The Judgment of Thunder – Pt. 1

Ron Weinland

February 5, 2011

As a result of the last series on ‘Vision’ and grasping the deeper importance of being spiritually alert and on guard, as we covered in that particular series, I also hope that you’re seeing more clearly the power of the Thunders that are increasing in magnitude and frequency.  It ought to be very powerful to all of us in God’s Church, especially now that you can start to see them overlapping each other; and the more you understand that the more you can understand how close we are to things happening, because by their increase you can see or you can measure in part exactly where we are in time.  So as a part of that series we focused on a lot of the first and third Thunders and in this new series today we’re actually going to focus in on a couple more as we go through this.  I want to include a couple of the other Thunders in this section here.

This sermon today, if you like titles for your sermon, is entitled The Judgment of Thunder, with this being Part 1.  And the reason it’s entitled this way is because if you look at the Thunders, they have to do with judgment.  Certainly the Trumpets do as well, everything that we’re going through; but it’s the matter of the thunder of judgment and understanding how people respond to things that God does on this earth and how they respond to God candidly.  And so I’m going to read through a few things in the introduction that I don’t want to forget and then we’ll get into some scriptures here shortly.  It takes a lot to bring carnal selfish human nature to repentance.  And we’re witnessing that during this period of time.  There are a lot of things, if you liken things in scripture to the last 3½ years especially, talking about two witnesses; as I’ve mentioned in times past that is what we’re all doing in the Church, in one respect, we’re all witnessing a climax of everything that’s happened in the last 6,000 years brought into a tiny frame of time, to be able to understand human nature, to understand the way the world is, the way mankind is, the way governments are, the way religion is and its impact on the world.

We’re being given a great ability to see those things in a very powerful way and we’re witness of those kinds of things.  And so we’re going to witness in a very powerful way how strong human nature really is, the attitudes that exist in mankind; and especially in an age of technology like we have after the past 150 years, plus of the growth in technology just in the last 10 years.  I was thinking back the other day to Mr. Armstrong’s time because I’m also planning another sermon series before long that is taking a lot of work and a lot of research and has been a long time in coming, if I’m able to get to it.  But I’m talking about technology and the growth that he saw through his time and the impact it’s had on human beings, on human nature and how man misuses technology anyway.  And he’s discussing that in a particular context that I’ll address later on, but I thought that’s amazing... and he didn’t even have the internet.  He didn’t have the internet like we have today where you can go to Google or Yahoo or Bing, or whatever’s out there and type in a word and all of a sudden you have all kind of stuff in front of you.  He didn’t live in that particular age.

I remember at the time of the apostasy taking place that one of the big things the ministers were concerned about was ‘take away certain things away from them but don’t take away my AOL account’ or whatever Church email account I guess it was.  It was kind of a joke in one respect because you get tied into people.  It was a technology that was new to us in the ministry, in the Church, in the world in that respect.  And we look back 15 years ago and we don’t realize how much the world has changed just in the area of communication and how people keep in touch with each other; and it truly is incredible.

And so we’re seeing these things at the end-time in a very powerful way, things that are misused by mankind and the human nature that goes along with it; and we’re witness of those things and of the judgment that God has finally brought to this earth after 6,000 years, or nearly 6,000 years.

And so again, it takes a lot to bring carnal selfish human nature to repentance.  That’s why I marvel when you look at the history of mankind in the sense of those with whom God has worked, and in the first 4,000 years there weren’t that many people, and God worked with people individually.  He would call an individual, He would mould and fashion that individual, He would work with them in life – Abraham comes to mind, and Sarah, quickly, how He worked with them for so long.  I think of David, King David and David as a young person, even as a child how there were things that he understood that God was working with Him and preparing Him for.  He didn’t understand all those things until later on in time but he wrote about them and wrote about them in Psalms and so forth and God worked with him in a very powerful way.  But there are those through time in the first 4,000 years that God worked with in that way – not very many.

A lot of time passed and then it was time for Jesus Christ, Passover, to come and die on this earth; and things began to change and God began to work with people in a more organized manner, in a greater way because of the formation of the Church and how God was now going to work with the Church.  And much more knowledge now being given to the world through Jesus Christ; and Jesus Christ taught His disciples, gave them much.  And so you go back and look at these things and it truly is awesome!

You go back and look at how God then began to work with far more people.  And even on the first Day of Pentecost there, people had been prepared for that particular day to magnify the importance of that day; and what the disciples did when they were inspired by God’s spirit in a very powerful way, and the miracles that took place on that day, and the people who could hear in different languages that heard Peter speak, as an example.  And it mentions all those nations of people that said they heard him, basically, perfectly in their tongue.  Well, he wasn’t speaking twenty some languages at one time – but it was a miracle in what they heard that God performed at that particular time.  And you look at all these things that were taking place; but on that day it mentions 3,000 people that were convicted, moved, and became a part of God’s Church.  And so God began to work with more people.

That’s why I marvel at what God’s getting ready to do now, because if you look at the number of  individuals worked with for 4,000 years and then the last 2,000 years the vast majority of 144,000 were  in the last 2,000 years, and now He’s getting ready to work with millions, the whole earth!  We can’t comprehend it but it’s a progressive part of God’s plan and it’s an awesome thing!  But whether it be individuals during the time of the Church and people being called and most of us being called out of the world, we know what it’s like.  I will never forget my calling.  You should never forget your calling.  You should never forget how God drew you and called you into His Church because He chooses each person individually.  He brings us to Jesus Christ.  He brings us to the Church.  He draws us.

That’s why I like the one word that Terry Wrozek used many, many years ago after the apostasy had taken place and he was speaking in a sermon or split-sermon at that particular time, and talked about how one of those words about a calling has to do with being drug; it’s like dragging you, because we don’t always go easily.  We don’t always change easily.  We don’t always desire God’s way of life easily because we’re fighting human nature.   And so in the Greek language there is that one word that has to do in a sense ‘of being dragged along the way’ because of human nature; it’s so strong and it’s so difficult to bring us to repentance.  And I think of all the things I went through as a teenager to get to the point where God could work with me.  I had to have my head banged up with the side of a 4X4 several times before I’d start listening.

And so it’s going to take a lot, a lot from the prophetic Thunders and the Trumpets to bring exceptionally large numbers of people to repentance in a timely organized fashion.  And so if you can have this in your mind, again, of God working with individuals 4,000 years and then all of a sudden to begin a change and began to work with larger groups of people in an organized fashion in the form of a Church, and in time ministers being trained that could be in different areas so the Church could grow even more, so that God’s spirit could work through the ministry then teaching people Sabbath by Sabbath by Sabbath all the things that God had revealed in a very quick fashion in the time of Christ and the disciples.  Because you look at this book here and that which is spiritual that God began to reveal through Jesus Christ in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and then you go on in through the rest of it and what was revealed through the rest of the apostles at that particular time, of their life and where they were...incredible knowledge that was given so that God could work with, in a very powerful way, larger numbers of people at the same time.  And He’s getting ready to magnify that mightily, but to do so He’s not just going to call a few into the Church this time; He’s changing the whole world so that hundreds of thousands, millions can be worked with and God’s Kingdom can work in a new period of time in a very powerful way.

And so if you have that vision – because so much is about vision, the ability to see what God is doing, the ability to see what He’s done in the past in the first 4,000 years, and then the next 2,000 years of the Church and what He’s getting ready to do now is beyond our understanding!  But we can strive to appreciate it and believe what God says and grasp it to a point...and it’s inspiring.

It’s going to take a lot from the prophetic Thunders and Trumpets to bring exceptionally large numbers of people to repentance in a timely organized fashion.  Yet that’s exactly what God is doing and it’s inspiring.

This world right now is so typical of the haughtiness, the arrogance, the pride, the ego and utter contempt that mankind has of God, and toward God.  To them God isn’t even in the picture except in a distorted perverted manner via their own ideas and beliefs that suit them and their intentions and their will.  It’s not a matter of God’s will, it’s a matter of...just like in this country; basically it’s the church of your choice, whatever you choose, whatever’s closest to your thinking, whatever you kind of get along with a little bit better.  It’s not a matter that there might be one way of life and only one way of life that mankind is to live that’s without confusion – which is going to become important in this sermon here – that’s without, that’s void of confusion because it’s one way inspired by God, given to mankind, one way of life to live, laws that mankind is to live by.  And yet mankind has this concept in the way he grows up and so forth of choosing and making his own choice of whatever basically most often his parents have taught him; and then they choose that way as well and their thinking is moulded by that.

What you see happening today in the Middle East?  It’s because of that thinking that’s been moulded into people’s minds and it basically all has to do with religious ideas as well that makes it worse where people can’t get along and they can’t communicate and people have different concepts of how people think.  I can barely take it watching the news right now about Egypt!  And we, with all of our haughtiness and pride and ego here in this country are telling other people how they should govern themselves when we don’t even understand those people because they think differently than we do here in this country!  And of course we’re called into God’s Church and we learn to think differently than this country too.

People think differently around the world, they truly do.  It’s like the time that President Bush talked about [former President] Putin, and basically saw a friend, of someone he could trust.  I think, “You don’t know him!  He doesn’t think like you do.  He may smile and he may shake your hand, but he doesn’t think like you and he has different plans and ideas for his country and we’re just in the way.”  Incredible how people think and how they think toward God.

