JAPAN’S MASSIVE

 EARTHQUAKE, TSUNAMI

&  NUCLEAR  DISASTER

THE 5th STRONGEST QUAKE EVER RECORDED  

 In early March, Japan was hit by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake. Then on March 11/11, the 9.0 monster struck. It not only rattled Tokyo and shook the north of the country, but also unleashed a tsunami with ferocious 10-metre, 30 feet-high waves.

Such an enormous tsunami was unprecedented in that part of the world. It swept inland for 6 or 7 miles (10-11 km), wiping out whole towns. Countless cars with their hapless occupants were tossed to and fro in the surging waves; whole buildings were uprooted and swept along, some of them ablaze, and washed out to sea. Even big ships were carried by the surge and deposited inland.  One was seen stranded on top of a surviving 2-storey building.

The quake struck at a depth of six miles (10 km), about 80 miles (125 km) off the eastern coast. The area is 240 miles (380 km) northeast of Tokyo.

As the tsunami with 30-feet-high waves began sweeping at around 800 kph, across the Pacific ocean, a tsunami warning was extended to a number of areas in the Pacific, Southeast Asia and Latin America, Russia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Chile.  Damage was caused in Hawaii and on the Californian coast. In the Philippines, authorities ordered an evacuation of coastal communities, but no unusual waves were reported.

But much of northern Japan has been totally devastated.

              Coastal cities lie in ruins. Roads and rail, power and ports were crippled across much of the north. This was the most powerful earthquake in the nation’s recorded history.

The initial shock was felt as far away from the epicenter as Beijing, China. There were another two massive “aftershocks” measuring 7.9 and 7.7 on the same day. And within two days, 27 quakes above 6.0 had hit the area. Hundreds of aftershocks followed during the next month - about 300 were of magnitude 5.0 or greater.

Dozens of cities and villages along a 1,300-mile (2,100-km) stretch of coastline were shaken by the violent tremors that reached as far as Tokyo, hundreds of kilometers from the epicenter.  More than 4 million buildings were without power in Tokyo and its suburbs. A large section of Kesennuma, a town of 70,000 people, burned furiously.

Rescue workers combed the tsunami-battered region north of Tokyo for survivors and struggled to care for millions of people who were stranded without power, food and water. Prime Minister Naoto Kan dubbed the double disaster as his country’s worst crisis since World War Two.

A HELLISH NIGHTMARE

“It’s a scene from hell, absolutely nightmarish,” said a member of the International Red Cross Federation in the obliterated coastal town of Otsuchi.  “The situation here is just beyond belief, almost everything has been flattened.”

Japan Red Cross President, Tadateru Konoe, said: “After my long career in the Red Cross where I have seen many disasters and catastrophes, this is the worst I have ever seen. Otsuchi reminds me of Osaka and Tokyo after the Second World War when everything was destroyed and flattened.”

THE TSUNAMI DEPOSITED THIS BOAT ON TOP OF A TWO-STOREY BUILDING.

 

Tsutomu Sato, 46, a survivor in Rikuzantakata, a town on the NE coast, said: “When the tsunami struck, I was trying to evacuate people. I looked back, and then it was like the computer graphics scene I’ve seen from the movie Armageddon. I thought it was a dream. It was really like the end of the world.”

To escape near-freezing temperatures, tens of thousands of people took shelter in schools, stadiums and makeshift evacuation centres.

Japan mobilised 100,000 soldiers to deliver food, water and fuel, and to pull stranded survivors from buildings and damaged homes. More than 450,000 people had to be evacuated. More than 28,000 people perished.

The 9.0 was the fifth most powerful earthquake to hit the world in the past century. It was nearly 8,000 times stronger than the 6.3 quake that devastated the city of Christchurch in New Zealand in February.  And it also surpassed Japan’s Great Kanto quake of September 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 8.3 and killed more than 143,000 people in the Tokyo area. 

A smaller, 7.2 quake in Kobe in 1996 killed 6,400 people.

Even for a country experienced in earthquakes, this one was of more horrific proportions because of the tsunami that crashed ashore, swallowing everything in its path as it surged several miles inland before retreating.

In Tokyo, commuter trains shut down, and trucks were unable to make deliveries as supermarket shelves ran empty. Large areas of land were completely under water, and millions of households were left without electricity.

     ENORMOUS ECONOMIC COST

According to economic experts, the economic loss was around $300 billion – that’s just to the region hit by the quake and tsunami.

The triple disaster will be a huge blow to Japan’s economy - the third-largest economy in the world  -  which has the world’s biggest public debt load. Since it was already at the doorstep of national insolvency, the quake may have made a financial Armageddon an eventual certainty.

Japan’s government has a trillion dollars invested in the US Treasury bonds. But now a large portion of those bonds will have to be sold to pay for reconstruction. That in turn will help push the US economy closer to the brink.

JAPAN’S GREAT NUCLEAR DISASTER

When it seemed like things could not get any worse, an explosion crippled the Fukushima nuclear plant, 240-km north of Tokyo.  The nuclear installations had already been severely damaged by the quake and the tsunami.

The explosion sent a huge plume of smoke billowing into the sky, and the exposure of fuel rods in the four reactors led to radiation leaks into areas around, and into the sea.  Radiation levels within the plant surged to 1,000 times above normal. 

Now Japan had to grapple with this third disaster - the worst nuclear catastrophe, since the Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine in 1986.

Japan’s PM, Naoto Kan, declared a state of emergency as engineers tried to confirm whether any of the four reactors at Fukushima, had gone into meltdown.

The tsunami had knocked out the power to the system that cools the dangerously hot nuclear fuel rods. Emergency workers, trying to avert a “disaster with global implications,” pumped sea water into the reactors to cool down the overheating rods.

Excess heat in a reactor causes the metallic core to melt. When the core melts down, it melts right through the container and into the ground and eventually into the water table.  

The Japanese authorities and the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), have worked as hard as they can, under extremely difficult circumstances, to stabilize the nuclear power plants and to contain the atomic crisis. But mounting problems, including badly miscalculated radiation figures and no place to store dangerously contaminated water, have stymied the operation.

TEPCO said fuel rods at the No. 2 reactor were fully exposed, which could lead to the rods melting down.

There were partial meltdowns of the fuel rods at both the No. 1 and the No. 3 reactors where the explosions had occurred, and a TEPCO official described the situation in the No. 2 reactor was even worse than in the other units. TEPCO said 11 people had been injured in the blast.

Engineers say they are far from being in control of the damaged reactors and it could take months to stabilise them and years to clear up the toxic mess left behind.

30-km EXCLUSION ZONE

Japan declared a 30-km exclusion zone around Fukushima, and evacuated about 140,000 from areas around the plant. Officially it is 30-km, but in practice, police are reportedly enforcing a quarantine zone about 115-km wide.

The evacuees from the zone joined more than 450,000 other evacuees from the quake and tsunami-hit areas.  The government warned those remaining in the evacuation zone to stay indoors.

Around 100 people never left their homes, refusing to evacuate from the zone around Fukushima even when the power plant began spewing harmful radioactive materials. 

People in the exclusion zone are at risk of receiving radiation of at least 112 microsieverts. At that level a person gets the same amount of radiation every day as they would expect to get under normal circumstances in a year.

Evacuated residents of towns surrounding the crippled plant are regularly returning home, defying health warnings as the crisis drags on. Many return to collect valuables or personal effects.

NEW THREATS AT NUCLEAR PLANT 

US government engineers sent to help with the crisis in Japan are warning that the troubled nuclear plant is facing a wide array of fresh threats that could persist indefinitely, and that in some cases are expected to increase as a result of the very measures being taken to keep the plant stable.

EU COMMISSIONER:

JAPANESE DISASTER IN ‘HANDS OF GOD’

The nuclear crisis in Japan is now in the “hands of God”, the EU’s energy commissioner, Guenther Oettinger, said, rattling financial markets.

Speaking to the European Parliament’s environment committee on March 16, Oettinger expressed surprise at the “incredible makeshift” methods being used by Japanese technicians to prevent further disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant. “The site is effectively out of control,” the German commissioner told MEPs, a day after he described Japan as facing an “apocalypse.” - EUOBSERVER

The problems at the complex are complicating the humanitarian disaster that has killed over 28,000.

