(August 1, 2010) Several headlines caught my attention this week. They may either be related to or reminders of End-Times prophecy.
Doomsday Shelters
The USA Today reports that there is a renewed interest in Doomsday Shelters which are reminiscent of the Cold War bomb shelters of the 1950s and ’60s. (Doomsday shelters making a comeback) The article states, “There are signs that underground shelters, almost-forgotten relics of the Cold War era, are making a comeback. The Vivos network, which offers partial ownerships similar to a timeshare in underground shelter communities, is one of several ventures touting escape from a surface-level calamity. Radius Engineering in Terrell, Texas, has built underground shelters for more than three decades, and business has never been better, says Walton McCarthy, company president. The company sells fiberglass shelters that can accommodate 10 to 2,000 adults to live underground for one to five years with power, food, water and filtered air, McCarthy says.” According to this article the Vivos company is playing up the Mayan “prophecy” which implies that major changes are coming to the world on December 21, 2012. Doomsday shelters may have a place in protecting people from some natural disasters and maybe even some man-made cataclysms but they will be rendered useless during the End-Times:
“12 And I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; 13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. 14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17 For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Revelation 6:12-17)
Record Hailstones
In South Dakota thunderstorms produced record-sized hailstones. (World Record Hailstone Weighed In Vivian) The article reports, “It was Friday afternoon when a line of thunderstorms fired up in central South Dakota. High winds, heavy rains and even a possible tornado rolled through the town of Vivian. But 
now days later, a hailstone picked up just moments after the storm is getting worldwide attention. The damage is proof that it wasn’t a typical South Dakota thunderstorm. Holes were punched through the top of buildings, and Les Scott will never forget what it sounded like. ‘A guy throwing bricks at the house and many of them and it was scary,’ Scott said. Scott watched as massive hailstones pummeled the ground. Tuesday, the dents in the ground are still visible, some as large and deep as coffee cans. But when the hail stopped, a certain stone grabbed his attention.” The article states, “the hailstone weighed in at 1.9375 pounds…The hailstone is down to 17 inches around, but was measured just a few days ago at 18 and a half inches. That is another world record number.” The final judgment God pours out on the earth at the end of the Tribulation Period includes enormous hailstones weighing 100 lbs. each:
“17 Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, ‘It is done.’ 18 And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty. 19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath. 20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21 And huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, came down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague was extremely severe.” (Revelation 16:17-21)
This judgment ends the battle of Armageddon with the second coming of Jesus Christ. The hailstones are fifty times the size of those which fell in South Dakota.
GPS and Electronic Tracking of Consumers
As technology progresses it also increases the ability of a corporation or government to monitor the habits and movements of consumers and citizens. There were a few examples of this technological capability in the news recently. Wal-Mart is putting electronic identification tags or “smart tags” on some of their merchandise. (Wal-Mart plan to use smart tags raises privacy concerns) This article reports, “The individual garments, which also includes underwear and socks, will have removable smart tags that can be read from a distance by Wal-Mart workers with scanners. In seconds, the worker will be able to know what sizes are missing and will also be able tell what it has on hand in the stock room. Such instant knowledge will allow store clerks to have the right sizes on hand when shoppers need them.The tags work by reflecting a weak radio signal to identify the product. They have long spurred privacy fears as well as visions of stores being able to scan an entire shopping cart of items at one time. Wal-Mart’s goal is to eventually expand the tags to other types of merchandise but company officials say it’s too early to give estimates on how long that will take.” There are privacy concerns over the use of this technology as this article states, “‘This is a first piece of a very large and very frightening tracking system,’ said Katherine Albrecht, director of a group called Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering. Albrecht worries that Wal-Mart and others would be able to track movements of customers who in some border states like Michigan and Washington are carrying new driver’s licenses that contain RFID tags to make it easier for them to cross borders. Albrecht fears that retailers could scan data from such licenses and their purchases and combine that data with other personal information. She also says that even though the smart tags can be removed from clothing, they can’t be turned off and can be tracked even after you throw them in the garbage, for example.”
A news story from May points out that tracking technology will be used to monitor citizens’ recycling habits (New recycling bins with tracking chips coming to Alexandria). This article reports, “That cash — roughly $180,000 collected from 19,000 residents– will pay for new larger recycling carts equipped with computer microchips, which will allow the city to keep tabs on its bins and track resident participation in the city’s recycling program. ‘If you know who’s participating in the programs, you can focus your education and outreach to those who are not participating,’ said Stacy Herring, Alexandria’s recycling coordinator.”
A third story from Brazil talks about the use of GPS to track consumers to their homes (Is Your Detergent Stalking You?). The article states, “Unilever’s Omo detergent is adding an unusual ingredient to its two-pound detergent box in Brazil: a GPS device that allows its promotions agency Bullet to track shoppers and follow them to their front doors. Starting next week, consumers who buy one of the GPS-implanted detergent boxes will be surprised at home, given a pocket video camera as a prize and invited to bring their families to enjoy a day of Unilever-sponsored outdoor fun. The promotion, called Try Something New With Omo, is in keeping with the brand’s international “Dirt is Good” positioning that encourages parents to let their kids have a good time even if they get dirty.” The article goes on to say, “Fernando Figueiredo, Bullet’s president, said the GPS device is activated when a shopper removes the detergent carton from the supermarket shelf. Fifty Omo boxes implanted with GPS devices have been scattered around Brazil, and Mr. Figueiredo has teams in 35 Brazilian cities ready to leap into action when a box is activated. The nearest team can reach the shopper’s home ‘within hours or days,’ and if they’re really close by, ‘they may get to your house as soon as you do,’ he said. Once there, the teams have portable equipment that lets them go floor by floor in apartment buildings until they find the correct unit, he said.”
