By Pastor Hal Mayer
Under Siege, Part 2, Violent Planet [1]
Dear Friend,
Welcome to Keep the Faith Ministry. I hope that you are walking by faith and learning to live by all the counsel of the Lord. He has given us much light and we need every ray. We have recently seen some extraordinary events take place that are very strong warnings to the world, and they put God’s true believers on notice that their “redemption draweth nigh.”
Today I want to explore something with you that I mentioned in a previous message, but did not develop. Since then I have done a good deal of research and learned much about the reasons why, since the year 2000, we have seen such an increase in major earthquakes, volcanoes and such powerful superstorms.
But before we begin, I would like to say how much we at Keep the Faith appreciate your support through your prayers and gifts. It is so encouraging to know that there are people all over the world who are praying for us. There are those who do not like what we are saying, or who do not believe that the things we are reporting will actually come to pass. They just choose to bury their heads in the sand and continue with their lives the way they are. They don’t think that the coming catastrophes will effect them or their families. Some even ridicule what God says in His word, like in the days of Noah.
I also want to remind you to go to our website often to read the updated Prophetic Intelligence Briefings. Also, our Spanish website is essentially completed. Our Portuguese website is also up. You can now encourage anyone you know who speaks Spanish or Portuguese to visit our websites so that they can gain the blessing too. We even have a Russian website that is now posting our sermons each month.
Listen to this interesting statement from Counsels to Parents, Teachers and Students, page 440. “When in difficulty, philosophers and men of science try to satisfy their minds without appealing to God. They ventilate their philosophy in regard to the heavens and the earth, accounting for plagues, pestilences, epidemics, earthquakes, and famines by their supposed science. Questions relating to creation and providence they attempt to solve by saying, This is a law of nature.”
In other words, these scientists are trying to tell us only what they can discover in nature about wild and chaotic elements. But they don’t know God. Romans 1:21 tells us that “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” Do you think that scientists today have become vain in their imaginations and their foolish hearts are darkened? I do. I think it will be a tragedy when they come to the judgment and God asks them why they turned from Him and tried to deceive millions by their foolish speculations, when the Bible gives them clear explanations of what has happened, and why.
Making sense out of the bizarre weather, dead birds and fish, increasing earthquakes and other seismic activity is often commented upon, but generally it is never really understood. Scientists try to downplay the significance of these events and make it sound as if these things are just natural and occur often, and that we are simply in another part of the natural cycle. They set themselves up as authorities on nature, and proclaim peace and safety. People believe their conclusions more easily if they have some degree from a famous university. They can tell us some things, such as some mechanisms at work in nature, but they cannot get to the root of the matter, the real issue, because they ignore the God of nature.
I have learned to trust the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy for a clear picture of the principles behind the events reported in the news. I have found that everything that Jesus told us would happen is actually happening in every detail. As we study the Bible we learn how God thinks, and we can learn to please Him by thinking like He thinks. I hope that is what you are doing, because that is what will bring His protection upon you in the time of great trouble that is coming upon the inhabitants of the world.
As we begin our study today, let us bow our heads and ask the Holy Spirit to speak to us. Our Father in heaven, the time is nearing when Your people will enter into their chamber and hide themselves for a little while under the protection of Jesus Christ. In the world of chaos, we want to fill our hearts with His peace. Please send Your Holy Spirit to us today so that we may hear Your voice and understand the signs of the times. We need Your Holy Spirit more than anything else to unlock the Bible, and give us victory. So please let Him speak to us, and come into our hearts, we pray, in Jesus’ name, amen.
Jesus said in Luke 21:36 “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”
This, my friends, is practical counsel for us today. It tells us what to do in a very practical way. We need to pray always, continually, non-stop. As you go about your day, pray. Pray for the Holy Spirit, that He will teach you to think like God thinks. Your eternal salvation depends on your union with Jesus. But you have to do what He says, or you demonstrate that you don’t really know Him.
Listen to what the Holy Spirit said through the prophet Isaiah. “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men…” That’s Isaiah 29:13.
Jesus repeated this reproof to His church during his earthly life (see Matthew 15:8 and Mark 7:6). And He repeats it to us today. Perhaps this reproof applies now more than ever before. So please, watch and pray earnestly, for you need to be under the shadow of the Almighty (see Psalm 91). Your soul needs the refreshing of the early rain so that you will be ready to receive the latter rain. Your heart needs to be right with God and with your fellow man in all things. And your mind needs to be in agreement with God, worked by the Holy Spirit, so much so that you and God are no longer going in different directions, but in the same direction.