In a worst-case scenario, the Fukushima disaster could render the area around the plant uninhabitable for 200 years or more.

Nuclear fuel accounts for 30% of Japan’s electricity. Of Japan’s 54 reactors, 11 have been shut down by the quake.

RADIATION SPREADING TO SEAWATER

Workers at Japan’s damaged nuclear plant resumed the laborious yet urgent task of pumping out the hundreds of tons of radioactive water from inside several buildings at the plant. The water must be removed and safely stored before work can continue to power up the plant’s cooling system, nuclear safety officials said.

A Government spokesman said some radioactive water is “almost certainly” seeping from a damaged reactor core in one of the units. That raises the potential for long-lasting environmental contamination in areas around the plant.

The contaminated water in Unit 2 appeared to be due to a partial meltdown of the reactor core.

Workers  have  been  trying  to  remove  the  radioactive water and to find a place to store it. The empty tanks inside the reactor that were meant to hold condensed water are already full.

Meanwhile, plans to restart the cooling system hit a roadblock when it turned out that power cables had to be laid through turbine buildings that were flooded with contaminated water.

A top TEPCO official acknowledged it could take a long time to clean up the complex. “We cannot say at this time how many months or years it will take,” he said, insisting the main goal now is to keep the reactors cool.

RADIOACTIVE WATER PUMPED INTO SEA

For some days Japan pumped radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean from the crippled nuclear plant.

China expressed concern at the discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima plant, reflecting growing international unease over the month-long nuclear crisis.

JAPAN RAISES NUCLEAR CRISIS SEVERITY TO HIGHEST LEVEL

APRIL 12/11. As Japan struggles to regain control of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant,  it has raised the severity of its nuclear crisis to a top level of 7 (up from 5), putting it on par with the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.

PEOPLE SUFFERING FROM RADIATION

A number of people, including even plant workers in protective clothing who were seeking to contain the disaster, were confirmed to have suffered radiation contamination, and hundreds may have been exposed.

Some food and sea products in the area have been found to contain unacceptable levels of radiation. As a result, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines said they would test Japanese food imports for radiation.

By the end of March, small amounts of radiation, thought to come from Japan’s crisis-stricken power plant, have been detected across Europe.

OTHER NATIONS WEIGHING UP NUCLEAR OPTIONS

Switzerland put on hold some approvals for nuclear power plants, and Germany said it was scrapping a plan to extend the life of its nuclear power stations, raising questions over the future of the global nuclear industry.

Taiwan’s state-run Taipower also said it was studying plans to cut nuclear power output.

 THE WORLD’S  10   MOST POWERFUL

RECORDED EARTHQUAKES

 

1.  May 22, 1960   –   CHILE  -   Magnitude 9.5

The world’s most powerful earthquake left 4,485 people dead and injured, and 2 million homeless after it struck Chile in 1960. The port of Puerto Saavedra was destroyed in the ensuing tsunami, which caused $550m worth of damage in Chile, and killed a further 170 people as five-metre waves hit the coasts of Japan and the Philippines. A day later Volcán Puyehue in Chile’s lake district spewed ash 6,000 metres into the air, in an eruption that lasted for several weeks.

2.  March 28, 1964   –  Prince William Sound, ALASKA  -  Magnitude 9.2

The Gulf of Alaska was devastated by the earthquake that caused landslides in Anchorage and raised parts of out-lying islands by as much as 11 metres.  The resulting tsunami reached heights of 67 metres as it swept into the shallow Valdez inlet and was responsible for most of the 128 deaths and $311m worth of damage.

3.  December 26, 2004  –  N. SUMATRA   -   Magnitude 9.1

The deadliest tsunami in history was felt in 14 countries across Asia and east Africa, triggered by a “megathrust” as the Indian tectonic plate was forced beneath the Burmese plate. Indonesia was the worst affected with an estimated 170,000 of the nearly 230,000 dead.

4.  Nov 4, 1952  –  KAMCHATKA, Russia  -   Magnitude 9.0

The volcanic Russian peninsula was near the epicentre of the quake, but it was the Hawaiian islands that took the brunt of the tsunami that caused a million dollars’ worth of damage as waves scoured the coasts, ripping boats from their moorings and in Honolulu harbour, lifting a cement barge before throwing it down onto a freighter. No deaths were recorded.

5.  August 13, 1868  – ARICA, PERU  (now part of Chile)  -   Magnitude 9.0

Hawaii also felt the force of the tsunami created by this pacific basin earthquake, but the destruction was just as heavy  in  South  America  with  the  city  of  Arequipa destroyed and 25,000 killed. The quake was felt as far away as La Paz in Bolivia. Four hours after the first shocks, waves as high as 16 metres inundated the coast and carried one US gunboat two miles inland to rest precariously on the edge of a 60m cliff.

6.  January 26, 1700 – Nth Pacific coast of AMERICA  -   Magnitude (estimated) 9.0

The only North American account of one of the continent’s largest earthquakes comes from the oral history of native Americans near Vancouver Island which describes how the large community of Pachena Bay was wiped out by a huge wave.  Across the Pacific, the quake was accurately recorded by Japanese observers of the large tsunami that struck Japan on 27 January 1700.

7.  February 27, 2010 – off Bio-Bio CHILE  -  Magnitude 8.8

The region around Concepción has been recorded as a centre for seismic shocks since the 16th century, but few have been as devastating as the early morning quake that generated a Pacific-wide tsunami and cost the lives of 521 people. A further 12,000 were injured and more than 800,000 left homeless.

8.  January 13, 1906 – coast of ECUADOR  -  Magnitude 8.8

Emanating from the ocean off Ecuador and Colombia, the quake generated a tsunami that killed between 500 and 1,500 people along a coastline from Central America to San Francisco. To the west in Hawaii, rivers suddenly drained about 12 hours after the first shocks, then were submerged as a series of successively larger waves flooded the coast.

9.  November 1, 1755 – LISBON, Portugal  -  Magnitude 8.7

The near-total destruction of Lisbon and the deaths of a quarter of the city’s population were caused by an earthquake, followed by fire, and a tsunami that was felt in north Africa, France and northern Italy.  At least 50,000 perished.

10.  August 15, 1950 – Assam-Tibet  -  Magnitude 8.6

Seventy villages simply disappeared in the string of disasters generated by an earthquake with an epicentre in the Tibetan Rim, but which wrought most destruction in India’s Assam state. Across the region, landslides claimed the lives of 1,526 people and rendered parts of the landscape unrecognisable from the air. The quake was followed by severe flooding; and eight days after the first tremors a natural dam on the Subansiri river burst, releasing a seven-metre wall of water against nearby villages.

 

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SOME OF THE RECENT MOST DESTRUCTIVE QUAKES

                                                                                                       

SUMATRA, INDONESIA.   9.1.   December 26, 2004.

The quake set off the Asian tsunami. About 228,000 people died

N. PAKISTAN, (Kashmir region).  7.6.   Oct 10, 2005.

2,700 homes were destroyed or damaged in neighbouring Indian Jammu-Kashmir.  Death toll – over 100,000.   24 aftershocks above 5.0.

SICHUAN , CHINA  –  7.9.   December 5, 2008

Swarms of aftershocks.  87,387 killed.

HAITI -   7.0 .   January 12, 2010

Although the 7.0 magnitude earthquake did not rank with the strongest quakes on record, its devastation was immense. 200,000+ dead. Injured: 250,000+. Homeless: 1½ million.

CHILE   -  8.8.    February 27, 2010.

This was the 7th greatest earthquake ever recorded.  90% of the historic town of Curico was destroyed.  700 were killed; mostly through the tsunami that followed the quake.

CHRISTCHURCH,  New Zealand -   7.1.   Sept 3, 2010

100,000 homes were damaged, and Christchurch was devastated. Some very powerful aftershocks followed the 7.1. Amazingly, no-one was killed.

