TribulationPeriod.com Biblical Science

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       This Scientific information has been taken by permission from the Website and books of:

Pastor Tom McElmurry

His Website is:  www.TribulationPeriod.com

Phase One

[Rev. 6:12]  And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

[Rev. 16:2] And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men, which had the mark of the beast, and upon them, which worshiped his image.

Phase Two

[Rev. 8:8-9] And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

[Rev. 16:3] And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.

[Rev. 16:8-9] And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

6^th Seal, 5^th Trumpet, 5^th Vial

Phase Six

Revelation 9:13-21

[21] Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

[Rev. 16:12 & 16] And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

7^th Seal, 7^thTrumpet, 7^th Vial

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From Seals 4 and 5 to the 2nd Advent of the Lord – Phase 1

The RED HORSE Galloped In as Hitler Invaded Poland
We Are Living in the Days of Revelation Seals 4 and 5,
Awaiting For Seal 6 Opening And Great Tectonic Chaos!
In Middle East we are now seeing Death over ¼ of Earth
My ‘Tribulation Triad’ book was published in the Seventies
Few believed Chapter 11 since it had 4 Seals already Open

I taught Seals 2, 3, & 4 Would Intensify to Produce Martyrs
Intensity of 3 Seals in Middle East is Adding them to Heaven
Israel will accept UN 3+ year Hudna truce when In the Negev
But It will Be Broken By Antichrist When the Trumpet 7 Sounds
See Archive Prophecy Update Diagram 321 – December 9, 2011
October 2, 2014

http://www.tribulationperiod

WE ARE IN A TIME OF ISLAMIC ISIS BLOODLETTING!
THIS IS DRAWING CONVERTS TO THEM WORLDWIDE
AN ANTICHRIST CALIPH HAS’NT YET BEEN REVEALED Revelation 6:7-11 – And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. [8] And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the FOURTH PART of the EARTH (ges), to kill with sword (red), and with hunger (black), and with death (pale), and with the beasts of the earth. [9] And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: [10] And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? [11] And WHITE ROBES were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for A LITTLE SEASON, until their fellowservants also and THEIR BRETHREN, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

THE CURRENT ISIS CALIPH IS NOT THE ANTICHRIST
SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR ASSAD ISN’T ANTICHRIST
BUT ISIS SHALL BUILD ITS CONTROL CENTERS IN SYRIA,
THEN THE ISLAMIC MADHI SHALL RULE FROM DAMASCUS!

Daniel 7:24,25 – And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. [25] And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

ONE MAN FROM TERRORIST GROUPS IN SYRIA ASCENDS
TO BECOME ANTICHRIST CALIPHATE OF THE LAST DAYS,
AS HE CONSOLIDATES HIS POWER HE LAYS THE COUNTER
ATTACK TRAP ACROSS THE NORTHERN ISREAELI BORDER!

Daniel 11:40 – And at the time of the end shall the king of the south (Israel) push at him: and the king of the north (Syria) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

HE WILL DRIVE ISRAEL INTO THE NEGEV WILDERNESS

Revelation 12:6 – And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

HE AGREES TO 3+ YEAR UN HUNDA (TRUCE) WITH ISRAEL
BUT BREAKS THE TRUCE WHEN THE TRUMPET 7 SOUNDS!

I Thessalonians 5:3-6 – For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. [4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. [5] Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. [6] Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

Daniel 7:26,27 – But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. [27] And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.

From Seals 4 and 5 to the Second Advent of the Lord – Phase 1A

From Seals 4 and 5 to the Second Advent of the Lord – Phase 1A
777 on the cover of my 2nd Book was 7 Seals-7 Trumpets-7 Vials,
Phase 1A Was Taken from Chapter 11 of The Tribulation Triad 777

The “Beginning Of Sorrows” Began With the Red Horse In 1939
A God of Mammon Took Over The U.S. After World War 2 Ended!
Reported Earthquakes-Famines-Pestilences increased after 1948
The Fearful Sights And Great Signs Will Begin When Seal 6 Opens!
CONSULT THE “BIRTH PANG FIGURES” SHOWN UNDER “BIRTH PANGS”
October 4, 2014

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Luke 21:11 – And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
We have now covered the first four seals. The fifth seal shifts to corresponding events in Heaven.

Revelation 6:9-11 – And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: [10] And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? [11] And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

This is a scene in Heaven that occurs before the Trumpet 7 Rapture. The souls under the altar represent the souls of all the ages who have been killed for their testimony of the Word of God. They cry out for the future rapture receipt of their glorified bodies, and for God’s just wrath to be poured on an unbelieving world. I speculate that the white robes may be the wedding garments for the marriage of the Lamb. The “little season” the souls are told to wait is during the Tribulation Period, but as soon as their “fellowservants and brethren” have joined their predecessors in Heaven, the Rapture will occur.

Revelation 6:12-17 – And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; [13] And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. [14] And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. [15] And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; [16] And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: [17] For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

The great earthquake of verse 12 represents the initial worldwide shifting of the tectonic plates. The resulting crust ruptures along plate boundaries will allow volcanic ash injections into the upper stratosphere to darken the sun to a black outline while shading the moon a deep blood red.

I have titled this chapter as 777 because I am convinced that the seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven vials are interwoven in both time and places of occurrence. Seal 6 will not open until — is long gone from Office. The seal will suddenly accelerate the intensifications of the beginning of sorrows phenomena, and they will continue to intensify until the 2nd Advent of Christ.

The sixth seal gives John a preview of what will happen when it shows him a generalized picture of what would be happening on earth and in Heaven during the period from Seal 6 to Vial 7. But it is an overview and the specifics aren’t revealed to John until Seal 7, 7 Trumpets, and 7 Vials have opened, sounded, or poured out. The sixth seal is a broad outline of what happens from its opening, and the trumpets and vials that exist within the outline. The trumpets and vials picture the same events. The trumpets announce the beginning of the event and the vial closes it. The sound of the trumpet heralds the start of a phase, but when the last drop is poured out of the corresponding vial, the phase is finished. I will use excerpts from the sixth seal and the seven trumpets and vials to make my case. The seventh seal actually sets in motion the final wrath of God outlined in the sixth seal, and the seventh trumpet and vial bring it to a close. In each phase, Scriptures are given with numerically corresponding comments shown below.

PHASE 1A
6TH SEAL, IST TRUMPET, 1ST VIAL
1. “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake;” (Rev. 6:12)
2. “The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.” (Rev. 8:7)
3. “And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;” (Rev. 6:12)
4. “And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.” (Rev 16:2)

1. The worldwide shifting of the tectonic plates will produce the “great earthquake”
2. The ruptures along the plate boundaries across land areas will create massive volcanic eruptions. These eruptions will destroy one-third of the trees and all the green grass on the earth.
3. The volcanic ash in the upper atmosphere will change the appearance of the sun and moon.
4. Finally, the amount of hydrogen chloride gas pushed up into the ozone layer by violent eruptions will so weaken the structure of the layer that ultraviolet radiation will be able to reach the earth in large quantities. This ultraviolet radiation will produce a noisome and grievous cancer sore on the lost who have been behind at the Rapture. Phase 1A is the beginning of tectonic terror that reaches its peak horror in the Seventh Phase of Seal 6, Trumpet 7, and Vial 7.

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 10 CHAPTER 12–LIGHT AT NIGHT

And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. [5] And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. [6] And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: [7] But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. Zechariah 14:4-7

A most unusual phenomenon:  light at night from the sun!  When will it occur?  The answer is found in verses 4 and 5, which describe the cleavage of the Mount of Olives, a definite occurrence of the latter portion of the Tribulation Period.  In the latter part of the Tribulation Period the great cloud shroud of figure 14 will have established itself around the entire earth above the tropopause.  It is this great cloud shroud that will fulfill the prophecies of verses 6 and 7.  Verse 6 states that the light will not be clear nor dark.  To a Hebrew clear light was unobstructed light, a light that came from its source to fall on an object with no obstructions between.  A Hebrew viewed darkness as the absence of light.  So we are advised that there will be some light (it will not be pitch dark), but the light will not be clear light (it will be partially obstructed).  This is a perfect description of what we call a cloudy day.  On days when the skies are overcast we do have light, but it is not clear light, for the clouds obstruct our view of the sun.  The light on a cloudy day reaches us by a process that involves reflection, refraction, and scattering of the light from the sun.  During the latter portion of the Tribulation Period man will not see the sun.  But limited light, of varying degrees, will penetrate the great cloud shield in the stratosphere.  It will be a dull, gray, depressing light in which the inhabitants of the earth are struggling for survival.  But how can it come to pass “that at evening time it shall be light?”  How is it possible that, at every location on the face of the earth, there will be some light during the evening hours when normally it is pitch dark?

About 20 years ago, after presenting a lecture series in California for Dr. Reed, I departed the Los Angeles area by jet to Dallas, flying at an altitude just below 40 thousand feet.  It was a beautiful day from the surface to the top of the atmosphere along the entire flight path, with clear skies above and below the aircraft.  As we crossed Arizona and New Mexico the light from the sun beamed upon the ground below us, and through the air above us.  When we crossed into Texas there were no clouds below or above us, and the sun was beaming on the aircraft with its full brilliance, but as I looked toward the earth’s surface I begin to notice tiny pinpoints of light on the ground.  People had turned on the lights below us because it was dark at ground level.  The curvature of the earth had already blocked off the surface rays of the sun at ground level across Texas, but at our flight level and above it was broad daylight.  If there had been a way for me to take the light at high levels and direct it downward, it would have produced   dim light on the surface below, where darkness had enshrouded Texas.  It is not by accident that the God of light, who is Light, has very conveniently established a law in nature where this is predictably possible – The law of refraction.

Laws are not theories.  They are like God because they are made by God.  They are consistent and can always be counted to act in a predictable, unchanging manner.  It is not my purpose to teach physics, so I will refrain from a technical discussion of the law itself, and will rather refer those interested in such a dissertation to any general physics textbook.  Refraction occurs because light waves travel at different speeds through different substances.  Refraction involves the bending of light waves as they move from one medium to another.  In figure 15 you can see the bending effect on light as it passes from a less dense medium (air) into a denser medium (water).  If you want to see this bending of light in action, drop a pencil and a coin into a glass about three-fourths full of water.  The pencil will appear to be broken at the water surface, and the coin will appear to be on the side of the glass.  This is a phenomenon produced by refraction.

Why is it that we still have light long after the sun has disappeared over the horizon?  And why do we have light in the morning before the sun comes into view?  You guessed it!  It is the law of refraction at work.  As the sun’s ray’s travel through space, they move very rapidly, as if in a vacuum, but when contact is made with the denser atmospheric medium of the earth, the light decelerates, and is bend around the curvature of the earth by the law of refraction.  This law causes the light to reach the surface before the sun appears in the morning, and to trail behind on the surface long after the early evening sun disappears.

The great cloud of volcanic smoke will be firmly established as shown in figure 14 by the time the battle of Armageddon occurs.  This great encompassing shroud will vertically be thousands of feet thick and, as such, a very dense medium through which the sun’s rays must filter on their way to the earth’s surface.  As the rays filter through by refraction and scattering, they will be severely bent around the curvature of the earth’s surface.  As you may observe in figure 16, the small island, on the opposite side of the earth from the sun, would normally be experiencing an evening of complete darkness.  However, because of the refraction and scattering of sunshine through the great volcanic cloud, light would be bent around the earth to strike the island, and “it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.”  Such would be the case at every location on the surface of the earth.  The intensity of the light at any given point would be affected by the distance it had to be refracted, and by the thickness of cloud through which it had to pass.  No spot on the earth would receive clear light (unobstructed), and no spot on the earth would ever be dark (lightless).

