.jpg)
Burning Alight: 12 Endtime Fuses - Food
& Drug Administration - Ukraine is Not an Independent Country - It’s a
state of Russia - Amanda Grace Ministries & 2023 - Netanyahu to Make Bible
Priority - NESARA-GESARA - MED BEDS & Q PHONES - Texas National Guard &
Miles of Border Fence – Bibi & the Promised Land and more.
Researched & Comments by Pastor
Gary Boyd
Dec. 31st 2022 – Jan. 1st
2023
REAL RAW NEWS: Military Arrests
Former FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn - By Michael Baxter -December 30, 2022 -
U.S. Navy JAG investigators on Thursday arrested former Food & Drug
Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn for having committed treasonous acts against
the nation and its people while he served under President Donald J. Trump
throughout the Coronavirus Plandemic, JAG sources told Real Raw News. - https://realrawnews.com/2022/12/military-arrests-former-fda-commisioner-stephen-hahn/
Gun Owners of America Classified 18 Republican
Senators as Traitors - By Jose Nino - Dec 30, 2022 - In a press release
published on December 22, 2022, Gun Owners of America, America’s oldest no
compromise pro-Second Amendment lobby, sharply criticized 18 Republican
senators who voted for the 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Act. GOA believes that
by casting this vote for the Omnibus bill, these 18 senators are effectively
promoting the Biden regime’s civilian disarmament agenda. https://bigleaguepolitics.com/gun-owners-of-america-classified-18-republican-senators-as-traitors/
New Text and Email Evidence: Pelosi
Staff Secretly DECREASED Security at US Capitol for Jan 6 (While Pelosi
Organized Film Crew For That Day) - Saturday, December 31, 2022 8:57 - The
whole thing was a set-up, a terrible, elaborate set-up to inflict a death blow
to our Constitutional Republic. https://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2022/12/new-text-and-email-evidence-pelosi-staff-secretly-decreased-security-at-us-capitol-for-jan-6-while-pelosi-organized-film-crew-for-that-day-3650916.html
SGAnon Stream 12.31.22 > The Face
Of Darkness! Q - White Hats Intel Thanks Benjamin Fulford! - Must Video - Saturday,
December 31, 2022 9:34 - Why does no one ever mention that Ukraine is not an
independent country..?? It’s a state of Russia. No mutual boundaries were ever
established and Ukraine never sent in and paperwork to the UN. It’s never paid
UN dues. https://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2022/12/sganon-stream-12-31-22-the-face-of-darkness-q-white-hats-intel-thanks-benjamin-fulford-must-video-3650918.html
NESARA-GESARA, MED BEDS AND Q
PHONES/U.S. MILITARY ARREST FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER STEPHEN HAHN/GITMO
ATTACKERS IDENTIFIED - Saturday, December 31, 2022 2:29 - https://beforeitsnews.com/republican/2022/12/nesara-gesara-med-beds-and-q-phonesu-s-military-arrest-former-fda-commissioner-stephen-hahngitmo-attackers-identified-2445025.html
Sarah Westall: World
Report-Transhuman Bluetooth Payments & Intra Body Nano-Network w/ Kent
Lewiss (2of2) - Saturday, December 31, 2022 0:12 - https://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2022/12/sarah-westall-world-report-transhuman-bluetooth-payments-intra-body-nano-network-w-kent-lewiss-2of2-3786325.html
Forecast 2023 — Get Out of the Way if
You Can’t Lend a Hand - Saturday, December 31, 2022 10:25 - https://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2022/12/forecast-2023-get-out-of-the-way-if-you-cant-lend-a-hand-3650922.html
New word from Amanda Grace Ministries
for the new year. See what the Lord says is happening and how he will correct
it while shaking the earth to wake up those that are asleep. https://amandagrace4him.blogspot.com/
The European Union is set to create
the world's first broad standards for regulating or banning certain uses of artificial
intelligence in 2023 – TECHNOLOGY - 28
December 2022 - By Jeremy Hsu - The European Union is set to create the world’s
first broad standards for regulating artificial intelligence. As well as
determining how the technology affects the lives of almost 450 million citizens
in the 27 countries of the EU, the rules are likely to influence how AI is used
elsewhere in the world. “The idea is that you have a harmonized system, which
is really good,” says Sandra Wachter at the University of Oxford. The EU is
working towards finalizing the text of the … https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25634192-300-eus-artificial-intelligence-act-will-lead-the-world-on-regulating-ai/
U.S. Virgin Islands implicates JP
Morgan Chase bigtime in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation - December
30, 2022 | Melissa Fine - An explosive new lawsuit brought by the U.S. Virgin
Islands Attorney General Denise George has accused banking behemoth JP Morgan
Chase of turning “a blind eye” to Jeffrey Epstein’s heinous human
sex-trafficking operations, which allegedly represented the “principal
business” of the now-deceased pedophile’s accounts with the institution.
