If you have been struggling with sickness, anxiety or depression,
I guarantee you will feel better after listening to this series by Joyce Meyer!
The Celebration of Life – Part 1 Listen to the broadcast
The Celebration of Life – Part 2 Listen to the broadcast
The Celebration of Life – Part 3 Listen to the broadcast
http://www.joycemeyer.org/OurMinistries/Broadcast/Radio/Archive/
Lebanese shouting ‘Death to Israel’ get a fright.
Ground opens on Temple Mount.
An earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale originated in southern Lebanon shortly after midday Friday as tens of thousands of Lebanese were marching through the streets of Lebanon calling for Israel’s destruction.
The quake was felt throughout Israel, rocking buildings along the coastal plain, but causing no damage or injury.
According to one report, a hole six foot wide opened on the Temple Mount as a result of the seismic event.
EARTHQUAKES AND THE BIBLE by Lambert Dolphin
Article in its entirety located at: http://www.ldolphin.org/quakes.html
Scripture is clear that God fully controls nature, through the rule of certain angels (Heb. 2:5). There are no accidents in His universe. When Jesus died on the cross, the end of his life was punctuated by a severe earthquake on April 11, 32 AD, (Ref 4) following a strange three-hour darkness covering the land,
“…Jesus cried again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and the rocks were split; the tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe, and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’” (Matt. 27:50-54)
A second great earthquake occurred on Easter morning according to Matt. 28:2 at the time of the resurrection. Evidently these two earthquakes have not yet been noted in any archaeological site damage thus far excavated.
Another “providential” earthquake recorded in the Bible was the Lord’s means of releasing Paul and Silas from jail in Philippi. The terrified jailer and his family fled for refuge not out of the city, but into the kingdom of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, (Acts 16:11-40).
The giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai was accompanied by a frightening earthquake (Exodus 19:16-18). Earthquakes symbolize judgment not grace—so it is not surprising that great world-wide earthquakes will characterize the end of the age in which we live. This is indicated by the imagery of Rev. 4:5 (the rainbow is the corresponding symbol of grace, Rev. 4:3, Gen. 9:11-17). The writer of Hebrews quoting Haggai 2:6,7 tells us that the coming shaking of creation will affect not only the earth but also the heavenly places and the host of heaven, i.e., the angels,
“See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. His voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.’ This phrase, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of what is shaken, as of what has been made, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb. 12:25-29)
There can be no doubt (according to the Bible) that severe world-wide earthquakes will break out during the approaching great tribulation period. A major earthquake in the end-time is mentioned in Rev. 6:12, at the opening of the Sixth seal. Since “the sun will be darkened and the full moon become like blood,” and the “stars will fall from heaven” it seems that this earthquake may be associated with some cataclysmic disturbance such as the near approach of some previously undetected object from space. Isaiah predicted this event,
“And men shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth. In that day men will cast forth their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats, to enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.” (Is. 2:19-21, cp. Rev. 6:15-17)
Bible scholars are divided as to the timing of the Northern invasion of Israel. Some see this as occurring prior to the rapture, others place this event in the first half of the tribulation period. Those scholars who prefer to view the coming invasion of Gog and Magog as part of the campaign of Armageddon (also Joel 2, Isaiah 24 and Daniel 11) call attention to the great earthquake described by Ezekiel,
“For in my jealousy and in my blazing wrath I declare, On that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall quake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground. I will summon every kind of terror against Gog, says the Lord GOD; every man’s sword will be against his brother. With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with him; and I will rain upon him and his hordes and the many peoples that are with him, torrential rains and hailstones, fire and brimstone. So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.” (Ezek. 38:19-23)
The third group of scholars, just referred to, place this earthquake as identical with one of the events described in Rev. 8:5, 11:19 (comp. Luke 21:25-27) or 16:18. The seven bowls of wrath seem to cascade out of the seventh trumpet, and the seven trumpets out of the seventh seal, therefore these three linked earthquakes of increasing intensity seem to be closely linked or could possibly be a single event (Ref 5). Revelation 16 adds further information about this greatest-of-all earthquakes which follows immediately after the martyrdom of God’s two witnesses on the Temple Mount:
“The seventh angel poured his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, ‘It is done!’ And there were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as had never been since men were on the earth, so great was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered great Babylon, to make her drain the cup of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found; and great hailstones, heavy as a hundred-weight, dropped on men from heaven, till men cursed God for the plague of the hail, so fearful was that plague.” (Rev. 16:17-21).