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: [7] But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. Zechariah 14:6, 7.                  www.TribulationPeriod.com

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 11 CHAPTER 13 – AND EVERY EYE SHALL SEE HIM          

    www.TribulationPeriod.com                              

Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. Revelation 1:7

This is not the rapture of the saved.  This is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of the Tribulation Period, coming with the saved to begin His millennial reign.  It is identified as the Second Advent.  I never doubt the Word of God, but I do doubt the ability of myself, and others, to correctly interpret it.  I know that the Word of God is infallible, but I know that men are not.  If the Bible says something, I believe it even if I do not understand it, but I enjoy it a great deal more if I understand what I believe.  This verse of Scripture says, “And every eye shall see him.”  How is that possible?  This means that survivors in England, Russia, China, Africa, North and South America, and everywhere else will all see him.  How is that possible?  I know it will happen because the Word says it; but is it possible to understand how within the laws that God has established in his creation?  In order to answer these questions, let us examine this verse point by point.  We are told “he cometh with clouds.”  This means all across the earth he will be seen with the clouds.

This is certainly consistent with the manner in which he departed from the earth in the Book of Acts.

And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and A CLOUD received him out of their sight. [10] And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; [11] Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall SO COME IN LIKE MANNER as ye have seen him go into heaven. Acts 1:9-11

In verse 9 we are told that a cloud received Him out of their sight, and in verse 11 we are told that when he returns to rule He will return in like manner as He departed into Heaven.  He disappeared in a cloud.  He will reappear through a cloud – the great cloud depicted in figure 14.  This is His return to rule following the destruction of Daniel’s fourth beast with the 11^th horn.

I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spoke: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. [12] As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. [13] I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man CAME WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. [14] And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. Daniel 7:11-14

Please note that the Son of man comes with the clouds of heaven.  The meteorological conditions of the great day of the Lord will be similar to the clouds, and their associated gloom, described in the following Scriptures.

The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. [15] That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, Zephaniah 1:14,15

For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen. Ezekiel 30:3

As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. Ezekiel 34:12

Just how will the heavens appear when Jesus returns at the end of the Tribulation Period?  Matthew paints the picture of His return in graphic form.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: [30] And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man COMING IN THE CLOUDS of heaven with power and great glory. Matthew 24:29-30

I have already described in Birth Pang Numbers 9 and 10 how the gradual building of the great cloud in the stratosphere will engulf the entire outer portion of the earth’s atmosphere.  This will cause the sun to be darkened and the moon not to give her light.  In verse 30 the “sign of the Son of man” will appear in heaven.  What is this sign?  As the Son of man approaches the outer limits of the earth’s atmosphere, His “great glory” of verse 30 will light up the stratospheric cloud around the entire earth, and his glorious light will spread through it by God’s laws of refraction, scattering, and reflection.  Every eye on the face of the earth will behold the blinding light of the glory of God in this great cloud.  This is the sign of the Son of man in the heaven the Hebrews identified as our atmosphere.  The closer Christ moves to the earth, the more brilliant will be the illumination of the cloud band around the entire earth.  There will be no night as he returns to reign.  He will break through the great cloud over the holy land, and, by the effects of light created by scattering, diffusion, reflection, refraction, inferior mirage, superior mirage, light inversion, and looming through air of differing temperature densities, His bodily presence image will be seen around the globe as he descends towards the Mount of Olives.  The Shekinah Glory of God, in the bodily presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, will descend on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, and the prophecy of Zechariah 12:9-14 will begin to be fulfilled.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. [10] And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. [11] In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. [12] And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; [13] The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; [14] All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. Zechariah 12:9-14

Question: “What is the Shekinah glory?”

Answer:

The word shekinah does not appear in the Bible, but the concept clearly does. The Jewish rabbis coined this extra-biblical expression, a form of a Hebrew word that literally means “he caused to dwell,” signifying that it was a divine visitation of the presence or dwelling of the Lord God on this earth. The Shekinah was first evident when the Israelites set out from Succoth in their escape from Egypt. There the Lord appeared in a cloudy pillar in the day and a fiery pillar by night: “After leaving Succoth they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people” (Exodus 13:20–22).

God spoke to Moses out of the pillar of cloud in Exodus 33, assuring him that His Presence would be with the Israelites (v. 9). Verse 11 says God spoke to Moses “face to face” out of the cloud, but when Moses asked to see God’s glory, God told Him, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live” (v. 20). So, apparently, the visible manifestation of God’s glory was somewhat muted. When Moses asked to see God’s glory, God hid Moses in the cleft of a rock, covered him with His hand, and passed by. Then He removed His hand, and Moses saw only His back. This would seem to indicate that God’s glory is too awesome and powerful to be seen completely by man.

The visible manifestation of God’s presence was seen not only by the Israelites but also by the Egyptians: “During the last watch of the night the LORD looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. He made the wheels of their chariots come off so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, ‘Let’s get away from the Israelites! The LORD is fighting for them against Egypt’” (Exodus 14:24-25). Just the presence of God’s Shekinah glory was enough to convince His enemies that He was not someone to be resisted.

In the New Testament, Jesus Christ is the dwelling place of God’s glory. Colossians 2:9 tells us that “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,” causing Jesus to exclaim to Philip, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). In Christ, we see the visible manifestation of God Himself in the second person of the Trinity. Although His glory was also veiled, Jesus is nonetheless the presence of God on earth. Just as the divine Presence dwelled in a relatively plain tent called the “tabernacle” before the Temple in Jerusalem was built, so did the Presence dwell in the relatively plain man who was Jesus. “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2). But when we get to heaven, we will see both the Son and the Father in all their glory, and the Shekinah will no longer be veiled (1 John 3:2). https://www.gotquestions.org/shekinah-glory.html

 www.TribulationPeriod.com

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 12 CHAPTER 14 – WORMWOOD

And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; [11] And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. Revelation 8:10, 11.

In the three preceding verses of our text, John has viewed the land and sea events fully described in previously issued Birth Pang Numbers 5, 6, and 7.  Now his view is shifted upward where he observes a great star falling from heaven.  The word used for star is “aster.”  It can mean any one of three different things.  It can be a fixed star in the heavens such as the North Star, Polaris – or a “shooting” star, better known as a meteor – or a comet.  Sometimes meteors and comets are both referred to as “asteroids” by news commentators, just as they often refer erroneously to tsunami as a “tidal wave.”  Since the fixed stars in our universe (except for the sun) are thousands to millions of light years from our planet and, as such, eliminate themselves from consideration as candidates for being Wormwood, this leaves us with only two candidates – a meteor or a comet.  In order to select between these two it is necessary to carefully examine John’s description of the characteristics of Wormwood.

Using John’s description, the following statements concerning Wormwood cannot be easily refuted:  (1) It burned like a lamp and the Hebrew lamp had a fuel supply that kept it burning.  (2) It fell upon the third part of the earth’s water surface, and yet John did not so much as mention a quiver in the earth’s crust as it struck.  He mentions earthquakes time after time throughout the Book of Revelation, but does not mention one occurring as Wormwood strikes the earth.  (3) Whatever Wormwood is, it dissolves in water, because the water becomes Wormwood.  (4) When it dissolves in man’s water supply it gives the water a bitter taste, and it causes many who drink the water to die.

When a “shooting star” is outside the earth’s atmosphere it is called a meteoroid.  When it enters the earth’s atmosphere it is called a meteor.  And, if it is large enough to eventually strike the earth’s surface, before burning into ashes, the solid portion that remains is identified as a meteorite.  For simplicity I will refer to all three phases as “shooting stars” to avoid confusion.

Shooting stars are made of nickel, iron, and/or stone.  Now, let us reason together as to why Wormwood cannot be a shooting star by comparing it with John’s Revelation description.

(1) A shooting star does not burn like a Hebrew lamp.  It does not have a continuous fuel supply.  Being a solid it burns out very quickly in a matter of seconds to minutes.

(2) If a shooting star large enough to strike one-third of the earth was to make such a contact, the impact of such a solid object would jar the earth to its very foundations, but John reports no such shaking in his vision.

(3)  Nickel, iron, and stone do not dissolve in water, but the water is said to become Wormwood.

(4) Nickel, iron, and stone do not give water a bitter taste, nor or they poisonous.  During the course of man’s recorded history, thousands of shooting stars have fallen into local water sources, and yet there has never been a validated report of poisoning recorded.

One might argue at this point that God could make a shooting star with a continuous fuel supply, which melted instead of burned, dissolved in water, made water taste bitter, and was poisonous to mankind.  He doesn’t have to make one, because he made many heavenly bodies long ago that do all of these things – we call them comets.  The “aster” of Revelation 8:10 is one of God’s trillions of comets.  Why am I so confident that Wormwood is a comet?  My reasons are as follows:

(1) A comet has a continuous fuel supply.  As it approaches the sun its fuel supply begins to be released by sublimation, and it then moves through the heavens like a great, ever burning lamp.

(2)  If a comet entered the earth’s atmosphere it would not burn to ashes, for a comet is composed largely of ice.  It would not burn, but would melt by sublimation, and eventually fall as liquid, and a super thick cloud, upon one-third of man’s water supply.  As the ice melted from a solid into a super thick glob of vapor and liquid, the trillions of pieces of nickel, iron, and stone, embedded in the ice, would be released.  The super thick cloud of liquid and vapor would decelerate in his descent toward the earth, but the released solids, being heavier, would be subject to greater gravitation pull, and would proceed to the earth in advance of the cloud, burning in the atmosphere as shooting stars.  To an observer on the earth it would appear that all the stars of heaven were falling to earth in advance of the cloud that would eventually settle on one-third of man’s water supply. “But in those days after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, [25] And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.” (Mark 13:24, 25)

(3) As the comet passed through the earth’s atmosphere during its melting process, it would release methyl cyanide, hydrogen cyanide, and a wide range of cyanogenic poisons, all of which are 100 percent water soluble and have a bitter taste.

(4) Methyl cyanide, hydrogen cyanide, and cyanogenic gases are extremely toxic, and many would die of the poisoning effects.

Comets originate from a region between our solar system and the nearest stars.  There are trillions of comets in this great comet cloud.  There appears to be a virtually endless supply of them, for each year new comets are discovered and others go out of existence, victims of the shattering effects of the sun.  When earth passes through the old path of a comet, the small solid particles, which melted off the outer veneer of its icy surface, are intercepted, and meteor showers are produced in our atmosphere.  These showers occasionally exhibit as many as a thousand shooting stars per minute falling through the earth’s atmosphere.

A comet is one of God’s strangest creations.  There is nothing quite like it.  A comet nucleus is made of solid ice, but it is actually ice made of gases that solidified in the unbelievable coldness of outer space.  As the ice ball nucleus approaches the sun, its outer surface begins to pass directly from solid ice to a gas by sublimation, and we earthlings begin to observe its long, gaseous, lamp like tail.  A Hebrew lamp, because they did not refine the olive oil, put out a gray trail of smoke when it burned. Figure 18 illustrates how the comet’s tail always points away from the sun because of the sun’s solar winds.

The black specks on the surface of the comet in figure 17 are small pieces of nickel, iron, and stone that become embedded in the outer layer of ice by contact as the comet makes its long elliptical orbit around the sun and our solar system.  These pieces of nickel, iron, and stone are released into its tail along the comet’s path when the sun’s rays begin to melt the comet, as illustrated in figure 18.  Sometimes the gaseous tail of a comet has been observed to extend out to 150 million miles from its nucleus, and over this great distance a trail of small, solid pieces of space debris is laid down in space.  Every year, particularly during the late fall and early winter, the earth passes through several comet tails of the past, and dramatic shooting star displays are visible in our atmosphere.

The solid chunk of ice nucleus varies in size, some being less than 20 miles across, while other icy centers are several thousand miles in diameter.  When the nucleus comes within the warming rays of the sun it begins to melt, and this produces the coma and tail shown in figure 19.  The icy nucleus is composed of hydrogen, helium, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen gases in a solid icy state.  As the ultraviolet rays of the sun strike this combination of elemental gases, several compounds are produced.  Among these gases are methyl cyanide, hydrogen cyanide, and a whole range of cyanogenic poisons.  When Russian, Italian, and Japanese satellites went in, around, and over the coma and nucleus of Halley’s Comet in 1986, scientists were shocked by the very heavy concentrations of cyanogenic gases that were discovered.  The same heavy concentrations have also been observed in all probes of comets since 1986.