And so to them, speaking of the world that’s filled with haughtiness and pride and arrogance and contempt, utter contempt toward God, and God isn’t even in the picture unless it’s in a perverted manner about their god and what their god is going to do and how their god is going to perform and accomplish certain things on the earth.  That’s what the Muslims believe – sharia law - how they think, what they think is going to have to cover the whole earth in time is very strong.  Christianity has a different concept.  Judaism (amazing) has a different concept of governing the earth and how things are going to take place in time.  And people are motivated by that kind of thinking and how it best suits them because again, people are incredibly selfish by nature.  Leaders – they can’t help it; it’s the way of mankind.  It’s just the way people are and it takes so much to bring people to repentance before God.

That’s why we’re going through the things we are and that’s why the Thunders will continue to increase in magnitude and overlap each other and become louder and louder and louder the farther we go.  And as Trumpets come along, those will become very loud and deafening to people as time goes forward.  And all these things have to happen because there is absolutely no other way that mankind would ever repent, if it didn’t happen in the manner that it’s going to take place.  And if we can see those things and see what’s happening right now in the world scene, it should help our vision to be very sharp – truly – and our ability to be inspired and moved and motivated by the awesomeness of our calling that God has given to us; to be moved and motivated to stay close to God and to not let up and to continue to the end.

So there is no real acknowledgement by such leaders, if you will, when you’re looking at the world, whether it be political, economic, or religious, that the world is on the brink of self-destruction, as a whole.  They may see bad times, there may be some leaders who even see World War in the future, but by no means do they think it’s the end of them; on the contrary, they’re going to come through it.  That’s why there’s this one publication that if we get to in time I’ll read it that is talking about this country and how this country’s established in a federal reserve system and so forth and what is taking place right now that people as a whole in the world don’t grasp, or at least in this country don’t even grasp the workings of; that there are things taking place there in such a powerful way that this one individual that does this writing, that is quite sharp, but his attitude and his mind is you can still prepare and plan and come out ahead of everybody else because they’re not planning.  So, “If you’re planning properly you can come through this better than most people.”  He sees some of what’s coming but it’s always this attitude which is one of pride and haughtiness, because it means you can hold onto your own values, you don’t have to change anything.  And that’s what has to change, people holding onto their own values and their own will so they’ll come to repentance so that God can begin to work with them; because until that happens God’s spirit can’t work with a person.

If you hold onto your own will, your own way of doing something, there are a lot of people who’ve never made it all the way, whom God gave a calling, who couldn’t make it all the way because they were holding onto something they wouldn’t let go.  They just wouldn’t let go of it!  Incredible how the mind works!  How much more on a massive scale in the way that God is working now to prepare a new age and a new world and a new government that’s going to rule this world?

So again, as a whole there is no acknowledgement by such leaders, whether they be political, economic or religious, that the world is on the brink of self-destruction.  There is no ear tuned into the warnings, if you will, that are thundering around them right now.  Instead, from the narrow-mindedness of each such selfish and egotistical outlook, “We’re going to come through this temporary tough time.”  That’s how people think; it’s a temporary thing!  Just like the stock market, “It’s just a temporary tough thing and we are going to come out ahead!”

It’s seems like today it’s so bad and that ego is so great and the pride is so powerful that even when bad news comes along the stock market surges upward!  That’s how insane things are right now!  There are days that I would have said in times past it would have plunged some on particular days.  Not now!  There are times that almost the exact opposite happens on occasion.  It shoots up!  That’s incredible what’s taking place – and you’re witnessing these things – how strong that nature is in people!  That, “We’re going to come through this! We’re going to make it and we don’t have to change!”  Amazing!

There is no fear of God; or of any concept of answerability for greed, lying, deception, injustice, perversion of behaviour; instead only justification and self-righteousness that we can do anything!  And we’re not alone in this country in thinking that way.  Other peoples around the world?  They think the same way; just it seems like we have a greater dose of it.  Even Glenn Beck the other day (couldn’t believe it), and I don’t watch him on a regular basis by any measure so don’t get the wrong impression here because I’ve mentioned him a couple times.  “He must just sit around listening to Glenn Beck!”  I can’t take too much because it’s the same as others in this world and how they think, and they’re thinking is distorted.  Yes, they may see a problem.

There are different ones out here that see a problem and they try to address it, but the reason I don’t listen is because they address it from their viewpoint.  They address it from their ideas of how we’re going to come through all this – and that’s exactly what he was covering as he was talking about that we have to get back to some of the basic ‘good’ of this country, as an example, and talking about different weaknesses and problems and so forth of people, but that there’s still this basic ‘good’ that we can get back to again because man CAN govern himself.  That was his conclusion and I thought, “That’s the whole problem!  Man can’t govern himself.  That’s the reason we’re having these problems.”

And so the thunder of judgment is going to become much, much louder and right now in these past few weeks, the beginning of this year here, it’s been loud from the get go of the year!  And I hope our hearing is sharp and tuned into it because it has a great deal to do with your spiritual wellbeing as well and the fight that you’re fighting.  And so a thunder of judgment, because it’s all about judgment, is getting much louder; and the self-will and the deep rooted pride of mankind is going to be humbled, it’s going to be brought down with very great power because that’s how God is going to do it.  He’s going to allow certain things to take place in a very timely way as we’ve always understood.  So that thunder now is going to grow far, far greater and quite a bit faster as we go forward.

We have less than 16 months.  When we were in Phoenix 2 weeks ago, that was the half way mark of ‘Time, Time and a Half a Time’.  We’re already half way through ‘Time, Time and a Half a Time’!  Incredible!  Look back and look when it started and when God gave us understanding of the specific 980 days of ‘Time, Time and a Half a Time’ that began on Trumpets of 2009 – incredible!  And we’re half way through it already – passed it – less than 16 months down the road here and Jesus Christ will be on this earth.  Something we believe but we can’t really comprehend.

Seeing the world like it is today I was thinking, “Incredible!  Look what has to take place in Europe!”  I was reading some articles about Germany and [Angela] Merkel.  Some of the things she’s saying over there in Germany.  Just thinking about there are a lot of things that have to take place and they will take place, but sometimes if people aren’t focused as they need to be and aren’t in tune like they need to be or have the vision they need to have they can begin to lose sight and begin to let down spiritually.

So let’s jump ahead all the way to the end of this time and notice the attitude of mankind that’s so strong against God, because these verses we’re going to go through in Revelation 18 talks about a judgment that’s upon this earth and man being brought to a final judgment.  And it reveals in some of this attitudes and the way people think; and you need to be able to see those and what’s happening because it makes things in the news come alive that much more, things that you are witnessing at the end of an age.  And you’ll see more and more a spirit, a hideous spirit frankly, in mankind that’s filled with arrogance and contempt against God that stands firm in its place even to the end, even to death.

That’s hard to understand sometimes; that there are the vast majority of people on this earth that are going to stand firm in their own way, in their own pride and arrogance, even to death, because in their minds they are not going to surrender to anything else.  They think they are going to come through this and they’re going to come out on top or die trying rather than change.

Revelation 18:1 – and there are some things even in the midst of all this that God is showing that gives a better understanding of some things in the Church, for the Church, that I find inspiring and exciting that we’re going to touch upon quite quickly here in the beginning of this.  And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and so it’s taking us right up to the end, reminding us of things that got us there as we go through this particular chapter, and we’ll go back to chapter 17 later as a part of this entire scenario if you will, of seeing what’s taking place and what is happening and what will take place.

And it says here, After these things I saw this angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lighted with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great city has fallen; or Babylon the great has fallen (I’m sorry), but it is referred to as a city in previous verses here and something that we need to grasp and understand what it’s talking about here...As much as the word ‘Jerusalem’ that we’ve learned about, ‘the way of peace’...this word here is about Satan.  It’s about his system, it’s about his way, it’s about everything about him and what he’s done on this earth and swayed human beings on this earth for the past 6,000 years.  And this is his city, truly is, as much as Jerusalem is God’s and Jesus Christ's and what it has to teach, ‘a way of peace’, a way that produces peace.  This is the word in essence that goes back in time about ‘confusion’.  That’s Satan’s way, the way of confusion indeed and what has come out of that, which is the opposite of peace.  It produces the opposite!

God’s way is one of order, law, unity, oneness, one way of life to be lived; Satan’s isn’t.  It’s kind of like some of this concept that people have in some of the scattered churches, that somehow we can all have a different way but somehow all going the same direction, that somehow God’s working with all of us that are scattered out there and, “We don’t all really agree with each other because we’re staying with a particular group or organization, but we kind of have this feeling that yet He’s really working with all of us and one day He’s going to bring us all back together.”

“How?”

Anyway... you think of the mind of people and how people think and it’s the way Traditional Christianity thinks too.  When it gets right down to it people don’t want to condemn others that are close to their beliefs because they don’t understand.  And so it’s like this concept that God’s really working... and then that even takes on a broader view sometimes.  There are people in the world who talk about... “It doesn’t matter whether it be Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu... God’s kind of working with all of us in different ways because we’re all so different and really we’re all kind of....  Aren’t we all kind of headed in the same way?”  Kind of mind-boggling some of that kind of thinking, but that’s what’s out there.  That’s Satan’s way - absolute massive confusion where people can’t see through it and what it causes, what it creates.  We’ll see that as we go along here.