CHRISTCHURCH,  New Zealand -   6.3.   Feb. 22, 2011

Although less in intensity, this quake was more devastating than the earlier 7.1. Death toll around 220, and 2,500 injured.

 

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THE “ 9 s”

THE MOST POWERFUL QUAKE EVER RECORDED

CHILE.   9.5     May 22, 1960.

That  monster  generated  a  tsunami  that  brought destruction, not only in Chile, but as far away as Japan. Surprisingly, ‘only’ 1,655 died - not so high seeing it was “the big one.”

There have been five earthquakes of 9.0 or above, recorded in the last 100 years.

      1952         KAMCHATKA, RUSSIA            9.0

      1960         CHILE                                           9.5

      1964         ALASKA                                      9.2

      2004         SUMATRAM INDONESIA        9.1

      2011         JAPAN                                         9.0

 

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SOME OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST QUAKES 

        856    GREECE                                            killed              45,000

      1556    CHINA                                              killed             830,000

      1700    N Pacific coast AMERICA                 killed                    ???

      1737    CALCUTTA                                      killed             300,000

      1755    LISBON                                 8.7      killed              60,000

      1819    GUJARAT                              8.0      killed                2,000

      1868    ARICA, PERU                        9.0      killed              25,000

      1883    DUTCH INDIES                               killed              36,000

      1897    Shillong plateau          8.7      killed                  542

      1902    MARTINIQUE                                  killed              40,000

      1905    HIMALAYAS                        8.0      killed              20,000           

      1906    SAN FRANCISCO                8.3      killed                   700

      1906    ECUADOR                             8.8      killed                1,500

      1908    ITALY                                    9.0      killed             100,000

      1915    ITALY                                               killed              29,900

      1920    CHINA                                              killed             180,000

      1922    JAPAN                                   7.9      killed             143,000

      1922    CHILE-ARGENTINA            8.5                           ???

      1923    KAMCHATKA                      8.5                           ???

      1927    CHINA                                              killed             200,000

      1932    CHINA                                              killed              70,000

      1933    JAPAN                                   8.1      killed                3,064

      1934    INDO-NEPAL                       8.3      killed              10,000

      1935    INDIA                                    7.6      killed              30,000

      1938    INDONESIA                          8.5                                 ???

      1939    CHILE                                               killed               30,000

      1939    TURKEY                                           killed              23,000

      1950    ASSAM/TIBET                      8.6      killed                 1526

      1952    KAMCHATKA,  Russia         9.0                                 ???

      1957    ALASKA                                8.6                                 ???

      1960    MOROCCO                                     killed              12,000

      1960    CHILE                                   9.5**  killed                 4485

                        ** World’s biggest recorded quake.

      1962    IRAN                                                 killed              10,000

      1963    KURIL  ISLANDS                 8.5                                 ???

      1964    ALASKA                                9.2      killed                   114

      1965    RAT ISLANDS, Alaska          8.7                    

      1968    IRAN                                                 killed              11,500

      1970    PERU                                                 killed              66,700

      1972    IRAN                                      7.9      killed      5,000

      1976    CHINA                                              killed             750,000

      1978    IRAN                                                 killed              25,000

      1980    ALGERIA                               7.5      killed              20,000

      1988    ARMENIA                             6 -7     killed              25,000

      1990    IRAN                                      7.4      killed              50,000

      1992    INDONESIA                          7.8      killed                2,500

      1993    MAHARASHTRA                  6.4      killed             7,600+

      1999    TURKEY                                7.6      killed               17,000

      1999    TAIWAN                                7.7      killed                2,300

      2001    GUJARAT                              7.9      killed              30,000

      2004    SUMATRA. Indonesia            9.1      killed              228,000

      2005    INDONESIA                          8.6      killed                1,313

      2005    PAKISTAN                            7.6      killed             100,000+

      2007    INDONESIA                          8.5      killed                     25

      2008    PAKISTAN                            7.6      killed              80,360

      2008    SICHUAN, CHINA               7.9      killed              87,587

      2010    HAITI                                     7.0      killed             200,000+

      2010    CHILE                                    8.8      killed                   700

      2010    NEW ZEALAND                   7.1      huge damage

      2011    NEW ZEALAND                   6.3      killed                  220

      2011    JAPAN                                   9.0      killed              28,000

      2011    ?

      2011    ?

      2011    ?

     

During recorded history, an estimated 75 million people have perished in earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, fires and in the landslides they triggered.

“And you will be hearing of ... earthquakes”

(Matthew 24:6-7)

INCREASE IN SEISMIC ACTIVITY ?

Are earthquakes increasing?  Look at these statistics, and you will see a definite  increase in the number of big quakes, year by year.

In 2005 there were 11 quakes of 7.0+.

In 2010 there were 22 quakes of 7.0+.

 

In a 30-day period -  24 July to 22 Aug 10 (2010) - there were 21 major quakes above 6.0, (including 6 that were above 7.0)   - Geoscience Australia

The truth is that there are reports of significant earthquakes and significant volcano eruptions somewhere in the world almost every day now.

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THE WORLD IS CONSTANTLY SHAKING  

Each year the Earth is now experiencing at least …

one earthquake of magnitude                     8+

ten earthquakes of magnitude                     7 to 7.9

one hundred earthquakes of magnitude   6 to 6.9

and tens of thousands of quakes less than   6.

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EARTHQUAKE STATISTICS

The U.S. Geological Survey gives detailed figures of major earthquakes over the past 11 years.  This is a summary of the statistics.

QUAKES OF 7.0 AND ABOVE IN THE LAST ELEVEN YEARS

      2000   15                 2004             16                               2008      12

      2001   16                 2005             11                               2009      17

      2002   13                 2006             11                               2010      22

      2003   15                 2007             18                               2011      9  (in 3 mths)

      In 2001 there was one 7+ quake every  25 days.

      In 2010 there was one 7+ quake every  16 days.

      In 2011 – in 1st three months,  it is ...  one  7+ quake every 10 days.

                                                                                                           

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QUAKES OF  8.0  AND ABOVE  IN THE 20th CENTURY

      First decade -         9                   Sixth decade -          7

      Second decade -   9                   Seventh decade -      8

      Third decade -       5                    Eighth decade -         6

      Fourth decade -    8                    Ninth decade -           4

      Fifth decade -      11                    Tenth decade -          7

 

TOTAL  8+ QUAKES in the 20TH CENTURY  -  74

                                                                                                                               

QUAKES OF 8.0+ IN  FIRST DECADE OF THE 21st CENTURY

TOTAL  8+ QUAKES from 2001 to 2010   -   13

At the current rate of increase, this century could experience

130 or more super (8.0+) quakes.

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ABOVE 8.5

In the 20th century quakes above 8.5   –  11.

In the first decade of the 21st century

quakes above 8.5       –       6.

At the current rate of increase, this century could 

experience 60 or more 8.5+ quakes.

But we believe the ultimate earthquake, and the “Day of the LORD,” will soon bring the climax of this seismic buildup.  And we can expect the increase to continue steadily until that climax!

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MAJOR EARTHQUAKES SINCE JAPAN’S 9.0

      VANUATU.                           6.5                   March 17/11

      RANGOON, Burma            6.8                   March 24/11

At least 74 people died and 110 were injured in a strong earthquake that struck Burma, with fears that the toll will rise as news filters through from remote areas still cut off. Tremors were felt as far away as Bangkok, almost 800 kilometres from the epicentre, as well as in Hanoi and parts of China.

      JAVA, INDONESIA             6.7                   April 3/11

      FIJI REGION                         6.4.                  April 3/11

      MEXICO                                6.5.                  April 7/11

      JAPAN       43 quakes of  6.0+   from   March 11 to 31.

      JAPAN                                   7.1                   April 7/11

      JAPAN                 6.1,  6.6,  6.2,  6.0          April  9, 11, 12

      N.E of NEW ZEALAND            6.6            April  18

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SIXES ARE NOT SMALL!

We are beginning to think that quakes in the 6 range are small and not so serious; and of course, some of them are not so destructive. But it depends where they strike.