I do not know which of the trillions of comets God will select to be Wormwood, but I am certain that Wormwood is a comet.  When Wormwood enters the earth’s atmosphere it will not burn, it will melt.  And, as it goes directly from a solid to a gas, it will release into the earths atmospheric the aforementioned deadly gases of figure 19.  Figure 20 pictures another creation of God described in Ecclesiastes 1:7 – “All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.”

This creation of God, known as the Hydrological Cycle, is the cycle into which the 100 percent water soluble, poisonous gases of figure 21 will be released.  God has so designed the earth’s atmosphere that the sun’s ray’s cause exposed water surfaces to be turned into a rising gas called water vapor.  As the water vapor is set free from its liquid state by evaporation, it rises and cools at the rate of 1 degree centigrade for every 100 meters it is lifted.  Continued lifting produces a visible gas structure by condensation, which we call a cloud.  Further lifting causes the water vapor to condense on microscopic floating particles in the air and, if they grow heavy enough, they fall to the earth as precipitation.  God’s comet gases will readily mix with God’s water vapor in God’s hydrological system to fall as God’s deadly precipitation on one-third of the water supply God made for man.  The things of God’s creation will be used to destroy most of what represents God’s most complex creation – mankind.  Once again, I make my continuously repetitious point:  God will destroy most of mankind with His creation, not with the creations of mankind.

  www.TribulationPeriod.com

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The terrifying scenario associated with verses twelve and fourteen has been fully painted in graphic detail in the preceding chapters of the birth pangs.  But please observe verse thirteen, which is so conveniently placed in the midst of this pattern of horror.  In the same time frame that earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are producing the effects of verses twelve and fourteen, the stars are observed to fall to the earth.

In Chapter twelve the composition of a comet was outlined.  It is basically a great dirty snowball or ice block.  In the outer veneer of its icy surfaces there are billions to trillions of pieces of embedded space debris.  Most of these tiny pieces of space debris are about the size of a thumbnail, while a few may be hundreds of feet in diameter.  They are composed primarily of nickel, iron, and/or stone.  As a comet approaches the sun, its outer ice surface begins to melt, and releases a long trail of condensational gases that seemingly trail it.  As the outer veneer melts, many of the pieces of space debris are set free from their icy jail, and are then laid down as long belts of small meteoroids suspended in space.  Whenever the earth passes through the meteoroid belts, fantastic displays of thousands of shooting stars fall through its atmosphere, most of which burn into tiny specks of dust before they reach the earth’s surface.

The case was made in Birth Pang Number 12 to show Wormwood is definitely a comet.  This allows verse thirteen of Revelation, Chapter six, to blend perfectly with the worldwide scenario presented by the verses above and below it.  In the midst of worldwide cataclysms of earthquake, fire, smoke, and brimstone, we have the arrival of Wormwood.  In Birth Pang Number 12 full attention was given to the poisoning effects of Wormwood, but when it melts in the atmosphere, what happens to the billions of tiny, solid pieces of space debris in its nucleus?  The answer is given in verse thirteen.  The solid pieces of space debris will not melt like ice, but they will burn.  They will fall through the earth’s atmosphere as meteors, billions of shooting stars.  It will appear that all the stars of heaven are falling to the earth.  Of all the billions that fall, only a handful will be large to reach the earth’s surface as meteorites.  John’s description of falling stars is echoed by both Matthew and Mark in their frightening descriptions of end time events.

[29] Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: [24] But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, [25] And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. [26] And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. Matthew 24:29 + Mark 13:24-26

Hell will come up from below, and parts of the heaven will come down from above.  Revelation 6:12-14 is a synopsis, a summary, a preview of what Revelation says will happen for the last three and one-half years of the tribulation period.  It is a preview, given at the opening of the sixth seal, as to what will be occurring through the Trumpets and Vials of God. These three verses describe the terror, and verses fifteen through seventeen show its effects upon mankind.

[15] And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; [16] And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: [17] For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? Revelation 6:15-17

www.TribulationPeriod.com

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 14 CHAPTER 16 – Noisome and Grievous Sores

[2] And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men, which had the mark of the beast and upon them which worshipped his image. Revelation 16:2

This first vial is directly tied to the first trumpet.  The trumpets herald (announce) the beginning of seven chronological events, and the seven vials close each of these events.  The first trumpet announces the beginning of event number one, and the first vial closes it when its last drop strikes the earth.  Previous chapters have fully outlined the series of horrifying events that begin with the blowing of the first trumpet.  The great unleashing of thousands of great earthquakes from the sixth seal to the seventh trumpet will be the action of God, and it will eventually lead to the outbreak of noisome and grievous sores in Revelation 16:2.  The following Scriptures attest fully that God will shake the earth to its very foundation during the latter part of the Tribulation Period:

[11] And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. Luke 21:11

[1] For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. [6] For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; [1] Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. [6] Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire. [19] The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved (torn asunder), the earth is moved exceedingly. [20] The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again. Malachi 4:1 + Haggai 2:6 + Isaiah 24:1 + 29:6 + 24:19, 20

When the Bible was written mankind believed the world was flat.  But God, who made the universe, knew the folly of man’s belief, for in Isaiah 40:22 He tells us, “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth.”  God knew the earth was circular before man.  He also established the invisible forces of the universe that hold the earth in its planetary position.  He testifies to this in Job 26:7 by the statement: “and hangeth the earth upon nothing.”  This circular earth, made by God, and held in space by His invisible powers, will soon be shaken to the very foundation of it’s gravitational center.  God testifies to this unbelievable foundation shaking of the earth’s core in Isaiah 24:18 as he states: “For the windows from on  high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.”

When the tectonic plates of the earth begin to readjust themselves to a new balance of geophysical isostasy, there will be a dramatic change in the gravitational core balance of the earth.  Isostasy is neither a force nor a process, but the universal tendency to establish balance between the segments of the earth’s crust.  Its attempt to correct the gravitation imbalance in the plates will cause a disruption from the crust to earth’s core.  This disruption of the earth’s tectonic balance will damage the electromagnetic field.  The central core of the earth is solid nickel and iron.  The outer core surrounding it is liquid nickel and iron.  As the earth spins in space it moves the liquid around the solid core.  So we have the solid core rotating as an electric conductor in a magnetic field.  God has so constructed the interior of the earth that it operates like a huge generator.  This produces electricity in fantastic quantities, which generates a very powerful magnetic field, and that field is God’s magnetic field of the earth.  The earth’s magnetic field is so complex that only God understands the delicate balance which keeps the geomagnetic shield in place around the earth.

Figure 22 portrays the protective magnetic field that God maintains around His planet Earth.  The magnetic field is a protective barrier around the earth.  The field is constantly being bombarded by many a wide variety of celestial particles and rays.  Among the many attacking celestials are cosmic rays, which are strong charged, fast moving particles of hydrogen and helium.  They severely damage living cells, and produce horrifying mutations of the skin.  If the magnetic field were to be disrupted, all life forms would be subject to a very high dose of cosmic-ray bombardment.  Terrible mutations of the skin would naturally occur.

I am convinced that the great shaking of the earth prior to, and during, the pouring of the first vial, will produce the conditions described in Revelation 16:2, the outbreak of noisome and grievous sores upon the flesh.  The shift in the magnetic field of the earth will play a part in the fulfillment of Revelation 16:2.  The earth’s magnetic field has shifted several times during geologic history.  Whenever these reversals occur they reduce the earth’s magnetic field by about 80%, thereby leaving the earth without its protective shroud.  I believe God will lower his protective magnetic shield to plague the doomed of the earth with flesh mutilation by cosmic radiation.

Thus far we have dealt with only the fantastic shaking produced by earthquakes up to the pouring of the first vial, which leads to surface cosmic ray bombardment.  In all reality, this cosmic bombardment will be incidental in production of sores, when compared with the effect of volcanic eruptions produced by the movement of the same tectonic plates.  Lord willing, we will show what will produce most of these sores, as we examine trumpet four and vial four in a continuation of this chapter next Friday as BIRTH PANG NUMBER 14A.  Destruction of the ozone layer will produce most of the sores.

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 14A CHAPTER 16A – NOISOME AND GRIEVOUS SORES

This is a continuation of Birth Pang Number 14, Chapter 16.  In Birth Pang 14 we dealt with the first trumpet as it relates to the first vial, and how they will produce some of the sores that appear on mankind during the latter portion of the Tribulation Period.  We will continue the discussion regarding how the majority of these noisome and grievous sores will be produced.  We will do this by dealing with the fourth trumpet and the fourth vial as to how they will affect the flesh of mankind.

[12]  And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. [8]And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. [9] And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. Revelation 8:12 + 16:8, 9

The first trumpet and the first vial dealt with things that were “cast upon” and “poured out” upon the earth.  This casting and pouring on the earth will produce a reversal of the earth’s geomagnetic field, which will generate the skin plagues of Revelation 16:2.  But the fourth trumpet of Revelation 8:12, and the fourth vial of Revelation 16:8, involve the interplay between God’s judgment of man and His use of the sun He created.  When the fourth trumpet sounds, God smites the sun to begin Event Number Four, and then has the fourth vial poured out on it to the last drop to close it.  I have already exposited fully in previous chapters on Revelation 8:12.  They give a complete explanation regarding the gradual formation of a great cloud shroud by volcanic eruptions.  It is this volcanic activity that will eventually allow the sun to scorch men with the great heat of ultraviolet radiation.

God has created a thick layer of ozone in the earth’s vast stratosphere.  If this layer was not there, man would be scorched with ultraviolet radiation, and annihilated from the earth within a few years.  Many scientists still cling to the idea that chlorofluorocarbons are breaking down the stratospheric ozone layer.  However, the real culprits are the increasing frequencies of volcanic eruptions.  Ozone is a form of oxygen that protects man from the sin’s deadly ultraviolet radiation.  If this radiation could slip through the ozone layer it would lead to rapid worldwide outbreaks of fast growing skin cancer.  A U.S. Geological Survey scientist, Dr. David A. Johnston, missing and presumed dead since the first eruption of Mount Saint Helens, was quoted by Warren E. Leary, and Associated Press science writer as follows:

“Analysis of trapped gas pockets in volcanic and other material indicates molten magmas may contain 20 to 40 times more chlorine than earlier estimates upon which volcanic atmospheric impact had been estimated.  This means that the amount of chlorine emitted into the atmosphere could equal more than 100% of the 1975 world production in fluorocarbon chemicals.  Johnson said in his report that volcanic explosions powerful enough to penetrate the stratosphere have been occurring about once a year in recent times.  These eruptions shoot hydrogen chloride high enough to reach the ozone layer.”

As a scientist, certified to teach chemistry and physics, I was so certain the ozone layer was being depleted by gases blown vertically into it by volcanoes that I began to teach and write about it in books published in the late seventies and early eighties.  I was so firmly convinced of it that I predicted the ozone hole would continue to grow, even after worldwide elimination of chlorofluorocarbon production by man had occurred.  In the early eighties they predicted the ozone hole would decline in size by 1985.  When it did not, they said it was due to residual effects.  But we were assured it would decrease by 1990.  When it did not, they said the residual effects were greater than they had thought, but we would see a small decline by 1995.  When it did not decline they kept on riding the same old dead horse, and predicted a thinning by 2000.  It is still continuing to grow, and now they say it may not decline until 2020.  The ozone hole growth since 1979 is as follows:  from very small in 1977 to 500,000 cubic kilometers in 1980, to 10,500,000 in 1986, to 22,000,000 in 1992, to 23,500,000 in 1994, to 27,0000,000 in 1999, and to 28,300,000 cubic kilometers in 2000.  And still there is no ozone hole over the North Pole, yet 74% of all ozone destroying particles are released in the Northern Hemisphere!  But isn’t it strange that most of the world’s volcanoes are located in the Southern Hemisphere, with many of them south of 60 degrees latitude, while only a handful of volcanoes exist north of 60 degrees latitude.