The world was stunned as nature’s fury unleashed an epic crisis on Japan, March 11, 2011. The 9.0 magnitude earthquake, 232 miles (373km) from Tokyo and 81 miles (130km) from the city of Sendai did a huge amount of damage, but it also sent massive and devastating tsunamis up to 33 feet (10 meters) high that overwhelmed seacoast towns and villages, sweeping away everything in its path.
The earthquake swayed buildings in Tokyo, halted mass transportation throughout much of the country for several hours, destroyed a dam, and caused the meltdown of a series of nuclear reactors, releasing dangerous radioactive smoke and steam into the atmosphere. The Sendai quake, now known as the Tohoku earthquake is the strongest known earthquake ever to hit Japan and is the fourth strongest earthquake in global recorded history.
Cars, ships and whole villages, as well as perhaps tens of thousands of people were swept away as powerful and malevolent tsunamis crashed ashore causing staggering damage to the country’s northeast coast.
Roads, railways, and other infrastructure were destroyed. One ship carrying 100 people was swept away as their vessel was entombed in the great deep (see Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, page 967). Thousands of fishing boats, and other ships were sunk or washed up on shore, standing where minutes before houses and businesses full of people had been. Over four million homes in northeast Japan were left without electricity and heat, and 1.4 million homes were left without water for days. Many thousands were left without transportation for quite some time.
Powerful aftershocks, including a second earthquake of 7.4 magnitude, continued to roll across Japan, complicating search and rescue. The relatively shallow earthquake of 20 miles deep, near Japan’s most populous Honshu Island, was the most powerful Japan had ever seen. Fires broke out and structural damage as far away as the huge supercity of Tokyo caused massive chaos and disruption.
The earthquake, which was first rated as a 7.9 magnitude event was quickly upgraded to 8.8, then 8.9, and then finally 9.0 magnitude. It was felt as far east as along the Hudson River in New York. Eleven-foot tsunami waves came ashore in Hawaii, while four to eight foot waves hit the coasts of Oregon and California doing millions of dollars in damage. Evacuation orders of low-lying areas were issued by at least 20 countries around the pacific as the spreading tsunami waves approached.
The Island of Honshu, Japan’s largest island is the second most populated island in the world after Indonesia’s Java. It includes Tokyo and the megacities surrounding it. The northeast coast of the island was moved eight feet to the east toward North America, stretching the island wider and giving it more land mass.
The massive quake shifted the earth’s axis by 10 inches (25cm). The earth’s rotation speed increased by 1.8 milliseconds, as often happens with large quakes. It’s like a figure skater who spins faster when her arms are tucked in closer to her sides. As the earth’s tectonic plates slide under one another, the rotation of the earth speeds up in much the same way.
As in most underwater subduction quakes, there had been a long series of earthquakes, or foreshocks, as they are called, in the region leading up to the big one. The largest foreshock was of 7.2 magnitude two days before.
The aftershocks were relentless and continued for many days. Within the first 40 minutes after the quake three aftershocks of 7.0 magnitude and higher rocked the nation. Over 500 aftershocks of 4.5 magnitude or higher occurred in the first four days after the quake. In the first two days after the main tremor there were 190 aftershocks over 5.0 magnitude. The energy released from this one major seismic event was equivalent to over 9 teratons of TNT, or 600 million times the energy of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II. As a result the areas struck by the earthquake and tsunamis look like they’ve been taken from an apocalyptic scene. Whole towns of many thousands of people were just swept away or piled on top of each other.
New York Times [2]
New York Times [3]
The Economist [4]
USA Today [5]
Description and Documentation [6]
The tsunamis were much more devastating than the earthquakes and its numerous aftershocks. Within fifteen to thirty minutes of the huge earthquake, 3-story tsunamis exploded on the coastal towns of northeast Japan, washing thousands of residents out to sea. One man, who clung to his house as he watched his wife swept away by the deluge, was found alive nine miles out on the sea, floating on debris and waving a red flag. More than 10,000 people were estimated to have died, with thousands more listed as missing. More than 500,000 thousand were left homeless. A late snowstorm further complicated rescue efforts and added to the misery.
