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"Signs of the Times"
 Signs from Man and Nature
By Michael K. Jones

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.  Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be pestilence, famines and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of birth pains.  Matthew 24

Chapter 3

We need keep in mind from chapter to chapter the keywords to know the “Signs of the Times,” are found in the words, all these are the beginning of birth pains.  We know when a mother labors, the pangs become closer and closer causing more frequent anguish.  From this we can conclude Signs of the Times are multiple warnings happening one after another. It is like a clock ticking away no longer run in normal time but now running double and triple overtime.

I’m sure many of us recall the cute fable of Chicken Little. The most memorable part of this story is when Chicken Little went about crying out, “The sky is falling the sky is falling.”  By today’s standards this lovable story is not far from the truth. The sky does seem to be falling apart as air born pollutants, acid rain and global warming takes it toll on what could easily title our future as the late great planet earth. Above and beyond the terror in the sky are the hundreds if not thousands of warning signs nature is sending us in ways which scientists say is an alarming and accelerated rate. 

The first 6 months of 2006 will go down in history as the warmest the earth has ever been since record keeping began in 1885. Al Gore recently did a documentary on “Global Warning,” as has the “History Channel.” The evening news local, national and worldwide often reports on this topic. Ice regions are melting and this progression would be enough to leave New York City under water.  Global warming is just one of the many sorrow in the making.

The new age of progress came with the invention of the engine. With the engine, a new method of converting energy into work was applied to the use of machines. Before long the sweat and toil of hands on labor was greatly reduced. Man was no longer content with a horse and buggy.

The horse and carriage which once peacefully explored the lands rocky paths, gave way to the horseless carriage (automobiles). The well trodden pathways eventually would succumb to pavement, devastating the landscape. Throughout the world the land has been bulldozed making way for these automobiles. Pollution from train, planes and automobiles and the entire usage of fossil fuels have caused inconceivable harm to the ecology. In places such as Los Angeles, Georgia it is difficult to breathe when the air is stagnant.  In Mexico City 99.9% of the time the air is so polluted tourists gasps for breathable air.

Industry has also greatly contributed to the break down of the ECO system. With the coming of the engine, factories came upon the land like locust, arising from their sleep. Industry eats up the land, making way for buildings and parking lots. So that the little house on the prairie has become the skyscraper in the city.

Industry waste from the power of the engine bellows out of the smoke stacks of their buildings. Smoke and ash trail through the sky darkening and tainting the air with poison slowly destroying human life and the ozone layer. The rain once clean now falls from clouds as acid. In this process the plant life of this earth is in eminent peril. Adding insult to injury, man cuts away the trees of the earth leaving a desert wasteland. The rainforests of the world are disappearing at a rate of 80 acres per minute. The destruction of the rainforests cause carbon dioxide to be released, which in turn allows causes the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect raises the temperatures all around the world, causing ice caps to melt. When ice caps melt, the sea level rises, causing major flooding around the world.

With the coming of the new era, the vessels of the sea which only knew the long voyage of wind and sail are now invaded by the power of the engine. These vessels often carry garbage and infectious waste out into the ocean. Added to this let us consider oil spills from tankers, which have greatly impacted our oceans, shorelines, sea and wildlife, with cataclysmic effects. As if this was not enough, human sludge is often pumped into the oceans, year after year.

As the engine made its way into the firmament, man created the ultimate punishment to things upon the earth. On July 16, 1945, the United States tested the first "Atomic Bomb." Less then a month later two atomic bombs devastated the city of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima Aug. 6, 1945, obliterated three fifths of the city within seconds, killing about 75,000 people. The second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki Aug. 9, 1945, half of the city was laid waste, in a moment’s time, killing approximately another 75,000.

To further emphasize power, the United States removed the natives from an island in the Pacific Ocean. Bikini is an island enclosing a lagoon (atoll) which is part of the Marshall Islands. Between 1946, and 1959, twenty-three nuclear devices were exploded at Bikini Island in several displays of nuclear testing.

In another test, the warships of the defunct Japanese naval fleet of WWII were placed off the shoreline of Bikini island. The ships were sunk to the ocean floor, with nuclear devices. The inspection of the remaining ships still afloat revealed an alarmingly high radioactive count. The U.S. attempts to wash down the remaining ships was futile. The vessels were sent to the ocean bottom.