So he cried mightily with a strong voice saying, Babylon the great has fallen, has fallen, and has become the habitation/the dwelling place of demons, and the hold/imprisonment/prison of every foul spirit, it means ‘impure’ or ‘unclean’ spirit; and a cage, which is a word, again here, same word used earlier, ‘imprisonment/imprison’.  ...and the prison of every unclean and hateful bird. It’s not about birds.  When’s the last time you saw a ‘hateful bird’ - a hate filled bird?  They may be hungry, but hate?  Filled with hate?  There are words that oftentimes, especially when it’s not specific in a physical world – that which is in the spirit world, that’s what this is about. There are winged creatures; there are those that have a particular glory that God gave to them, but in a spirit world, not in a physical world.  And so the description here of those who are unclean; they are impure.  We’re not talking about physical creatures out here that don’t have minds!  We’re talking about beings that have minds – because they’re impure, they’re unclean before God and hate filled, filled with hate.

That’s how those beings have lived since the time they rebelled.  They hate God!  They hate God’s plan.  They hate anything that God is doing.  To them God is unfair about everything He does.  They don’t accept personal responsibility...(and here’s a spirit in the world), they don’t accept personal responsibility for what they have done wrong, it’s somebody else’s fault!  It’s God’s fault because He’s unfair!  “And if God hadn’t have done this we wouldn’t have these problems....” ...and this and that and whatever.  It’s the way human beings think so often too because that’s what happens when people sin, and the more they sin the more they seek to justify their sin.

And so it is with things shown here, a system.  It is about a system that will not continue any longer.  It is about a way of life that will not continue any longer; and the only thing that is left of that system are the beings who created it, and so they are themselves now imprisoned.  They come to a time where they are prisoners and that’s all that’s left of Babylon – them...and Satan until he’s taken care of as we talked about during the Feast.

For all nations have been made drunk with the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and so it talks about a system and a way of life that God equates with fornication.  And the reason that it’s done that way is because if you go back in the Old Testament, those who would not listen to God, those that God sought to work with in the world, when they wouldn’t accept His ways and live His ways and instead tried to do something else, bring in a different way or different religion or different ideas, God said that spiritually that’s fornication or adultery or idolatry – some of the same words that are used in scripture, especially in the Old Testament.  And that’s what is being referred to here; that it’s about a different way.

And so there are spirit beings who came along who began to live a different way.  Satan was the first one that came along that began to practice this, a different way from God’s, and began to teach a different way.  And anybody who imbibed of that – drink of it, drink in of it – they themselves became perverted in their being, in their minds.  And the whole world, it says in essence, has been made to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication because it’s intoxicating to human beings.  It’s kind of like Christmas and you see all these pretty lights and it’s hard for little children to realize this isn’t good.  It’s attractive!  It doesn’t look ugly!  And the idea of getting gifts and being able to go under a tree and open all these nice gifts... it’s intoxicating to the world!  And you just add that over and over again of things in the world, of things that are taught, and people in their mind, in their being of becoming intoxicated with what they’re doing, with what they’re focused upon.  And that’s what Satan has done – like a drug that drugs people’s minds and their senses to where they can’t think right!  Deception!  Because that’s where it comes from, that deception, from that intoxication or fornication that it speaks of here.

And so it’s about Satan’s way and the way He works and how people work then because they do the same thing, they practice some of the same things and the world learns that way then that’s intoxicating.  The stock market to a lot of people is intoxicating and it’s wrong! It won’t be in the World Tomorrow!  It’s not going to exist; there won’t be any NASDAQ!  People aren’t going to bet on commodities as to where you can put your money to make money in good and bad times, because if it goes up you can make money and if it goes down you can make money.  It’s wrong!  It’s a wrong system!  It’s filled with lies and deception, perversion, politics and everything else that’s bad!  It’s a Ponzi Scheme!  It’s just like a Ponzi Scheme, it really is, just like the Federal Reserve.  We’re going to get into some of those things later on.  That’s what people are starting to call it now!  They’ve picked up on that and that’s exactly what they’re calling it because it doesn’t work, it isn’t right, it doesn’t follow right laws and right practices that God gave to mankind a long time ago.

And so judgment is coming upon the world because of her practices.  And as a part of that judgment you see people resisting and fighting to the end.  They’re going to make it work!  The world is so tied into, even the dollar let alone the stock market, they’re so tied into it their whole life is in it, their focus is upon those things and they’re not going to let go of it easily.  Think all of a sudden they’re going to change and repent and start obeying God and saying, “This is all wrong.  I’m going to change my life.  I’m going to change how I’ve always thought and how I gain a livelihood.”  Not going to happen as a whole; that’s why the vast majority of mankind isn’t going to come through this – because human nature will fight to the end to hold onto confusion, Babylon.  And sometimes the more people are confused by something the more some like it.  They can make more out of it!  Cause if you can come along and sway them with confusing things....  Kind of like that... How big is that big ole thing?  Changes in the law having to do with health now that they’re fighting against out here?  Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pages – its confusion!  You write enough of them in there and who can understand it.  People today in the medical field, they have a difficult time keeping up with all the changes that come along anyway.  It gets so frustrating out here what’s happening, and you’re witnessing it, you’re seeing it, what’s happening in this world and how this world has been established.

And so again here, it says finally Babylon the great has fallen.  It brings you right up to the very end because what’s going to be established now?  Jerusalem, the City of God, the way of peace.  It comes in the form of Zion, the Kingdom of God that’s coming to this earth; 144,000 and Jesus Christ who are going to rule this earth, where all governments going to come from, where everything is going to be changed through that system that’s coming.  And so it’s the end of one way, of one system, and the establishment of a new one.  One city must be destroyed in order to bring about the new one – that’s what it’s all about.  That’s what God has been doing and working at for so, so long.  And so this is more – even when we get back to the religious part - it’s more than about Rome, it’s more than about Europe, because some things we still haven’t fully shaken that have come from Protestantism and ideas that people had.  Because a lot of ideas that people have come from taking things and the meaning of it being physical; and this isn’t.  So much of this goes back to a being, it goes back to Satan and what he began to do from the very beginning and the way he established, which when you disobey God and you begin to sin, it is the way of confusion that brings about every unhappiness and sorrow and misery in life because it doesn’t work.  It doesn’t produce right fruit.

For all nations have been drunk with the wine of the wrath of her fornication, because that’s where it leads to, that’s what it causes, that’s what it creates until in time people fight against each other, people go to war – that’s what it brings about in time because it isn’t just, it isn’t equitable, it isn’t right.  And so sometimes somebody’s going to react to it because it doesn’t work.  And so they strike back at part of it.  It’s not a single system that’s not something that works right, that isn’t governed by right laws, whether it be religious, economic or political.  That’s why this world doesn’t get along, that’s why it can’t get along.

And so the way of confusion that’s filled with pride, evil; politics (because politics is filled with lying and false promises and deception - and that’s how Satan works), greed, economic chaos – all that produces the exact opposite of peace.

And it goes on to say here, for all nations have been made drunk with the wine of the wrath of her fornication and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her.  It says the leaders of the people have been made drunk with this as well, so what do they do?  They pass it along to all the people and so the whole world becomes filled then with this same kind of thinking.  And the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her sensuality; it’s appealing.  “I want a piece of that!”  Like they used to talk about Hitler – he wanted peace/piece – a piece of Poland, a piece of Czechoslovakia...  anyway.  It’s a wrong way of going about it, isn’t it?  Wrong way of going about it!  Become rich through the abundance of her delicacies, as it has in the Old King James, but it’s about sensuality, having to do with ego, power, unscrupulous wealth, how people get ahead and what people will do to get ahead whether it be in politics or economy or whatever.

Verse 4 - And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people – the warning and the admonition, especially if you look at the exact timing.  It’s also something we have always taught in God’s Church, that we’re not to be a part of that system, that way; we’re not to be a part of Satan’s system, if you will, and the way of confusion and the way of Babylon in our practices. We used to apply it more to religion only as a whole because that’s generally what we saw, because of the previous chapter that we’ll go into later. But again, we are to indeed come out of the false religious system of this world – but that doesn’t stop there because this Babylon doesn’t just have to do with false religious thinking.  It has to do with everything in the world.  Everything that’s out here has to be changed from the top to the bottom and I hope you see that and I hope you hurt inside when you see the things that are out there – how the internet is used, how TV is used, how music is used, how politics is used, how government is used.  On and on and on it goes!  And you have to come to a point where you ache inside because you see every bit of it needs to be changed because it’s all based on things that are wrong and not on things that are right.

Everything to do with the economy and how business is done – it has to be changed because it’s all based on wrong principles.  And if you think some of its fit to be saved, if time were to go on I’d feel sorry for you because you’d have to learn the hard way.  That’s how we learn.  Some things that we think are ‘good’; technology is good if it’s used in the right way.  In the world it isn’t being used right; big problems because of that.  Wealth is good when used in the right way.  Abundance is good when used in a right way.  It’s because it’s misused that it’s wrong.  Everything in the universe... it’s not about things that are physical anyway, but it all belongs to God and He wants to give everything to us.  But it goes way beyond that which is physical.  It’s not about how much gold, or how much silver or how much land someone has.  Amazing how the human mind works.