[UPDATE: August 2, 2010] – A local government in the state of New York is using Google Earth technology to spy on it’s local citizens (Google Earth Used To Find Unlicensed Pools). The article reports, “A town on New York’s Long Island is using Google Earth to find backyard pools that don’t have the proper permits. The town of Riverhead has used the satellite image service to find about 250 pools whose owners never filled out the required paperwork. Violators were told to get the permits or face hefty fines. So far about $75,000 in fees has been collected.”
The use of technology as stated in these four stories seems innocuous enough. However, as tracking technology improves and becomes more sophisticated, governments could use it for more malevolent purposes. In Revelation John saw a government rise up which would monitor its citizens’ religious and economic habits:
“11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. 12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed…16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” (Revelation 13:11-12,16-18)
Eurabia
Townhall.com columnist Diana West wrote an article on the issue of Turkey’s admission to the European Union (Can ‘Eurabia’ Be Far Behind?). Her column starts out, “The battle over whether to admit Turkey into the European Union seems eternal, at least among the EU’s rulers. Among the peoples of Europe, when granted the rare chance to go to the ballot box — increasingly window-dressing as far as the EU’s soft totalitarians are concerned — there is little argument. In fact, there is bona fide consensus: NO to Turkey becoming a part of Europe. Why? Because, culturally and historically, it is not.
Tell that to British Prime Minister David Cameron, who just visited Ankara to present himself as Europe’s leading booster for Turkish EU membership (a move the United States has meddlesomely supported), pandering so low a prayer rug could give him cover.
Dubbing himself Turkey’s ‘strongest possible advocate for EU membership and for greater influence at the top table of European diplomacy,’ Cameron gave a speech that also attacked ‘those who willfully misunderstand Islam’ and who “see no difference between real Islam and the distorted version of the extremists.”
Of course, such a description likely irked Cameron’s host, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan has repeatedly criticized those who make the distinction between ‘moderate’ and ‘extremist’ Islam. ‘These descriptions are very ugly,’ Erdogan said in 2007. ‘It is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam, and that’s it.’ Further, Erdogan in 2009 specifically rejected descriptions of Turkey as being an example of ‘moderate Islam.’ Enlarging on a theme, Erdogan in 2008 told Turks living in Europe that assimilation is ‘a crime against humanity.’”
She goes on to write, “Of course, giving EU membership to Turkey would be a political move with more than political consequences. Demographically alone, it would accelerate those finishing touches on the Islamization of Europe as Turkey’s tens of millions of Muslims entered a largely post-Christian, secular European society, bringing a weighty Islamic influence on European law. Could the total transformation to ‘Eurabia” be far behind?’”
A few weeks ago an Israeli news organization wrote about how Turkey was trying to inject its influence into Jerusalem (Turkey Claims Foothold in Old City). They report, “The Turkish organization TIKA, established and funded by the Turkish government, has recently put up several signs in the Old City of Jerusalem bearing the Turkish flag. The signs were hung without authorization, says Jerusalem activist Aryeh King, who has informed Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman of the matter. TIKA is the Turkish government body responsible for regional development projects. Two of the signs are hung along a major road with historic significance, Motti Gur Way. Motti Gur was the IDF commander who directed troops in retaking the Old City during the Six Day War. The road bearing his name leads from Jericho Way to Lions’ Gate.”
In 2008 Walid Shoebat in his book God’s War on Terror wrote seven reasons why he believes Turkey plays a main role in the End-Times:
1.Ezekiel ch.38 lists eight locations in the Gog prophecy. Five of them (Magog, Meshech, Tubal, Togarmah, Gomer) are located in Turkey.
2.The first Islamic Empire (which culminated with the Turkish Ottoman Empire whose capital was Istanbul, Turkey) is the fatally wounded seventh Biblical Beast Empire of Revelation ch.17.
3.Daniel ch.9 declares the people of the prince will invade Jerusalem. The first part of this prophecy was fulfilled when the Roman army led by the Tenth Legion destroyed the second Jewish Temple in 70 A.D. This legion consisted of primarily Turkish and Syrian soldiers.
4.Daniel ch.11 prophesies of a “king of the north” as a type of the Antichrist. Antiochus Epiphanes IV ruled the Seleucid Empire which encompassed Turkey. He blasphemously sacrificed a pig on the Jewish Temple altar and was a forerunner of the Antichrist.
5.Isaiah and Micah prophesied of The Assyrian who is the Antichrist. Assyria’s domain included a large part of Turkey.
6.Zechariah ch.9 lists Yavan/Ionia (Turkey) as playing a role in the Last Days. They are translated with the word “Greece” in this passage but are actually located on the Western coast of Turkey.
7.Revelation ch.2 mentions that the throne of Satan is located in Pergamum, Turkey. (God’s War on Terror – p.421-425)
Whether or not Mr. Shoebat’s beliefs are proven prophetically accurate remains to be seen.
Conclusion
All, some, or none of these stories may be End-Times related. Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of His day for not knowing the will of God because they ignored the prophetic truths of the Old Testament concerning the coming of the suffering Messiah, “1 The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. 3 And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?” (Matthew 16:1-3) When the disciples of Jesus asked Him what the signs of the end would be He gave them signs to look for (Matthew ch. 24). His followers are to look for His coming and the events leading up to it. Paul said that Christians should be “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13) We should not be like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day who did not recognize the “signs of the times” they lived in. God gave prophecies to His children so that they would sense His second coming as the apostle Paul confirms, “4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. 5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-6)