Packing a colossal amount of energy, the tsunami spread over farmlands up to 6 miles inland as village after village, farm after farm, fell under its relentless power. Commercial airports were inundated. Cars and trucks driving along coastal roads were ruthlessly swept away in an instant by the overwhelming surprise. Several trains were thrown off their tracks with their living cargo inside. Japan invested the equivalent of billions of dollars on 12 meter (39 ft) anti-tsunami seawalls along 40 per cent of its coastline. But the tsunamis washed right over the top collapsing some of them in its merciless assault on coastal cities and towns.
The pictures of the devastation are utterly disturbing. Where once there were nice communities with neat Japanese homes, gardens, orchards and rice paddies, there is now nothing but concrete slabs and piles of twisted metal, splintered wood and personal belongings strewn everywhere. Houses, cars, buses, boats, airplanes, and everything else imaginable is now a confused pile of rubbish. The astonishing devastation is enormous!
Snowstorm [8]#
But estimates of the dead are preliminary and actual numbers will very likely be substantially more by the time you receive this message. The death toll is expected to be in the tens of thousands. “In one town alone… a senior police official said the number of dead would ‘certainly be more than 10,000.’ And there are many such towns along the northeast coast of Japan. The lag time between the earthquake and the tsunami was so short that it would have been impossible for the populated seacoast areas of 16 prefectures to be cleared of people in time for the massive attack from the sea.
New York Times; Death Toll [3]
The tsunami waves went all around the pacific including the southern part of Chile, which is the furthest possible distance from the quake. Even there, the tsunami waves were more than six feet (two meters) high.
The rapidly unfolding drama increased as several nuclear energy plants along the coast one by one lost their ability to cool down their reactors. The damaged reactors were put into automatic shut down procedures at the time of the quake, but soon developed serious problems.
Because of the loss of electricity, the cooling process was dependent on diesel generators. But the tsunamis had destroyed a number of them leaving the reactors vulnerable to air exposure as the water evaporated in the cooling chambers. As the reactor cores began to melt down, a horrific scenario unfolded as crews frantically tried to contain the radiation inside the reactors.
For the first time in history several nuclear reactors exploded on live television, spewing radioactive smoke and steam into the air. At first it was thought that the reactor cores had not been damaged, but as more and more radioactive particles were released into the air, it became obvious that the nuclear fuel rods were compromised, and that the meltdown could not be contained easily. More than 200,000 people were evacuated from around the area of these reactors, and an additional 140,000 were eventually ordered to stay indoors.
The crisis at the nuclear plants intensified as further problems developed in at least four of the reactors. Radiation levels reached 1000 times the normal. 750 emergency workers were evacuated from the dangerous area, leaving 50 volunteer workers at the Fukushima plant to brave the fire and radiation in a desperate attempt to get the meltdown under control.
“I don’t know any other way to say it, but this is like suicide fighters in a war,” said Keiichi Nakagawa, associate professor of the Department of Radiology at the University of Tokyo Hospital.
News reports said that at least three workers were suffering from “full-on radiation sickness,” which is often deadly. They struggled to keep water flowing into the reactors to cool the nuclear fuel.
One evacuated worker wrote; “Please don’t forget that there are people who are working to protect everyone’s lives in exchange for their own lives.”
“Prime Minister Naoto Kan has saluted the efforts and courage of the workers… as his chief spokesman Yukio Edano confirmed their health was at risk.
“Those with TEPCO and related entities are working to pour water, making their best effort even at this moment, without even thinking twice about the danger,” Kan said.
David Brenner, the director of radiological research at Columbia Service, told the BBC that “given the radiation levels detected at the troubled facility, the workers were at ‘significant risk’. In many ways they are already heroes… (they) are going to be suffering very high radiation exposures.’”
USA Today, Suicide Volunteers [8]#
Yahoo News: Hero Workers at Nuclear Plant [9]
Japan’s Health Ministry raised the legal limit of radiation exposure to 250 millisieverts from 100 millisieverts, so workers could continue to work in the treacherous nuclear plants. This is five times the maximum exposure permitted for American nuclear plant workers.
This means that workers could remain on site longer and be more exposed. “It would be unthinkable to raise it further than that, considering the health of the workers,” said the health minister, Yoko Komiyama.