And so it says, I heard another voice saying, Come out of her My people so that you are not partakers of her sins: It’s about sin and if you practice those things.  You have to change, when you come out of something it means you’re doing something different. ...and so that you don’t receive of her plagues. Because that way brings about sorrow and hurt because that’s what sin does, it brings suffering, plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. In other words, this is all about a time of judgment that has come.  For 6,000 years there was only one great period in time where God brought about judgment on all of mankind, upon the whole earth.  That was in the time of Noah and a great flood came.  We are now at another time of great judgment for the whole earth just before the entire system is changed from one way, from one government, to another, from Satan’s, from man’s, to God’s.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities/her sins.  So this is a time of reckoning, in other words, a time of judgment that we’re in.  That’s what we’re seeing now and how God works.  A big part of this has to do with God’s mercy – which is awesome!  To understand how God has worked with the Church, how He’s worked with us, and what we’re seeing in the world as well that God wants the world to understand in time.  They can’t understand it now, but in time they will.  We understand it.

Verse 6 - Reward her even as she rewarded you, and two-fold upon her, two-fold according to her works: so this is not a small thing that’s getting ready to take place in a greater and greater way.  Right now, because of the kinds of attitudes that people have, because of pride and arrogance that’s being puffed up even more, it makes the fall that much harder.  But that’s good!  That’s not bad!  Because this very thing is the very thing that can bring people to a far deeper repentance when they maybe feel like... they get to a point where they think the possibilities are there, “I am going to get it back, that which I lost in 2008; I’m going to get it back and I’m going to get more!”  That’s how people think; and then all of a sudden when it’s all taken away and they realize, no, you’re not!  You thought this was going to be a long, long time in coming?  They’re already talking about how that unemployment is going to take many, many years to get things down to where they need to be.  They’re already looking many years into the future now, not just one or two years, or a few months...and even that’s going to be taken away.

...Reward her even as she has rewarded you, and two-fold upon her, two-fold according to her works: in the cup which she has filled fill to her double.  And look at all the evil!  In other words God is saying, “It’s coming back on you.” And this is the time that it’s coming back – at the end-time!  How much she has glorified herself, and lived sensuously; that system, that way, those who have more of that, have used that system in a greater way, more of the leaders who have done those things, the economists...doesn’t matter what part, religiously...whether you look at religions and so forth; they have glorified themselves.

How much she has glorified herself, and lived sensuously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she has said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. In other words, it’s that attitude that I’ve been talking about!  It’s that same spirit and attitude – strong pride, arrogance and utter contempt of God, toward God; that they can do what they want to do, they can do everything according to their own self will that, “Nothing is going to get in my way and destroy what I’m doing.”  The think that they’re going to come through it; they’re going to accomplish whatever needs to be accomplished.

Verse 8 - Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, it’s an awesome thing to realize when finally God does intervene; because all the other things have been brought to a timing that God is working with and has been working with all along and will not allow certain things to take place until they’re ready, in His timing for what He’s doing.  But finally at the very end on a single day, and this is what it’s leading up to, the seven last Plagues and everything that happened at that particular time when God finally brings down the entire system, the entire world; because He brings to an end Babylon and He brings to pass Jerusalem that comes with Jesus Christ and 144,000.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her. Been talking about for the last couple of years that these things that are happening at the end-time, we need to understand judgment and that this is a matter of God’s judgment.  He’s let mankind go as a whole, for 6,000 years, to have his own governments, his own religion, his own ideas, and look what we’ve done with it, look at our histories – because we look at our histories.  This country – we look at our history and we’re great.  We know it!  ...and we let the world know it, so much much so we try to tell people how to govern themselves and who they should have governing them or whatever it might be.

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived sensuously with her, shall weep for her, isn’t that amazing?  Because the more invested people are in the system... that’s why God talks about ‘not many great, not many mighty are called’, because they can’t be.  Because to bring them to repentance...not in this age.  In another age?  In the Great White Throne after they’ve been dead for a time?  Yes.  But not in this age because of arrogance and because of pride and because of attitude that’s there that is so strong that even when the world goes through what it’s going to go through, as a whole, man still will not listen to God even to their end.  That’s why I’ve talked about in times past, when it comes down to it that’s why God intervenes the exact moment He does...when China and Russia come up, and those nations from the far east come up against Europe and they come together one final moment in time.  Arrogance is so strong, pride is so strong that rather than lose the battle someone would push the button that would end all life on earth.  They would do that!  They would take that chance in thinking they still might come through it because they have enough people, “There are so many people; some of us will come through this.”  Or... “We’re dug deep enough down in the earth we can survive this.”  Someone would still push that final button; and that’s when God intervenes and cuts it short.  It’s incredible, the timing – God’s in control of it!

And the kings of the earth who have committed fornication and lived sensuously with her shall weep for her; when there are those who come to understand it’s being taken away from them, they mourn, they’re in pain, they’re in agony no matter where they are on this earth, no matter what government it is they think should come out on top, no matter what religion they think their God should intervene.  And they come to that point finally when they realize, when they understand it’s not there and nothing is going to save them and they see it being taken away, they literally weep.  That’s how much they don’t want God!  They cry for what’s being taken away from them!  Everything they’ve worked for – they can’t imagine anything else!  Incredible!  ...shall weep for her and mourn for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, or her destruction.

And standing afar off for fear of her torment, said, Woe, woe, and this is an expression, one talks, uses the word ‘Alas, alas’, but it’s a word that means, basically here, that it has to do with an expression of mourning.  It’s like they’re hurting inside and they see this destruction and they understand the magnitude of it.  ...that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour has your judgment come. They’re in pain and they’re mourning for it, they’re crying.  And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man will buy of their merchandise anymore:  And you can read this and think only physically and that isn’t what it’s about!  It manifests itself that way in physical life because we’re physical human beings, and so it comes out in the form sometimes of power, prestige, wealth and so forth, but it’s a mindset and it’s a way of thinking.  And the merchandise is the cunningness of it all, the deception, the lying, the way’s of producing the power, the wealth that is wrong.  And so they’re not going to be able to practice that anymore.  Why?  Because one is being destroyed and a new one is being established.

Babylon can’t be practiced anymore.  Babylon can’t be practiced in the future; God’s going to see to it that it’s destroyed and it stays destroyed.  Members in the God Family and others then who will be teaching as well from them, all over the earth about a new way, a new way to live, a new way to govern,  with just one religious belief.  I mean, that is awesome by itself!  And so it is the end of Babylon...and amazing how people are that they’ll cry for Babylon.  They would rather have that old way and so they go out kicking and screaming just as much as Satan is doing right now.  That’s why he’s so stirred up.

A lot of you don’t understand or don’t know some things that go on behind the scenes sometimes, but as it has always been in God’s Church, that being wants to get at the Church and you know who he goes after?  From the top down.  My wife and I, the evangelists, senior elders and their families... it’s who he goes after; and they’re fighting some big battles.  But it’s a way of life and we understand that and we know who comes out on top – that being doesn’t.  But it shows his attitude and spirit right now and how things are very stirred up in the world.  He’s a very stirred up being, especially since the Feast; not happy at all.  16 months – can’t imagine!  So thankful that being is going to be put away forever – well, for just a little time he gets out, but he won’t cause much of a problem.  He’ll become a vacuum cleaner for just a little while to help clean up a little bit at the end and then his job is over, finished.  Can’t wait!

And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man will buy of their merchandise anymore: People aren’t going to buy into it anymore because truth is on the earth.  God is going to show the flaws of every part of the system, of what’s wrong in politics and governments and false religions and wrong economic practices.  He’s going to reveal all those things to people so they’ll understand what right laws are and what right laws produce.  And they’ll understand the error that mankind has done over the past 6,000 years in ignoring God; and so they’ll be filled with the light, the truth of God’s way of life...and so these things here will be clearly seen and they won’t be practiced anymore, nobody is going to buy into it anymore, buy of her merchandise anymore till the very end.  A few will be deceived. Babylon will try to rear its ugly head, but God’s not going to let it.  It only goes so far.

So let’s zero in on the process that’s been building in this end-time period as there is much to learn concerning what has happened, what is happening now and now built up to the very end here, if you will.  In the midst of all this, again, attitudes of people, because it’s all a part of the story.  Revelation here is all a part of the story in understanding attitudes of people and how people think and understanding where the battle is.  It’s in the mind and how people think.

I want to go back over a few things here just as a bit of a history in talking about some things that we’ve gone through.  I think of the process we go through and every time I go into this and look at some of this it’s really quite dumbfounding the more and more we think about it or focus upon it and see what has transpired and see what is transpiring now.

I think about attitudes even in the world, to a small degree that were being humbled toward the end of 2008, especially in the time of the opening of the 7th Seal.  Just before that and after that there was an attitude adjustment somewhat in the world.  People were shaken ‘a little bit’ because of what was happening with the economy and savings that people had; because when your life is invested in something, when you are planning on something for your future or your retirement and all of a sudden you see a bunch of it just gone, being erased from the books and disappearing, it had a sobering effect on people and we saw other things that happened that began to have a rippling effect then in the economy, certain things that couldn’t survive, with the auto companies as an example.  Some things in the financial institutions, things to do with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, but different things of that nature that just couldn’t be hidden anymore and had to come out into the open.