According to the suit, filed on Tuesday, JP Morgan “knowingly facilitated,
sustained, and concealed the human trafficking network operated by Jeffrey
Epstein” and “financially benefitted from this participation,” the Insider
reports. https://www.bizpacreview.com/2022/12/30/u-s-virgin-islands-implicates-jp-morgan-chase-bigtime-in-jeffrey-epsteins-sex-trafficking-operation-1320934/
ISRAEL TODAY: Prime Minister Netanyahu
to Make Bible Priority - Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is back and eager to
lead Israel including making the Bible a central part of Israeli society. - By
Jason Silverman | December 30, 2022 - https://www.israeltoday.co.il/read/prime-minister-netanyahu-to-make-bible-priority/
ALPHA NEWS: Bail group collapses
after helping free criminal who allegedly shot man upon release - The group
posted a $3,000 bond after Rashawn Gaston-Anderson was arrested for burglary
and theft in December 2021, and six days later, Gaston-Anderson allegedly shot
waiter Chengyan Wang 11 times. - By Bronson Winslow -December 30, 2022 - (Daily
Caller News Foundation) — A celebrity-backed bail reform group shut down and is
now being sued after the group helped free a criminal in 2021 who allegedly
attempted to kill a waiter less than one week after his release, according to 8
News Now. - https://alphanews.org/bail-group-collapses-after-helping-free-criminal-who-allegedly-shot-man-upon-release/
Texas National Guard Adds 2 Miles of
Border Fence as Border Crisis Intensifies - By Jose Nino - Dec 31, 2022 - The
Texas National Guard recently built two additional miles of border fencing
during a time when the Supreme Court issued an order to maintain Title 42 and a
mass illegal migration wave continues. According
to a report by ADN America, national guardsmen stationed in the border city of
El Paso, Texas helped erect the barriers and have plans of building more. https://bigleaguepolitics.com/texas-national-guard-adds-2-miles-of-border-fence-as-border-crisis-intensifies/
Profiteering- American military-industrial complex bought
cross-party support in a proxy war against Russia - Sunday, January 1, 2023 7:50
- The market profits of the largest US arms companies have grown significantly
in the past year due to their role in supplying Ukraine, according to Fox News.
Politicians in Washington are consumed by the confrontation with Moscow and
reject calls for diplomacy, hypocritically stating their concern for the fate
of the Ukrainian population. https://beforeitsnews.com/war-and-conflict/2023/01/profiteering-american-military-industrial-complex-bought-cross-party-support-in-a-proxy-war-against-russia-2476972.html
CNN: Trump’s Taxes Are A Big
Nothingburger - Sunday, January 1, 2023 7:01 - For all the caterwauling by
Democrats over the release of Trump’s taxes, it ended up being a big, big
letdown for them. They thought that this would finally be the thing that put
Trump behind bars. Or, at least embarrass Trump (can he be embarrassed?) https://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2023/01/cnn-trumps-taxes-are-a-big-nothingburger-3650970.html
MI: Carjack Suspect Shot by Armed
Victim, Arrested by Police - Sunday, January 1, 2023 6:57 - https://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2023/01/mi-carjack-suspect-shot-by-armed-victim-arrested-by-police-3786378.html
Russia’s War Could Make It India’s
World - December 31, 2022 in News - Seated in the domed, red sandstone
government building unveiled by the British Raj less than two decades before
India threw off imperial rule, S. Jaishankar, the Indian foreign minister,
needs no reminder of how the tides of history sweep away antiquated systems to
usher in the new. - https://dnyuz.com/2022/12/31/russias-war-could-make-it-indias-world/
ZERO HEDGE: Laid-Off Silicon Valley
Workers Panic Sell Start-Up Shares As Valuations Crash - BY TYLER DURDEN - SATURDAY,
DEC 31, 2022 - 06:15 PM - Silicon Valley tech companies have benefited from
over a decade of low-interest rates and easy money. But since the Federal
Reserve turned off the liquidity taps to combat inflation -- at least for now
-- tech firms have been forced into aggressive cost-cutting measures, such as
reducing headcount. This brings us to the workers who were fired this year.