Please allow me to elaborate why man-made CFC gases are not the culprits responsible for the depletion of the ozone layer over the South Pole:

(1)          74% of all man-made CFC’s are released in the Northern hemisphere. The Long-term vertical circulation patterns of the earth in the Northern Hemisphere demand that the first ozone hole should have appeared over the North Pole – it did not!

(2)          The CFC gases are heavier than the atmosphere into which they are supposed to be rising; hence they cannot rise to the level of the ozone layer of their own volition.

(3)          CFC’s are washed out of the atmosphere by the precipitation cycle of the troposphere before they could reach the ozone layer.

(4)          CFC gases, without the direct help of volcanic activity, don’t penetrate the restricting worldwide temperature inversion, which begins well below the ozone layer at the tropopause.

Now, please allow me to exposit why I am confident that volcanic eruptions are responsible for the depletion of the ozone layer over the South Pole:

(1)          The rate increase in major eruptions since 1950 is four times greater than at any time in history.

(2)          Most vertical eruptions are occurring in the Southern Hemisphere, thereby causing the ozone hole to appear first over the South Pole, rather than the North Pole.

(3)          Volcanic eruptions forcefully blow different kinds of ozone depleting gases through the tropopause inversion into the ozone layer, bypassing much of the earth’s circulation and hydrological patterns.

(4)          There is an active volcano pouring its depleting gases upward into the center of the ozone hole from time to time – Mount Erebus, which is near the South Pole.

(5)          The growth of the ozone hole has been steadily toward the north over the southern tip of South America, where a thick concentration of active volcanoes exists today.

During the latter part of the Tribulation, thousands of volcanic eruptions, like those in Figure 10, will occur along the dashed lines of figure 3.  These eruptions will send staggering amounts of hydrogen chloride, nitric oxides, and other ozone depleting gases into the ozone layer.  The resultant breaking down of the ozone layer will allow ultraviolet radiation to pour through onto the inhabitants of the earth.  These occupants of the final days of Satan’s kingdoms on this planet will be scorched with the great heat of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation.  Yet they still will not repent toward the God of these plagues that physically destroy them.  They will understand the processes that are causing it, but they will not recognize that God is doing it.

Most Christian writers of today spend a lot of effort in trying to work the entire modern day arsenal of man into the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.  Most make the last day skin plagues attributable to atomic radiation.  May I assure you that the ultraviolet and cosmic radiation, which would pour down on the earth’s surface if the ozone layer weakened and the magnetic poles reversed, would be thousands of times deadlier than atomic radiation.

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 15 CHAPTER 17 – THE IDUMEAN WINEPRESS

 [1] Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. [2] For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. [3] Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. [4] And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. [5] For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment. Isaiah 34:1-5

There can be little doubt that Isaiah is speaking about one of the events of the latter portion of the Tribulation Period.  He speaks of the great slaughter of the nations that will come against the nation of Israel and her great city Jerusalem at the final battle of Armageddon.  He further testifies to a heavenly picture of the chaos previously described in many Birth Pang chapters.  And then, in verse five, Isaiah gives us a specific location where the great sword of God will streak down from Heaven to cleave asunder the land of Idumea.  This country of Idumea is also called Edom in the Scriptures, and any reliable dictionary or commentary locates it between the southern end of the Dead Sea and the northern tip of the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba (See figure 23).  This section of the earth’s crust will suddenly be torn apart by God’s power in the latter portion of the Tribulation Period.

It is not by accident that the great north-south crack in the mid-Atlantic, shown in figure 3, continues around the southern tip of Africa, through the Indian Ocean, down the Gulf of Aden, up the Red Sea floor, along both sides of the Gulf of Aqaba, northward across the Araba Desert, along both sides of the Dead Sea and Jordan River Valley, and finally through Lebanon to intersect another east-west fault in Turkey.  God will be using this great geological rift fault to fulfill many of His Tribulation Period prophecies.

By observing figure 25, you can visualize how God is rapidly spreading apart the Red Sea fault faster than any other geological fault in eastern Africa or the Middle East.  God has been bringing an unbelievable tonnage of red hot, flowing rock called magma upward through this Red Sea crack for a very long period of time.  As the liquid rock makes contact with the water-cooled Red Sea floor it solidifies into new basaltic crust.  This new crust is pushing apart two large tectonic plates: the African and Arabian plates.  The crack in the crust of the earth through Idumea is kept locked together by horizontal pressure applied by God in the distant past and, consequently, the hot liquid rock beneath Idumea is kept locked deep beneath the surface.  However, the rapid spreading of the crust (to the south of Idumea in the Red Sea) will continue to induce more and more horizontal pressure in the opposite direction of the force that now locks the Idumean section of the fault.  In the latter portion of the Tribulation Period the splitting force of  the south  will exceed the locking force of the north, and the the center of the land of Idumea will suddenly rip apart as if a great sword from heaven had swept down to slash it.   When this occurs along a line from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba, the land will suddenly become what geologists call a flood basalt plain.  It will be a valley filled with flowing blood-red lava at temperatures initially in excess of 2100 degrees Fahrenheit (1200 degrees Celsius), and will be accompanied by all the horrors of a flood basalt plain.

There were no Hebrew words in Isaiah’s day for magma pikes, lava intrusions, pyroclastic avalanche clouds, flood basalt plains, etc.  So when Isaiah received this vision from God, he used the most descriptive words of his language to fit what he saw.  We began this chapter with the terrifying picture of the judgment of God on the nations of the world and Idumea as outlined in Isaiah 34:1-5.  Now, bearing in mind that Isaiah did not have our geological jargon of today, let us discover what geologic horror is created in Idumea when God’s sword comes down by examining Isaiah 34:8 & 9.

 [8] For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. [9] And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.  Isaiah 34:8, 9.

The rift in the earth’s crust will remain volcanic-ally active from generation to generation throughout the millennial reign of Christ, but the deep opening itself will be cooled by the waters of the Dead Sea as they move southward to dump their high salt content into the Gulf of Aqaba.  This drainage of the Dead Sea will be covered with many Scriptures in great detail in later Birth Pang chapters.

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 16 CHAPTER 18 THE GREAT WINEPRESS OF GOD

 [19] And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. [20] And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. Revelation 14:19, 20.

This particular angel thrusts his sickle INTO the earth.  We are advised in verse 20 as to WHERE the sickle makes its earthly penetration; somewhere in Israel “outside the city,” which is the city of Jerusalem.  The word used for winepress is “LENOS,” which means: “a trough dug in the earth, a ditch or canal, or anything shaped like a tub.” The winepresses with which John was familiar were rectangular in shape and made of, or dug out of, the rock of the earth. Blood-red wine was made from grapes.  The ripe clusters were carried in baskets and thrown into the press.  The winepress consisted of a shallow trough built above the ground, or excavated by chipping it out of limestone rocks in the earth.  There were also village and household winepresses, but since the one to which John refers is one in a vineyard field, one made by chipping out a rectangular trough in limestone rock, I will limit my discourse to that type.  One end of this type was made lower, such that the blood-red liquid from the grapes would flow into it, after being pressed out by the feet of humans in the shallow end. So both the upper and lower sections of the winepress presented a view of a blood-red trough in the crust of the earth.

John, in his vision, looks down upon the earth and, from this aerial view, recognized the city of Jerusalem, a city he had looked down upon many times from the Mount of Olives.  He beheld “without” (outside) Jerusalem, to the east, the greatest winepress ever seen by human eyes.  He saw a trough (lenos) in the earth 1600 furlongs (185 miles) in length.  The opening of the earth caused by the angel’s sickle had caused blood (haima) to come up “out” (ek) of the winepress to a depth of about five feet (“unto the horse bridles”).  The Greek word used for blood is haima, which can mean real blood, or any object taking on a blood red color, or any liquid that has a blood-red hue.   The Hebrew word for blood is also used to describe a blood-red liquid rather than body blood, as we find stated in Genesis 49:11 – “Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:”  The moon will not turn to real blood in the Tribulation Period, but it will take on a blood-red hue, as is described by the use of the word haima in Revelation 6:12 –     “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;”  Before this Birth Pang is completed I will carefully pull together everything previously stated, and thereby put together a full exposition of Revelation 14:19,20.  But for now I must take time to describe one of the most terrifying creations of God in the distant past: a flood-basalt plain.

In the distant past, six major rips in the crust of the earth have produced six great basaltic flood plains.  These great cleavages of the earth’s crust occurred in zones along the dashed lines of Figure 3.   They represent old magma extrusions associated with the initial stages of continental drift.  Dr. W. Kenneth Hamblin, in his standard geological text, The Earth’s Dynamic Systems, states: “Where the rift system passes beneath a continent, the continental crust is split and great volumes of basalt are extruded and spread out over large areas of the continent.  These great floods of lava fill the lowlands and depressions in the existing topography.”  The rift system that passes beneath the continent from the Gulf of Aqabah northward through Israel is a prime candidate for the sudden creation of a raging flood basalt plain.  The following quoted material, concerning flood basalt plains, was extracted from Volcano, volume 2 of A 1982 Time-Life series that examines the workings of the planet earth: “Flood basalts are generated atop the upper mantle.  When tension opens fissures in the crust, the fluid magma spurts directly to the surface.  The sheer volume of it dwarfs all other volcanic activity: a week long flow can release 360 cubic miles of lava, 10 times the volume of Mount Rainier.  Extremely fluid magma suddenly spurts to the surface through a line of hundred of offset dikes, each one as much as 15 miles long and fifty feet wide.  The lava from such individual fissures, about five cubic miles per day, is so hot and runny that it speeds down the slightest slope at speeds up to 10 miles an hour, creating a lava sheet as much as 100 miles wide.  A standard textbook notes, “sooner or later they must recur.”  This liquid rock can hit the surface at temperatures from 2300 to 2900 degrees Fahrenheit.  This is double the temperature required to cremate a human body.  At these temperatures, the flesh would disappear from the body before it hit the ground, were it directly exposed to the initial air heat flash surge near the crack through which the magna extruded.  All that would remain would be a human skeleton.  At the same time that the Mount of Olives cleaves in its midst, and all the land in Israel from Geba to Rimmon is lifted up, what follows will happen to the antichrist’s army in the Jordan River Valley, as indicated in Zechariah 14:3-12.

 [12] And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. Zechariah 14:12

At some point in time, near the end of the Tribulation Period, the great rift valley of Israel will suddenly rip open from one end to the other.  For a period of time after this ripping a vast flood basalt plain will be created along a 1600 furlough (185 mile) section of the valley.  Looking down on it from heaven in his vision it looked like a north-south winepress. It was east of Jerusalem, along the Jordan River Valley, as a long rectangular trough in the crust of the earth filled with blood.  Tremendous tectonic changes will completely restructure the entire valley from the Gulf of Aqabah to Lebanon.  The fissures will close abruptly at the end of the Tribulation Period from the southern end of the Dead Sea to Lebanon.  However, limited volcanic activity will continue south of the Dead Sea, in what once was Idumea, throughout Christ’s Millennial Reign from “generation to generation,” according to Isaiah.

[8] For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. [9] And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. [10] It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever. Isaiah 34:8-10

Now, considering John’s description of the great winepress in Revelation 14:19, 20, in light of one of God’s fantastic creations in the earth, let us compare God’s linguistics with God’s science.  What John saw looked like a great lenos (trough or ditch or canal) about 185 miles long.  I call your attention to Figure 24, Part A, which is an excerpt from a 1970 diagram by Dr. Fruend showing both sides of the Dead Sea Rift.  The long dashed black lines that run north and south along both sides of the Dead Sea, from the Gulf of Aqabah through Israel, are great fissures in the crust of the earth.  These fissures erratically weave down through the crust of the earth to eventually make contact with great undersea lakes of magma.  Part A of Figure 24 gives a picture of these fissures as though you were looking down on them from a satellite, while Part B pictures the same fissures as though you were deep within the earth looking northward, and could see their downward progression into the earth.  These fissures are where they should be to comply with the description by John.  They are “without the city,” which is Jerusalem.  And the word lenos does fit the characteristics of the Jordan River Valley, which is a great trough in the crust of the earth.

