Earth in Convulsion

The above expression borrowed from the 2011 prophecies of Pastor E.A. Adeboye best describes the present situation on planet earth. First is the political turmoil currently engulfing the Gulf and Arab states. It all began in Tunisia on December 17 2010, when a policewoman confiscated the unlicenced vegetable cart of a street trader, Mohamed Bouazizi, and refused all reasonable entreaties. This is a fairly common incident in several parts of the world -, Nigeria not excluded. So when a desperate Bouazizi doused himself with some inflammable liquid and set himself ablaze, something snapped in the previously docilely watching masses; and they took to the streets. When Bouazizi eventually died on January 4, 2011, the protests – fanned by facebook and youtube, went out of control. At the end of the day the President, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced to resign his 23 year old reign and flee to Saudi Arabia.
Inspired by the events in neighbouring Tunisia, it was the turn of the Egyptians to demand the resignation of President Moubarak, citing gross corruption and injustice. This was a very dicey one, for Egypt under Moubarak has proven over the years (since the murder of Anwar Sadat by Muslim extremists opposed to the peace treaty with Israel in 1981) to be pivotal to the strategic interests of both the United States and also Israel. Moubarak was however sorely disappointed to find President Obama rooting deeply for the Muslim Brotherhood-led opposition, and after several futile efforts to remain in power, finally handed over to the nation’s military 17 tense days after. [see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/30/egypt-revolution-2011_n_816026.html for details]
The blunt back-turning of Obama to a supposed ally in time of dire need was a shocking eye-opener to many Arab leaders – not the least Saudi’s King Fahd, who was a personal close friend of Mubarak. Now the masses all across Arabia knew it could be possible to throw away the yoke of their oppressive dictators, while the dictators on their own knew no help would come from America. So as the unrest swelled up through Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Yemen, United Arab Emirate and Mauritania, it assumes different colouration and resulted in different outcomes. One of the major factors that was stirred up, was the ancient rivalry between Shiite (as in Iran) and Sunni (as in Saudi Arabia) moslems. For instance the “pro-democracy revolution” in Bahrain quickly assumed the religious picture of Shiites challenging a Sunni king. With this interpretation, Saudi Arabia justified the sending of a 1000 strong troop to Bahrain, under the auspices of the Gulf Cooperation Council. One country where the division between the revolutionists and the sitting dictator was maximally exploited was in Libya. Ghadaffi showed no emotion as he ordered his fellow countrymen, in their hundreds, mowed down by machine guns and aerial strafing. Libyan soldiers who refused to shoot were summarily executed, and very soon mercenaries from Chad, Dafur, Guinea, Nigeria (north to be sure!) and elsewhere were recruited in exterminating the demonstrators - famously described by Ghaddafi as “cockroaches!” The carnage is on-going as we write, and even western media have started to call the demonstrators, “ rebels”.
Of course, all these developments cannot be cheery news for Israel. The Arab dictators, under America’s patronage, have played pivotal role in maintaining peace in the Middle East by defending Israel from the Arab’s masses who are under a religious conviction that Israel should not exist. Now, that is changing! Furthermore, Obama has never hidden his disdain for Israel since coming to power, and the only favours Israel still get from her traditional greatest ally only come as a result of pressures from the US Congress. The European Union has always been anti-Israel, and Turkey under Erdogan moved against her traditional ally Israel several months ago – with the Flotilla incident marking a record low in their relationship. Even a traditionally quiet and neutral country like Japan recently issued a strongly anti-Israel’s statement adding to the pressure that Israel should give up the strategic West Bank and become totally defenseless.( http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/announce/2010/3/0311_01.html). And so, as the company of Israel’s ally diminishes very rapidly, the prophecy of all the nations agreeing to attack Israel (Zech. 12:1-3) looms. But Israel not only has one of the best intelligence and military forces in the world, it is also a nuclear power. And like one of the great Judges of that nation, Samson, it is not likely Israel would allow itself to be wiped off the map without taking the world along with it. Does that sound like Armageddon?
But the convulsion of planet earth is beyond the man-made turmoils in the Middle East (not to talk of what would now amount to ‘skirmishes’ in countries like Ivory Coast), there are also “acts of God” – as people refer to natural disasters. Beginning from the floods and mudslides in Rio de Janeiro, flash floods in Australia and New Zealand, the North American winter storm, to the on-going earthquake and accompanying tsunami in Japan (which struck, incidentally on the same day Japan released its vicious anti-Israel statement),several thousands of human lives have sadly perished.
Human lives and property losses apart, there is the additional fear of the future with respect to the irreplaceable basic need for Energy. Now with the on-going leakage of radiation from one of the nuclear reactors at Fukushima, Japan in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami, these formidable facilities suddenly don’t look as safe as people thought – or rather, the magnitude of havoc that could result from the admittedly very very slim chance of accident, has become very daunting and scary! As pointed out by one writer, though the current magnitude 8.9 earthquake is the largest in Japan’s recorded history, it is clear that it would not be the last! If this one could compromise the “fail-proof” reactor at Fukushima, who can be sure of what would happen, sometimes in the future, to the dozens of other reactors located on other earthquake-prone sites in Japan? These grievous concerns arising at a time when many are reading the events in the Middle East as a wake-up call to diversify from fossil fuels to other alternatives (nuclear being the prime alternative) is confounding mankind. To cap all these avalanche of landmark tumultuous events, is the announcement of the find of 16 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves in Israel – making it a fresh target not only to those who wanted to take over that land for religious reasons, but now for economic reasons. In fact, according to Bible prophecies, one of the major reasons for the attack by the nations on Israel, like the gulf war on Iraq, would be to loot….. (http://www.thenational.ae/business/energy/discovery-of-giant-gasfield-sparks-frenzy-in-israel, Ezekiel 38:10ff).
Dear reader, if you think all these convulsions of the planet earth is merely fascinating reading of events that don’t affect you personally, please think again. The end of the current world order is right across the corner. Unlike those caught in the spates of disasters highlighted above, you still have the opportunity to re-locate yourself out of disaster region. Noah’s Ark is still boarding! No matter your current circumstances, you don’t have to go hell. Turn to Jesus in all sincerity today in order not to miss the imminent Rapture. This is a personal decision that would profoundly affect the rest of your life and eternity. And the time for that decision is NOW.