A Hurricane Season Like No Other
At the end of each year, I often do a composite of all the prophecy-related events. The 2020 hurricane season has been so active, I think it is needful that I do a special Nearing Midnight article on this subject. We have broken so many records, it’s hard to know where to begin.
We currently have the most number of hurricanes in any season. Subtropical storm Theta in the northeast Atlantic was the 29th, breaking the previous record of 28 set in 2005. With the formation of Iota, we have had 30 storms. After 170 years of record-keeping, it’s no small accomplishment to witness the busiest Atlantic hurricane season. The average number of hurricanes in a season is 12 storms.
Hurricanes are named in alphabetical order, restarting with A at the beginning of every year. If more storms occur than the alphabet allows, meteorologists move on to the Greek alphabet. The WMO’s hurricane name list consists of 21 alphabetic names. The Greek alphabet has 24 letters, meaning a storm season would have to observe an unprecedented 45 named storms in a single year. The WMO has no policy or procedure in place should the Greek name list be exhausted.
Hurricane Iota just rammed into Nicaragua with Category 5 winds of 155 MPH. It is the strongest hurricane in the month of November. It also marked the first time that two hurricanes have formed in the Atlantic in any November. An old man being interview in Nicaragua, as Iota began making landfall, said he had experienced 6 tropical storms in his lifetime. Two of them have occurred this year.
This makes five consecutive years with Category 5 storms, which is itself also a record.
The state of Louisiana has been a punching bag for tropical storms. Zeta hit the state at the end of October, becoming a record fifth named storm to make landfall in the state this season. Hurricane Laura tied a record for the strongest storm to hit Louisiana.
The 2020 hurricane season tied 1995 for the most rapidly intensifying storms. Maximum sustained winds in Iota increased by 70 mph in 24 hours. That doubles the criterion for the rapid intensification of a tropical cyclone, which is a wind speed increase of 35 mph or more in 24 hours or less.
We still have two more weeks before the Atlantic hurricane season ends.
Such activity has focused attention on climate change, which scientists say is causing wetter, stronger and more destructive storms. Sea surface temperatures were consistently 2 to 3 degrees above normal through the summer months, and these anomalies increased to 3 to 5 degrees during September, especially around the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and off the coast of Africa, where many storms start to develop.
Wind shear was extremely low through the summer months, and this allows tropical storms to intensify and maintain tropical circulations rather than being torn apart by opposing winds in the different layers of the atmosphere.
A pulse of enhanced rainfall, known as the Madden-Julian Oscillation, moves eastwards around the equator. When it is located over West Africa, it causes more rainfall and thunderstorms, which can give birth to tropical storms over the eastern Atlantic.
La Niña, a change in Pacific Ocean temperatures with cooler water being pushed eastwards across the equatorial Pacific, has also been more influential. It can affect global weather patterns, and one of the effects is an increased number and strength of Atlantic tropical cyclones, especially late in the season.
The 2017 hurricane season broke a similar number of records. I was stunned by the number of records that Hurricane Irma set. It was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record. At the time, it was considered the most powerful hurricane on record in the open Atlantic region, outside of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, until it was surpassed by Hurricane Dorian two years later. No storm in recorded history has sustained winds of 185 mph for as long as Irma: a record-breaking 37 hours.
The previous record was 24 hours, during Super Typhoon Haiyan in the northwest Pacific in 2013. Irma is tied with the 1932 hurricane in Cuba as the longest time (3.25 days) spent as a Category 5 hurricane. Hurricanes Irma and Jose mark the first time in recorded history that there were two hurricanes with winds of at least 150 miles per hour in the Atlantic at the same time.
When I looked at the historical record for all recorded hurricanes, there were times when a decade could pass without any major storm event. To have a year like 2020, that just goes off the scale, is a strong indication that Bible prophecy is the reason why we set so many records. Because we seem to be at the limits of what nature can produce and what mankind can endure, I think we must be very close to the tribulation hour.
“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring” (Luke 21:25).
–Todd
Salt, Light, and the Spirit of Antichrist
We’ve looked a number of times at Jesus’ words about the very end of the age. The Lord told us in very specific terms that it will be like the days of Noah and the days of Lot at the exact moment He will again intervene—catastrophically—into things going on in a world in rebellion against God.
Ezekiel the prophet clues us a bit on that generation of Sodomites, who had moved so far away from God that destruction was the only remedy possible. God told Ezekiel to report the following:
Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good. (Ezekiel 16: 49–50)
Sodom had reached the point that every form of debauchery was carried on, perversion of the most disgusting sort being the norm rather than the exception. The sexual immorality had progressed to the ultimate deviancy, marking the city and the people for destruction by the forces of Heaven.