Associated Press; Workers Left Behind [9]
New York Times; Nameless Fifty [10]
New York Times: Headlines [11]
Finally on March 16, work on the reactors was suspended because a containment chamber ruptured. Smoke and steam full of radiation spewed into the atmosphere and made it too dangerous for crews to stay. The “containment vessel,” as it is called, was the last line of defense against large-scale releases of radioactive material from the reactor.
“It’s more of a surrender,” said David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer, who feared the worst. “It’s not like you wait 10 days and the radiation goes away. In that 10 days things are going to get worse… It’s basically a sign that there is nothing left to do but throw in the towel,” he said.
New York Times; Work Suspended at Japanese Reactor [12]
New York Times; Explanation of Reactor Protections [13]
Of major concern was the wind. If the wind changed direction and blew the radioactive cloud toward Tokyo, an evacuation nightmare would unfold. Nation after nation urged their citizens living or visiting Japan to leave the country. It reminded me of this Bible verse found in Isaiah 13:13-14.
“Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land.”
The book Great Controversy makes this very interesting statement on page 590. Speaking of Satan, the author says, “He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence.” It is easy to see how a nuclear meltdown can actually spew a deadly taint in the air that can threaten the lives or health of thousands or even millions, if it is bad enough.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company started controlled blackouts throughout Japan for the first time in 60 years, in order to minimize the use of energy during the crisis. The rolling blackouts will certainly affect production in the auto industry as well as other Japanese manufacturing and service industries.
As the cascade of disasters unfolded, the economic toll is also huge. Though the earthquake and the tsunamis did not directly affect the industrial center of Japan, the follow-on effect will certainly be felt. The Nikkei stock market took a couple of strong tumbles in the days after the quake as investors became very nervous about Japan’s economy. The bank of Japan, however, infused the banking system with the equivalent of U.S. $86 billion of liquidity.
Sydney Morning Herald: Pictures [14]
Other Reports
The Melbourne Age
Fire in Fukushima Reactor No. 5 [15]
Scientists try to explain why these phenomena happen in merely natural terms. But because they know not God, they cannot comprehend the real situation. They try to minimize natural events by saying that they happen all the time. But they do not acknowledge that these events are warnings of divine retribution.
Scientists even try to be prophets and predict coming disasters. In an article called “The Scariest Earthquake is Yet to Come,” Newsweek wrote, “Even more worrisome than geography and topography, though, is geological history. For this event cannot be viewed in isolation. There was a horrifically destructive Pacific earthquake in New Zealand on Feb. 22, and an even more violent magnitude-8.8 event in Chile almost exactly a year before. All three phenomena involved more or less the same family of circum-Pacific fault lines and plate boundaries—and though there is still no hard scientific evidence to explain why, there is little doubt now that earthquakes do tend to occur in clusters: a significant event on one side of a major tectonic plate is often—not invariably, but often enough to be noticeable—followed some weeks or months later by another on the plate’s far side. It is as though the earth becomes like a great brass bell, which when struck by an enormous hammer blow on one side sets to vibrating and ringing from all over. Now there have been catastrophic events at three corners of the Pacific Plate—one in the northwest…; one in the southwest…; one in the southeast…
“That leaves just one corner unaffected—the northeast. And the fault line in the northeast of the Pacific Plate is the San Andreas Fault, underpinning the city of San Francisco.”
“All of which makes the geological community very apprehensive. All know that the San Andreas Fault is due to rupture one day—it last did so in 1906, and strains have built beneath it to a barely tolerable level. To rupture again, with unimaginable consequences for the millions who live above it, some triggering event has to occur. Now three events have occurred that might all be regarded as triggering events. There are in consequence a lot of thoughtful people in the American West who are very nervous indeed—wondering, as they often must do, whether the [geological] consent that permits them to inhabit so pleasant a place might be about to be withdrawn, sooner than they have supposed.”
Newsweek [16]
God tells us that the final movements will be rapid ones, and that often destruction comes as an overwhelming surprise. Listen to this from Prophets and Kings, page 626.
“Christians should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise, and this preparation they should make by diligently studying the word of God and striving to conform their lives to its precepts. The tremendous issues of eternity demand of us something besides an imaginary religion, a religion of words and forms, where truth is kept in the outer court. God calls for a revival and a reformation.”