New Zealand’s 6.3 on Feb 22, 2011 was a great disaster. 

And Rangoon’s 6.8 quake on March 24., was a killer, and was very extensive and destructive.

INDIA’S 6.4 WAS HORRIFIC!

One of India’s biggest quakes in recent times was a “small” 6.4, with its epicentre in Latur district of Maharashtra, on Sept 30, 1993.  It rumbled across eight states. The power of the quake was equivalent to a hydrogen bomb.  And around 30,000 people perished.

 

 

VOLCANOS ALSO ARE VERY ACTIVE  

2011 is continuing the trend of increased activity along the Ring of Fire that began last year.  2010 was a banner year for volcanic eruptions around the Ring.     

Recently ...

* Two massive volcanoes in the Kamchatka region of Russia erupted at almost the exact same moment when the massive magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck Japan.

* One of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia, Mount Karangetang, erupted just a couple of hours after the earthquake hit Japan.

* The Fuego volcano in Guatemala exploded back in Feb.

* 800 meter high ash plumes rose from the Santiaguito volcano in Guatemala near the end of February.

* Although not on the Ring of Fire, Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano is also in the Pacific Ocean and it has also been extremely active lately. It shot lava 65 feet into the air recently.

THE RING OF FIRE

The “Pacific Ring of Fire” is a 40,000 km (25,000 miles) horseshoe shaped arc of earthquake and volcanic zones, where approximately 80% of the world’s quakes, and 75% of volcanic eruptions, occur.

From Chile, Peru, Mexico and California, it stretches up across the rim of the Pacific to Alaska, E Russia, Japan, Philippines, and down to Indonesia, PNG and New Zealand.

E Russia (1952), Chile (1960), Alaska (1964),  Indonesia (2004), and Japan (2011), all experienced a 9.0+ earthquake as we have see above. California is waiting for its “big one.”         

Can something like we have seen in Japan happen inside the United States?

California sits right along the Ring of Fire and many are convinced that someday a gigantic earthquake will permanently change the geography of that state. The truth is that California is way overdue for that quake. 

An article in Time magazine last year reported that California has more than 300 faults - fissures - running beneath its surface, including the massive San Andreas Fault.

 

 

Last year, over 2000 earthquakes struck southern California in just one week, raising fears of the imminence of “the quake to end all quakes.”

CALIFORNIA ON EDGE AFTER QUAKE ACTIVITY

MARCH 12/11. Earthquakes are striking the middle of the Gulf of California, giving US West Coast residents the question ... when?

TheWeatherSpace.com has received many reports and concerns about an Earthquake striking California because of what is happening down in the Gulf of Cailfornia.

Six quakes, including a 5.3-magnitude moderate quake have struck the area today. The lingering concern of viewers is to whether California is next, due to the fact Japan started this same way.   - TheWeatherSpace.com

SWARM OF QUAKES HAVE EXPERTS CONCERNED

APRIL 15/11. Nevada seismologists are keeping a close eye on an area southwest of Hawthorne, Nevada, where hundreds of earthquakes have been detected over the past few days. The largest was 4.4 which is quite large in size.

The seismologists are concerned as the location of these quakes is on top of a fault that has until now remained unknown or has not been active; and because devastating quakes at other places, have happened on un-named faults.

PLATE TECTONICS

The ancient Japanese believed that earthquakes were caused by the sudden movement of the giant spider that carried the earth on its back.

Modern scientific theories of Plate Tectonics have gained wide acceptance over the past few decades.  The thick crust of the earth’s surface is about 70 miles thick and it has been fragmented.  It consists, we are told, of ten major and a number of minor plates that are slowly but constantly moving – a few centimetres a year.

Many believing scientists believe the Tectonic Plates were the result of a massive asteroid impact in Noah’s day.

“All the fountains of the great deep burst open.”
(Genesis 7:11-12)

Sometimes two plates become temporarily locked in place, and tension and stress builds up where they meet. The sudden release of pent-up energy when they separate, causes massive earthquakes.

Sometimes a plate rises up and clashes with a neighbouring plate, creating enormous friction and explosion. Sometimes there is a massive cleavage on the crust - the floor of the sea, which thrusts water up to produce a tsunami.

Off Japan, for instance, the Pacific plate is thrusting under the Eurasian plate, causing the deep-seated quakes characteristic of the Japanese archipelago. Similarly, in California, along the San Andreas Fault, two great plates are sliding past each other.

The sliver of California west of the San Andreas fault, which is located on the Pacific plate, is moving toward the northwest. The rest of the state is resting on the North American plate, which is moving westward. The sudden movement of a portion of the fault that had been locked in place for many years is thought to have caused the great San Francisco quake of 1906.

Seismologists are warily eyeing at least two stretches of the San Andreas Fault that seem to be “locked.” One segment, near Los Angeles, has apparently not budged, while other parts of the Pacific and North American plates have slid some 30 feet past each other. Near San Francisco, there is another locked section.

Sooner or later, such segments will catch up with the inexorable movement of the opposing plates. If they do so in one sudden jolt, the resulting earthquakes, probably in the 8 Richter range and packing the energy of multi-megaton hydrogen bombs, will cause widespread destruction and kill possibly hundreds of thousands of people.

MAP OF THE TECTONIC PLATES

EARTHQUAKES IN THE BIBLE

The word “earthquake” is used 19 times in the Bible, 13 times in the prophetic passages of the Word of God.

In the Olivet Discourse, (Matthew 24 & Luke 21), the Lord Jesus indicated that earthquakes in many different places would be a sign of His Second Coming. (Matthew 24:7)

In the prophetic book of Revelation, the word “earthquake” is used seven times between Revelation chapters 6 to 16.

The great earthquake in Revelation 6:12 is the sixth seal judgment happening in the first half of the seven year Tribulation period.

Near the midway point of the Tribulation, there will be a number of earthquakes that cause great damage and death, and they are foretold in Revelation 8:5 and 11:13,19.

The greatest earthquake to ever hit the earth will happen at the end of the Tribulation period.  (Revelation 16:18).

Revelation 16:18:  “Then there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty.”

                                                                                         

TSUNAMIS IN THE BIBLE

A tsunami is a series of large waves of extremely long wave length and duration, generated by a violent undersea disturbance – such as an earthquake of 7.5 or above.

The Dec 26, 2004 quake in Indonesia was measured at 9.0. It was the 5th deadliest quake ever recorded, and it resulted in the Asian Tsunami, which was the worse tsunami in living memory. It wiped out over 230,000 people.

Seismologists estimated the power of that 9.0 quake as equivalent to one million Hiroshima atom bombs.

The word tsunami (a Japanese word) is not in the Bible, but the Messiah, speaking of the endtimes, said:

“There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and upon earth despair among nations, with perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men’s hearts will faint from terror, being apprehensive of what is coming upon the world.”   (Luke 21:25-25)

The context of this prophecy suggests the Master was speaking of something more than the usual sea storms.

The great tsunami of the Bible is in Genesis –at the flood in Noah’s day. It was the greatest disaster ever to hit the earth.

“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month - on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open; and the rain poured upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.” (Genesis 7:11-12)

The “great deep bursting open” indicates an enormous seismic shift – a series of super-earthquakes that thrust up waters from deep under the earth’s surface, and set off tsunamis around the world.

Also, “the floodgates of the sky were opened!” (Gen 7:11). The “the firmament” or “expanse” – (Gen 1:6-9), was a protective water canopy surrounding the earth’s atmosphere that gave the planet its very beneficial environment. This canopy collapsed because of an upheaval in the universe.

    A REPLICA OF NOAH’S ARK

The waters came down, to become tsunamis, and the deluge continued for forty days. And Noah’s huge, flat-bottomed ship was, we believe, swept along by the tsunami waves, to finally rest on Mt Ararat.

That was the first time God shook the heavens and the earth! And it was the first massive judgment of God upon a world that had become filled with violence and corruption. (Genesis 6:5-13)

(The 2nd shaking of the earth – Hebrews 12:26-27 – which we will come to shortly.)

