Climate Change Vs. End-Time Birth Pains
Large wildfires have been raging across Western Canada over the past few weeks, burning close to 500,000 hectares (nearly 1 million acres). The fires have forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents and have caused significant structural damage.
Large plumes of smoke produced by the fires have stretched from west to east across the North American continent, significantly impacting air quality in several areas. New York City experienced hazardous air quality levels on June 6, primarily due to smoke from these fires.
The east coast has been particularly affected, with smoke from fires in Nova Scotia and Quebec playing a significant role. Currently, the Quebec region is grappling with over 160 forest fires, further exacerbating the situation.
Air quality alerts have been issued in several other cities. When the smoke was at its peak, the sky turned. It is very strange that the same profound weather condition took place on the west coast in 2021 and 2022.
Many Christians wonder if these firestorms are the result of climate change or the product of end-time birth pains. In recent years, the world has witnessed an increase in extreme weather events driven possibly by climate change. From heat waves and droughts to hurricanes and flooding, the frequency and severity of these events are on the rise.
The key thing about climate change is that it should get worse over a long period of time. The temp will go up 5 degrees in the next 50 years. Ocean Water levels are forecasted to go up by four inches.
A lot of events that strike are not part of a steady process. They come out of nowhere and often create a 1000-year event. Houston had a third 1000-year event when hurricane Harvey poured down massive amounts of water that set records that a tropical jungle couldn’t match.
In 2011 we broke several longstanding records for tornadoes. The next year, it was a record low for tornadoes. The next year was another record low for tornadoes. Oklahoma and Kansas had the latest reporting for the formation of a twister in each state.
In 2005 Wilma was the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in Dominica. It was the fastest storm to reach a Category 5 storm, and it stayed at Cat 5 longer than any other storm. Wilma was the most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Atlantic basin.
We had such a massive rise in monster hurricanes, people started fearing living on the shore line. Right after Maria plowed into Puerto Rico, we experienced a drought for hurricanes. We went a record 10 years without a US state being hit by a category 1 hurricane.
In 2021 the state of Texas nearly suffered a grid-wide electrical meltdown because it relied too much on windmills, solar cells, and natural gas. God sent down a record cold blast to embarrass the green energy planners. The incident was also likely an end-time birth pain.
Over the years, I’ve done many searches on “record cold,” and they don’t seem to be decreasing. Here is a fresh one from a few days ago: The last day of spring and the first day of summer both brought record-cold temperatures to Baker City, Oregon. The temperature at the Baker City Airport dropped to 29 degrees on Tuesday, June 20, breaking the previous record for the date of 30 set in 2012. The next morning, the summer solstice, the temperature at the airport dipped to 30 degrees, breaking the record of 32 set in 1960.
The reason why there was a name change from global warming to climate change is that we keep having record cold events. Several global warming conferences were canceled because snow storms occurred in cities that rarely get freezing temperatures. I have a running joke with Terry and his son. If we have a heatwave, say we need Al Gore to fly over the state in his jet. The former vice president has been embarrassed several times by Old Man Winter (God).
Weather, by its nature, makes wild moves. It could be 80 degrees in one location. A day later, it could be 20 below and snowing. Most birth pains are unrelated to weather, which is why they work so well.
“Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains” (Matthew 24:8-10).
— Todd
Enemies in Dreamland
An obvious bravado is again building within the perennial enemies of God’s chosen nation. There seems to be no let-up by the satanically deluded and driven antagonists of Israel. Their plans continue to harbor the rage to destroy the Jewish state, to, as they often express, push Israel into the Mediterranean, never to be heard from again.
Iran’s ongoing vow to wipe Israel from the face of the earth is joined by the Islamic states and terrorist organizations surrounding the nation. The configuration of such enemies would seem to give validity to the belief that it is all building toward fulfillment of the so-called Psalm 83 war.
While I don’t believe there will be a war separate from Gog-Magog that involves the words wrapped up in the imprecatory prayer found in Psalm 83, I could certainly be wrong, and my good friend, Bill Salus, for example, could be correct. Bill is the first I know of to set in order writing that portrays Psalm 83 as a kinetic conflict yet future. I some years ago wrote a review upon his book’s release on the matters involved, allowing the possibility that he was right. At that time, I nonetheless disagreed. And, as I say, I continue to do so, even while things going on within the councils of Israel’s blood-vowed enemies become increasingly intriguing.