Oh friends, that is truly what we need now. We need to hear what the Bible says to our souls as the Holy Spirit speaks through its pages. Then the signs of the times will not cause us to fear. We shall have peace in the midst of chaos.
Do you think that there is reason to believe that there will be some very serious surprises sooner than you think? Too many of us are “scientific” in our orientation. We want the scientists to explain the things happening in the world. But they will just cry peace and safety. “All is well,” they say. The Bible tells us about these types of people.
2 Peter 3:3-7 says; “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”
So there is coming a judgment of fire. The overflowing water is a warning of the judgment of fire that is coming upon the world. Both involve seismic upheavals. Both are very destructive. But scientists and secular people don’t want to acknowledge that these things have anything to do with God.
Listen to this statement from the Review and Herald January 11, 1887. “Already the restraining Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the earth. Hurricanes, storms, tempests, fire and flood, disasters by sea and land, follow each other in quick succession. Science seeks to explain all these. The signs thickening around us, telling of the near approach of the Son of God, are attributed to any other than the true cause. Men cannot discern the sentinel angels restraining the four winds that they may not blow until the servants of God are sealed; but when God shall bid his angels loose the winds, there will be such a scene of his avenging wrath as no pen can picture.”
Now listen to what was posted on CNN by a geophysicist, a scientist. The scientists amuse me. They are so quick to deny anything that might seem like there is something out of the ordinary. Listen to him. “Geologically speaking, [the Japanese earthquake is] nothing special. Seismic activity is not increasing, and the tectonic plates driving all the seismicity are not accelerating — not by any geophysical measure we have at our disposal.”
Ah, and there is the problem. He actually admits it. They don’t have all the information at their disposal. And it’s true! They don’t. They don’t have the Bible, God’s unerring word.
The fact is that large earthquakes have been increasing in frequency and magnitude ever since the year 2000. The trouble is scientists don’t want to be honest and admit the facts.
I’ll read on. “Truly huge earthquakes seem to have become more frequent over recent years, partly because their impact on society has risen as vulnerable cities have mushroomed and become more fragile, and partly because of the rarity of gigantic earthquakes and their tendency to cluster for statistical reasons and nothing more. It’s a matter of perception and coincidence.”
Is that all it is? Is it really nothing more than coincidence and perception? They must think we are blind sheep, willing to accept whatever they authoritatively say. In other words, if you believe that these are signs of the coming apocalypse, you are a lunatic. All is well. Peace and safety. There is nothing out of the ordinary. There is no need to worry.
And that is exactly what they said in Noah’s day. They mocked him. They ridiculed him and they made fun of him, just because he predicted that God’s judgment was coming upon the whole world.
Do you think that is what is happening today? The trouble is scientists want you to believe that there is no reason to fear anything. Carry on just as you are. Sin all you want. Live however you desire. Nothing will ever happen.
What do you think they said when they saw the animals and birds flock into the ark? “Oh,” they said, “It is just a trick. This is nothing abnormal. This is just a scare tactic. Don’t be afraid. Don’t listen to the alarmists. We are not nearing the end of the world. Noah cannot demonstrate scientifically that there is going to be rain. There is no such thing. It is impossible. We’ve never seen rain. We’ve never felt rain. We have no evidence that there will be anything like it in the near future.”
You know, you can imagine what those so-called scientists were saying. And it’s much like that today. If you cannot demonstrate it in the laboratory or by statistical analysis, then it cannot be true. Everything has to be demonstrated by science for some to believe.
CNN; Scientist Says Nothing is Abnormal [17]
Here is what God says. It’s found in Special Testimonies to Ministers and Workers, page 20-21. “There have been lightnings and earthquakes, fires and floods, calamities by sea and land; but who reads these warnings? What impression is made upon the world? What change in their attitude is seen? No more than was seen in the inhabitants of the Noachian world…
“The Lord is coming speedily, yet, notwithstanding his professed people read the signs of the times.—of famines, of thousands being swept away by earthquakes and floods, by fire, by calamities by sea and land, by plagues, by war and bloodshed,—the love of self so deadens the spiritual senses, that the day of the Lord will come upon them as a thief in the night, and he declares. ‘They shall not escape.’”
The enormous earthquake in Japan and devastating tsunamis were not the only disturbances of nature in recent times. While huge earthquakes are dramatic to the public eye, and on television there are other events taking place that are not so well known.