 

PROPHECIES OF Y’SHUA CONCERNING ENDTIMES  

Jesus taught that even as one can look to various “signs” within nature, as indicators regarding the changing of seasons, so also should we discern some specific signs with regard to the prophetic seasons and the climax of the age.

Matthew 16:2-3: “He answered and said to them, ‘When it is evening, you say, “it will be fair weather, for the sky is red.” And in the morning, “it will be bad weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.” Hypocrites! You know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but are you unable to discern the signs of the times?’”

Jesus indicated that the generation that would see His return is the generation that would be born in 1948 – the year of the restoration of God’s “fig tree” – Israel.

Luke 17:29-32:  “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees; when they put forth leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is now near. Likewise, when you see these things happening, recognise that the kingdom of God is near.  I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass away until all things take place.”

Among “all these things” that Jesus said the last generation would witness, was a definite increase in earthquake activity in various places.

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” (Matthew 24:7-8)

The “beginning of sorrows” (Gk arche odin) literally translates as the “commencement of birth pangs.”  That is what makes the fact that the top six earthquakes in the history of mankind all took place after 1948, so significant.

The Master described the last days’ earthquakes as birth contractions, which we all know are characterized by a progressive increase in both frequency and intensity.

EARTH’S BIRTH PAINS INCREASE

“Unprecedented” weather and natural disasters

occurring simultaneously around the globe.

We are seeing an increase in strange weather patterns; floods, droughts, famines, earthquakes, etc., and it is because the earth, creation itself, longs to be freed from the curse which came on man and the creation when Adam fell into sin.

The apostle Paul reminds us that the whole creation groans and labours with birth pangs. (Romans 8:22).

As delivery draws near, birth pangs always increase. Therefore, the creation itself will travail as the time of delivery draws near.

The “fix” for the extreme weather and natural disasters, will not come by the hand of man. There is no turning back, just as a woman who labours and enters into stronger labour does not just stop and go backwards in progression.

Man has no real solution against the force of God.

“YHWH rejoices in His works; the One who looks at the earth, and it trembles; He touches the mountains, and they smoke.” (Psalm 104:31-32)

The extreme weather events and natural disasters now occurring do not prove global warming is true - but they do prove that there is a God, a God who keeps His Word. 

The signs we are seeing should serve as a “wake up call” - the Tribulation time of judgment is coming, and we each one should examine our own life before God.

Be sure, all these signs will continue to increase until the Kingdom of God is established at the Second coming of Jesus the Messiah.

Matthew 24:42: “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Master is coming.”

WERE JAPAN’S MULTI-DISASTERS A DIVINE JUDGMENT?

Was Japan more wicked than all the other nations, that it should be singled out for divine wrath?  Not necessarily!

We should see the disasters not as a judgment, but as a warning to the nations. They are a preview of the Tribulation conditions that are soon to come on the whole world.

And it is not only the Japanese disasters, but the floods, droughts, famines, earthquakes, cyclones, tornados, and upheavals that have been happening in China, Burma, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, South Pacific Islands, the US, Britain, Russia, India, Pakistan, Haiti, Chile, Latin America, Africa, Israel and the Middle East.  They are all  warnings of  the day when God will shake the heavens and the earth once more.

“See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those who refused to listen to the one who warned them on earth did not escape, how much less will we escape if we turn away from Him who warns us from heaven. At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVENS.”  (Hebrews 12:25-27)

 

THE SECOND SHAKING IS SCHEDULED

“For thus says YHWH of Hosts, ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and earth, the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all the nations’.”  (Haggai 2:6-7)

Scientists are saying the planet is already sitting in the middle of a “shooting gallery.”  They are more right than they realise. And we must agree when we look at a very specific prophecy concerning the stars falling to earth.

The apostle John has recorded the visions and prophecies given him by the Messiah in the Book of Revelation. These are most vivid descriptions of the wrath of God that’s to come upon this world.

Chapter  6  introduces  the  seven  years  of  worldwide disasters. In this chapter we have the shaking of the planet - the result of a bombardment of stars - asteroids.  This is during the first half of the Tribulation. John writes:

“I watched as He opened the sixth seal; and there was a great earthquake; and the sun turned black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became blood-red; and the stars of the sky fell to earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a strong wind. The sky vanished like a scroll being rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of its place.

“Then the kings of the earth, the great men, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the Presence of Him (the Almighty) who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of His wrath has come; and who is able to stand before it?’”  (Revelation 6:12-17)

The expression, “the sky vanished like a scroll being rolled up,” is to do with the shaking of the Universe. This great upheaval causes the stars to strike the earth.

The  stars  here  are  undoubtedly  asteroids,  meteorites,  or comets. And notice, it’s not just a single, stray asteroid. It’s a bombardment. The stars here are likened to a fig-laden tree that’s shaken in a strong gale. The hard, unripe “figs” wallop the earth, so that even the great men cry out in terror, seeking death to escape the wrath of God.

Yes, the people at that time will recognise that it is the wrath of Yahweh coming upon the earth, and not just a natural calamity. They will begin to realise that they are on the losing side; that they are sinners in the hands of the Almighty God. They will realise that things will never be the same again. Time is up. It’s now the judgment time!

The prophet Isaiah uses harsh words when he says:

“Look! The day of YHWH is coming, cruel, with fury and burning anger, to make the land a desolation; and He will exterminate its sinners from it.” (Isaiah 13:9)

That’s a hard word, isn’t it?  “Exterminate!” God is going to exterminate the sinners from off the face of the earth. You may say, “Why should God exterminate people?  He only has created us! So why should He seek to exterminate us from off the face of the earth?”

Good question! You do recognise, don’t you, that we are sinners, one and all? We have sinned against the Holy, Eternal Sovereign. We have sinned by our words, thoughts and deeds. Our standards have become corrupt. Our morals are corrupt, our speech is perverted, and our dealings are perverse. We utilise cunning as though it was the source of wisdom. We stockpile missiles of slander, hatred and deceit to defend ourselves from the rockets of treachery manufactured in our neighbour’s backyard.

We paint our faces with religiosity, and grease our hands with “charity,” to make a show of “righteousness” before the Almighty, and before anyone else who might be observing us. And our lives are so selfish, proud and conceited that we would even deem ourselves worthy to tell God what to do. We take delight in ungodliness, and teach others to do likewise. We say, “every man for himself,” and we slave to make others bend to our wills.

We take the law into our own hands, and become a law to ourselves. We change good to evil, and evil to good. Righteousness, we mock at it; filth, we revel in it.  We use lies like a carpenter uses nails. Murder, rape and violence; it’s alright as long as you get away with it!  And someone has said the Eleventh commandment is, “Don’t get caught!”

Alcohol, drugs and nicotine are assets to help calm ourselves, and to reinforce us for our continuous round of “give me, give me.” This is our 21st century society in general.

Listen oh people! Hear the Word of the LORD!  THE GREAT TRIBULATION IS THE JUDGMENT TIME - the judgment of this sin-sodden generation. Another writer has described our present age as, THE TERMINAL GENERATION.

I’m fully aware that judgment is not a popular subject, but I must declare what God has declared:

“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent (that is, to change their minds and turn to the Lord for salvation), because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31)

 

WHY SHOULD GOD BE SO UPSET WITH THE NATIONS?

Long ago, King David gives one very good reason:

“The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against YHWH and against His Anointed - His Messiah: ‘Let us break Their chains,’ they say, ‘and throw off Their fetters!’” (Psalm 2:2-3)

The apostle Peter repeats these words in Acts 4:25-28.

The nations of the world have become extremely antagonistic towards God’s Anointed  - Y’shua, Jesus Christ.

Although there are thousands of people turning to the Messiah every day around the world, the animosity towards these new believers is severe in most of those countries.

AS FOR ISRAEL, that, sadly, is also the case. There are now some 15,000 believers in Y’shua, but they are being persecuted by orthodox rabbis, the modern day Pharisees. The martyr Stephen exposed the Pharisees as ...

“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.” (Acts 7:51-52)

Tragically today, the majority of the people of Israel, who in spite of being a chosen people and endowed with enormous intelligence and skill, are still hard in their attitude towards Y’shua the Anointed One. They simply will not believe that He is their Messiah. Like many “Christians” today, many Jews are not bothered about any Messiah.

