Trouble in The Middle East & What It Means To Us

We are indeed living in times of great global turmoil. First the global economic crisis started in October 2008, starting with the U.S. and then reverberating throughout the world as if each country's economy had an implosion: Spain, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, etc. Depending on the level of debt and extent of asset bubbles, no nation was spared the effects of the global economic meltdown. Then two years later we see political unrest and wars in the Middle East and North Africa starting in late 2010.

On 11th March 2011, a major earthquake of 8.9 kw hit Japan's northeast region, killing more than 10,000 people with the same number missing.

The word that comes into my mind is global cataclysms (deluge, any catastrophic geological phenomenon, volcanic eruption, earthquake, any large-scale disaster).

While I am not surprised by these events based on Biblical prophecy, the entire sequence of events are starting to make sense from the message given by God to Kenyan prophet Dr David Edward Owuor. 

On 25th March 2011, he gave an audio sermon in Manila at a pastors' conference. Listen to it and you will be amazed to see how the final chapter of the Bible, Revelation, reveals the timeline of this current age.

Dr Owuor, who has a strong track record in accurately predicting global calamities, said that we are seeing Biblical prophecy unfold in real time in our newspapers and television screens: wars and turmoil in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and earthquakes in Chile, Haiti, New Zealand (all prophesied by him months in advance) and Japan.

To find out the mystery of what is happening in the Middle East (no, its not a CIA or Mossad plot), you need to have a full open mind (especially non-Christians) to connect what is revealed by Jesus in the Bible (Mathew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21 and Revelation 6) to current events in the world today. We are living on borrowed time and the end of this age will have eternal impact on all our lives.

No nation or people on earth is spared for the Word of God is true and abiding. The release of the 4th rider on the pale horse (prophecied by Dr Owuor on July 29th 2009 in Johannesburg) early this year shows we have entered an era of global cataclysm where one fourth of mankind will perish through war, famine, plague and disease.

In fact, the political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa may be a prelude to a realignment of the nations surrounding Israel. Will the new rulers of these nations change their stance towards Israel ? Will they be closer or further away in their relations with God's remnant people ? Whatever the outcome, every nation will play a part in the final realignment of nations vis-a-vis Israel in the coming days. Praise God that His ways are mysterious and wonderful even as He is the same, yesterday, today and tommorow.

Note: In Revelation Chapter 6, the 4th horseman of the Apocalpyse emerges when Jesus Christ opens the fourth seal of the secret scroll (out of seven seals) and this horseman was captured on Euronews (MSNBC, CNN, YouTube) riding among the rioters in Egypt on 3rd February 2011. You can see the transparent pale, light green rider at the end of the video. (Some skeptics speculate that it is a hoax or flare of the lens, but who on Euronews would have contrived such an elaborate CGI hoax?). The fact that Egypt's revolution was relatively bloodless is due to the prayers of the 2010 Open Heavens Prophetic Conference held in Egypt where 550 intercessors prayed for Egypt. However, Libya is now seeing bloodshed of the 4th horseman as it was not prayed for in the conference.

Waiting for The City That Is to Come

The devastation of the Sendai earthquake/tsunami has stirred deep feelings of sorrow, empathy and fear in the hearts of many throughout the world. How this tragedy, which is now threatening to turn into a nuclear meltdown, will unravel and what it means for the Japanese people is certainly going to affect not only the economy of the world (Japan is the 3rd largest economy and the second largest consumer market after the US), but also our everyday lives.

Earthquakes are occurring with increasing frequency in recent years and this acceleration in natural disasters is attributed to a wide range of factors from global warming to man's pollution of the earth. The Bible quotes Jesus as saying that these are the signs of the end times when God returns to earth to rescue his bride (the church) from the tribulations (escalation of human violence and natural calamities) and his final reappearance to battle the Antichrist and the armies of the world in what is called the Apocalypse.

In Matthew 24 verse 7, Jesus said: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places."

Looking at the pictures and videos of devastation in Japan, I pray that the Japanese can turn to the one true God, the Lord Jesus in their hour of darkness and loss. Already, the admirable response of the Japanese people in the wake of the disaster may be a sign that Japan may see a revival if not in spirit, then in her national psyche after prolonged years of economic and spiritual stagnation. For God has said:

"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

In Hebrews 13, the apostle Paul wrote:"The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here, we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come."

Yes, the whole earth groans for the new earth to be borned where the eternal city of God will descend and crown the new world. Deep in the hearts of mankind, whether Christian believers or non-believers, we are seeking for an eternal peace, a rock of stability where there is no death, no tears, no earthquakes and tsunamis to shake our lives. That city is the city that is to come. Amen.