Although experts claim that Bikini Island is now safe to visit, the fruit of the land is still poison and unsafe for human consumption. Even now the effects of the nuclear testing on Bikini island remains deadly.

Through different mishaps a number of unexploded nuclear weapons are resting on the ocean’s bottom. There is no way to locate them or to even comprehend the long term effect on sea life. Today the nuclear warheads dropped on Japan are obsolete and the war heard are now 100 times more powerful.

To provide us with our ever demanding desire for power, man harnessed nuclear energy to the utility industry. There are three major disasters to man's credit thus far, a British weapons production plant in 1957, 3 Mile Island March 28, 1979, at Harrisburg PA. and the worst power plant disaster in which the nuclear reactor exploded was the Soviet Unions Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident on April 26, 1986, some 80 miles north of Kiev in Ukraine.  One can not even begin to guess in truth what impact nuclear fusion has had on this planet. The results of man’s disregard in the name of progress are clear.

As ice caps melt and the Gulf Stream cools, this will lead to the destruction of the coral reefs and in time all sea life as we know it. Added to this problem are the tons of waste that is brought out to sea and dumped, nuclear testing, oil spills and so on. Our oceans have been asked to accept this disregard. Now ask yourself why sea life often beaches itself?

Weather patterns around the world will change dramatically. For one example, scientists say the North East region of the U.S. will endure frigid temperatures the likes of which have never been seen. Snow fall will hit this region of the U.S. in amounts again never recorded. This region of the U.S. could begin a new ice age. The Mid West would suffer drought as would other land producing areas in the world, so that the current living population would be killed off by two-thirds, through famine. Hurricanes, tornado’s and all forms of natural disasters will effect the earth in great proportions and frequency. 

The results of such things are clear for those who choose to take their heads out of sand. As Scripture tells us we need consider the “Signs of the Time’s” as birth pangs let us again consider the first 6 months of this year as the warmest every recorded. Last year there were a record amount of hurricanes. New Orleans remains devastated as result of Katrina. The tsunami that devastated the lives of hundreds of thousands in South Asia a few years ago killed thousands and thousands. Tsunamis have stuck in 2006 as well.

This years raging fires in states such as, South Dakota, Nevada, Oregon, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, Texas, and Idaho, to mentions just a few, burned thousands of acres. On August 10, 367 new fires were reported in the U.S. alone. Flooding in recorded numbers in a matter of some 8 weeks devastated the eastern seaboard of the U.S. Flooding has also hit many states such as California, Nevada, Indiana, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and even part of North Dakota to name again just a few. These do not include mudslide, floods, fires. that have taken place around the world this year in record numbers such as Japan, China and France, again just to name a few.  On the other hand there are many states in the U.S. now confronted with drought, the results of which are affecting all aspects of the food industry. I tried to count the earthquakes around the world that have happened this year but gave up counting. Again we have to remember we need to follow these signs as birth pangs.

Search the internet on pestilence this year? Unless I was writing a 500 page book I could not give a full scope of it. In the area I live alone they have spayed for one of the worst years every recorded for caterpillars. One could not put foot on the ground in Plymouth, MA. without stepping on 20 of them. They also had no choice but to spray Massachusetts for EEE (Eastern Equine Encephalitis). This is a transmitted disease from mosquitoes. Search the internet about famine around the world in 2006. Famine is not a small problem and consider if weather patterns were to play havoc with the earth’s crops.

Finally I want to add a few more thoughts for consideration in ending. Think a moment on things such as HIV, Bird Flu, Mad Cow and Super Viruses. If we look at the whole picture one can easily see the result of man’s destruction. Man has left an inheritance of doom to his children. Apply the intensity and frequency of these natural events happening worldwide and we have the pangs of a woman nearing birth. What little I have written here in this article about man and natural warning signs are not even a drop in the bucket in the full scope of things.

Even so, the world is never without hope. The Scriptures tell us the world will be two-thirds undone when biblical events will continue a course where God will undo all that man has done. However, before this grace may come to pass, the world continues to bury its head in the sand from the truths that are self evident.  We are living in the “Signs of the Times.” The prayers and fasting of the faithful seemingly can no longer keep the warning signs at bay so in this the world can expect to reap what has been sown by way of chastisements.

I know this is a freighting article but they are facts of truth that are. Above all things we must not loose hope and we the faithful need continue to pray and fast much. For those who pray and fast, there is nothing to fear.

In the Love of Gospa <3
Michael, webmaster of Medjugorje USA

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