Blog to discuss the book "The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter: A Literary Analysis of the Book of Revelation" and current events that point to the events described therein.
As predicted in the Apocalypse - Letter by Letter, by Steven Paul, the old Roman Empire would one day be reconstituted. By the Lisbon Treaty, agreed to now by the last holdout, that day has come. Already the warning signs of the coming Christian persecution are there. As Europe has abandoned its Christian roots and the Church has become weak, believers are now a minority with no rights under the new constitution. They will soon find themselves victims of hate crimes laws, speech restrictions and even mob rule.
All that is lacking from the prophecy is a head for the beast. Stay tuned...
Czech Republic Leader Signs Lisbon - No More Barriers to New European Superstate By Hilary White PRAGUE, November 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, signed the Lisbon Treaty at 3 p.m. Central European Time today, the last leader of the European Union's 27 members states to do so. This removes the last barrier to the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, the document that is said to be effectively identical to the European Constitution that was defeated by public votes in France and the Netherlands in 2005. Klaus, the eurosceptic leader of the former Soviet bloc country, has warned repeatedly against Lisbon's encroachments on national sovereignty and democracy, calling the project of a "united Europe" a return to a leftist tyranny. Since the start of the battle over Lisbon, Klaus has warned that ratification of the Treaty would signal the end of his and all European countries as independent sovereign states.
After the Yes vote in last month's Irish referendum, Klaus' opposition to Lisbon was the last barrier to the full implementation of the agreement that pro-life advocates have warned will likely result in the loss of the right of countries to pass laws protecting the unborn and elderly from abortion and euthanasia. Pro-life leaders in Ireland warned that under the Treaty the laws of member states will be interpreted not through that state's courts, but by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) that is under no legal obligation to consider any other law besides EU law. Today the anti-Christian, secularist leanings of the EU's institutions were illustrated when the European Court of Human Rights ruled that crucifixes must be removed from Italian state schools. In response to a complaint from an Italian woman in Padua, the Strasburg court ruled, "The presence of the crucifix ... could easily be interpreted by pupils of all ages as a religious sign and they would feel that they were being educated in a school environment bearing the stamp of a given religion."
The court ruled that the Italian state is to "refrain from imposing beliefs in premises where individuals were dependent on it." Campaigners have warned that this type of ruling under Lisbon's terms would become binding on all member states, ushering in the effective repression in all of Europe of public expressions of Christianity or any other belief that opposes the prevailing official European secularism.
In a 2005 speech, Klaus wondered if the former communist countries were not risking falling into "another blind alley of regulated society, of unproductive welfare state, of brave new world of European social democratism and of empty and artificial Europeanism." Klaus's capitulation was anticipated at last week's EU summit, when French President Nicholas Sarkozy said, "The Lisbon Treaty will enter into force doubtless as early as December 1."
Once in a while, there are signs that God wants you to pay attention to secular affairs. I don't pretend to know the Divine Mind. But after reading The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter: A Literary Analysis of the Book of Revelation, I pay attention to numbers and symbols.
The terror attacks of 9/11/01 was one of those times. I saw it as an attack on financial and military superpower, a humbling of a great nation that has lost its way morally. When the towers came down, all that was left was a cross on top of the pile, much like a grave marker. But in the shadows of the rubble stood the little chapel of Saints Peter and Paul with nary a cracked window.I saw this as a sign that god is in control, not the terrorists and certainly not the government.
During the Middle Ages, it was customary that the tallest structure in a town was a church. As a sort of divine zoning plan, no other structure was permitted (or desired) to be taller. On 9/11/01, the tallest building in NYC was a financial building. Money had replaced God in order of importance. But God has a way of using secondary agents to accomplish His will in secular affairs. And 19 terrorists with box cutters brought the financial and military hyper-power to its knees.
But as it says in the Apocalypse, "they did not repent of the works of their hands". And so like ants, we rebuilt not the physical towers but the financial ones. We created towers of fraudulent paper built on the dreams of poor people yearning to own homes. The greedy power brokers saw a way to inflate balance sheets and investment portfolios. Corrupt politicians saw it as a way to appear beneficent while lining their own pockets with campaign contributions from massive financial institutions. Any attempt at reform was rebuffed with cries of 'discrimination".
But the Great Equalizer once again has brought the towers crashing down. His sign this time is a number and the number is 777, the number of points the stock index fell in one day. 7 is the biblical number for perfection and completion. Certainly the stock market drop was neither complete nor perfect. But God's plan for us is perfect and complete though only known to Him. Once again, we will fail to "repent of the works of our hands" and we will again build towers on the backs of the poor.
But do not despair. As always, God is truly in control. And that is the message of the number.
I post this excerpt because it is most pertinent to the times we are in - the time of the 200 million "horsemen". In this piece, Steven Paul reveals some of the symbolism used in the Apocalypse and how to discern what it means.
From Chapter 5 of The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter: A Literary Analysis of the Book of Revelation, by Steven Paul
In most instances, the word "earthquake" is a prophetic term signifying "social upheaval or revolution": the "great earthquake" in Apocalypse 6:12, for example. But, that is not the meaning here, because Jesus already included the idea of "social upheaval or revolution" by mentioning "lawlessness" and "wars." Rather, Jesus meant physical earthquakes.