And so people were humbled a little bit.  And candidly, that’s when God used that period of time to begin to draw more people into the Church, because of that process, that sobering process where hearing can be sharpened up just a little bit more and people can have a little bit more fear in them and thinking maybe it is.  And this sense, that God’s going to give the world a whole lot more here before long now as we go forward, this sense of something’s wrong in the world and fear that begins to mount in the hearts of people.  God’s going to use that to bring people into the Church as they see things taking place on the earth.

And so it happened in a small way, in a way that is just enough to give us ability to see how it works and learn from that process; and for the Church to do what it needs to do to become ready. Because that helped us in a very powerful way to give us the prod we needed to prepare for something greater later on.  Without it we wouldn’t have had the kind of changes we did and we wouldn’t have been able to see – because God used that to help us to see.  One of the big things God helped us to see because of that? The ordination of women, the curse, things that needed to be changed that go all the way back to the beginning that are awesome in what God has revealed to us.

Going on:  during God’s time of mercy (and I hope you know what that is. I hope you understand the meaning of that, ‘God’s time of mercy’...) up to the Feast of Trumpets in 2009 because there was a period of time that God gave to us to understand something in a very powerful way, a time of mercy that God used to show us how He is working and how He’s always worked with mankind and how He’s going to work with mankind even at the end of an age.  Man is still going to have to meet judgment, but God’s doing it in a very merciful way, truly.  And so He gave that period of 280 days to grasp what a ‘Time’ is, to give understanding of a period called a ‘Time’; ‘Time, Time and a Half a Times’; and began to help us to understand how He’s working with the end-time and candidly how He’s working with the Church.

And so during this time of mercy up to the Feast of Trumpets in 2009 things remained somewhat consistent as worries continued over economic conditions; but during this time the rest of the world was not being hammered in any fashion or form by Thunders except for number one, some of it was still continuing on because of Afghanistan and Iraq.  But you know what?  After a time you know what happens to people?  They become oblivious.  They don’t hear it anymore because the sound has been there for so long they don’t even hear it anymore.

When we were leaving in Cincinnati yesterday a bunch of people ...because our airport gate was at the very end of the terminal where the windows are at the end rather than on the sides where some of the areas are for getting on the various gates... but this gate was at the very end where it’s all glassed in and all of a sudden all these people were going up and looking out the window and I’m wondering what on earth happened out there.  And it finally hit me, I’ll bet that it’s an individual that’s been killed in the war and they have an honour guard out there.  Sure enough, that’s what it was: a soldier coming home dead.  And I thought, “What a waste!  What a horrible, horrible waste in life!”  It’s a powerful tool that God used to help call me when back during the Vietnam War I had a friend that I grew up with in school that got shot in the head, Vietnam.  And I had a difficult time with it because I thought, “What a horrible, horrible thing!  He didn’t get to experience things of life and his life was cut short, for what purpose...?”  And there was a period of time because of that war over there I wanted to become a pilot because I wanted to go over and kill as many people as I could.  I didn’t want to do it with a machine gun; I wanted to do it with something more powerful.  I thought if you’re going to fight, let’s do it all the way!

And then God, because of that incident that happened there and several other things that happened, God began to show me, that’s not the answer.  So the mind had to be adjusted, and it was, but that part there became far more convicted of through time.  War, fighting, killing is such an evil thing and that which has been on this earth for 6,000 years as people strive to get ‘their way’, because their way is right, their way is just, and anyway... I thought (and I know there’s a lot more destruction coming), but I thought what a horrible thing, different people in different parts of the country wherever it is, they have someone coming home in a casket and they get an honour guard...and what does that mean?  What do you have to hold onto?  Amazing!  Sad world.

And so again here, I think of that Thunder, from number one, and how people are dull of hearing and they don’t even bother to listen to people dying in wars in Columbia, and fighting in Mexico, and fighting in different places in Africa, and in South America as well, in different parts of the world in skirmishes, in Asia of people being killed, people dying because of wars into the thousands and tens of thousands.  We hear about numbers on a one-sided plane, not even in some of the ones who are working together with us as a whole, you have to hunt for those numbers if you want them, from some of the coalition.  Every once in a while we hear about our numbers here, we don’t hear about the numbers of others let alone on the other side in families and people that suffer and civilians that have nothing to do with it whatsoever, people that die.  We become oblivious to those things, we don’t even listen anymore.  Incredible what takes place and how we think!

And I still go back to this statistic every once in a while that blows my mind – 40,000 plus people die on the highways, half of them because of drugs and alcohol - and who cares?  Where is the voice of outrage?  ...of changing things in the world?  Sick, sick world.  Man is sick, I’ll tell you!

This has to do with a mindset and how people think and what God allows.  And God backs away to a degree, to a point.  I think of 2009 and even into 2010 in part; I think of all the hurricanes.  It’s like they can’t touch us and they go off someplace else.  Why?  Why do some things happen in a certain way at certain times?  It has to do with the mindset of people and what they trust in and how they think and what God is allowing for a purpose and for a reason.  Incredible!

And so again, at this period of time I specifically mentioned here, up to the Feast of Trumpets 2009 and up to the time when God showed us this was the beginning of ‘Time, Times and a Half a Times’, and some of the things that were taking place before and after that – basically only the Church was able to hear number six and number seven because of what God was continuing to give to the Church in truths and understanding and those things that were ringing out that strengthened you, but not to the world, not to people around.

And then before the first period of ‘Half a Time’ had ended, before that was over with the world was slammed with powerful Thunder and over 300,000 people lost their lives due to earthquakes, weather and the terror of war. Actually, that number is much higher because Haiti has upped it now.  Was it 316,000 they said at the anniversary here that was just in January?  And the numbers of people that are killed in wars and fighting, it’s hard to find.  You can find statistics on the U.S. and the coalition and so forth; sometimes you can find a little bit here and there about different ones, civilians and so forth that have died in certain countries, but as a whole in different skirmishes in the world people don’t even count it anymore.  Or at least I can’t find them out there, where they are.  So talking about numbers... much, much higher. But in that short period of time you look at the numbers of people that died – very powerful!

I want to go back and read about what it says here in the second Thunder because of where we are in time and what has taken place in times past, and then the lulls that we see, and then that sound coming back again because of what God’s doing.  I want to read about number two here because we already zeroed in on number three and number one and I want to read all four of these before we get through with these particular two series here.  Starting out in the book here [‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’ – page 95]:

The Second Thunder

There is another rumbling that has been increasing in intensity over the past couple of years. It is the direct result of a marked increase in destructive power being unleashed by the earth itself.

#2: The Second Thunder is the increasing destruction generated by earthquakes. Over a period of only two years, there have been over 400,000 deaths from earthquakes with several million additional people being displaced.

Additional millions being displaced when those things happen.

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, was an undersea earthquake that occurred on December 26, 2004. According to the United States Geological Survey, the earthquake and its tsunami killed more than 283,100 people, making it one of the deadliest disasters in modern history.

The greatest destruction and loss of life from earthquakes is the direct result of collapsing buildings or the power unleashed in the form of a tsunami. Volcanoes are also associated with earthquakes. All these things will continue to wreak havoc on man and nature in an ever increasing magnitude as we approach the very end of this age.

All Seven Thunders will increase in power and recognition....

And I might add, just putting it in here, but it needs to be said; mainly at this moment in time here before 2008 and 2009, the recognition was basically by those with whom God is working.

All Seven Thunders will increase in power and recognition over the next two years (from the date of the first printing of this book) and on into*[1] the final three and one-half years of great tribulation. The Seven Thunders will serve as a powerful witness that the words of this book are true, and that they are from the God of Abraham, the Father of Jesus Christ.

So again, number two – earthquakes, volcanoes.  Nothing took place until a point in time there just in one period called ‘a Half a Time’.  I guess it was really ‘Half a Time’ here because the ‘Half a Time’ from September of 2009 when it began to February (and I don’t remember the exact date), but incredible power that was unleashed during that period of time.  And I don’t know if any of you ever watch those things but I check on it on a regular basis just to see what’s happening on the earth, and it’s amazing some of the rippling effects of things, that they talk about out there that they don’t understand, they’ve never seen anything...  and of course you can’t go back too far in time to have statistics anyway to show what has happened from one age to another because they didn’t have this kind of equipment to test things on the earth.

But from what they have seen from since the equipment has been there, things are happening that have never happened before. Is it the Madrid fault that’s in the middle part of the U.S. here, that’s in several states there and some of the earthquakes that have taken place in the last two years that haven’t been taking place before that to the magnitude they are... but horrible times that have to take place when they do come that have to shake people; and it’s just a part of the overall picture.

The only way for mankind to be humbled is for catastrophic events that must come to pass, otherwise mankind simply becomes more imbedded in his own stubborn pride as people fight to hold onto their own right, to their own way, that they’re going to come through it all no matter what it is.

It’s like football.  I think of an article I was just reading this morning, but it’s like football in that it’s a fight to the end – of course it is a big football weekend, but each side wants to win out and so even like in a game... I was looking at this one article that talked about the Federal Reserve being like...what they’re doing right now is like a ‘hail-mary pass’.  I don’t know how many of you know what the ‘hail-mary’ play is, but it’s like this is the last chance you have and of course hail mary has to do with the Catholics.  It’s like a final prayer you shoot up in the air and hope that this final thing is going to win you the game.  And it’s kind of bad when that happens to your economy and the thing you try is like a ‘hail mary play’, but it shows the attitude of people and how people think.  And that’s what you need to make sure doesn’t escape you.