John saw haima come up out the lenos to cover an area some 185 miles long.  John viewed a blood-red liquid (haima), which we call lava, spread across the great trough (lenos) to fill what we know as the Jordan River Valley.  And the blood-red liquid filled the valley to a depth of about five feet (height of a horse bridle).  Please note that, on Part A of Figure 24, a lone fissure veers off from the main trough, then extends northwest past the Tel of Armageddon, and finally goes on to Haifa, where it meets the Mediterranean Sea.  If you measure northward from the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqabah to the point of departure by the fissure that extends to Haifa, you will discover it is 1600 furlongs, or 185 miles.  I believe this 185 mile section of the Jordan River trough is the great winepress that John saw filled with a blood-red fluid as he looked down upon the earth in his vision.

Please observe Figure 25.  God, for some time, has brought an unbelievable tonnage of hot flowing rock upward into the Red Sea Fault.  As this liquid rock makes contact with the water- cooled Red Sea floor, it solidifies into new basaltic crust.  This new crust is forcing two great plates, the Arabian and African, to move away from one another at a rapid geological rate.   This particular segment is moving faster than others in the Middle East.  Please note that, on Figure 25, while the Red Sea section of the fault is spreading rapidly, the great Rift Fault running up both sides of the Jordan Valley is locked tighter than a drum.  Long ago God pushed together these two great tectonic plates, which are separated only by the Jordan Rift Valley between them.  God’s horizontal pressure fused both sides of the valley floor to these plates, like one would push together two pieces of clay.  It is this horizontal pressure that locks the fissures in place and prevents magma from spurting to the surface on both sides of the valley. The locked section, (See Figure 26), is held together by a strong tensional force placed there by God.  In the Red Sea section of the rift God is generating a force that is in direct opposition to His tensional force that locks the section through Israel.  Tensional forces are building in the Gulf of Aqabah, and soon the southern opposing force will end a long struggle by ripping apart the northern section to form a flood basalt plain.  It will be sudden, abrupt, and horrifying.  God will suddenly create flood basalt plains 185 miles long that begin at the Gulf of Aqabah, and then extend up to the east end of the Valley of Jezreel.  On both sides of the Jordan River Valley hot fountains of blood-red liquid, now confined by pressure below the fissures of Figure 27, will suddenly shoot hundreds of feet into the air.  And a heat flash will blast toward the west to reach the foothills of the mountains of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, and toward the east to smash against the bluffs of the mountains of Moab and Ammon.  I believe Figure 28 is what John saw from the air in Revelation 14:19, 20. When the angel, who has authority to say when fire is to be released on the earth, tells the angel that has the sickle to stick it into the earth, then as the sickle goes in, the vine of the of the earth (the antichrist’s army) will feel the wrath of God. God does not have to use the creations of man to fulfill his prophecies.   As he did in the flood of Noah, he will destroy man “with the earth,” but this time it will be fire from the earth, rather than water on the earth.

[18] And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. Revelation 14:18

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 17 CHAPTER 19

[14] Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. Isaiah 5:14

Most expositors of today’s popular religious works go to great lengths to work the weaponry of modern technology into the Scriptures.  Ezekiel’s wheel within a wheel becomes a flying saucer; John’s scorpions become enemy jet aircraft, and his horses are enemy tanks.  But expositors of all ages have vainly attempted to work the weaponry of their age into God’s word, and all have been in error.  Please do not misunderstand.  I am certainly aware there will be a great Battle of Armageddon, and I realize a large percentage of mankind will be killed by his own weaponry.  And also please understand that some passages in the Scriptures may well refer to man’s weaponry of the last days, but I am simply saying it has been greatly overplayed.  The vast majority of mankind killed in the world, even during the Battle of Armageddon, will not be by man’s hand, but rather by God unleashing the natural forces of His creation.  God will destroy man “with the earth.”

Isaiah 5:14 portrays red hot liquid rock from hell pouring out upon the surface of God’s earth.  Hell literally enlarges itself by expanding out onto the surface of the earth as God opens the deep mouths in the crust of it (Shown as dashed lines in Figure 3).  Hell will flow upward to the surface of the earth without measure.  Today many modernistic theologians believe hell is a mystical, spiritual place somewhere in the mind, a spiritual concept, rather than an actual place of fiery torment.  But hell is a real, literal place of fire and liquid hell in the interior of the earth, where the departed souls of all the lost are kept until the Great White Throne Judgment of Revelation 20:11-15.  And, where these great interior lakes of liquid rock exist, it is dark as pitch and hot as hell.  I believe God has confined the souls of the dead, who died in a lost condition, to these underground liquid lakes of hell.  I know that God does confine spiritual beings to material places.  One such example is found in Revelation 9:14.

[14]  Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. Revelation 9:14

Angels are certainly spiritual beings, and the Euphrates River is certainly a literal, physical place.  If you want personal proof, then look in a mirror.  Inside that literal, physical, material body is confined a spiritual soul that is confined to live there until physical death occurs.  Amos identifies the literal hell as a place you reach by digging downward.

[2] Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: Amos 9:2

Proverbs portrays hell as existing in the earth beneath our feet.    [24] The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath. Proverbs 15:24

Isaiah indicates that hell is located such that it must be moved upward from beneath to meet someone coming down from the earth’s surface.

[9] Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. Isaiah 14:9

The earth itself is the bottomless pit that enshrouds a literal interior hell of hot, liquid rock.  And it is the upward extension of this hell upon the surface of the earth that will destroy most of the antichrist’s army.  (See Birth Pang Numbers 8, 15, & 16)

I call your attention to Part A of Figure 24.  Please note that God has very conveniently created a major fault line that runs as an offshoot from the Jordan River Valley northwestward toward Haifa.  The placement of this offshoot fissure is very   interesting in regards to the Battle of Armageddon.  The fault line runs directly through, and under, a great valley extending from Wadi el Yabis on the Jordan River to Haifa.   This great valley, through which it extends, actually consists of two valleys linked together, the lower valley being known as the Valley of Jezreel.  Near the place where these two valleys meet, on the south face of its southern bluff, sets the Tel of Megiddo, Armageddon.  The two valleys are often erroneously called the Valley of Armageddon.  It is in this valley where the hottest battle of this Gentile Age will be waged.  At the same time that God rips apart the Jordan Valley, to create a raging flood basalt plain in the Jordan Valley from the Gulf of Aqabah northward to the place the Jezreel intersects the Jordan plain, the fissure from that point, which extends northwestward to Haifa, will tear in several places to produce cinder cone eruptions along it.  This will not be nearly as bad as what happens to antichrist’s army in the flood basalt zone, but it will kill a large number of his troops.

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 18 Chapter 20 – The Valley of Decision

[9] Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: [10] Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. [11] Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. [12] Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. [13] Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. [14] Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. [15] The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. [16] The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. JOEL 3:9-16

Verses nine through eleven describe the final gathering of the Gentile nations for the last great battle of the Tribulation Period, the Battle of Armageddon.  Verse twelve identifies a specific valley in Israel where God’s sickle will come down hardest in his judgment – the valley of Jehoshaphat.  Some biblical expositors of today locate this valley by identifying it as the Kidron Valley between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives.  But I believe this location is in error. Why? This identification was made by Jerome in the fourth century, more than one thousand years after the death of Joel.  The valley of Berachah in II Chronicles 20:25-29 is most likely what was identified by Joel as the valley of Jehoshaphat.  I believe this to be the case because about one hundred years before the writings of Joel, Jehoshaphat had won a great national victory in this valley over the heathen nations surrounding Israel.  Those nations sought to “cut off Israel from being a nation.”  This great valley is located between Tekoa and the road from Bethlehem to Hebron.  It is a broad, rich vale, watered with copious springs, affording space for the encampment of a great army of men.  Oddly enough, it just happens to be located eight miles west of the geological fault that goes down into the underground lakes of magmatic hell.

When the great sickle of verse thirteen plunges into the earth in Israel, the Jordan Valley press will be full and overflowing with vast hoards of mankind whose “wickedness is great.”  Verse fourteen outlines the great number as “multitudes, multitudes,” and identifies it as the time of God’s final decision on antichrist and his armies.  Verse fifteen describes the effect that the volcanic smoke will have on the heavenly bodies as it collects above Israel.  Just as the antichrist believes he has won, with his armies controlling the land from Dan to Beersheva, God will have His angel put in the sickle of Revelation 14:19, 20, and the valley of Jehoshaphat, plus the Jordan Valley itself, from the Gulf of Aqabah some 185 miles northward, will become a raging inferno (See Birth Pangs 15, 16, and 16A).  Verse sixteen affirms that all of this will be wrought by God to demonstrate He “will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.”

The raging inferno of the Jordan Valley will be what geologists call a flood basalt plain (See Birth Pangs 15, 16, and 16A).  It will extend from the Gulf of Aqabah for some 185 miles (1600 furlongs) to the intersection shown with the off-shoot fissure shown on Figure 26 (Click on Figures at top of this Birth Pang).  The penetration of this Haifa off-shoot fissure, via Tel Megiddo,  into the long north-south Jordan graben, will not allow the ripping action, described in Birth Pang 14A, to tear any further northward than the 1600 furlongs prophesied by John in Revelation 14:20.  The temperature of the lava, which will spurt up as fountains of what looks like blood on both sides of the Jordan Valley, will be in excess of 2200 degrees Fahrenheit.  The horizontal heat cloud, released from this sudden ripping, will instantly consume human flesh, eyes, and tongues on contact.  When you are made aware that Zechariah’s Hebrew word, translated as “plague,” literally means “destruction” or slaughter,” and that his Hebrew word “consume” literally means “melt,” it is much easier to understand how God, and not man’s weaponry, will destroy the people that have fought against Jerusalem in Zechariah 14:1-3.  God’s destruction of these people is vividly described in Zechariah 14:12.

[12] And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. Zechariah 14:12

A blast of air, received from being near a sudden basalt eruption, would instantly melt the flesh of a body while it was still standing in place.  Most of the antichrist’s army will be destroyed, not by man’s atomic radiation, but by the surfacing igneous fires of our mighty God.  He will sit in judgment in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and his judgment will be a judgment of fire on the evil vine of the earth, which He will cast into his great 1600 furlong winepress.

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 19 Chapter 21 – God Slowly Forms a Great Valley

[3] For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. [4] And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. Micah 1:3-4

These verses of Micah figuratively picture melting topography and spreading valleys beneath the feet of the lord. The word used for “cleft” is “baqa,” which is the same word used for “cleave” in Zechariah 14:4 to describe the formation of a very great valley through the Mount of Olives at the end of the Tribulation Period. It means “to break, rend, rip up, make a breach, separate, split, cut out, break through or into, or to divide.” The same God who inspired this Scripture has, for a very long time, been bringing molten rock upward through a crack in the crust of southeastern Africa. And, as this molten rock has cooled to form new crust, it has caused the crack to spread apart into a very great valley, a valley that is cleaving apart “as wax before the fire.” This great rift valley is shown in Figure 25 (Click on “Figures” at the top of this Birth Pang). The same God who is spreading apart the Red Sea floor is also slowly spreading apart southeastern Africa at the same time.

Please note the great African Rift Valley in Figure 30. At times, God works very slowly, as He has to create this great valley. However, Peter informs us that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” The same God who has formed the great African Rift Valley of Figure 30 over a long period of time can, abruptly and without warning, create such a valley in less than a day. This is how a somewhat smaller, but similar, valley will be generated suddenly through the Mount of Olives in less than an hour.