Something very strange began happening in 2010. Have you ever heard of the Great Rift Valley? Well, it is a desert in East Africa and there is a very different and very strange seismic event taking place there too. Fissures have opened up in the earth, miles and miles in length.
“The fissures began appearing years ago. But in recent months, seismic activity has accelerated in northeastern Africa as the continent breaks apart in slow motion. Researchers say that lava in the region is consistent with magma normally seen on the sea floor — and that water will ultimately cover the desert.”
Is there a volcano in the deserts of Ethiopia? It’s true. Eruptions started in November of 2010 after being dormant for decades. Now it is bubbling over and the earth is moving, according to volcanologists. “The desert floor is quaking and splitting open, volcanoes are boiling over, and seawaters are encroaching upon the land. Africa, researchers are certain, is splitting apart at a rate rarely seen in geology.”
The Great Rift Valley, which runs from Syria all the way south to Mozambique, along with its several volcanoes, is splitting Africa apart. The Rift Valley is protected from the Red Sea in Ethiopia by a line of 25 meter (82 foot) hills, the only barrier holding back the waters from flooding the whole valley.
“The hills could sink in a matter of days,” said one involved researcher. “In the last five years, the geologic transformation of northeastern Africa has ‘accelerated dramatically.’”
Because of earth tremors, East Africa is “shattering like broken glass.” There have been a large number of seismic shocks in recent times, according to researchers. The earth is opening up very quickly. What was once measured in just a few millimeters of movement each year is now measured in meters.
Some fault lines in Ethiopia are already splitting apart, which scientists think is transforming the landscape into something like a sea floor because of the recent acceleration of earthquake and volcanic activity. Some fissures are eight meters wide (26 feet).
The magma is mostly underground, but what has surfaced is like the magma from deep down in the seabed. “The entire region increasingly resembles an ocean floor — one without water.”
Volcanic activity in 2005 opened a huge 60-kilometer (35 mile) fissure of 20 feet in just a few days in the Afar Depression. Then magma spewed up through the crevice in the middle of the rift and began to “unzip” the rest. Since then enough magma has spewed out to cover the city of London about the average person’s height. But the magma is also traveling under the surface through the rock at up to 40 meters a minute.
Another 200-kilometer (or 125 mile) stretch is welling up with magma too. And ground temperatures as far north as eastern Egypt have spiked. And a 17-kilometer (10 mile) fissure as far south as the desert of northern Malawi has also opened up.
In other words, East Africa is being split in two from Egypt down through Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi. This is a huge section of Africa, which is home to millions upon millions of people. A whole region is being ripped away from the continent by a long string of seismic and volcanic activity. The earth is violently and quickly being torn apart.
Imagine if a huge part of eastern Africa is split off from the continent and some of it sinks into a new sea. Huge cities would disappear.
But that’s not all. In 2009 a volcano erupted in Saudi Arabia, spewing magma in an area the size of Berlin and Hamburg, Germany combined. This surprising volcano caused a 5.7 magnitude earthquake and thousands of tremors along 200 kilometers (125 miles) of the fault line in North Africa.
“The world’s largest geological construction site continues to expand… More and more magna is pushing its way to the earth’s surface… ‘The magma chamber is reloading,’” says Lorraine Field, a geologic specialist.
“Oxford University’s David Ferguson predicts a considerable increase in volcanic eruptions and earthquakes in the region over the next decade. They will, he says, ‘become of increasingly large magnitude.’”
Jesus warned us that earthquakes would increase in the last days in “divers places.” Perhaps most of us can’t comprehend the scale of His prediction? The earth has been reeling too and fro, and most people, placated by their scientists, aren’t willing to consider what is really happening.
Listen to this statement from Maranatha, p. 25. “O that God’s people had a sense of the impending destruction of thousands of cities, now almost given to idolatry!” Will the people of these cities take the steps necessary to repent, plead for the Holy Spirit, and ask God’s protection? The tragedy is that they will not. They will heed none of God’s counsel. They will ignore His word.
Rift Valley Articles and Pictures [18]
Ethiopia Rift [19]
Great Rift Valley Description [20]
The Bible tells us who is going to destroy the cities. Listen to it from Isaiah 14:16-17. Speaking of Lucifer it says; “They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?”