Financial Times reported, "employees of embattled tech groups are flooding
secondary markets — where stakeholders in a private company sell shares to
third parties." And as they unload shares on the private market, the
valuations of these startups are collapsing. The latest data from Crunchbase
shows more than 91,000 workers in the U.S. tech sector have been laid off this
year. Silicon Valley tech companies have benefited from over a decade of
low-interest rates and easy money. But since the Federal Reserve turned off the
liquidity taps to combat inflation — at least for now — tech firms have been
forced into aggressive cost-cutting measures, such as reducing headcount. This
brings us to the workers who were fired this year. Financial Times reported,
“employees of embattled tech groups are flooding secondary markets — where
stakeholders in a private company sell shares to third parties.” And as they
unload shares on the private market, the valuations of these startups are
collapsing. https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/laid-silicon-valley-workers-panic-sell-start-shares-valuations-crash
CDC Urges Teachers, Administrators,
School Nurses to Adopt LGBT Curriculum, Endorse Transgender Identity – By Tyler
O'Neil / @Tyler2ONeil / December 30, 2022 - ust days after Christmas, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention republished a “self-assessment tool”
urging teachers, administrators, school health staff, and others to become an
“awesome ally” by advocating for LGBT causes in school. The document cites
multiple LGBT activist groups, including a division of the Southern Poverty Law
Center (SPLC). (Comment: Urging public institutions to adopt Queer Nation
agendas is like asking God to put our nation in the crosshairs of a fire &
brimstone attack. Does anyone remember the times of Sodom and Gomorrah when
both cities were destroyed because of their perversions and atrocities? Sodom
and Gomorrah was an ancient city of Syria located in the plain of Jordan. The
city was destroyed by fire from heaven in the time of Abraham and Lot (Genesis
19:24). The city's wickedness became proverbial. The sin of sodomy was an
offense against nature frequently connected with idolatrous practices. The fate
of Sodom and Gomorrah is used as a warning to those who reject the gospel
(Matthew 10:15; 11:24; 2 Peter 2:6; Jude 1:7). The word is used in a typical
sense in Revelation 11:8. Sodom was presumably located in plain South of the
Dead Sea, now covered with water. The name is still preserved in Jebel Usdum
(Mt. Sodom).) https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/12/30/cdc-urges-teachers-administrators-school-nurses-adopt-lgbt-curriculum-endorse-transgender-identity/
ISRAEL TODAY: Netanyahu’s New
Government to Settle All Biblical Lands of Israel - “The Jewish people has an
exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the Land of Israel.” - By
Israel Today Staff | December 29, 2022 - https://www.israeltoday.co.il/read/netanyahus-new-government-to-settle-all-biblical-lands-of-israel/
They Walked Into The Trap! Thanks
SGAnon, Juan O Savin, Derek Johnson! Trump Announcement! Wrap Up Live Dec 31! -
Must Video - Sunday, January 1, 2023 11:27 - https://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2023/01/they-walked-into-the-trap-thanks-sganon-juan-o-savin-derek-johnson-trump-announcement-wrap-up-live-dec-31-must-video-3650985.html
Charlie Ward & Jason Q New Year's
Eve Q Drop!! (Video) - Saturday, December 31, 2022 21:13 - https://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2022/12/charlie-ward-jason-q-new-years-eve-q-drop-video-3786352.html
US Military Finally To Rid Itself Of
Traitors!! General Eric M. Smith Takes Command At GITMO!! Military Supporters
Of Biden And Harris Will Be One Key Identifier Of "Ideological
Inconsistencies!! - Sunday, January 1, 2023 12:10 - https://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2023/01/us-military-finally-to-rid-itself-of-traitors-general-eric-m-smith-takes-command-at-gitmo-military-supporters-of-biden-and-harris-will-be-one-key-identifier-of-ideological-inconsistencies-3786383.html
Juan O' Savin's Take On The Most
Important Supreme Court Case In US History! - Must Video - Sunday, January 1,
2023 15:14 - https://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2023/01/juan-o-savins-take-on-the-most-important-supreme-court-case-in-us-history-must-video-3651002.html
Karen Kingston And SGT Report: World
War III Is Spiritual Warfare!! - Sunday, January 1, 2023 13:24 - https://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2023/01/karen-kingston-and-sgt-report-world-war-iii-is-spiritual-warfare-3786391.html
Breitbart: California’s Crazy New
Year - Sunday, January 1, 2023 12:17 - Culture is king. It explains why Texas
is not California. It also explains why there are two Californias. The lunatics
in the coastal strip lord it over the rest of the state and drag down the