Sodom was living the high life in economic terms. As a matter of fact, Abraham’s nephew, Lot, saw its prosperity and chose to move there when his uncle gave him the choice. Lot became deeply involved in the city’s government and commerce. He was, we believe, a judge who held court at the city gate, as was the way of government of the time.
The ease of life and the leisure time provided for its citizens, God told Ezekiel, led to pride, self-sufficiency, and gluttony, with no regard for those truly in need. The people were therefore haughty, and their sin-corrupted senses, they were led into abominable sexual evil before the holy eyes of God.
Lot was caught up in the stream of the city’s rebellious activities, but he was considered “just” by the Lord, we see from the account given in Genesis chapter 19. When Abraham was told by the Lord He would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham pleaded for Him to relent. Abraham said there had to be righteous people in the cities—those people would make it worth saving the cities from destruction.
We know God agreed to spare the doomed cities if just ten righteous people could be found. He then decreased that number until, when no righteous person besides Lot could be found, Abraham gave up and no doubt agreed that God had no other choice.
Lot, as representing God’s light in the sin-darkened Sodom, no longer was enough of an influence to provide hope of saving illumination, so Lot was removed from the city to Zoar. Judgment then fell that very day and destroyed everyone in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Jesus, in the Olivet Discourse, foretold that it will be exactly like that again: God’s judgment will fall in one day at the time in this generation when His cup of wrath is full.
The question is: How near are we to that time?
No matter which direction we look, we see evil proliferating. The Church of Jesus Christ is the salt and the light in this darkening world. We Christians, indwelled by the Holy Spirit—the Light Bearer—are all that stands between the total evil of this world and God’s judgment and wrath. The Lord said the following:
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5: 13–16)
The spirit of Antichrist is manifesting in physical outbreaks. The evil is no longer hiding just beneath the surface of civility. Proponents of rebellion against every godly principle are attacking the Bible and true Christians in a way that makes headline news on an hourly basis.
We are—as I like to say in using the KJV vernacular—sorely vexed, just as the righteous Lot was in Sodom.
The New York governor just gave orders to shut down worship in his state, or limit it to completely keep congregations out of houses of worship. It is the same in many of the Democrat-run cities and states, like California, for example.
If the election goes in a direction other than that we as God’s people are praying, it will likely be a short time to the implementation of anti-God measures to protect through law the Sodomite activity that caused God to finally say to those cities, “Enough is enough.”
Norway is victim of the prototype government that is coming to America and the world, unless the Lord sees otherwise.
Norway’s parliament has voted to expand the protections that the LGBTQ community has enjoyed in that nation since 1981 by expanding the definition of “hate speech” that can land a person in prison.
Reuters reported Norway already was among the “most liberal countries in Europe” on the issue, “allowing trans people to legally change gender without a medical diagnosis” and more…
Now those found guilty of hate speech face a fine or up to a year in prison for private remarks, and a maximum of three years for public comments.
Monica Maeland, minister of justice, said transgendered people are “an exposed group when it comes to discrimination, harassment and violence.”…
“LGBTQ+ ideology has been mainstreamed in every sphere of life imaginable. Still, radical gender activists will not be at rest until every private citizen repudiates biological truth and relinquishes his every doubt about their dogma.”
Reuters noted that under the penal code, “people charged with violent crimes can receive harsher sentences if a judge decides their actions were motivated by someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity.” (“Norway criminalizes private criticism of LGTBQ people, Adopts law imposing punishment of up to a year in prison,” By WND Staff, WorldNetDaily, November 14, 2020)
The Antichrist spirit is becoming almost tangible as we watch the lawlessness explode across our nation and the world. Nonetheless, we, as God’ salt and light, are here at the most exciting time in human history. It’s exciting because the Lord is, we believe, on the brink of calling His ambassadors home.
Our just-released book, LAWLESS: The End-Times War Against the Spirit of Antichrist, presents, through seventeen top prophecy experts, just how near that time of Rapture must be, based on the rebellion exploding across America and the world.
But, Jesus Christ, who is infinitely greater than Satan or his coming Antichrist, isn’t taken by surprise by all of this end-of-the-age evil. He will prevail. And so will we who are called by His Holy Name!
*** LAWLESS: The End Times War Against the Spirit of Antichrist***
Our new book that covers the evil assaulting the U.S. and world is now available.
See the promotion at the following.
–Terry