For Israel there is a national day of awakening ahead, but it will come during the Tribulation. It is called “The Day of Jacob’s Distress.”  The weeping prophet Jeremiah warned of that day.  Can your imagine this?

“Ask now, and see if a male can give birth to a baby. So why do I see every man with his hands on his stomach, like a woman in labour? And why have all faces turned pale? Ahh! for that day is great, there is none like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be saved out of it.”  (Jeremiah 30:6-7)

Men are going through the agonies that have created terror in their bellies. And Zechariah says that during the seven years of distress in Israel, two thirds of the people will be cut off and perish.” (Zechariah 13:8)

Y’shua the Messiah is still weeping over Israel today:

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you were unwilling.”  (Matt. 23:37)

AS FOR THE NATIONS, they despise the Word of God!  As you can see in the US, for example, the law will not permit the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public any more. The laws of the nations are no longer based on God’s commands but upon social opinions and prevalent practices.  Rationalism  and  satanic  agendas  mold  the political  policies  that  must  bring  warnings  from  the Almighty, and incur His fierce wrath.

“Woe to those who call evil good, and call good evil.” (Isaiah 5:20)

Not one nation in the world (except Israel) will accept the Covenant concerning the Promised Land. The covenant I am referring to is called the Abrahamic Covenant, and it is clearly recorded in every unabridged Bible in every language around the world.

“Now YHWH said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, and your relatives and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you will be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

“On that day YHWH made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates’.” (Genesis 15:18)

“When Abram was ninety-nine years old, YHWH appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am El Shaddai; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.’

“And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, ‘As for Me, look, My covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of many nations. And no longer will your name be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham; for I will make you the father of many nations. I will make you very, very fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. And I will give you and to your descendants after you, the land where you are living, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God’.” (Genesis 17:1-8)

“Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him. And God said to him, ‘Your name is Jacob; you will no longer be called Jacob, but now your name is Israel.’ So He called his name Israel.

“God also said to him, ‘I am El Shaddai - God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations will come from you, and kings will come forth from you. And the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I give to you. Yes, and I will give the land to your descendants after you’.” (Genesis 35:9-12)

Ancient Israel lost their land to Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC, and later, again, to the Romans in 70 AD.  

While in exile in Babylon, God said to the Israelites:

“Therefore, thus says YHWH, the Sovereign Master, ‘Surely in My burning jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who appropriated My land for themselves as a possession, with wholehearted joy and with spiteful minds, in order to drive out and to plunder ... ‘But you, O mountains of Israel, you will put forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel; for they are about to come home.

‘For, look, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be cultivated and sown. And I will increase the number of men upon you, yes, the whole house of Israel, all of it; and the cities will be inhabited, and the ruins rebuilt. I will multiply on you man and beast; and they will increase and be fruitful; and I will cause you to be inhabited as you were formerly and will make you prosper more than at the first. Thus you will know that I am YHWH.’…

‘For I will take you from among the nations; I will gather you from all countries, and bring you into your own land … And you will live in the land that I gave to your fore-fathers; so you will be My people, and I - I will be your God.

‘Then the nations that are left round about you will know that I, YHWH, have rebuilt the ruined places, and replanted that which was desolate. I, YHWH, have spoken and will do it’.”  (Ezekiel 36:5, 8-11, 24, 28, 36)

Furthermore, Yahweh the LORD instructed Moses and the people of Israel:

“The land shall never be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but strangers and settlers with Me.” (Leviticus 25:23)

The Promised Land has already been divided - in 1919, 1948, 1993, and the pressure to divide the land once more – “to sell the land permanently” to the Palestinians, is now becoming intense.

U.N. TO ISRAEL: “SURRENDER!”

MARCH 30/11.  UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, reiterated that the world body expects Israel to immediately surrender to internationally-backed Arab demands that it relinquish all claims to the Jews’ biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria and half of their ancient capital of Jerusalem.

The Jewish presence in the so-called “West Bank,” which includes the eastern half of Jerusalem, is “morally and politically unsustainable, and must end,” Mr Ban insisted during a press conference in Uruguay.

Meanwhile, the Palestinians are moving forward plans to unilaterally declare an independent state with the support of the UN, outside the framework of a land-for-peace deal with Israel.

Palestinian leaders are planning to go to the UN General Assembly in September, to ask for recognition and backing to declare their state in the “pre-1967 war borders.”

There is a dangerous level of international political support growing for this plan. Indeed, a steadily growing number of countries around the world are signaling that they are ready to recognize a Palestinian state that includes all of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem as its capital. 

Should the Palestinian plan receive an over-whelming majority vote at the UN in favour of axing God’s covenant, and dividing the land of Israel and Jerusalem, it will mean not only more difficult times ahead for Israel, but disaster for the nations themselves. 

Jeremiah warns: “Tumult has come to the ends of the earth, for YHWH has a controversy with the nations. He has entered into judgment with all flesh.” (Jeremiah 25:31)

CONCERNING THE NATIONS, the apostle Paul declared to the Greeks in Athens:

“The God who made the world and everything in it, since He is Master of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and everything else; and He has made from one blood, every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries where they should live, that they should seek the Heavenly Master, if perhaps they might reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His offspring.’

“Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Being is like gold, or silver or stone - something made by the art and imagination of man.

“Having overlooked the ignorance of times past, God now commands ALL people everywhere to repent (that is, to change their minds and actions towards God and His Anointed Messiah), because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:24-31)

Repent? Today the world at large is hell-bent on going its own way and rejecting what the Almighty says.

The day fixed for judgment is drawing nearer every day!

God has been giving clear warnings of the coming Tribulation judgment, for a very long time. The great prophet Isaiah foretold many of the details:

“Wail, for the day of YHWH is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt. They will be terrified; pains and anguish will take hold of them; they will writhe like a woman in labour; they will look aghast at one another, their faces aflame. Behold, the day of YHWH is coming; cruel, with fury and burning anger, to make the land a desolation; and He will exterminate its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light. The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shed its light.

“Thus I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud, and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless. I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind more rare than the gold of Ophir.  Therefore I shall make the heavens tremble; and the earth will be shaken from its place at the fury of YHWH of Hosts, in the day of His burning anger ... Their little ones will also be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished.” (Isaiah 13:6-13, 16)

The Messiah Y’shua, Himself, prophesied:

“For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has never occurred since the beginning of the world until now, and there will be nothing like it again.”  (Matthew 24:21-22)

The apostle Paul also declared:

“For you yourselves know very well that the Day of YHWH the LORD will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!’ then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.”  (1 Thessalonians 5:2-3)

 

THE ULTIMATE EARTHQUAKE

All the seismic earthquake activity we are witnessing is a warning of the ultimate earthquake that is scheduled for the Great Tribulation, as the prophecies foretell.

The Almighty says He is going to shake the heavens and the earth. He’s going to make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place. And the sun will be darkened.

There are two specific prophecies regarding “the big one.”

“Then there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. And God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of His furious wrath and indignation. And every island fled away, and the mountains could not be found.”  (Revelation 16:18-20)

And here is Isaiah’s shocking prophecy concerning the shaking of the heavens and the earth. It is speaking about the Day of Yahweh the LORD, the Great Tribulation:

“For the windows above are opened, and the foundations of the earth shake. The earth is broken asunder, the earth is split through; the earth is shaken violently. The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard, and it totters like a shack, for its transgression is heavy upon it.”  (Isaiah 24:18-20)

Can you imagine the earth splitting into two?

On Sept. 1, 1975, TIME magazine had a cover article called “EARTHQUAKE.” On the cover there was a depiction of the earth split through. The article reported seismologists’ predictions of an ultimate earthquake for California, which they say is already overdue. 

 The TIME articles dealt with earthquake forecasting and the limited success seismologists have had in predicting the time, place and size of earthquakes.