Of particular interest in Figure 30 is the location of the Afar Triangle at the juncture of three rift valleys: the Red Sea, Aden, and African rift cracks in the earth’s crust. This juncture is called a “triple point” in geological jargon. These three large pieces of the earth’s crust (Identified as the African, Arabian, and Somalian Plates in Figure 30) are slowly spreading apart from one another and, in the wake of their movement, are leaving behind a sinking depression in the crust of the earth, a depression identified as the Afar Triangle or Depression. The Afar Depression has not always existed. At one time it was merely a structural weakness in the crust of the earth where converging intersections of faults were made at angles which approached the perpendicular. But a tremendous shaking and upheaval in the earth’s crust at these intersections caused the formation of an active triple point depression at their juncture, and the spreading, particularly northward toward Israel, has been the most active on the Red Sea floor. The geological history of this rift structure, in chronological sequence, is as follows: (1) First the Gulf of Aden begin to rip apart, (2) Then the African Rift began to spread, (3) Then the Red Sea Floor began to actively spread, (4) Then the Gulf of Suez torn apart from the Sinai, and finally, (5) The Gulf of Aqabah (Eilat) torn away from the Arabian Plate. The next section that will rip apart is the land of Israel from Eilat to the intersection of the Plain of Jezreel with the Jordan River Valley, a distance of some 1600 furlongs (185 miles). For a full exposition of this ripping of the Jordan River Valley go back to Birth Pang Numbers 15 and 16, along with all their associated Figures.

At the present time there exists a pattern of normal faults in the Jerusalem area similar to those that led to the initial formation of the Afar Depression. I believe that, when God rips open the Arabah fault northward for 185 miles, the associated shaking and upheaval in the earth’s crust will produce a small Afar like depression on the eastern lee of the Mount of Olives. For want of a better name, I will refer to it as the Zechariah Triangle or Depression. Lord willing, Birth Pang Number 20, Chapter 22, will be devoted to a description of this future depression and its relationship to the cleaving of the Mount of Olives.

[3] Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. [4] And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. [5] And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.

Zechariah 14:3-5

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 20 Chapter 22 – God suddenly Makes a Great Valley October 26, 2001

In Chapter 21 we observed how God slowly formed a great valley over a very long period of time. In this Chapter we shall observe how God forms another great valley in a very short period of time.

[4] And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. [5] And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. Zechariah 14:4-5

The word used for “cleave” is “baqa,” which means to break, rend, rip up, make a breach, separate, split, cut out, break through or into, or to divide. A valley itself is often referred to as a cleft (baqa), such as the Beqa Valley in Lebanon. The context of these verses leaves little doubt that the Lord intends to form a great cleavage valley in the “midst” of the Mount of Olives. It is also quite clear, from the linguistics of verse four, that it will not merely be a narrow ravine, but rather “a very great valley.” It will be sufficiently wide for multitudes of Jews to flee through it. The Hebrew word used for “midst” in verse four, in this particular context, means “to divide, to reach to the midst.” This word does not have to mean dead center or exactly half way, as the following Scriptures, where it is used, attest:

[24] I said, O my God, take me not away in the MIDST of my days: thy years are throughout all generations. Psalm 102:24

[11] As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the MIDST of his days and at his end shall be a fool. Jeremiah 17:11

The Bible indicates a normal lifespan of seventy years for a human. You can see, from the preceding Scriptures that if a man were to die between thirty and forty, he would have left the land of the living in the MIDST of his days. The word used for “midst” does not require that the Mount of Olives cleave precisely in the center. The Scripture merely indicates that a division will be effected in the middle section of the mountain.

May I now direct your attention to Figure 31. The two dashed black lines (oriented west to east and labeled “X” and “Y”) indicate normal faults in the upper crust of the earth. As you can see, they pass north and south of Jerusalem on a converging track toward the Mount of Olives. These normal faults are not there by accident. I am persuaded they have been created there by God and, at His command, will collapse to fulfill Zechariah’s prophecy. Please note that fault X intersects the northern flank of the Mount of Olives, while fault Y passes through its southern end. That section of the Mount of Olives between X and Y is the MIDST of the mountain, and is the section that will collapse and sink downward when God issues His command. These two normal faults pass through the Mount of Olives, and then make contact with a series of north to south faults that exist along the eastern lee of the mountain. In this zone, where the intersection of east-west & north-south faults occurs, a structural weakness like the Afar Depression will be generated in the earth’s crust when violent earthquakes are occurring in the Jordan River Valley (See Birth Pang 19, Chapter 21 and associated Figures). The center of this geological weakness zone is on the eastern side of the mountain, approximately four thousand cubits (six thousand feet) directly east of the Jerusalem Eastern Gate.

The old city of Jerusalem sets atop Cenomanian and Turonian limestone, a rock strata that will safely support the largest structures. One might naturally suppose, that just across the narrow Kidron Valley, you would find the Mount of Olives composed of a duplicate rock strata. However, its slope betrays its actual geological composition, for it is made of Cenomanian chalk – the same type of chalk that crumbles into a thousand pieces when it falls from a blackboard railing. I believe God deliberately formed it of chalk. When its northern and southern ends divide from its middle section, the entire middle section will sink downward and crumble into billions of pieces of chalk. This geological transformational process is shown in Parts A and B of Figure 32. Such a downward slippage process has been used many times in the past by God to form large fault block valleys around the globe.

When the critical force, holding the Arabah Fault together, is finally exceeded by the force spreading apart the Red Sea, (See Figure 25), then the Arabah fault will suddenly rip open from the Gulf of Aqaba northward for about 185 miles. The resultant fantastic earthquakes produced in Israel will cause: (1) A new triple point depression to be formed with a center about four thousand cubits east of the Eastern Gate of the old city of Jerusalem, (2) Everything between points X and Y on Figure 32 to sink downward and crumble, (3) The remaining northern half of the Mount of Olives (the section north of point X) to move northward on a newly created Gaza Plate, (4) The remaining southern half of the Mount of Olives (the section south of point Y) to move southward on the newly created Sinai Plate, and (5) the Jericho Valley to rip open southwestward from the Jordan River to the new triple point depression I call Zechariah’s Triangle. Figure 32 (looking eastward from the old city of Jerusalem) illustrates the horizontal sequence of events as they affect the Mount of Olives before and after the cleavage. Figure 33 portrays the overall local area action as if you were viewing it from a point about three miles above the ground thirty miles west of Jerusalem. The spring and river system shown in Figure 33 will be discussed in future chapters. Figure 34 shows the effect.

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 21 Chapter 23 – God Forms a Dry Highway

[15] And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry-shod. [16] And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. Isaiah 11:15, 16

In Isaiah’s day the “tongue of the Egyptian Sea” is what we identify as the Gulf of Suez, a northern extension of the Red Sea that slithers between Egypt and Sinai like a long wet tongue.  Since Isaiah’s writings man has dug out a northern extension of the “Egyptian Sea” to link the Mediterranean and Red Seas together.  This extension is known as the Suez Canal.  The two words “utterly destroy” come from “charam,” which means “to be cut off” or “to shut up.”  We are advised by God, through the prophet Isaiah that He intends to completely shut-up the waters of what we identify today as the Suez Canal.  He will do so by crushing the western and eastern banks together by movement of two tectonic plates.

In Birth Pang Number 18, Chapter 20, the division of the Mount of Olives into two remaining halves was described, with one half being carried northward on the extreme southern edge of a newly created Gaza Plate, while the other half drifted south on the northern tip of a newly formed Sinai Plate (See Figure 33).  In Figure 34 you may observe the consequences of the movement of the Sinai Plate as it floats southward on an underground liquid sea of magma.  As the southward drift occurs, the Sinai Plate will be jammed against the massive African Plate.  Dry land will crunch against dry land, and the “tongue of the Egyptian Sea” will be “completely shut-up.”  It will be possible to walk across this area on dry land throughout the millennial reign of Christ.

When the expression “the river” is used in Hebrew, if there is no context above or below to identify it specifically, always means the Euphrates River.  The term “the river,” found above in verse fifteen is “hannahar,” and it applies to the Euphrates River.  When it states that the Euphrates should be smitten “in the seven streams,” the Hebrew construction does not mean that it already existed as seven streams, and that God smites all seven.  Instead, it states that God shall smite a single river and, when he has performed that action, it will have divided it into seven streams.  That single river is none other than the massive Euphrates River.  This drying up of the great Euphrates is also echoed by John in Revelation.

[12] And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. Revelation 16:12

We are advised in verse sixteen that the drying up of the great Euphrates creates a dry highway, a highway for the millennial return of Israelite tribulation survivors from lands east of the Euphrates.  The latter portion of this verse also indicates that the dry highway will extend into Egypt.  The “Israel” of verse sixteen represents the descendants of the man Jacob, hence the personal pronoun “he” is used, even though it refers to the entire nation that came forth from him through his twelve sons.  When the nation of Israel “came up out of the land of Egypt,” God parted the waters of the extreme northern extension of the Red Sea, the extension that Isaiah identified as “the tongue of the Egyptian Sea” in 700 B.C., but which is identified as the Gulf of Suez today.  On the day Israel crossed the “yam cuwph” extension of the Red Sea, while fleeing from the Egyptian Pharaoh, it could be said that God created a highway of dry land from Egypt to Assyria.  But God closed his dry land bridge to destroy the Pharaoh’s mighty army with a flood of closing walls of water, however, the dry land bridge he describes in Isaiah will last a thousand years.

Because of the drying up of the Euphrates, and the shutting up of the Suez Canal, it will be possible to walk all the way from Egypt to Assyria without passing through waters that cannot be waded in sandals.  When God jams the Sinai Peninsula against the extreme northeastern tip of Africa, a sea-free highway will be created, a highway that will last for a thousand years.  Two great continents, the African and the Eurasian, will be fused together by God.  Throughout the millennial reign of Christ the many nations of these massive continents will move up and down this dry land bridge to worship Christ in Jerusalem, the new capital of the world.  The commerce of Africa will flow through Israel to Eurasia, and the products of Eurasia will flow through to Africa.  Israel will sit at the crossroads of the world’s land and sea commerce.  She will be the center of the world.  God will destroy those who came against Jerusalem during the Tribulation Period.  And the city of Jerusalem will be the place where all the nations of the world come up to worship the King of kings, Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel.

[2] For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. [3] Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. [16] And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. Zechariah 14:2, 3, 16

[30] And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. [31] And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. [32] He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: [33] And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Luke 1:30-33

[13] I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. [14] And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. [27] And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. Daniel 7:13, 14, 27

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 22 Chapter 24 – God Smites the Great Euphrates

[15] And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry-shod. [16] And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. Isaiah 11:15, 16

[12] And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. Revelation 16:12

In Birth Pang Number 21, Chapter 23, proof that “the river” of verse 15 is the great Euphrates River was fully exposited.  We were advised that God will smite it and, as a result, it will be subdivided into seven smaller streams.  The question then arises as to the geographical location on the Euphrates that will be smitten by God.  At what point will God strike the Euphrates to dry up the southern part, and turn the northern section into seven smaller streams?  I call your attention to Figure 35 for the answer to this question.

The same God who inspired this Scripture has created a long zone of structural weakness in the crust of the earth – a weakness that extends from the upper headwater tributary of the Jordan River system across Syria to near El Rashid on the Euphrates River.  This structural weakness consists of the an elongated area of major faults and folds in the earth’s known as the Palmyra belt.  Please observe on Figure 35 that this belt of folds and faults links the northern Jordan and Euphrates Rivers together.

The Euphrates is one of the greatest carriers of topsoil silt on the face of the earth.  It tears it from Turkish mountainsides and carries it through the Fertile Crescent of Syria and Iraq into the Persian Gulf.  The land delta of the Persian Gulf is one of the fastest growing deltas on the earth.  This growth is produced by massive influxes of silt carried into the Persian Gulf by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

Isaiah indicates that God will smite the Euphrates into seven sub-streams.  This will occur in the zone of the earth that begins on the Euphrates in the vicinity of El Rashid, Syria, and then continues southwestward into extreme northern Israel near Dan.  When the Arabah fault (See Figure 25) is ripped open from the Gulf of Aqabah to Lebanon, the fantastic shaking will cause the Palmyra fault zone to collapse, and the Euphrates River will be diverted across this crumbled zone of rock and earth to link up with the northern headwaters of the Jordan.