It is Satan who is leading the cities of the earth into great wickedness. It is Satan who will be permitted to destroy them and sweep their inhabitants into their eternal destiny. He longs to be able to take their lives so that they have no further chance to repent and turn to God. He is just waiting for divine permission to attack the cities with calamities and catastrophes like the coastal cities of Japan.
Why is there all this unusual seismic activity in recent years? What is the cause of the magma coming up out of the earth in east Africa? There must be a reason. Scientists would like to tell you that this is normal and that this is exactly how the oceans were formed millions upon untold millions of years ago. Do you believe them or the Bible? If you believe the Bible, you would know that the oceans were formed at the time of the flood. This kind of thing has not happened in the last 4000 years since the flood.
I have wondered for a long time about what will make seismic activity increase in the last days. In my research, I have found something rather impressive about the magnetic field surrounding the earth. Nineteen hundred miles below the surface of the earth there is a molten outer core of nickel and iron swirling around an inner solid or semi-solid core. The swirling outer core creates electrical current and results in a magnetic field around the earth. This field protects us from cosmic radiation from the sun. The magnetic field is constantly fluctuating as a result of complex changes in the currents in that outer core deep inside the earth.
But for some reason that magnetic field is changing more dramatically than usual. There is a tremendous polar shift taking place, and very rapidly. Normally, the magnetic north pole, which is not the same as the geographic North Pole, wobbles around and has been in the same general area for thousands of years. But in the last 150 years, the north magnetic pole has been shifting in only one direction – toward Russia. And it is accelerating. Since 1860, the North Pole shifted more than double each successive 50 years. And in just the last 10 years alone the average speed is 55 kilometers (34 miles) per year.
The South Pole, on the other hand, is not going in an inverse direction as you might expect. Instead it is, more or less going, in the same direction, or toward the same side of the earth, though at a much slower speed of 5 kilometers (3 miles) per year.
NOAA: Maps and explanation [22]
It is now known that the earth’s climate is affected to some degree by the magnetic field. While there are weaker and stronger places in the magnetic field, the overall magnetic field is gradually weakening. It appears that weak areas in the magnetic field influence precipitation levels, especially in the tropics, according to a recently released Danish study. This in turn can affect weather in other parts of the world. The obvious implication is that the weaker, or more skewed the magnetic field becomes, the more extreme weather patterns there could be.
While some people ridicule this whole concept, I’m not prepared to rule it out. If you compare the pole shift data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration against seismic activity data from the U.S. Geological Survey, the results are astounding. Seismic activity and magnitude appear to have a direct relationship to the magnitude of the magnetic polar change. The shift in the north magnetic pole precedes seismic activity by about seven years. If you go to this sermon on our website, there is a chart that compares this.
Caption: The left column is the number of earthquakes 5.0 magnitude and higher. The right column is the distance in km that the pole has traveled.
In other words, the more the earth’s north magnetic pole wanders from its normal region, the more geological strain there seems to be on the earth’s geologic structures, and consequently more large earthquakes
Don’t forget, “Satan works through the elements also to garner his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature, and he uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows.” That is Great Controversy, page 589. Satan knows more than the scientists. While they scratch their heads trying to figure out what just happened, Satan is already working on the next natural event, and the next and the next as far as heaven will permit him.
As the Holy Spirit is gradually withdrawn from the earth, he will be given more freedom to exercise his power to disrupt nature. Scientists will always be trying to catch up. But God’s people who believe the Bible, and who understand the principles of the conflict between Christ and Satan, will have no difficulty understanding why these things happen. While scientists try to give a natural or material explanation for these things as far as they can observe, God’s people understand them spiritually. They know the supernatural forces at work affecting the planet.
Magnetic Field Relationship to the Core of the Earth [25]
Nature Magazine: Rapid Magnetic Field Change [26]
Some people believe that the shift in the north magnetic pole and the weakening of the magnetic field may indicate a polar reversal, meaning that the South Pole becomes the North Pole and the North Pole becomes the South Pole. This has never happened in the last four thousand years as far as we know.
But scientists think that it happened many times in the history of the world. They like to tell you that the earth has experienced many polar reversals in its history. They look at the geologic structures of the earth, particularly lava flows within certain strata, and try to guess when it happened. But what is really amusing is that if you ask them when the last time was, they will tell you, with all scientific certainty that it happened about 780,000 years ago.