But the Bible gives the time of the “big one” - not the date, but the period; it is at the end of the seven years, evidently just before the

Master descends to earth, as Zechariah indicates:

“On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is east of Jerusalem; and the Mount of Olives will be split in two, from east to west, forming a very large valley, with half of the mountain moving to the north and the other half moving to the south.” (Zechariah 14:4)

WHERE’S THE GOOD NEWS?

We have enough information and Scriptures to grasp the seriousness and urgency of these times, and the fact that the Great Tribulation is ahead. But by now you must be asking; “What good news is there in all of this?”

There is Good News for all who will receive it.  There is Hope – not a vague “hope so,” but a very definite promise of deliverance from the coming holocaust for those who will accept it.

The deliverance from the wrath to come is through Y’shua, Jesus the Messiah.  He is the Saviour and He is coming to deliver His true followers - those who have been “born again” – that is, those who have believed in Him, called on His Name, and are trusting in Him.

The Saviour gives this assurance to His people:

“Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. ‘In My Father’s House are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you, for I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, so that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3)

Here Y’shua promises to receive His people. If He was not going to take them to Heaven, there would be no point of Him mentioning “The Father’s House.”

The apostle Paul makes it clear how this will happen:

“For the Master Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. Then the dead in Christ - those who died with faith in the Messiah - shall rise first. Then we, the living believers who remain, will simultaneously be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Master in the air. And so we will be with the Master for ever. Therefore comfort and encourage one another with these words.”  (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)

When the Master summons His people - “Come up!” they will be literally caught up – their bodies being changed in an instant.

“Listen! I tell you a mystery, a secret truth; we will not all fall asleep, (that is - die); but we will all be changed, transformed - in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible and imperishable, and we, also, will be changed - transformed.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)

The Messiah, when speaking of the endtime events – the things that we are seeing today, said:

”But when these things begin to take place, straighten yourselves and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:28)

The redemption He refers to here, is the catching up of the believers (usually called The Rapture).

Paul refers to this deliverance as salvation.

“For God has not destined us for wrath, but to receive salvation through our Master, Y’shua the Messiah.”  (1 Thessalonians 5:9)

The hope of salvation is not some vague hope that somehow it will all work out and we will all be saved. Rather, it is a very definite assurance that God has given to us, that He will save all who believe in His Anointed One, both from the Great Tribulation, and from eternal Hell.

It is called “the Hope of salvation” because it is the constant expectation that believers have, that the Saviour will keep His people from “the great trial” that will come on the whole earth, by gathering them to His heavenly home. And that could happen at any moment. 

Y’shua also gave this definite promise:

“Because you have kept the word of My endurance, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which is about to come upon the whole world, to try those who live on the earth. I am coming quickly - soon! Hold on to what you have, so that no-one will take your crown.” (Revelation 3:10-11)

In the last chapter of Revelation the Master emphasizes three times …

“I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who lays to heart and keeps the words of the prophecy of this scroll. … Look! I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to what he has done. … He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes! I am coming quickly!’  Amen. Come Master, Y’shua come!” (Revelation 22:7, 12, 20)

The second coming of the Messiah, then, is a comforting hope for true believers. For them it will be no disappointment to leave this world – to forgo whatever plans and ambitions we may have for these few fleeting years, for ahead is the glorious future of which we can barely begin to imagine at this time.

The apostle Paul expressed it this way:

“But just as it is written (in Isaiah 64:4), NO EYE HAS SEEN, NO EAR HAS HEARD, AND NO MAN’S HEART HAS IMAGINED ALL THE THINGS GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)

WHO WILL BE DELIVERED?

In short, all true believers in the Anointed Saviour. I say true, because there is a type of “belief” that is nothing more than a mental assent. Some people believe in Jesus Christ in the same way they believe in Julius Caesar – merely the historical facts about the person.

True faith is a faith that springs up from the heart. It is based on an appreciation of who Y’shua is, of what He has already done, and of what He is willing and able to do.

Faith is an active response to the call of the Messiah, who is no other than the Creator manifest in humanity. He is called … “Y’shua because He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 21:21)

“Y’shua” means “Yahweh (the Eternal One) is salvation.” And the salvation Y’shua provides is nothing less than the miraculous work of Yahweh El Shaddai, Almighty God - cleansing, delivering, restoring, remaking and empowering. And man desperately needs that salvation – the great provision and gift of eternal life.

My reader, if you are not yet saved, here is the GOOD NEWS for you.

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance, that the Messiah died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”  (1 Cor. 15:3-4)

Y’SHUA CAME TO SAVE A RUINED RACE

After the first human beings were created, the same satanic evil that had surfaced in the Angelic realm, infiltrated the Garden of Eden, corrupting the earth and its beautiful environment.  Rebellion, sin and evil soon threatened to make this planet and its human race, a total “write off.”

Through Adam’s disobedience, God’s special creation, “Man,” became depraved, defeated, and damned.

But the Creator came to earth to deal with the problem.  As we read in Scripture, the Creator took on a humble garment of humanity to fulfil His eternal plan.

He came to save the lost. As a man, He was called Y’shua (meaning “Yahweh is salvation”), and as the representative of “Man,” He took the title, “the Son of Man.”

Y’shua … “who, although existing in the form of God - being in very nature God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself (of all rightful dignity), taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself (still further) by becoming obedient to the extreme of death; death on an execution stake - a cross.

Therefore (because He humbled Himself), God exalted Him to the highest place, and gave Him the Name that is above every name, that at the Name of Y’shua every knee will bow - in heaven and on earth and under the earth - and every tongue  confess  that  Y’shua  the  Messiah  is  Lord  (the Heavenly Master), to the glory of YHWH, God the Father.”  (Philippians 2:6-11)

So that’s why Y’shua, the sinless, Anointed One, died on a Roman execution stake like a criminal? It was because He had come to seek and to save the lost.

Y’SHUA PAID THE PENALTY FOR THE SIN OF THE WORLD

The Messiah first provided a judicial basis for saving men. He paid the penalty for humanity’s enormous sin debt.

”The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)

And Y’shua paid that penalty! He Himself became the sinless Sacrificial Lamb of God at Calvary, just as it was prophesied long before by Isaiah.

“All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but YHWH has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. … From arrest and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living? For the transgression of My people He was stricken.” (Isaiah 53:6, 8)

“For indeed the Messiah died for sins once for all, the Righteous on behalf of the unrighteous, so that He might bring us to God. He was put to death in the body, but was brought to life by the Spirit.” (1 Peter 3:18)

The Messiah’s death on behalf of mankind was the legal basis that provides for man’s forgiveness.  He poured out His blood for the redemption of sinners. The shed blood means His life was given as the sacrifice to set sinners free from the penalty of their sins. As Y’shua was the only one who was ever born perfect, and lived without sin, His sacrifice as the unblemished Lamb of God, was fully acceptable to the justice and holiness of God. 

And now this is the fact for all who come to Him and avail of the cleansing and eternal life that He offers to us ...

“The blood of Y’shua His (God’s) Son, cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)

Y’SHUA  ALONE CAN RECONCILE US TO THE FATHER

Y’shua said: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no-one comes to the Father, except through Me.” (John 14:6)

“For all the fullness of YHWH was pleased to dwell in Him (Y’shua), and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven; through Him, having made peace through His blood shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:19-20)

Y’shua has become our Great High Priest, and He has made a way of access for His redeemed people, to come to God.

And … “because Y’shua lives and continues for ever, He has a permanent and unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is also able to save completely and forever those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.” (Hebrews 7:24-25)

Y’SHUA IS THE RISEN, EXALTED MASTER WHO

IS MORE THAN ABLE TO FULFIL HIS PROMISES

Y’shua the Messiah who rose again from the dead is now exalted at the right hand of the Eternal Majesty, and He is both able and willing to save all who come to Him just as they are – in all their need – and with an attitude of repentance that renounces unbelief and rebellion.

The Saviour will save all who come in childlike faith, calling on His Name.

“WHOEVER WILL CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD YHWH-Y’SHUA WILL BE SAVED.”   (Joel 2:32. Romans 10:13)

The very moment a person sincerely, with simple faith, calls out, “Y’shua, save me!” or “Jesus, Lord, save me!”, he is received with open arms by the Almighty. And God then implants the life of His Eternal Spirit in that believer’s heart - his spirit. A miracle takes place. It’s what is called, “being born again.” And this is the most essential thing for anyone who wants to be saved.