Whenever sediment carrying river moves into a zone with more sediment than it can carry due to deceleration, then it invariably produces what geologists call “a braided river.”  A braided river is the division of a single river into many streams.  Isaiah counted seven.  Seven streamlets will weave their way southwestward through the newly formed cracks in the Palmyra Weakness, and will eventually feed into the northern tributary system of the Jordan River.  It will be what geologists refer to as “headwater piracy”—piracy by the Jordan upon the Euphrates. The additional waters, fed into the Jordan River system, will add more water and topsoil than Israel can use during the millennial reign of Christ.  Israel will become the breadbasket of the world.

We are advised by John in Revelation 16:12 as to the effects of this massive water diversion into the upper Jordan.  The section of the Euphrates to the east of Israel will go dry.  It will then be possible for the kings of the east to wade in sandals any water lying before them on their way to Israel.  Figure 36 shows the combined effects of the drying up of the Euphrates, and the Idumean opening of a Jordanian drainage through the Arabah desert into the Red Sea.  (See Birth Pang Numbers 15 and 16)

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 23 Chapter 25 – God Restructures the Jordan Valley

[3] For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. [4] And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. Micah 1:3, 4

In chapters seventeen through twenty-four we discussed the ripping apart of the Jordan River Valley, the creation of a vast flood basalt plain in the wake of its ripping, the division of the Mount of Olives, the destruction of Idumea, the diversion of the Euphrates, and the shutting up of the tongue of the Egyptian Sea.  Now we find Micah’s figurative picture of a great geologic horror wrought by the power of God.  This figurative description, of God’s ability to change the topography of His earth, will be literally portrayed in His unbelievable transformation of the Jordan Valley.  The most devastating changes, on the face of His earth, will occur through this great fault block valley, which extends northward through Israel and Lebanon.  This great valley is identified as the Arabah Fault on Figure 25 (See Birth Pang Figure menu above).

As you can see on Figure 27, this valley consists of a block of earth held in place by the pressure of two tectonic plates pushing horizontally against it.  Deep within this great block of rock and earth there exists a vast lake of hot, liquid rock.  Within, and below, this undersea lake of magma, there is a vertical pressure pressing upward on the block.  Only the greater horizontal tectonic pressures restrain the block from lifting, and the liquid rock from rising through the cracks on both its sides.  When the horizontal pressure is suddenly released erratically along the faults on both sides of the block, then magma will shoot forth on the surface as great lava fountains.  But while this is occurring, large sections of the block will be in a massive up and down motion.  This upheaval will continue for some length of time, but will finally stabilize to produce a completely restructured Jordan River Valley.  The changes anticipated to occur are portrayed in Figure 37.

From the Gulf of Aqabah to the southern tip of the Dead Sea the great fault block will subside as the plates spread apart.  After the surface lava cools in this area, a narrow riverbed will exist in its center from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqabah.  At the southern tip of the Dead Sea a new elevation of about 200 feet above mean sea level will slope southward to sea level at the Gulf of Aqabah.  From the southern tip of the Dead Sea northward to Lebanon the block will be lifted by sub-surface magmatic pressure and, while the lifting is occurring, springs of lava will spurt up along both sides of the block.

Once massive lifting has occurred, horizontal readjustment pressure will lock the block into a new, much higher, elevation above sea level.  The portion of the block, upon which the Dead Sea lies, will be lifted such that the Dead Sea, now about 1300 feet below sea level, will have a new sea surface approximately 300 feet above mean sea level (See Figure 38).  From southern Lebanon to the Syrian Border there will be expansion and subsidence as shown in Figure 37, and from the Syrian border to northeastward to the Euphrates River there will be massive rifting and subsidence through the Palmyra folds and faults.

All of these fantastic horizontal and vertical adjustments in the valley will produce a new Jordan River system, a system planned, prophesied, and created by God.  As the lava cools, and the isostasy balance returns to the Jordan Valley block, one will discover a new river system forming into what Figure 36 depicts.  The headwaters of the Jordan River system will begin in Turkey, flow across northern Syria into northern Israel, move slowly through the Idumean rift, and finally empty into the Gulf of Aqabah.  The Euphrates River will be diverted from A to B on Figure 36, and the Arabah Fault will be opened from C to D.  What we know now as the Dead Sea will gradually become an inland lake as most of its salt content drains slowly southward into the Red Sea, and its waters will be used to make the deserts of Israel blossom as the rose.

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 24 Chapter 26 – God Lifts His Land and His City

[10] All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s winepresses. Zechariah 14:10.

Because of its exacting detail as to the section of land that would be lifted up, this is perhaps the most remarkable geological prophecy in the Old Testament.  We are advised that, along a line from Geba to Rimmon (See Figure 39), God intends to produce a fantastic geological transformation of the landscape.  When this violent transformational action is completed, there will be a plain like zone from from Geba to Rimmon and, at the same time, a lifting movement will have elevated the two hills of western Jerusalem.  This Scripture indicates that all of the land, immediately to the west of the line from Geba to Rimmon (See Figure 39), will be “lifted up” to a higher elevation, while all the land, immediately to the east of this line, will be lowered to form what appears “as a plain.”  The lifting of the land from Geba to Rimmon will include the city of Jerusalem.   The sections west of the Tyropoeon Valley will be lifted up, and those sections to the east will collapse into a plain (See Figure 40).

The prophet Zechariah knew nothing about the existence of the many structural weaknesses in the crust of the land of Israel, nor did anyone else in his day.  There was only one being who did, the God who made the earth.  The same God, who inspired Zechariah to write of this event, placed a structural weaknesses in the crust of the earth from Geba to Rimmon long before the prophets were born.  It was an appropriate type of weakness; one that went up and down in response to shakings in the earth.  It is only within the last century that men have begun to understand how this particular type of mechanism works in the earth’s crust.  Within the last 50 years, geologists uncovered a structural weakness, within the crust of the earth that passes through Jerusalem on its run from Geba to Rimmon.  It is a structural weakness, embedded within the Judean Folds, and has a long history of up warping.  This up warping zone is known as the Shekhem Syncline, which is one of the lineaments within the Levantine faulting and up warping system of the Holy Land.  Along the part of this lineament, that extends from Geba to Rimmon, there is a historical pattern of lifting to the west of it, and of down warping to the east of it.

Concerning the uplifting and down faulting, along the Shekhem  Syncline, and the Jordan-Arabah Rift Valley, Horowitz, in his 1979 text, “The Quaternary of Israel,” states:  “It should be noted that the age of uplifting and up warping is synchronous with the age of major down faulting of the Jordan-Arava Rift Valley, and the opening of the Bay of Elat.  It seems, therefore, that these two lineaments acted simultaneously, but in opposite directions.”  When violent up warping begins along the line from Geba to Rimmon, then a simultaneous down faulting to its east will occur through the Mount of Olives.

God has been lifting and lowering large sections of the earth’s crust, across the entire earth, along these types of weaknesses, for many centuries.  It was along a weakness like this that the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range of California was formed (See Figure 41).  I believe the immediate land sections, west of a line from Geba to Rimmon, will be lifted like fault block mountains, and the land, immediately to the east of it, and will collapse into a narrow valley plain.  Please note the two mile high fault scarp in Figure 41.  The fault scarp in Israel will not be nearly as high, perhaps ranging from increases of 500 to 2500 feet in height.

Please observe, in Figure 40, the up warping structural weakness line that separates the two western hills of Jerusalem from its three eastern hills.  This topographical feature is known as the Tyropoeon Valley.  The zone “from Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s winepresses” is that section of land which includes the two western hills of Jerusalem.  It is not by accident that this structural line of weakness extends north to south directly behind where Solomon’s Temple was located.  If you visit Jerusalem, go north through the Dung Gate and walk straight north until the Wailing Wall is visible to your right.  Then turn and face west, with your back to the Wailing Wall.  You will be facing a fault scarp that has been lifted many times in the past.  Soon it will be lifted again when great earthquakes ripple through the Jordan Valley.

When the critical pressure is reached in the Gulf of Aqabah (See Figure 25), then the Arabah Fault will rip open northward across Israel.  It will generate the greatest earthquakes and topographical transformations in recorded history.

[18] And there were voices, and thunders, and lightning’s; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. [19] And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Revelation 16:18, 19

The structural weakness from Geba to Rimmon, with its branch through the Tyropoeon Valley, will undergo massive uplifting to its west, and down faulting to its east.  This prophecy will soon be fulfilled by the God who led Zechariah to write it.  Figure 42 visually displays the city of Jerusalem after the lifting has occurred.  The exposed bluff, created by the uplifting, is what geologists call a fault scarp.  There will be a massive fault scarp extending all the way from Geba to Rimmon.

During earthquake activity down through the ages, God has created thousands of fault scarps across the surface of His earth.  In this instance God has chosen to give us the exact location where He will perform His handiwork.  And he has told us thousands of years before he does it.

[19] For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; [20] So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. Ezekiel 38:19, 20

[4] And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. [5] And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. Zechariah 14:4, 5

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 25 Chapter 27 – God Forms a Spring on a Temple Mount

[1] Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar. Ezekiel 47:1.

Birth Pang Number 24 ended with the creation of the fault scarp shown in Figure 42 (click on Figures above).  God has been creating thousands of fault scarps, just like this one, all across the earth since the dawn of creation.  Figure 42, in the lower right hand corner, pictures an extract, from a standard geological text, that shows a normal fault scarp.  Please note that God has been using fault scarps for countless centuries to produce springs of water.  The text states: “A fault line is sometimes indicated on the surface by a succession of springs which emerge along the line of displacement.”  It was not by accident God made a basic limestone formation as the first one thousand feet of rock strata under Jerusalem.  Limestone is the perfect rock for the generation of beautiful, clear springs, when uplifting of limestone layers occurs.

When rain falls upon limestone it forms a weak, carbonic acid, which slowly eats away at the basic composition of limestone, so that the water permeates downward through the limestone.  It is this process which eventually forms vast underground water reserves and streams on top of impermeable rock layers below the limestone.  The topography of Jerusalem and its environs is one of permeable limestone over impermeable rock layers.  This karst type of landscape has produced a system of underground water reserves and streams.  This system slopes downward from the middle ridge of the Judean Mountains eastward under the city of Jerusalem.  It is the watershed zone for the springs in and around Jerusalem.  The royal cistern of Solomon’s Temple, which now underlies the courtyard immediately to the north of the Dome of the Rock, is supplied by permeation and limestone springs.  This system is only a part of a vast underground water supply stretching north, west, and south of Jerusalem.  Sorek  Cave is located just fifteen miles west of Jerusalem within the Avshalom Reserve.  Permeation of water downward has created this great limestone cave, and upon the floor of this great cavern are pools of clear water.  These types of underground water reservoirs exist all across the earth’s surface.   Figure 43, from a geological text by Tarr shows the immergence of springs at the surface from underground reservoirs.  In his text, New Physical Geology, Tarr states: “Water percolating through soluble rock, like limestone, dissolves the rock along joint planes and bedding planes.  This often results in the formation of long, irregular, underground valleys, or caverns, such as the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.  In such places much of the drainage is underground.  There are large surface streams and few tributaries, the chief water supply coming from the springs that bring the cavern water to the surface.”  There are numerous springs to the immediate south, west, and north of Jerusalem, as well as one under it, and another under the old city of David.

