Comfort for God’s People

Discussing current events and how they relate to Biblical prophesy. What are some critical signs are pointing to the imminent Rapture of the Church?

in a Broken World

Something nefarious appears to be going on with the world’s water supplies as lakes and rivers seemingly everywhere dry up due to drought, in some cases, but for unknown reasons in others.

We warned you that several portions of the Mississippi River have had to be shut down due to record-low water levels, but you may not yet have heard about the Nile River in Africa, which is in a state of crisis due to lack of water.
The Amazon River in South America is another major water source that faces a severe drought after experiencing several months of too much water due to flooding.

Flood waters from the Amazon destroyed crops and submerged entire communities, only to subside and leave the region dryer than it should be. It remains a catastrophic situation for Peru, Colombia, and Brazil, all of which rely on the Amazon for hydration and economic activity.

In Europe, the Rhine River is seeing similar drops in water levels that, like the Mississippi, have made commerce through some portions impossible.

Europe is also in the throes of a major energy crisis, which is being worsened by the fact that a falling Rhine is making it difficult for Germany to source coal as a last-ditch effort to avoid a lights out situation this dark winter.

Then we have the Yangtze River in China – the third-longest in the world – which is also drying up like the others. This is causing serious problems for the developing communist regime, which relies on the Yangtze for hydropower.

Reports indicate that the current state of the Yangtze is “record-breaking” in terms of the damage caused by a prolonged drought. This is also impacting shipping along the river, forcing several major companies to suspend their operations.

In the American Southwest, the Colorado River Basin is similarly dry as a bone, putting at risk states like California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico that all rely on this important natural resource for water.

Lake Mead, which feeds Las Vegas, has been consistently dropping to levels never before seen since the time the dam was built. This bodes ominous for major cities like Vegas, Phoenix, and the Los Angeles area of Southern California as well.

The Indus River in Asia is yet another water source that is dwindling away, leaving fisherman with no way to continue their livelihood. For centuries, the Indus has remained a focal point of civilization in South and Central Asia, including in Pakistan where crops that feed 220 million people require water from it.

“There is a spiritual drought that has been devouring America for decades and decades,” wrote one commenter, drawing a metaphor to the current water situation in the United States.

The world is in dire straits.

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Here’s Why The Media Don’t Want You To Know About The Massive Protests Going On Around The Globe The Federalist July 15, 2022

If you skim the front pages of major corporate news outlets, you’ll find no mention of the economic protests raging in Spain, Morocco, Greece, and the United Kingdom.

On The Washington Post homepage these days, you’ll find headlines such as, “How To Deal With A Chatty Coworker Who Won’t Get Out Of Your Office,” but you won’t find mention of the more than 100,000 people protesting in Madrid. You’ll find the story of a gay union entitled, “What’s Two ‘Yentas’ Plus One Senator? A Lifetime Together” at The New York Times, but you won’t see a single heading on the more than 10,000 protesters in Athens. Corporate media has largely glossed over the tens of thousands of farmers in the Netherlands who clogged up roadways and distributions centers by holding Canadian-trucker-convoy-style demonstrations to protest radical climate policies.

According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which records protests worldwide, 11 countries are currently seeing protests of more than 1,000 people in response to the rising cost of living and other economic woes in 2022. As of July 5, Carnegie had recorded protests of more than 120,000 people in France, 100,000 in Spain, 10,000 in Greece, 10,000 in Kazakhstan, 10,000 in Sri Lanka, 10,000 in India, 5,000 in Iran, 5,000 in Peru, 1,000 people in Argentina, 1,000 in Morocco, and 1,000 in the U.K.

The media only highlight these world protests when they grow too big to ignore or when the facts can be skewed toward their preferring narratives. Cherry-picking which protests to highlight gives media cover to paint them as isolated incidents in non-Western countries instead of a worldwide trend showing the consequences of embracing left-wing policies. After all, Biden is making the same blunders in the United States, and corporate media can’t have Americans connecting those dots.

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Our Broken World

Perhaps no other question in theology is more troubling than the problem of evil. The question may be formulated in one of two ways, depending on one’s belief system. In the first way, “If God exists, why is there suffering?”. In the second way, “If God is all good and all-knowing, why is there so much suffering in the world?”.

Moral evil is much better known as sin. Sin is an act against the will of God. The capacity to sin is born of man’s free will. To be in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) is, among other things, to possess free will – to be able to choose.

The belief that free will leads to the capacity for sin begs the question, why would God create beings that could act against Him? The answer seems to be that to be made in the image of God (as all creatures are to varying degrees) is to possess the capacity for free will. Put another way; God values freedom even if that freedom means we act against Him.

Still, if moral evil comes from man’s free will, why does man choose evil?

Now it must be that all things seek the good. However, since man’s intellect is fallible and finite (and damaged by original sin), man often errors by thinking something good when it is evil. This error usually involves passion or selfishness. Often too, we mistake a means for an end. Too quickly, we equate sex with love or money with happiness. Both are good, but only when placed within the proper context.

From the perspective of theology, natural evil is even more vexing than moral evil. Natural evil encompasses such diverse events as droughts and disease. While moral evil is the result of choice, natural evil is beyond the control of human beings. Indeed, one cannot attribute natural disasters and disease to sin. Or can we?