Not only is Jerusalem severely shaken at this time but the cities of the nations also. Evidently the topography of Eretz Israel will be drastically altered at this time as well. Islands “flee away” and mountains disappear , apparently around the globe.
Jesus was last seen departing this earth from atop the Mt. of Olives 40 days after the resurrection, promising through two angels to return “in like manner.” A known East-West earthquake fault transects the Mt. of Olives in Jerusalem. Tourists today often stand at the very spot overlooking the Temple Mount to the West and the Wilderness of Judea and the Dead Sea to the East. It is there that Jesus, the Lord, will stand in the not-too-distant future to trigger earth’s last terrible earthquake and the dawning of the long-awaited golden age of peace on earth.
“…On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives which lies before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley; so that one half of the Mount shall withdraw northward, and the other half southward. And the valley of my mountains shall be stopped up, for the valley of the mountains shall touch the side of it; and you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD your God will come, and all the holy ones with him. On that day there shall be neither cold nor frost. And there shall be continuous day (it is known to the LORD), not day and not night, for at evening time there shall be light. On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea; it shall continue in summer as in winter (Ref 6). And the LORD will become king over all the earth; on that day the LORD will be one and his name one. The whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem.” (Zech. 14:2-10)
Haggai’s words quoted in Hebrews 12 were written originally to encourage the remnant of the Jews who returned to Jerusalem from Babylon to build the Second Temple. Old timers who remembered the Temple of Solomon were discouraged at their modest capabilities to build a temple worthy of the Lord. In challenging them to continue, Haggai spoke prophetically of two distant, future events. First, the Second Temple (enlarged by Herod) would in fact be visited by the Messiah. Yeshua indeed brought the glory of God into God’s house, a glory much greater than the gold and silver of Solomon. Haggai’s word also looks ahead to a final temple during Messiah’s rule from Jerusalem. The coming of Messiah will be ushered in by a great shaking of all creation:
“For thus says the LORD of hosts; ‘Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, says the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace,’ says the LORD of hosts.”
FOOTNOTES
* I will revise this paragraph shortly in view of the ambiguities in various methods of reporting earthquake magnitudes and the newer standards coming into use. See National Geographic, Vol. 187, No. 4, April 1995.
1. Frank Press and Raymond Siever, Earth,W.H. Freeman Co., San Francisco, 1974. Special thanks also to Geologist Steve Connelly for inputs and suggestions.
2. The Walls Came Tumbling Down: Earthquakes in the Holy Land, documentary video by Prof. Amos Nur, Stanford University. Available from ESI Productions, PO Box 2365, Stanford, CA 94309. For more on the great earthquake in the Days of Uzziah see Gordon Franz, Institute of Holy Land Studies, Jerusalem, and Steve Austin, Institute of Creation Research, San Diego, The “Big One” Hits the Mediterranean: An Archaeological Appraisal of the Earthquake in the Days on King Uzziah. Available from the authors.
3. Sodom and Gomorrah,by Dr. Bryant Wood, video documentary of recent archaeological research. Associates of Biblical Research, PO Box 125, Ephrata, PA 17522. Tar pits in the area are mentioned in Gen. 14:10.
4. See Chuck Missler, The Unexpected King, March 1992 Personal Update. Available from Koinonia House, PO Box D. Couer d’Alene, Idaho 83816-0347.
5. God’s Final Word, Understanding Revelation,Ray C. Stedman, Discovery House, Grand Rapids, 1991, page 341.
6. See also Ezek. 47:1-12 and Joel 3:18.
