway to life, both here and eternally.

For Chrstians the desolations are not a call to judge (that is God's prerogative), but to seek earnestly a deeper and more righteous life.


Bob

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