The Bible tells us that God created everything, and it was very good (Genesis 1:31).

Moreover, God made a universe that operates in accord with natural processes. The same wind that aids ocean currents and allows plants to spread their seeds is the same wind that causes a tree to fall on a house.

A universe of natural processes allows for free will and for intelligibility. If the universe did not operate according to natural processes, it would mean that there would be no discernable cause and effect. The universe we inhabit would be entirely random, and a random universe would make science impossible.

So far, so good. Yet we are left with another question. Why would an all-good, all-knowing God create a “good” universe capable of causing natural disasters?

Original sin is often understood to affect human beings and their relationship to God. While this is undoubtedly part of original sin, it does not tell the whole story.

A Curse on the Ground

The Bible provides the rest of the story. In Genesis 3:17, we read that an effect of original sin was a “curse on the ground.” Ground in this sense may be interpreted as the earth or even all of creation.

This understanding that original sin has damaged the universe is given voice by Saint Paul, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” (Romans 8:22).

Drawing upon the biblical view that original sin has distorted God’s creation, we may infer that even such things as climate change and droughts result from humanity’s disobedience to God. In a world damaged by sin, nature itself has become corrupted.

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How then can we be saved?

“But you say, ‘The Lord’s way isn’t fair.’ Now listen, house of Israel: Is it My way that is unfair? Instead, isn’t it your ways that are unfair? When a righteous person turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity, he will die for this. He will die because of the iniquity he has practiced. But if a wicked person turns from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will preserve his life. He will certainly live because he thought it over and turned from all the transgressions he had committed; he will not die. But the house of Israel says, ‘The Lord’s way isn’t fair.’ Is it My ways that are unfair, house of Israel? Instead, isn’t it your ways that are unfair?

“Therefore, house of Israel, I will judge each one of you according to his ways.” This is the declaration of the Lord God. “Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so they will not be a stumbling block that causes your punishment. Throw off all the transgressions you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in anyone’s death.” This is the declaration of the Lord God. “So repent and live! (Ezekiel 18:25-32)

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Comfort for God’s People

“Comfort, comfort My people,”
says your God.
“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and announce to her
that her time of forced labor is over,
her iniquity has been pardoned,
and she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.”

A voice of one crying out:

Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness;
make a straight highway for our God in the desert.
Every valley will be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill will be leveled;
the uneven ground will become smooth
and the rough places, a plain.
And the glory of the Lord will appear,
and all humanity together will see it,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

A voice was saying, “Cry out!”
Another said, “What should I cry out?”
“All humanity is grass,
and all its goodness is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flowers fade
when the breath of the Lord blows on them;
indeed, the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flowers fade,
but the word of our God remains forever.”

Zion, herald of good news,
go up on a high mountain.
Jerusalem, herald of good news,
raise your voice loudly.
Raise it, do not be afraid!
Say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
See, the Lord God comes with strength,
and His power establishes His rule.
His reward is with Him,
and His gifts accompany Him.
He protects His flock like a shepherd;
He gathers the lambs in His arms
and carries them in the fold of His garment.
He gently leads those that are nursing.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand?
Who has gathered the dust of the earth in a measure
or weighed the mountains in a balance
and the hills in the scales?
Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,
or who gave Him His counsel?
Who did He consult with?
Who gave Him understanding
and taught Him the paths of justice?
Who taught Him knowledge
and showed Him the way of understanding?
Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are considered as a speck of dust in the scales;
He lifts up the islands like fine dust.
Lebanon is not enough for fuel,
or its animals enough for a burnt offering.
All the nations are as nothing before Him;
they are considered by Him
as nothingness and emptiness.

Who will you compare God with?
What likeness will you compare Him to?
To an idol?—something that a smelter casts,
and a metalworker plates with gold
and makes silver welds for it?
To one who shapes a pedestal,
choosing wood that does not rot?
He looks for a skilled craftsman
to set up an idol that will not fall over.

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been declared to you
from the beginning?
Have you not considered
the foundations of the earth?
God is enthroned above the circle of the earth;
its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like thin cloth
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
He reduces princes to nothing
and makes judges of the earth irrational.
They are barely planted, barely sown,
their stem hardly takes root in the ground
when He blows on them and they wither,
and a whirlwind carries them away like stubble.

“Who will you compare Me to,
or who is My equal?” asks the Holy One.
Look up and see:
who created these?
He brings out the starry host by number;
He calls all of them by name.
Because of His great power and strength,
not one of them is missing.

Jacob, why do you say,
and Israel, why do you assert:
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my claim is ignored by my God”?
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Yahweh is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the whole earth.
He never grows faint or weary;
there is no limit to His understanding.
He gives strength to the weary
and strengthens the powerless.
Youths may faint and grow weary,
and young men stumble and fall,
but those who trust in the Lord
will renew their strength;
they will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary;
they will walk and not faint.

(Isaiah 40:1-31)

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If you are not sure that you are a member of the family of God, you can accept Christ into your life right now, by praying:

“Lord Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins.  Please forgive my sins and give me the gift of eternal life.  I ask you in to my life and heart to be my Lord and Savior.”

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Current events are aligning with Biblical prophecy