Developments are interesting particularly because Israel’s enemy Islamic neighbors, despite having lost each major attempt to carry out Nasser’s and others’ Allah-vowed promises to rid the world of the Jews, now issue boisterous declarations that Israel is as good as vanquished. It is as if they are living in a dreamland they neither can nor even wish to exit.
But such arrogance doesn’t surprise. Humanity, in general, continues down the same destructive path, unable and/or unwilling to learn that the cyclical pattern through mankind’s history continues. The trajectory always takes mankind into worldwide conflict and worldwide carnage. Psalm 2 explains God’s view of the foolishness of man’s grasp for power God’s Word forbids.
The Lord scattered mankind after the Flood and upon the tower-building at Babel. Global wars, with megalomania and desire for world conquest at their core, have ended the same way.
Yet Israel’s enemies take no note of these obviously inescapable consequences laid out by the God who knows—and foretells—the end from the beginning.
The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) released a new survey on Wednesday that painted a grim picture of a Palestinian public overwhelmingly supportive of violence toward Israel, with two-thirds believing that Israel will not celebrate its hundredth anniversary…
When asked what has been the most positive or the best thing that has happened to the Palestinian people since 1948, the largest percentage (24%) said that it was the establishment of Islamic movements, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad (both classified as terrorist organizations) and their participation in “armed struggle.” 21% said the first and second intifadas were the most positive developments in Palestinian history since 1948. (Source: Palestinian Poll: Vast Majority See Violence as Solution; Few Believe in Two-State Solution, Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, Israel News, June 15, 2023)
Israel’s chief antagonist, Iran, is ratcheting up threats, declaring God’s nation will soon be completely destroyed. Israel, foretold by Ezekiel to be one of the primary nations that will attack in the God-Magog War, is boasting of its Fattah Missile, which it proclaims can travel at fourteen times the speed of sound.
The hypersonic weapon joins like weapons produced by Russia and China, according to some military experts.
Both Russia and China also threaten use of these super cruise-missile-type weapons as part of their aggression sights set on Ukraine and on Taiwan. These can be tipped with nuclear warheads, apparently, but experts say any weapon traveling at that speed might be hard to govern because development of controls capabilities lag behind the advanced explosive weapons themselves.
In the case of Iran, it seems mostly bluster at this point. The Iranians have to hold weaponry development involving nuclear application close to the vest. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. And they must know he’s not kidding. Israel’s survival is at stake.
Or is it?
When it comes to the survival of Israel, the God of Heaven that neither slumbers nor sleeps, says the following:
“This is what the Lord says, ‘He who appoints the sun to shine by day, Who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord Almighty is His Name; Only if these ordinances vanish from My sight, declares the Lord, will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before Me” (Jeremiah 31: 35–36).
One way Israel’s God has seen to it that His chosen people survive and even thrive is through blessing them with the ability to create, in some cases, almost miraculous technological breakthroughs. This has been true, particularly in the matter of technological warfare capabilities.
This news item illustrates…
Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems on Wednesday said it was developing a new system that would be able to intercept incoming hypersonic missiles traveling at five times the speed of sound on a complex trajectory which makes them difficult to intercept…
“The SkySonic interceptor will enable us to intercept all kinds of hypersonic threats— hypersonic ballistic missiles, hypersonic cruise missiles,” Yuval Steinitz, chairman of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd, said. The system is scheduled to be on display next week during the Paris Air Show.
The Pentagon was briefed on the development, Rafael said. It declined to say if or when the Israeli military might deploy SkySonic. Israel’s defense ministry had no immediate comment.
The announcement came days after Iran unveiled what officials described as its first domestically-made hypersonic ballistic missile. (Israel defense manufacturer reveals skySonic able to intercept hypersonic missiles, by Paboola, Ynet News )
Bottom line is that we should never fear for the nation of Israel so far as survival is concerned. We should and are commanded to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, of course. To do so is to pray that the Prince of Peace returns to put an end to all the wickedness to which Israel—and the rest of us—are subjected during this prophetic time leading to the Tribulation and Christ’s Second Advent.
Israel’s enemies—and ours, the enemies of Jesus Christ, who is also our protector—are living in a dreamland of delusion. They will neither conquer nor destroy God’s chosen people, nor the people who belong to Jesus.
Here once again is how to make certain you belong to Him:
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9–10).
–Terry