A polar reversal may well have happened at the time of the flood, which would have organized the very geologic structures that scientists now use to suggest that the last polar shift happened almost 800,000 years ago. Of course, no one was around back then to document it, so they are only speculating about something that they really and truly know nothing about, but act as if they are authorities on the subject. The fact is there was no pole shift 780,000 years ago because there was no pole. The earth didn’t exist back that far. So their foolish hearts are darkened by their own voluntary deception. And they are trying to deceive the world into believing them.
National Geographic; Magnetic Pole Changes [27]
Polar Reversal 780,000 Years Ago? [28]
Tucson Citizen; Magnetic Reversal? [29]
When scientists use geologic structures to make their speculative assumptions, they use evidence of ancient lava flows to document their conclusions. They think these lava flows are very old, like 780,000 years in some cases. But those who believe the Bible know that these lava flows only go back perhaps as far as the flood. If you think about the flood, when the fountains of the deep were opened up according to scripture, it is obvious that there were huge geological upheavals of both water and molten magma in addition to the torrential rain. When water and molten magma were combined, the power of the upheavals, no doubt, increased exponentially as it does when glacier ice and snow combine with magma in an erupting volcano. At the same time there was a deluge of precipitation that flooded the earth.
It may be that all God had to do during the 120 years while Noah was preaching and building the ark, was gradually adjust the earth’s molten outer core, shift the magnetic poles and weaken the magnetic field; and when the variation reached a critical point, the elements of nature came together and destroyed the whole planet.
It should be very easy to see that the earth’s magnetic field and the molten core of the earth are related. Changes to the core, can cause changes in the magnetic field. The molten core and the magnetic field involve the very elements that cause seismic upheavals and volcanic eruptions. Therefore, it should not be difficult for us to see a connection between wide variations in the magnetic field and significant increases seismic activity in diverse places, as Jesus said would happen in the last days.
Friends, it is only the hand of God that is protecting the earth from global upheavals again. He promised that there would never be another world-wide flood. Nevertheless, He sends warnings to the people of the earth to awaken them to their spiritual danger. Could the earthquake in Japan and the seismic activity in the Great Rift Valley be some of these warnings? Of course they are. Jesus himself said so.
Something is happening to the outer core of the earth 1900 miles beneath the surface that is changing the protective magnetic field around the earth. Could those changes also be affecting the level of earthquake activity? Could those changes be positioning the earth to make ready for the fulfillment of prophecy in ways that we could have never imagined before? Or perhaps the earth is getting ready for the seven last plagues? Some researchers say that when the poles reverse, there will be a period of time when there will be no magnetic field to shield the earth from the destructive radioactive rays of the sun. Would that make the plague about the sun scorching men with fire possible?
Tucson Citizen; Magnetic Reversal? [29]
Listen to this statement from Great Controversy, page 522. “Human knowledge of both material and spiritual things is partial and imperfect; therefore many are unable to harmonize their views of science with Scripture statements. Many accept mere theories and speculations as scientific facts, and they think that God’s word is to be tested by the teachings of “science falsely so called.” 1 Timothy 6:20. The Creator and His works are beyond their comprehension; and because they cannot explain these by natural laws, Bible history is regarded as unreliable. Those who doubt the reliability of the records of the Old and New Testaments too often go a step further and doubt the existence of God and attribute infinite power to nature. Having let go their anchor, they are left to beat about upon the rocks of infidelity.
Friends, “Heavings of earth tell the vast wondering throng, Jesus is coming again.” Aren’t you glad that God is in control of all these elements of nature? Aren’t you thankful that you have a heavenly Father who loves you who has waited this long for you to be sealed in Christ Jesus? He can’t wait forever. Your heart is either being remodeled by Christ, or Satan is controlling it. Please make sure that you are pleading for the Holy Spirit so that your soul can be transformed into a perfect reflection of Christ.
Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, thank you for Your patience and longsuffering with the human race. This world is due for some enormous upheavals. I pray that You will transform our lives into Your image so that we can be perfectly reflecting the character of Jesus. Please send your Holy Spirit so that His influence can permeate our minds and hearts. Let us live for Jesus today so that we will be spiritually prepared for the things that are coming upon the world. We want to be worthy to escape them. We thank you for answering our prayer. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
Additional Information
Earth Wobbles [30]
Geomagnetic Reversal [31]
Tampa Airport Temporarily Closes Airport due to Pole Shift [32]