October 6
Revelation 13 16 He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, 17 so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.
18 This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man’s number. His number is 666.
Today I would like to look at evidence that we are living in the Time of the Signs.
5 Signs being fulfilled in our Time:
The Signs:
For the first three signs we look to Matthew 24:7
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
SIGN 5. NATION MAKES WAR AGAINST NATION-THE HOOK IN THE BEAR’S MOUTH
Matthew 24/Ezek. 38:4 . . . 7-8
[SLIDE OF MAP]
Has anyone been a bit mystified at the behavior of Russia in the politics of chemical weapons in Syria the past few weeks? Why does Russia care so deeply about what happens in Syria?
They have a vested interest there.
[SLIDE-RUSSIA HAS 30,000 CITIZENS IN SYRIA]
[SLIDE-PORT]
Russia Has Its Primary Naval Port For The Middle East In Tartus
[SLIDE-MAP AGAIN]
Look again at the map of Syria-the port of Tartus is within 100 miles of Israel.
SIGN 4-FAMINE
Famine due to Drought
Satellite data show that in California's Central Valley, the most productive agricultural region in the United States, water levels in the aquifers have fallen by more than 20 millimetres a year between 2003 and 2012. The total volume of water lost in that period was about 30 billion cubic metres — almost the same as the capacity of the largest reservoir in the United States, Lake Mead in Nevada. The river basins that feed the aquifers are themselves shrinking, owing to a reduction in snowmelt from the surrounding Sierra Nevada mountains.
“California is facing a water crisis of epic proportions,” warns James Famiglietti, director of the University of California Center for Hydrologic Modeling in Irvine. If present trends continue, he says, the Central Valley will run dry in 60 to 100 years.
[SLIDE IMAGE OF WATER DEPLETION IN MIDDLE EAST, CALIFORNIA & N. INDIA]
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE/NASA/JPL-CALTECH
[Califorina] is far from unique . . . in the Indian states of Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana, 109 billion cubic metres of water were lost from 2002 to 2008 (ref. 1), and in the Tigris and Euphrates river basins, shared by Turkey, Syria, Iraq and western Iran, 144 billion cubic metres of water were lost from 2003 to 2009 (ref. 2).
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v501/n7468_supp/full/501S4a.html
(published online September 25, 2013)
Roughly 70% of the fresh water human beings use to water crops. If we don’t see major changes in water use or population in the world immediately, we will run out of arable water to grow our crops in one generation, resulting in famine on a scale not seen in human history.
SIGN 3-EARTHQUAKES IN DIVERSE PLACES
2011 03/11 9.0 20896 Near the East Coast of Honshu, Japan 2011 03/11 9.0 20896 Near the East Coast of Honshu, Japan
2010 02/27 8.8 507 Offshore Maule, Chile 2010 01/12 7.0 316000 Haiti
2009 09/29 8.1 192 Samoa Islands region 2009 09/30 7.5 1117 Southern Sumatra, Indonesia
2008 05/12 7.9 87587 Eastern Sichuan, China 2008 05/12 7.9 87587 Eastern Sichuan, China
2007 09/12 8.5 25 Southern Sumatera, Indonesia 2007 08/15 8.0 514 Near the Coast of Central Peru
2006 11/15 8.3 0 Kuril Islands 2006 05/26 6.3 5749 Java, Indonesia
2005 03/28 8.6 1313 Northern Sumatra, Indonesia 2005 10/08 7.6 80361 Pakistan
2004 12/26 9.1 227898 Off West Coast of Northern Sumatra 2004 12/26 9.1 227898 Off West Coast of Northern Sumatra
[SLIDE Total dead from major earthquakes & resultant tsunamis 7 years 2004-2011 740,122]
Source: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/byyear.php
Jesus said signs like earthquakes are “the beginnings of the birth pangs”-this implies they will grow in frequency and intensity as the day of birth approaches. Surely, the number of deaths from such disasters has risen markedly in our lifetime. We live in the Time of this Signs.
SIGN 2. MEN’S HEARTS FAIL THEM FOR THE SOUND OF THE WATERS LUKE 21:25-26
“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.
The Dec. 26 2004-the earthquake in Indonesia resulted in a tsunami, Japan 2011-mentioned above, were NOTHING compared to the destruction predicted to be headed our way.
Scientists the past few decades have been making predictions of a meteorite impact-that an impact of a heavenly body one to ten miles in diameter at some point in the future is certain. We discussed this in previous messages in the book of Revelation. A meteorite impact (asteroid or comet) is inevitable. It will happen at some point in the future. It is only a question of time. The meteor that lit the skies over Russia, and broke windows and shook homes and businesses only a few months ago was only a hint at the destructive power of these impacts and the speed at which they will overtake the world.
SIGN 1. AN ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS DEVELOPED BY WHICH NO ONE CAN BUY OR SELL WITHOUT A MARK (SCRATCH) ON THEIR HAND OR FOREHEAD 666
The System-Most of us now have smart cards. The system is already in place-all that remains is to require people to have the same information in the cards placed into a chip which can be placed under the skin. . . No time in history before now was such a system possible.
The Mark of the Beast-the number of a person-
Caesar Nero-transliterated into Hebrew the letters (which double as numbers) add up to 666. Only someone knowing Hebrew would have figured this out Nero Ceasar looks like this in Hebrew:
nrwn qsr, 50 + 200 + 6 + 50 + 100 + 60 + 200= 666 (it is probably important to keep in mind that John’s Greek: ἑξακόσιοι ἑξήκοντα ἕξ is writing in words the number six hundred sixty six so our usual way of saying 666 as if it is a series of sixes may be deceptive.
John points us to Nero as a type of the Antichrist. He puts the message in code quite likely to keep himself out of further trouble with the Roman government. Though Nero had been dead twenty years by the time the book of Revelation was written, the memory of his evil was fresh in the minds of John’s contemporaries.
A look at Nero may help us understand how we might recognize the Antichrist when he comes:
• Nero had his own mother murdered
• He was in love with the wife of another man, so, he divorced his own wife, then later had her killed as well.
• Nero had coins minted which said “Caesar Nero, Savior of the World”.
• He was vilified by historians and political critics, but was pretty popular among the Roman people, having built roads and sports arenas (if he lived in India today he would own a cricket team).
• Nero hated Jews. Nero hated Christians, and had thousands of both killed. He had Christians rounded up, and had them hung naked on gibbets around evening, had them covered in pitch, then set on fire to provide the lighting for his evening festivities.
In all of these things Nero gives us an image of the future-what the Antichrist will be like-hating Jews, hating Christians, being pretty popular among his own people, and presenting himself as the savior of the world. We have seen similar images in the 20th Century in Hitler and Stalin, more recently on a smaller scale in Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. These mini antichrists should remind us that we are living in the last days
As John said 1 John 1:28
Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.
So we know it is the last hour because we see we are living in the Time of the Signs.
Luke 21:28
Jesus said, when we see these things coming to pass we should stand up, and look up because our redemption is near.
This is bad news for the world and very good news for us.