entire country through their delegation in Congress. https://beforeitsnews.com/politics/2023/01/breitbart-californias-crazy-new-year-3280870.html
Charlie Ward: Truth Seekers Around
The World! - Must Video - Sunday, January 1, 2023 12:32 - https://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2023/01/charlie-ward-truth-seekers-around-the-world-must-video-3650989.html
Maryland: Civil Penalties Take Effect
for Cannabis Possession - Sunday, January 1, 2023 14:43 - https://beforeitsnews.com/marijuana-debate/2023/01/maryland-civil-penalties-take-effect-for-cannabis-possession-2460168.html
.jpg)
Burning Alight: 12 Endtime Fuses –
Part I
by Wilfred Hahn
Researched by Pastor Gary Boyd
Dec. 31st 2022 – Jan. 1st
2023
Says the National Intelligence
Council in a recent report: “We are at a critical juncture in human history,
which could lead to widely contrasting futures. It is our contention that the
future is not set in stone, but is malleable, the result of an interplay among
megatrends, game-changers and, above all, human agency.”1
This excellent report seeks to
identify mega trends that will impact America and the world. As the above quote
suggests, the NIC senses that an extraordinary period of time is ahead … that
the entire world is now at a “critical juncture.”
Bible-believing Christians would
agree. In fact, interestingly, some of NIC’s forecasts find parallels in Bible
prophecy. While the Bible and NIC would share the view that the future is
largely the result of “human agency”—in other words, the choices of people and
mankind overall—the Bible goes one decisive step further, claiming a
foreknowledge of these ultimate choices.
God Jehovah, the author of the Bible,
specifically chose to differentiate Himself from all other gods by being the
one and only who can reveal both the beginning and the future. He said:
“Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that
are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure”
(Isaiah 46:10).
The mistake that most philosophers
and economists often make in their forecasts, is simply to extrapolate present
trends, assuming the underlying forces that gave rise to them in the first
place will continue to accelerate as before. Most often, this is an
unreasonable assumption. The created order simply cannot support infinite
trends. For example, infinite compound growth is not possible, despite what
humanists will want to believe. Yes, mankind can inflate money almost without
limit, but not real wealth. God Himself is infinite, but not Creation.
Therefore, all trends on earth must eventually decay or collapse spectacularly.
To the extent that mankind’s
decisions, expectations and beliefs are based on illusory untruths and false gods,
it will face the judgment of a spectacular collapse.
Just what are the major trends that
we see, reflecting the unwise choices of secular mankind today? These will lead
to judgment … i.e. the global collapse of mankind’s kingdoms and global order.
In this series, we propose to list 12 of such developments, these being burning
fuses that likely will have explosive implications.
However, may we first mention a few
caveats. Our list will surely overlook some important trends. Nor can we likely
order them correctly in terms of their importance. Why? Like every other
generation that has sought to interpret Bible prophecy or peer into the future,
we are influenced by the light of our time. It is impossible not to be biased
by the current trends and conditions that we see around us. We really have no
idea of the exact course of these trends into the future. These may accelerate,
then reverse, only to accelerate again or to be subsumed by another trend.
It is also challenging to sort
factors into major and minor categories. Some may have a significant impact,
yet are the fall-out or companion development to another. With these cautions
being expressed, we venture into our list of 12 fuses burning. Approximately
half fall into the realm of secular humanism; the other into Biblically
prophesied or implied developments of the end time. All assume a Biblical
worldview and are the direct consequence of shifting human beliefs and/or
idolatry.
1. Population Growth and
Post-Familialism: Changing Perspectives on Marriage.
The U.S. birth rate plunged to an
all-time low in 2011. Quoting an article written by Gary D. Halbert, “The
overall birth rate is now at its lowest level since reliable records have been
kept, falling to 63.2 births per 1,000 women who are of childbearing age in
2011. That is down from 122.7 births at the peak in 1957 during the Baby
Boom.”2
Some claim that this trend is due to
economic difficulties in recent years. People simply do not want to undertake
the financial burden of another child. But, actually, declining birth rates are
a long-time global phenomenon, not just North American. Looking at this trend
closer, one realizes it is the result of a global shift in values and beliefs.