I want to read something to you. There are several articles here and I want to take time to do this even though I hate going through some news articles because it’s out there and you can look for it, but I think sometimes it’s good for everybody to hear it because not everybody has the ability to find these or has a network where different ones are sending it to you.  I want to read this to you about 2010, kind of an interesting article.

2010's world gone wild: Quakes, floods, blizzards[2]

By JULIE REED BELL and SETH BORENSTEIN - Dec 19, 2010 2:36 PM MT

By The Associated Press

Because sometimes when things happen and the intensity and the repetitiveness in which they do, sometimes we become hardened to it, sometimes our hearing can become dull.  And quite candidly, just like the sermon we went through in ‘Vision’, you can’t let that happen to you in thinking this is just the way it is day by day, especially right now with everything happening.  And in a while, if you’re not careful, what’s happening in the Middle East, you’ll become dull in your senses like many in the world will.  It’ll happen to people where they are going to take their eyes off of it, they’re going to get tired of hearing this day after day after day, week after week, and after a while even the news gets tired of reporting it, they’re going to want to report something different and make it sensational.  In this article here it says....

Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, blizzards, landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter million people in 2010 — (con’t.)

..."It just seemed like it was back-to-back and it came in waves," said Craig Fugate, who heads the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. It handled a record number of disasters in 2010.

"The term '100-year event' really lost its meaning this year."

In other words comparing things to a ‘100-year event’ and how some things just went past that and the phrase was used so much that it became meaningless.

....Even though many catastrophes have the ring of random chance, the hand of man made this a particularly deadly, costly, extreme and weird year for everything from wild weather to earthquakes.

Some people want to blame everything on global warming or some other thing and certainly there are things happening in the world; and so much is what man caused, there’s no doubt about it, but some of the ideas people have – it just isn’t that. There are many things working together, just as many Trumpets work together and many Thunders work together.  All these things work together to bring about specific things in the end-time.  Another part of this article says....

...In the summer, one weather system caused oppressive heat in Russia, while farther south it caused flooding in Pakistan that inundated 62,000 square miles, about the size of Wisconsin.

And what’s happened in Australia now has made that look like a bit of a picnic in Pakistan because of the area that that particular flood covered.  And I’ll guarantee you, people up there in that part of Queensland...thinking a little bit differently than most of us do here in the United States right now because we have snow, we have ice and winter’s here and it’s nasty and we get tired of it, but people as a whole out here in the community aren’t thinking about what’s happening – the thought of the end-time as a whole is not in their mind.  But I’ll guarantee there are people shaken up right now in parts of Queensland because of what’s happening to them, because of their livelihood and things being taken from them and things that they’re experiencing with the kind of flooding that’s taken place there; and then this massive hurricane that thankfully didn’t do more than what it could have done.  Very powerful!  I don’t know how many of you saw that on the news and saw the magnitude of that thing that came down on that north-eastern corner of Australia.  The magnitude of it was awesome!

And so they’re getting pounded up there and that’s the Queensland area, just one region alone.

So this article talks about flooding in Pakistan that inundated an area the size of Wisconsin.

That single heat-and-storm system killed almost 17,000 people, more people than all the worldwide airplane crashes in the past 15 years combined.

So people use different statistics to try to show how great some things are that people don’t think about.

...The excessive amount of extreme weather that dominated 2010 is a classic sign of man-made global warming that climate scientists have long warned about.

So this is their idea and their solution, just like people trying to figure out why the different birds died in different areas.  Well, there are different reasons; they’re not all the same reason.  It’s not all freezing, especially when you get down in Vietnam and some of these places.

They calculate that the killer Russian heat wave — setting a national record of 111 degrees — would happen once every 100,000 years without global warming.

So it’s all from the cause of global warming according to them.  Going on in this article a little bit later....

That's why the people who study disasters for a living say it would be wrong to chalk 2010 up to just another bad year.

Because they see that things aren’t normal, but the only answer that a lot of people can come up with is it has to be related to something that is solely scientific and only something that the narrow mind has to do with this change of global warming that’s taking place that man has caused because of the ozone layer or whatever it is.

...Flooding alone this year killed more than 6,300 people in 59 nations through September, according to the World Health Organization. In the United States, 30 people died in the Nashville, Tenn., region...[in flooding.]

Remember some of that flooding that took place?  People forget about those things that happened and time goes by and people forget, they don’t think about it anymore.  It goes on and talks about....

Inundated countries include China, Italy, India, Colombia and Chad. Super Typhoon Megi with winds of more than 200 mph devastated the Philippines and parts of China.

Through Nov. 30, nearly 260,000 people [it’s 360,000 with what Haiti added to their list there] died in natural disasters in 2010, [and they think there is a whole lot more still] compared to 15,000 in 2009....

There wasn’t much that happened in these areas in 2009, but all of a sudden it’s picked up and you need to be aware of it and not let it go unnoticed because it continues to happen over and over again, that this is the way it’s always been.  Going on in the article it says....

HOW WEIRD:

A volcano in Iceland paralyzed air traffic for days in Europe, disrupting travel for more than 7 million people.

And all these things added together time and time again, another Thunder that you have to keep in your mind is what it’s doing to the economy.  Everything that happens out here has to do with what is happening to a world and a system that is already plagued, that is hurting mightily, that’s trying to keep above board, that’s struggling to do so; and everything that comes along adds another nail, if you will, to a coffin.  It’s like what’s happening over there right now in Egypt and more increases in food prices and oil shooting up.  And now they’ve blown up or they think they’ve blown up this particular gas line going out of Egypt into Israel and Jordan.  And these things just continue to go on and on.

There’s no end to it, to a world that’s hurting economically, but they’re fighting to keep it alive as we’re going to see, as we continue in this series here and some more articles that we have to read because again, there are things you need to see that is happening and why it’s happening. And I hope you don’t get tired of it!  Because sometimes we can listen to things and think, “Well, yeah, I’ve heard that on the news, I’ve heard that on the news.”  But again, it’s a matter of a focus and a vision you need to have and you can’t get tired of it.

....There was not much snow to start the Winter Olympics in a relatively balmy Vancouver, British Columbia, while the U.S. East Coast was snowbound.

Weird things.  Weird!  Of all places to have the winter Olympics surely it’s going to be good up there in British Columbia, and they had to make snow.  Crazy!

In a 24-hour period in October, Indonesia got the trifecta [I like how they say this.] of terra terror: a deadly magnitude 7.7 earthquake, a tsunami that killed more than 500 people and a volcano that caused more than 390,000 people to flee.

That’s all they need in one day.  That’ll make your day, a 24 hour period.

That's after flooding, landslides and more quakes killed hundreds earlier in the year.

Same area.

Even the extremes were extreme.

Isn’t that just what we read last week and the week before that?  Things that are happening.

Even the extremes were extreme. This year started with a good sized El Nino weather oscillation that causes all sorts of extremes worldwide. Then later in the year, the world got the mirror image weather system with a strong La Nina, which causes a different set of extremes. Having a year with both a strong El Nino and La Nina is unusual.

Yeah, it’s unusual.  It’s weird, just like they said in the article, ‘How Weird’.  Incredible!  Crazy, crazy world – we live in some crazy times and we’re going to continue to see some crazy things taking place out there.

Want to continue on here in this section about the Fourth Thunder because we’re going to talk about some of these in some of the other articles we’re going to read in the next sermon here if we don’t get some of those today.  But I wanted to read this one to you today as well to get both of these under our belt, number two and number four and that’ll take care of all four of them then, because these things are just going to continue to grow and become stronger and stronger and overlap each other more and more. [‘2008 – God’s Final Witness,’ page 98]....

#4 The Fourth Thunder is global economic upheaval.

The world is entering into a time of final upheaval for the global economy. The stock market cannot continue its masquerade of being healthy and robust while being falsely propped up by positive talk, pseudo-exuberance and creative forecasting.

And when was this written?  The same thing is going on today; the same thing that led to what happened in 2008 and on into 2009 hasn’t changed, it’s just worse.

The day of reckoning is now on the world’s doorstep.

And I hope you understand this is the year of collapse.  Powerful!  2008, people were scared. There were people who were scared, the government was scared, President Bush was scared of what might be left in his name, and they came along with this massive bailout.  And there were people who were fearful of where we were and what was getting ready to happen to our economy, they really were.  There were people who were scared!  And look where that fear went.  Just like Iraq and Afghanistan, after a while it’s just a thing that happens; it’s the way it is.  Incredible!

The day of reckoning is now on the world’s doorstep.  Many deeply-felt pangs of sickness will reverberate throughout the world as we draw nearer to a huge market crash.

Some nations are already indicating a shift from dollar to euro as a better assurance for future stability.

And it’s still going on.  It’s exactly what China’s doing right now.

Although many in the United States scoff at such a possibility...

A think tank in Great Britain said there’s a 1 in 5 chance that the euro is going to survive the next decade.  And I thought, “No it’s not, it doesn’t have a chance!”  If you understand....  Their concept is time is going to go on and we’re going to come out of all this and the euro has a 1 in 5 chance of making it, but we understand the end of the story.  God’s Kingdom is coming and the euro is not a part of that Kingdom...  but if time were to go on, Europe would not let the euro die, they would fight for it; Germany would fight for the euro.  As a matter of fact they will before it’s over with.