“Y’shua replied, ‘This is the solemn truth I tell you; no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again’.”   (John 3:3)

But you cannot be born again if you by-pass the Anointed One, because Y’shua is the very Source of Life.

“Yet to all who received Him, to those who believe and trust in His Name, Y’shua, He gave the right to become children of God; children born, not of blood (of natural descent), nor of the will of the flesh (human decision), nor of the will of man (a natural father), but of (YHWH, the Almighty) God.”   (John 1:12-13)

In Y’shua, God’s Anointed One, there is life – eternal life.

“For YHWH, the Almighty God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten, His one-and-only, unique, eternal Son, so that whoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have eternal (everlasting) life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge and condemn the world; but so that the world might be saved through Him.” (John 3:16-17)

Y’SHUA  IS THE ONLY SAVIOUR!

Salvation  and  deliverance  from  the  wrath  to  come  is available, only, in Y’shua (Jesus) the Messiah!

“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

My dear reader, if you have never received Y’shua the Messiah as your personal Saviour, why don’t you receive Him today! He does not ask for money, self-righteousness, or self-improvement. He asks you to trust in Him. He will do the rest! He will do a miracle in your life, changing your life and setting you free from the bondage of sin.

The following section explains simply and clearly, HOW.

HOW TO ENTER THE  DOOR OF SALVATION   

           THE DOOR OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD

 

       STEP ONE      

ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR NEED OF THE SAVIOUR

We must start with our condition before God.  We must own up to the fact that we are sinners in God’s sight.

The Word of God says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”   “There is none righteous, not even one.” (Romans 3:23. 3:10)

“For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags. All of us shrivel up like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, sweep us away.” (Isaiah 64:6)

Our first prayer should be, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

God will definitely pardon and blot out our sins from His record, if we believe and receive His pardon which He has provided through the sacrifice of the Messiah on the cross.

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to YHWH, and He will have compassion on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:7)

 

      STEP TWO 

BELIEVE IN Y’SHUA AS YOUR PERSONAL SAVIOUR

We are called to believe in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, for He is the way to God.

“Y’shua answered him, ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no-one comes to the Father, except through Me.”    ( John 14:6)

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men -  the Man, Messiah Y’shua.”  (1 Timothy 2:5)

The Word of God gives us many wonderful promises:

“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not believe (trust in and obey) the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God remains on him.”  (John 3:36)

Y’shua Himself said:

“I tell you the truth, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and will not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”    (John 5:24)

“I am the door; whoever enters through Me will be saved. He will go in and go out, and find pasture. ...  I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no-one will snatch them out of My hand.” (John 10:9, 28)

“I am the Resurrection, and the Life; he who believes in Me, even though he dies, he will live; and whoever is living and believing in Me will never die.” (John 11:25 & 26)

To “believe in Jesus” can be amplified by five simple words:

1    CONFESS JESUS, Y’SHUA  AS LORD

      AND

2    BELIEVE IN YOUR HEART

 “If  you  confess  with  your  mouth  Y’shua  as  LORD,  the Heavenly Master, and  believe  in  your  heart  that God raised Him from dead, you will be saved.”   (Romans l0:9)

3    CALL ON HIS NAME

“For whoever will call upon the Name of the LORD will be saved.” (Romans 10:13)

4    TRUST IN THE LORD                                                                                          

“Trust in YHWH with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)

It is a simple thing to ask or to call on the Saviour. And yet some people are too proud to ask; and some are too shy, to do so. We need to come humbly, without fear, simply trusting His promises.

Recently I gave my car to a mechanic for repairs.  We got to talking about salvation.  To make it clear to him, I said, “It’s a matter of simply trusting the Saviour.  Look, I gave you my car to repair. You promised to look after the car, to find the problem, and fix it, to keep it locked up at night, and to charge me a reasonable price.  I’m trusting you to do that. And I believe you will. 

“Likewise, you need to simply trust in the Lord Jesus to do what He has promised to so - to save you from your sin, to make you a child of God, and to give you eternal life - all freely, by His grace.

This is a definite step of faith you must make. It is as simple as a drowning man calling out, “Help, save me!”

5    FAITH

“For by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God - not as a result of works, lest anyone should boast.”   (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Two simple equations which may help you to understand more clearly: 

                  *        BELIEVE  (CALL + TRUST + CONFESS)   =  FAITH

              *        GOD’S  GRACE  e  MAN’S  FAITH  e  SALVATION

My dear reader, the Almighty God is waiting and longing to hear and answer your prayer - to save you this day. 

My friend, when you were a child, you trusted your parents to give you daily food. Now just trust the Heavenly Father to give you His salvation.

“Commit your way to YHWH! Trust also in Him, and He will do it.”  (Psalms 37:5)

 

      STEP THREE

SETTLE THE MATTER BY PRAYING TO THE SAVIOUR

The third step, my reader, will bring your through the door into Christ, into the family and Kingdom of God. If you have not yet come, take these three simple steps, and settle the matter of your salvation today.  They involve a great decision - the greatest decision you could ever make - to enter the Ark of God’s provision. Don’t remain outside the ark to perish along with the Christ-rejecting crowds, but step into Y’shua, Jesus. 

The Saviour will come into your life and give you eternal life.  He will change your life and destiny; and make you a new person. He will also seal you with His Holy Spirit, and keep you from the wrath to come.

Come to the Heavenly Father just as you are, in a simple prayer.

The Decision Prayer next page may help you to express faith in Christ. Pray, trusting God to save you right now.

 

 

DECISION PRAYER

Oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner.  I come to You, Heavenly Father, just as I am, confessing my need of your grace and salvation.

I believe in Y’shua, Jesus the Messiah, Your eternal Son, whom You sent to earth to be the sacrifice for my sins and for the sins of the world.  I believe He died for me on the cross, and that He rose again on the third day, and is exalted at Your Right Hand.  Father I believe You will forgive my sins this very moment, and make me Your true child, and a new person “in Christ.”

Y’shua, my Master, my Saviour, I yield my life to You, and I trust You to fulfil Your promises in me this very moment; that You will save me and dwell in me; that You will make me a temple of Your Holy Spirit; that You will give me the gift of eternal life, and will save me from the Great Tribulation.

Master, make me Your true follower. Deliver me from all my sinful and selfish ways, and reign in every part of my life. By Your grace, I will own You as my Saviour from this day on.

Thank You, Master for bringing me to this decision.. Thank You, Father for hearing and answering my prayer. Thank You for saving me, and writing my name in Your Book of Life in Heaven.  Thank You, Father.  I pray in the Name of Y’shua the Messiah. Thank You, Master.  Thank You.  Amen.

 

                   Signed   .................................................   Date ..........

 

Keep a copy of your signed and dated decision to remind you of

this great day in your life.

 

THANK THE MASTER

FOR ANSWERING YOUR PRAYER.

AND NOW FOLLOW HIM EVERY DAY!

 

A few final instructions to help you in your new life:

1    Keep on thanking the Master for His answer, for His salvation, His forgiveness, and eternal life.  Eternal life is the wonderful gift of God. It is not some small favour He is doing, but a tremendous miracle in your heart. Thank Him, not once, but a hundred times.

“In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Messiah Y’shua.”                              (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

2    Try to tell someone, today of your decision to follow Y’shua, Jesus the Heavenly Master.

3    Study God’s Word, the Bible, ardently, and talk to the Master regularly.

4    Count upon Y’shua and His power to keep you in all difficulties that come along your way.

5    If you have prayed the decision prayer and received the Lord Jesus as your personal Saviour today, will you write to let me know so that we might pray for you and send you some literature to help guide and strengthen you in your faith.

      Write to me at …

Maranatha Revival Crusade,

PO Box 218, Applecross, Western Australia.  6953

 

“So Messiah, having been offered once

to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time,

not to bear sin again, but for salvation

to those who are eagerly expecting Him.” 

(Hebrews 9:28)