It is a rapid one. David Brooks, in the New York Times writes: “The speed of
change is breathtaking. A woman in Oman
today has 5.6 fewer babies than a woman in Oman 30 years ago. Morocco, Syria
and Saudi Arabia have seen fertility-rate declines of nearly 60 percent and in
Iran it’s more than 70%. These are among the fastest declines in recorded
history.”
Around the world, attitudes towards
marriage and childbirth are changing. For various reasons, also including the
populations of emerging nations where the fertility rate has been relatively
high, birth rates are dropping dramatically. Many countries, particularly in
the advanced nation bloc, are already experiencing population shrinkage
(notably Japan and several European nations). Of course, people are free to
make their own choices. We only point out that all changes in beliefs that have
an impact on human action will have consequences.
Quoting Halbert further: “In Europe,
Asia, and most advanced countries, people are running away from marriage,
children, and family life at an amazing rate. For example, 30% of German women
today say that they do not intend to have children. In Japan in 1960, 20% of
women between 25 and 29 had never married; today the number is more than 60%.
It is estimated that up to 25% of all East Asian women will remain single up to
age 50, and up to a third will remain childless.”
What must be acknowledged here is
that a change in behavior has occurred that is related to human values and
beliefs. Crucially, taking a Biblical worldview, we must further add that it is
a turning away from “Biblical values and beliefs.” Many surveys today document
the declining preference for marriage and child-rearing.
For example, consider this summary of
a survey conducted by the Weekly Standard:
Americans have been wedded to
marriage for a very long time. Between 1910 and 1970, the ‘ever-married
rate’—that is, the percentage of people who marry at some point in their
lives—went as high as 98.3% and never dipped below 92.8%. But beginning in
1970, the ever-married number began a gradual decline so that by 2000 it stood
at only 88.6%. Today, the numbers are even more striking according to the 2010
Census. Almost 24% of men, and 19% of women, between the ages of 35 and 44,
have never been married. If we look at the people between 20 and 34—the
prime-childbearing years—the numbers are even more startling: 67% of men and
57% of women in this group have never been married. When you total it all up,
over half of the voting-age population in America, and 40% of the people who
actually showed up to vote this time around, are single.3
The author of the article from the
Weekly Standard, Jonathan V. Last (author of the recent book, What to Expect
When No One’s Expecting: America’s Coming Demographic Disaster) provides a
chilling summary:
It’s a complicated story involving,
among other factors, the rise of almost-universal higher education, the delay
of marriage, urbanization, the invention of no-fault divorce, the
legitimization of cohabitation, the increasing cost of raising children, and
the creation of a government entitlement system to do for the elderly childless
what grown children did for their parents through the millennia.
But all of these causes are
particular. Looming beneath them are two deep shifts. The first is the waning
of religion in American life. As Joel Kotkin notes in a recent report titled
‘The Rise of Post-Familialism,’ one of the commonalities between all of the
major world religions is that they elevate family and kinship to a central
place in human existence. Secularism tends toward agnosticism about the family.
This distinction has real-world consequences. Take any cohort of Americans—by
race, income, education—and then sort them by religious belief. The more devout
they are, the higher their rates of marriage and the more children they have.
The second shift is the dismantling
of the iron triangle of sex, marriage, and childbearing. Beginning in roughly
1970, the mastery of contraception decoupled sex from babymaking. And with that
link broken, the connections between sex and marriage—and finally between
marriage and childrearing—were severed, too.
This burning endtime fuse is leading
to a type of explosion, namely an implosion (a slow and reversed version of
explosion). Already, more than half of the world’s population is residing in
countries where birthrates are below the replacement level. Little do people
realize that this shift carries an undesirable sting … an unavoidable
consequence.
Without a doubt, the biggest
contributor to prosperity is population growth (everything else being equal).
To the modern humanist, this will sound like an old-fashioned notion. Yet, this
is an inviolable fact of economics. Why? Economics is human economics. It
couldn’t be any other way.
The slower the population growth, the
slower will be economic expansion. The maximum wealth and prosperity that can
exist in the world is defined by total labor output.