Since "birth pangs" increase in their frequency and intensity, and since Christ included "earthquakes" in that term, it follows that the second and third woes will be a period of spiritual and physical violence ever increasing in frequency and intensity - including earthquakes.
St. Paul hinted at this,
"For the creation waits with eager longing for the revelation of the children of God...We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now..." [Rom. 8:19, 22]
The Apostle wrote "until now" because he thought, as did many others, that "the day of the Lord" was imminent; he did not know that it would be many centuries in coming.
So, in historical comparison, seismic activity during the second and third woes will be extraordinary; indeed, this activity will culminate at the very last event of this present evil age:
There came...a great earthquake, such as has not come since man has come on the earth, the violent earthquake was so great. The great city [Jerusalem] was split into three parts and the cities of the nations fell down. [Apoc. 16:17-19]
The meaning of "nations" in that passage is made perfectly clear by the context: "all the nations," even the Great Eagle mentioned in Chapter 12.
It cannot be deduced from Christ's words, however, that the beginning of the second woe and the escalation of seismic activity to the extraordinary will be synchronous; this notwithstanding, it is a safe assumption that said activity will escalate soon after the second woe has commenced, perhaps, within a year or two: for Christ intended that His faithful be informed; and so, lest the information about earthquakes become otiose, Christ's words will be fulfilled soon after the four evil angels are loosed from the Euphrates. In that way, the faithful, especially, the Four Living Beings, will not mistake other phenomena, such as World War I or World War II, for the second woe.
By no means should the reader exclude from mind the possibility that seismic escalation might begin just before the second woe, even as the rumble of thunder warns of the approaching storm.
Those strong in faith will not despair as the 200 Million Horsemen slaughter both good and bad alike; the informed faithful will understand that the event is a divine judgment and a part of God's mysterious plan; and, too, the brethren will not deceive themselves about the eventual decrease in the violence, the decrease implied in Apocalypse 9:20, which reads,
"And the rest of the men, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so that they will not be worshipping the demons and the idols the gold [ones] and the silver [ones] and the bronze [ones] and the stone [ones] and the wooden [ones], which cannot see or hear or walk."
Dead men cannot repent; therefore, the general violence will decrease much, but not entirely, so that the men will have a chance to repent. Yet, Apocalypse 9:21 patently states that some forms of lawlessness will continue:
"And they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their fornications nor of their thefts."
Verse 20 points mainly at nations in Asia, such as China and India; verse 21 points mainly at industrial and technological nations, such as those in Europe and North America.
Note: In the book, The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter: A Literary Analysis of the Book of Revelation, the author Steven Paul explains how the term "earthquake" in prophetic writings often is used to symbolize political upheaval. But in some cases it also depicts actual seismic events. Often the two go together. Who would argue that the area of Israel/Palestine is always on the verge of the former. Now an article says the latter is also imminent. Experts warn major Israel quakes fast approaching
As if political instability and rampant insecurity in the Middle East are not worrying enough, Israeli experts are warning that a major earthquake could strike the region at any time. Three minor quakes over the past month have served as a reminder that Israel and the West Bank sit atop one of the most sensitive fault lines in the world, where earthquakes have a history of causing havoc.
"We can say with certainty that an earthquake of a magnitude of six on the Richter scale could take place in the coming years," said Yefim Gitterman from the seismology department at the geophysical institute of Lod, near Tel Aviv.
"It can happen tomorrow or in years to come," he said. "Statistically, there is a major quake every 80 years."
Under that assessment, Israel and the Palestinian territories should brace for a major earthquake soon, as the last one happened 80 years ago, on July 11, 1927, in British mandate Palestine when 300 people were killed in Jerusalem and Jericho.
A similar quake measuring seven on the Richter scale and with an epicentre in the Hula Valley, today in northern Israel up from the Sea of Galilee, devastated the town of Safed and killed some 4,000 people in 1837.
"Stronger earthquakes of a magnitude of seven are statistically less common," Gitterman said. But that could be bad enough.
The Lod institute estimates that if a magnitude seven earthquake strikes the northern Jordan Valley or the Dead Sea, between 8,200 and 9,500 people could be killed, more than 20,000 injured and more than 20,000 left homeless.
Running north to south, the Hula Valley, the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea, the Arava Desert and the Red Sea lie on what is known as the Syrian-African fault line. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who saw Jerusalem fall to the invading Romans in 70 AD, also wrote that around 30,000 people perished in an earthquake whose epicentre was in the region of the Dead Sea in 31 BC.
The Lod institute, part of the infrastructure ministry, is on standby day and night to brief the Israeli authorities on the epicentre and magnitude of a powerful tremor within 10 minutes in order to mobilise an emergency response.
The Israeli home front command publishes extensive advice on how to behave in the event of an earthquake on its multi-language website, urging families to prepare emergency supplies to survive for 24 to 72 hours until help arrives.
All new homes built in Israel are equipped with bomb shelters, and the civil defence advises that those without should crouch inside a doorway or under a heavy table in the event of an earthquake, and avoid using lifts.
The website advises people to carry out drills at least twice a year to make a response in an actual event automatic.