Some nations are already indicating a shift from dollar to euro as a better assurance for future stability. Although many in the United States scoff at such a possibility, that is precisely what will happen as confidence in the dollar continues to wane.

With corporate scandals and corruption on an alarming rise (not to mention never ending downsizing), along with a loss in confidence in a sick economy, the United States is drawing nearer to an economic implosion.

Colorful forecasts, indifferent management, slight-of-hand trickery concerning corporate assets....

Yada, yada, yada – does that sound familiar?  You still hear it on the news!  Things some of these corporations are doing and have done and what they’ve done with some of the bailout monies and so forth.  They don’t change; but people wink and eye and think, “Oh, that’s okay, because we’re okay now, things are better.”  No, they’re worse.

...downsizing, and other corporate gimmickry have reached the point of no return. There will be no bouncing back from the cancerous greed that has nearly choked all life out of free-market capitalism.

Add to all these economic woes the problem of trade deficits, money manipulation, volatile oil markets, and a list of other global ailments; and you have a sure formula for global economic upheaval, the likes of which this world has never seen.

The world has experienced times of great economic upheaval, but it has always bounced back in one way or another. This time there will be no bouncing back because the world will experience a complete economic meltdown to a level which not even the hoarding of gold and silver will solve.

And so, that’s not the way the world thinks right now – they think they’re going to get it back - it’s just going to be a greater fall.

The stability of the global economy is on very shaky ground, so much so that even a small country like Iran is making threats that can actually help push it over the edge. This week World Net Daily (Feb. 3, 2006) reported on an unusual move from Iran. The global economy is so insecure that something this small could actually start a final domino affect:

Beginning in 2003, Iran began demanding oil payment in euros, not dollars, although the oil itself was still priced in U.S. currency.

I don’t need to read all this, but again, it’s about those very things that we’ve talked about.  I do want to end it on talking about the struggles different countries are having and so forth and how volatile things are....even on the ending on this part of number four....

Even China has been hinting at shifting some of its reserves from the dollar to the euro. There is much economic uneasiness in the world today, and this is about to lead into an unprecedented economic upheaval worldwide.

It’s amazing what’s taking place in the world; and it’s about attitudes, it’s about people, and it’s about what it takes for people to finally come to repentance...and it doesn’t come easy and most will resist it anyway.

I want to read some articles that have to do with the economy so that you are able to hear things in the news when you hear them and not be dull in your hearing and that you can be shaken sometimes to the core of your being with soberness of mind to realize where we are and how close things are.

This article is one from Barron’s.  It’s a similar type of publication to the Wall Street Journal.  It says....

Barron's: US Will See Run on Treasurys, Hyperinflation[3]

Wednesday, 05 Jan 2011 10:44 AM

By Greg Brown

Investors in U.S. debt around the world are worryingly near a "psychological breaking point" that could force a "run on the bank" against Treasurys.

If that happens, hyperinflation quickly follows and gold will soar much, much higher from its now record-setting levels, argues author and longtime trader Victor Sperandeo in the latest issue of Barron's. Sperandeo has traded for many top investors including George Soros.

Anyone who believes that the United States faces a comparatively mild 1970s-style inflation risk is ignoring history at his own peril, Sperandeo writes in the weekly investment newspaper.

"Unlike normal inflation, which may be attributed to a variety of factors, hyperinflation has a single cause: It occurs when a government cannot borrow money because its debt has risen so much that investors believe they will never be paid back with close to the same purchasing power," he writes.

And that’s a powerful statement by someone of this kind of reputation in what he’s saying because that’s exactly what’s taking place, and that’s exactly where governments are, and that’s exactly why China’s doing some of the things it’s doing.  It’s trying to manoeuvre itself because it holds so much anyway.

....In 2009, the author notes, the deficit was 44 percent of spending, although not all of it was borrowed. It happened again in 2010. U.S. debt is now more than $13.7 trillion (not counting state and agency debts [that’s another story]) and deficits are running $1 trillion a year.

On down in the article it says....

"A nation needs to inspire a lot of confidence to keep that Ponzi scheme alive," Sperandeo writes.

"Unfortunately, markets know that even the U.S. government will print money to meet expenses when necessary."

The key is the gap between the rate paid investors to own Treasury debt vs. the inflation rate. If that narrows by too much, there is no longer any compelling reason to hold the debt. Foreign investors then dump U.S. bonds in a rush not to be left holding the bag.

Down a little bit farther in the same article....

Meanwhile, a retiring member of the policy committee of China's central bank has reiterated his call for China to cut its holdings of U.S. Treasurys in order to minimize losses on its foreign-denominated exchange reserves.

According to press reports, Yu Yongding made the renewed call to dump U.S. debt and move the yuan toward market-driven exchange rates in an opinion piece in Caijing magazine.

Allowing the yuan to float would help China wind down its massive dollar-asset holdings, Yu argued.

"China should strive to reduce instead of further increasing (its holdings of) dollar assets," he said. "Specifically, China should reduce the growth of its foreign-exchange reserves as soon as possible."

As recently as July, Yu had called for Beijing to sell off U.S. Treasurys. He believes that continued U.S. fiscal measures to stave off recession will ultimately weaken the dollar, causing China's estimated $2.65 trillion in dollar holdings to quickly lose value.

May not mean a lot to people; I know some of this stuff is maybe not that interesting but that’s a powerful thing that China’s doing right now.  It should remind you of a scripture in Revelation when it talks about a time when their solution and their answer is war, because it has to be close to the end when Jesus Christ returns; and you have to back away from that a year, a month and a day...and we’re not too far from some period in time – it may have already happened – because we don’t know when China’s going to do what it does.  But the farther to the end that period of time goes... but at some point they make a decision because they are to a point where they know that there is no other way out of this for them as far as how they think and how they plan for their future and what they’re planning for the world – that their only answer to that is a war.  And they understand it’ll be a World War, they’re not stupid.

That’s why they have all... if you listen, if you hear all the things they’re doing with their military, why they’re building up their forces in the oceans and why they’re taking now the things that they’re even... what was it this past year here?  They have loaned out more money to developing countries than the IMF [International Monetary Fund].  That’s startling!  More money!  Why?  Planning for the future.  They’re using the money to their advantage and they’re taking the place of what the United States used to do.  We don’t do that anymore in the same way, even though we’re behind that tool there obviously; but the point being is that people will look to China in their allegiances and how they think.  They’re trying to put a wedge in there somehow to have a greater influence over people.

I want to read a few more articles before we close because they tie in together.

Euro has 1-in-5 chance of lasting decade: UK think-tank[4]

LONDON | Fri Dec 31, 2010 2:10pm EST

(Reuters) - The euro currency area has only a one-in-five chance of surviving in its current form over the next 10 years because of competitive imbalances between its members, a leading British think tank said on Friday.

The Center for Economics and Business Research said Spain and Italy would have to refinance over 400 billion euros ($530 billion) of bonds in the spring, potentially sparking a fresh crisis within the 16-nation euro area.

It’s just something that’s going to break up 16 nations because we know when it’s all said and done there’s going to be 10.  What brings them to that point?  It’s about money!  It’s about Babylon!  Incredible; and how everybody seeks to survive in their own way in all the confusion that’s out there.

...Sovereign debt crises in Greece and Ireland have rocked euro nations this year, leading some commentators to speculate that Germany could eventually lose patience with bailing out its more profligate neighbors, triggering a split in the currency bloc.

..."The euro is the foundation of our prosperity," [from Angela Merkel, Chancellor] she said. "Germany needs Europe and our common currency. For our own well-being....

It’s about them.  We have things about us.  China has things about them.  And we don’t get along, we don’t mix.

...For our own well-being and in order to overcome great worldwide challenges. We Germans assume our responsibility, even when it is sometimes very hard."

And she’s receiving a lot of respect for this.  She’s willing to do something that we’re not.  She’s willing to do something in her government that this country isn’t willing to do.  Going on here toward the end of the article one of these individuals with this think-tank says…

..."We give it only a one in five chance of surviving in its present form for 10 years. If the euro doesn't break up, this could be the year when it weakens substantially toward parity with the dollar," he added.

Blind, blind, blind.  So all these things just fit together.  There’s just one after another, of a flow that’s taking place in the world; and this has to do with the economy and what’s leading to our downfall or the downfall of the dollar, if you will. Next article....

China Backs Europe, Euro for Investment, Central Bank Deputy Governor Says[5]

By Bloomberg News - Jan 7, 2011 2:20 AM MT

Europe and the euro will remain among the most important areas of investment for China’s world-record $2.65 trillion of foreign-exchange reserves, [Amazing!] a central bank official said in the nation’s latest show of support.

“The euro and the European financial markets are an important part of the global financial system and were, are and will be one of the most important investment areas for China’s foreign-exchange reserves,” Deputy Governor Yi Gang said in a statement on the central bank’s website.

China’s statements of support have included Vice Premier Li Keqiang this week expressing confidence in Spain’s financial markets and pledging more purchases of that nation’s debt. In backing European economies, China....