Where is this trend headed? Jonathan
V. Last says the following:
In a word, higher. There are no
indicators to suggest when and where it will level off. Divorce rates have
stabilized, but rates of cohabitation have continued to rise, leading many
demographers to suspect that living together may be crowding out matrimony as a
mode of family formation. And increasing levels of education continue to push
the average age at first marriage higher.
God allowed humans free choice.
People are free to make choices regarding marriage and child-rearing, but they
cannot escape the consequences. Already, these are at the door. Penson systems
are collapsing and are increasingly underfunded. The ratio of workers per
retirees is declining in most Advanced Nations. One does not need to be a
mathematician or economist to conclude that the lifestyle of future retirees is
bound to deteriorate dramatically. Financial markets, therefore, will be in
recurring crisis. It all connects, as there is no escape from consequence.
2. Global Urbanization
An ever greater share of the world
population is moving from rural areas to urban ones … to the city life. This is
called urbanization, and it is a rapid trend. According to forecasts of the
United Nations Population Division (UNPD), 16.3% of the world’s population (2.6
billion people) will be moving to urban areas over the next 39 years.4 Assuming
this forecast is correct, more than two-thirds of the world’s population (or
6.3 billion people) will then be living in cities.
It therefore only follows that there
will be more big cities … in other words, greater agglomerations of people.
While there were only 10 urban agglomerations with an excess of 10 million
people in the world in 1990 (Tokyo, New York, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Bombay,
Osaka-Kobe, Calcutta, Los Angeles, Seoul, Buenos Aires), there are 23 today.
The UNPD forecasts that there will be 37 such cities by 2025.
Interestingly, as a side note, the
UNPD does not see Baghdad or any of its suburbs qualifying as one of these big
cities in the near future. If we are to go by the UNPD’s forecast, it will yet
be some time before Babylon can again rise as a “great city” and serve as the world’s
nexus point for commerce and trade. A number of prophecy teachers do believe
that a physical Babylon will again revive.
The Bible generally does not reflect
an approving view of great cities. According to secular anthropologists,
greater urbanization tends to go hand in hand with the deterioration of the
family unit, lower marriage rates, and consumerism. Seen from the Bible’s
perspective, these are not developments that the Creator designed as
preferential and most blessed for mankind.
The Bible goes further, indicting
other moral pitfalls of city life. Several times it decries large cities for
their violence and immorality. For example, of Nineveh, Nahum says: “Woe to the
city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims!” (Nahum 3:1).
Isaiah describes Jerusalem as such: “See how the faithful city has become a
prostitute! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in
her—but now murderers!” (Isaiah 1:21). Sodom and Gomorrah are shown as cities
at the apogee of great moral failure.
The woes of Bible prophecy are
frequently addressed to cities. One characteristic noted is the potential for
smugness and self-determination, the same attitude that afflicted Babel. For
example, Babylon the Great boasts in her heart: “I sit enthroned as queen. I am
not a widow; I will never mourn” (Revelation 18:7). Sodom is said to be
“arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy”
(Ezekiel 16:49). Seen in this light, cities are hotbeds for both humanism and
immorality.
Most cities mentioned in the Bible
would likely have had less than 3,000 inhabitants, according to estimates. A
few large cities are mentioned: among these Nineveh, said to be 120,000 in
population and to be a “very large city” (Jonah 3:3); Babylon, which would have
even been larger; and most certainly, the ancient metropolis of Babel. How
large was Babel? No one knows. Yet it stands as an example of an
“agglomeration” of people of which God did not approve. He intervened,
scattering them with a confusion of languages.
The Bible refers to “great cities” 10
times in the Book of Revelation. Only one of these ten references points to a
wonderful and benevolent outcome, and this is the “great city” of the New
Jerusalem, “[…] that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven
from God” (Revelation 21:10). In a sense, we may see that the world’s immoral
cities finally have their redemption in the form of the New Jerusalem. Just as
God redeems people, so also eventually the great city.
Today, we see a world of larger and
larger cities, ever higher population density, and globalism (this being a form
of a global city)—unified, smug and intent upon constructing a world apart from
God. The sins of Babel are today being replicated on a massive global scale.
Points to Ponder
While the entire world looks
apoplectically into the future, anticipating accelerating and interrupting
change (though not exactly knowing what), the fact is the world has already
experienced such change. Many do not realize this. Much more change lies ahead,
also impacting the geopolitical sphere. We will review the remaining 10
“endtime fuses burning alight” in the following series. Maranatha
No comments:
Post a Comment