And think about China, what they’re doing – they’re backing away from the United States and they’re looking at Europe, but they have no idea what’s getting ready to take place, when they will become enemies because of what’s going to happen to the U.S.  People don’t understand because they have rejected God and don’t understand what God’s doing anyway, what God said is going to come to pass.  And here they are, buttering up to, trying to get closer to Europe because they are receiving more from Europe right now than they are from the United States, to their benefit.  So it goes on to say here that this individual said...

...this week expressing confidence in Spain’s financial markets and pledging more purchases of that nation’s debt. In backing European economies, China

may help to prop up demand in the region that is its biggest market for exports and also the value of its euro-denominated assets.

It’s amazing what’s taking place.  Another article right behind these.

Merkel Makes Euro Indispensable Turning Crisis Into Opportunity

By Tony Czuczka and Simon Kennedy - Feb 4, 2011 4:19 AM MT

(Bloomberg) Chancellor Angela Merkel is turning Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis into an opportunity to reshape the euro region in Germany’s image.

Some of these things that come out sometimes... it’s like prophecy is just screaming out at you.  Germany!  What has Germany always done?  What is Germany trying to do now?

As Spain raises its retirement age, Greece cuts wages and Portugal imposes the deepest spending reductions in more than three decades, Merkel’s resolve in refusing to aid neighbors unconditionally is showing signs of working.

Seeking to erase doubts that the markets can snuff out the 12-year-old euro, which she has called the “uniting idea” of post-World War II Europe, the 56-year-old scientist who grew up in communist East Germany is set to...

Even these things here are interesting.  What formed her thinking?  How does she think the way that she does?  How does she have the kind of influence she does in Europe, in Germany?

...grew up in communist East Germany is set to swap stick for carrot and throw the weight of Europe’s largest and richest economy behind a plan to bolster the area’s rescue effort.

Farther down in the article....

EU Summit

Merkel and counterparts from the 27-member European Union met in Brussels today [and this is on the 5th, February 5th] to review progress on a package they aim to finish by late March and which may include an increase in the bailout fund’s firepower, a reduction in interest rates on rescue loans and deeper coordination of economic policies.

Her task is two-fold: protect a single currency she views as indispensible and shift the euro-region toward the model of a fiscally virtuous, hard-money, stable-growth economy that underpinned Germany’s post-war recovery.

In other words, they’re really ready to roll up their sleeves and work at it, unlike the United States, because we’d have to do some really tough things if we want to turn the tide and we’re not willing to do it.

Still, as Europe prepared to bail out Ireland in November, Merkel’s appeal to her skeptical electorate focused on the euro as a symbol of peace...

Amazing!  The euro as a symbol of peace...

...to a nation ravaged by two world wars.

And I want to read some more about what she had to say.  It says...

The euro “is about everything. If the euro fails, then Europe fails, the European ideal of common values and unity will fail,” Merkel said in a Nov. 15 speech to members of her party in Karlsruhe, Germany. “This ideal has always given us strength in the face of wars and destruction in Europe for the past centuries -- to fight for peace, for prosperity and for freedom on our continent.”

Sometimes they just fought in a different way.  A little bit of tongue in cheek there, but amazing how people think sometimes and what they’re willing to do.  Because she is determined, the German people are determined, and it’s in their mind to do what they’re going to do before this is over with because they’re not going to back down, they’re not going to lose what they’ve been working to build for so long.

Now Merkel, who gained a degree in physics from the Karl Marx University in Leipzig and a doctorate in quantum chemistry from the Central Institute of Physical Chemistry in East Berlin, is seeking a payoff from a year of crisis-fighting and providing the biggest share of a $1 trillion euro-region bailout package.

It went on to talk about how she’s a fluent speaker in Russian and English.  She’s quite a gal.  She’s smart.  She’s very shrewd.  Incredible woman, she really is: the right person at the right time to do some incredible things.  Going on down in the article....

“Indebtedness is the biggest danger for prosperity on this continent,” Merkel told the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 28. Any country that gets aid “must receive this solidarity under certain conditions.”

Tighter control of national finances tops Germany’s list of demands. Narrowing Europe-wide differences in taxes, pay and retirement age is also on the agenda, driven by Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a convert to her lobbying.

I have to read this quote that the French President said:

“Mrs. Merkel and I will never -- do you hear me? -- never let the euro fail,” Sarkozy said in Davos.

It’s important, because there are people in some of the scattered church who do not believe that France, or Belgium, or some other western European countries could combine and be part of 10 nations at the end-time.  Instead, they think it has to be some nations farther to the east and that it has to be like these two legs that came from Dr. Stavrinides who talked about five toes in different areas here because they’re on different legs and some have to be in that eastern block and some have to be in the western block.  Some of those nations that have the power are a part of the scattered nations of Israel as well; France has been a part of it in the past and they can easily be a part again, just like Luxembourg, just like Belgium and some of the others.

And to top it all off I wanted to read this one here too.  This may be important to some and to others not because things with the economy, things to do with the euro and the dollar is not interesting to you and I understand that – but try.  Try, because it’s a part of some awesome things that are taking place at the end-time, and candidly that’s what gives a great deal of power to Babylon.

Powered by exports, Germany had its fastest economic expansion in two decades last year with gross domestic product jumping 3.6 percent.  Unemployment fell to an 18-year low of 7.4 percent in January -- the second lowest among the Group of Seven economies after Japan -- and business confidence reached a record high.

The euro is a lot better off than what we want to give them credit for, referring to Great Britain and United States and so forth. And be it known, candidly, the United States is far worse off than Portugal and Spain and Greece.  We’re far worse off for what we’re doing right now.

I think I’ve got time to read one more here.  All these tie together. And you may not see the tie in – go back and listen to it later on if you can take it, because some things having to do with news and articles... it’s rather difficult sometimes.  But it’s an awesome thing!  If you can have vision, if you can ‘see’ things that are said prophetically and what’s happening in the news day by day by day.  Because now we’re talking about Thunder that for a time there was rather quiet and the world wasn’t in tune to it. We were.  But right now it is speeded up and I hope that you can see that process now where things are overlapping each other and becoming louder and louder.  And what’s happening right now with the economy is one of the loudest, it truly is.  It’s far louder than what’s happening in Egypt right now...it’s far louder in what’s taking place and what governments and what people are doing.

This article is from CNBC on the 11th of January...

The Fed’s QE2 Traders, Buying Bonds by the Billions[6]

Published: Tuesday, 11 Jan 2011 | 9:53 AM ET

By: Graham Bowley

The New York Times

Deep inside the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the $600 billion man is fast at work.

In a spare, government-issue office in Lower Manhattan, behind a bank of cubicles and a scruffy copy machine, Josh Frost and a band of market specialists are making the Fed’s ultimate Wall Street trade. They are buying hundreds of billions of dollars of United States Treasury securities on the open market in a controversial attempt to keep interest rates low and, in the process, revive the economy.

This is the ultimate of insanity, it truly is!  It is absolutely insane!

To critics, it is a Hail Mary play — an admission that the economy’s persistent weakness has all but exhausted the central bank’s powers and tested the limits of its policy making. Around the world, some warn the unusual strategy will weaken the dollar and lead to crippling inflation.

But inside the Operations Room, on the ninth floor of the New York Fed’s fortress like headquarters, there is no time for second-guessing. Here the second round of what is known as quantitative easing — QE2...

We didn’t read the rest of Revelation yet but it talks about the merchants and those on the ships and so forth and it’s because of what they trust in; and we’ll hit that next week there – but it’s like this great ship on the sea, on the waters, on the ocean, and what is taking place; and that’s what the QE2 reminds me of.  There’s a ship called the Queen Elizabeth II – QE2.

...as it is called on Wall Street — is being put into practice almost daily by the central bank’s powerful New York arm.

Each morning Mr. Frost and his team face a formidable task: they must try to buy Treasuries at the best possible price from the savviest bond traders in the business.

I don’t even know how something like this is even legal.  How in the world we could be in such a position...

The smallest miscalculation, a few one-hundredths of a percentage point here or there, could unsettle the markets and cost taxpayers dearly. It could also embolden critics at home and abroad who say QE2 represents a dangerous expansion of the Fed’s role in the markets.

“We are looking to get the best price we can for the taxpayer,” [Insanity!] said Mr. Frost, a buttoned-down 34-year-old in a striped suit and rimless glasses.

Whether Mr. Frost will reach that goal is uncertain. What is sure is that market interest rates have risen, rather than fallen, since the Fed embarked on the program in November. That is the opposite of what was supposed to happen, although rates might have been even higher without the Fed program.

Mr. Frost’s task is to avoid paying top dollar for bonds that could be worth less when the Fed tries to sell them one day. ...article continues....

What a task!  We’ll stop there for today.  It’s a crazy, crazy world we live in and you see some crazy, crazy things out here, but there are people and there are nations out here that aren’t blind, they’re not foolish, and they’re not stupid...and that’s why they’re pulling away more and more from us and at some point they have to make a decision:  When do we have to do what we have to do in order to save ourselves?

So with that we’ll close for today.

~~~end

1. Emphasis added in sermon

2. 2010's world gone wild: Quakes, floods, blizzards

3. Barron's: US Will See Run on Treasurys, Hyperinflation

4. Euro has 1-in-5 chance of lasting decade: UK think-tank

5. China Backs Europe, Euro for Investment, Central Bank Deputy Governor Says

6. The Fed’s QE2 Traders, Buying Bonds by the Billions

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