Figure 42 shows the exposed scarp (or bluff) generated by the lifting along the line through the Tyropoeon Valley.  This lifted zone consists of layer after layer of permeable limestone, and at its base is a thick layer of impermeable flint and hard dolomite.  When this layer of permeable limestone is lifted, its water zone, flowing above the flint and dolomite, will suddenly burst forward as a limestone spring just to the north of the Dome of the Rock.  This is the spring of Ezekiel 47:1.  Figure 44 shows the geological formation that will exist after the lifting.  There will be a continuous feeding of meteorologically stored water into the system throughout the millennial reign of Christ.  As rain falls upon uplifted western Jerusalem, and its Judean watershed, it will seep slowly downward through the limestone to constantly re-supply a great invisible reservoir perched above an impermeable layer of rock.  This is quoted from a standard earth science text, concerning this type of spring: “However, one type of hillside spring is likely to flow continuously.  This is a spring formed at the zone of contact between permeable and impermeable rocks.  Water filters down through the permeable rock and comes to the surface on a hill side when it meets the impermeable rock layer.”  The Bible indicates Ezekiel’s spring will flow continuously throughout the millennial reign of Christ, and this is exactly what happens when strata, like that under Jerusalem, is lifted.

There are some commentaries that identify the waters found in Ezekiel 47 as “spiritual” waters, not literal waters.  But this is not the case, for we are told in this chapter that:  (1) the waters empty into a river, (2) the river empties into a salty sea, (3) the fresh water eventually removes most of the salt, and (4) fish will live in the freshened water.  I have great difficulty in accepting “spiritual” water that has “physical” fish living in it.

Once the spring has been formed, the remnant of Israelites, which God brought through the Tribulation Period, will see the spring where Solomon’s Temple once stood.  They will take the blueprint narrative instructions, contained after chapter 39 in Ezekiel, and will build the Millennial Temple such that the waters will issue out “from under the threshold of the house eastward,” and such that they come “down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar.”

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 26 Chapter 28 – God Digs a River Bed

[2] Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side. [3] And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ancles. [4] Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins. [5] Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over. Ezekiel 47:2-5.

These are the literal, physical waters that will flow out of the Temple, which will be built in Jerusalem immediately following the Second Advent during the Millennial Reign of Christ.  As is typical of springs that suddenly surface from karst topography, when one walks away from the spring source, he or she notes that it becomes wider and deeper.  Like many other springs, as the water flows away from its source to cut a “V” shaped valley through limestone strata, it will eventually be fed by side springs from the limestone water table along the lower sections of the “V.”  This feeding by subterranean springs, from the water table source, will eventually cause the millennial spring to become wider and deeper as one walks eastward through the Eastern Gate of the new Temple (See Figure 45).  It is basically no different from thousands of other limestone springs that God has formed in altered topography – springs that bubble forth, and then keep getting wider and deeper as they obey gravity along a path of least resistance, eventually flowing into a larger stream, creek, bayou, marsh, or river.

As you may observe on Figure 45, the actual cubit measurement begins at the “utter gate” of the newly built millennial Temple.  The measurement of four thousand cubits, or six thousand feet, carries us directly through the valley created by God at the end of the Tribulation Period when he split the Mount of Olives.  The stream will flow between the two divided sections and, on the opposite side of the Mount of Olives, a dramatic hydrologic change suddenly occurs at the end of four thousand cubits, which is a great change in the depth of the stream.  The increase in depth is very gradual for almost four thousand cubits, going from the ankles, to the knees, and to the thighs.  But suddenly, at the end of the six thousand feet, Ezekiel encounters a river he could not pass over except by swimming.  I am convinced this great river is the diverted Jordan River.

When God rips open the Arabah Fault, shown in Figure 25, the Jericho Valley will be opened as a riverbed from north of Jericho to the point four thousand cubits east of the present Golden Gate of Jerusalem.  When this opening of the Jericho Valley occurs, the Jordan River will be dammed temporarily by massive landslides in its central portion, but will eventually flow southward into its newly created riverbed, finally to link with the end of Ezekiel’s spring stream.  All of this may seem to be unbelievable, but let me assure you this has occurred before in God’s creation, as the quote from this 1692 earthquake report attests: “But the greatest violence was among the mountains and rocks.  Most of the rivers were stopped for twenty-four hours by the falling of the mountains; till, swelling up, they made themselves new channels, tearing up trees, and all they met in their passage.  A great mountain split, and fell into the level ground, and covered several settlements, and destroyed the people there.”  The Jordan River itself has been dammed up before on several occasions by earthquake landslides.  But this time it will be the greatest earthquake upheaval Israel has ever known, and the Jordan will be diverted permanently to link with Ezekiel’s stream.

[19] For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; [20] So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. Ezekiel 38:19, 20

 [18] And there were voices, and thunders, and lightning’s; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. [19] And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. [13] And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. [14] The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. [15] And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. [18] And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. [52] In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Revelation 16:18-20 + 11:13-15, 18 + I Corinthians 15:52

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 27 Chapter 29 – God Divides the Great City

[18] And there were voices, and thunders, and lightning’s; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. [19] And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Revelation 16:18, 19.

Birth Pang Numbers 2 and 3 contained a lengthy exposition of Revelation 16:18-21.  Therefore, to preclude repetitions, I will attempt to limit myself, as much as possible, to verse 19, but I do recommend a review of the aforementioned birth pang numbers for a better understanding of Birth Pang Number 27.  We are advised that a great worldwide quake, which affects not only the Jordan Rift Valley but also all the “cities” of the “nations,” will also divide “the great city” into three parts.  The great city that will be divided is not Rome.  It is the great city we identify as Jerusalem.  I will not dispute that the “great Babylon” of the latter part of this verse will have its ecclesiastical headquarters in Rome, but these are two different cities, which are separated grammatically by “the cities of the nations.”  The Jordan Rift Valley connects with the east-west fault line across the northern coastline of Turkey, which in turn moves between the toe of the Italian Boot and Sicily up to a point off the coast of Rome, and then westward through the Straits of Gibraltar.  The world’s greatest earthquake since God placed man on this planet will occur in the Jordan River near the southern end of the Dead Sea, but it will eventually send a rippling effect to set off a chain of worldwide earthquake activity, and one of the greatest will be off the coast of Rome on the Mediterranean Sea Floor.  This chain of earthquakes will eventually affect most of the “cities” of most of the “nations.”  Some believe “the great city” is Rome, but the same inspired Koine Greek construction for “the great city” is also used by John in Revelation 11:8.

[8] And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Revelation 11:8

The Apostle John wrote Revelation about AD 96, some 26 years after the leveling of Jerusalem by Titus and his Roman Legion.  Once this happened in AD 70 to fulfill the Olivet prophecy Jesus had made 40 years before it happened, the living disciples began to refer to the great city of Jerusalem as “Sodom and Egypt.” So “The great city” of Revelation 11:8, and of 16:19, is one and the same.  Jesus was not crucified outside Rome, but outside the city of Jerusalem.  John had looked down on Jerusalem many times as he approached it from a higher elevation coming west on the Jericho Road.  He recognized it once again as he looked down on it from above in his vision from heaven, and he saw it divided into three parts from the earthquake activity.

Throughout the Bible, when God makes divisions of physical things, He invariably uses land and water to make separations.  He uses mountains and valleys in the landscape, and rivers, seas, oceans, creeks, or streams in the hydrological pattern.  When all the changes of the previous birth pangs have been completed, Jerusalem will have been divided into three parts by land, elevation, and water.  In Figure 46 (See top of this Birth Pang for menu) you may view all three topographical divisions of Jerusalem.  Part 1 will be the down faulted section north of Ezekiel’s stream, Part 2 will be the section south of the stream, and part 3 will be the uplifted western section of “the great city.”

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IRTH PANG NUMBER 28 Chapter 30 – God Splits a River

[8] And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. [9] And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one. Zechariah 14:8, 9.

[8] Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. [9] And it shall come to pass, that everything that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and everything shall live whither the river cometh. Ezekiel 47:8, 9

[18] And all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim. Joel 3:18B

In order to determine the time of “in that day” given in Zechariah 14:8, it is necessary to examine 14:9.  Verse nine clearly identifies “in that day” as the time when Jesus Christ will be king over all the earth, a period of time known as the millennial reign of Christ.  However, in order for Jerusalem and Israel to be as verse eight describes, it is obvious that fantastic geological changes must first occur in the existing topographical structure.  These drastic land mass shifts will occur during the last part of the Tribulation Period as outlined in verses 4 and 10 of Zechariah 14, and in numerous other Scriptures exposited previously in the Birth Pang Updates.

What are “living waters?”  They are simply waters that support organic aquatic life.  Zechariah advises us in verse eight that water, with the capacity to support aquatic life forms, will go out from Jerusalem.  This water is the water from Ezekiel’s spring (See Birth Pang Number 25).   We are advised that half of the waters go toward the Dead Sea (Former Sea) and the rest flow toward the Mediterranean Sea (Hinder Sea).  We also are informed that the water will be a continual stream that does not dry up between the two rainy seasons (most of the interior streams in Israel are dry creek beds a large part of the year).  To an oriental mind, “in summer and in winter shall it be,” means a perpetual flow of life supporting water.  The typical limestone spring, which is generated by permeable rock over impermeable rock in a lifted fault scarp, flows the year round.

The prophet Joel indicates a fountain (spring) will come from the Millennial Temple of the Lord, and will water the valley of Shittim.  The valley of Shittim was located in the general area of Nebi Musa and Khirbat Qumran, the extreme northwestern tip of the Dead Sea.  The springs of Zechariah, Ezekiel, and Joel are all one and the same, and Figure 47 (See Birth Pang Figures Above) portrays their path from source to seas.  I really do not believe the new Dead Sea will look anything like what Figure 47 pictures, nor will the Sea of Galilee.  However, I have left them as they are today for a point of reference familiar to Bible students as old landmarks.  The massive upheaval of the entire Jordan Valley, and the horrifying creation of a flood basalt plain will leave in its wake a river system almost totally unrecognizable from current geography.

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IRTH PANG NUMBER 29 Chapter 31 – God Heals the Eastern Sea

[6] And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river. [7] Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. [8] Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. Ezekiel 47:6-8.

[3] Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. [4] And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. Zechariah 14:3, 4

As we begin with verse 6, we have just walked eastward a little over a mile (4000 cubits) from the “utter gate” of the Jerusalem Millennial Temple, and have arrived at the brink of the diverted Jordan River shown in Figure 47.  Please look at Figure 47 and read Birth Pang Numbers 25 through 28.  During our walk, we passed directly through the graben valley created during the Tribulation Period when the Mount of Olives divided into two sections, one moving to the north, and one moving to the south.  The stream along which we walked developed after the splitting of the Mount of Olives, and is the stream of Zechariah 14:8 – “And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.”  It is also the same spring described in Joel 3:18B – “And all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim.”

The area through which the entire stream and Jordan River complex is prophesied to flow has a very fertile soil profile.  But no matter how fertile and perfectly zoned a soil horizon exists, unless there is water, no vegetation will spring up.  This has been the problem in this dry arid region for centuries, but God is going to change all that.  Trees and all types of vegetation will flourish along the length of these two living water rivers (Figure 47) as they flow toward the Mediterranean and Dead Seas.  The remnant of the nation of Israel will use this new source of water to irrigate the deserts of Judah and most of southern Israel, including the Negev.  Israel will become the breadbasket of the world.

As verse eight of Ezekiel 47 begins, we find ourselves standing at the brink of the diverted Jordan River, about four thousand cubits east of the “utter gate” of the Millennial Temple.  We are told that from this point the waters go out into what he calls “the east country.”  The “east country” is the section of land that includes the Dead Sea, which has been referred to in the past as “the Eastern Sea.”  We have the water moving, as shown in Figure 47, into the country east of the Mount of Olives like a pattern known as a bird’s foot delta.  We are then advised that from “the east country” the waters “go down into the desert.”  We are informed in the Hebrew which desert, for the word used for “desert” is “Arabah,” which is the desert that lies between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea.  Strong’s Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary identifies the Arabah as “the sterile valley of the Jordan and its continuation to the Red Sea.”  Wilson’s Old Testament Word Studies “the desert” as “the land between the Dead Sea and the Elanitic Gulf (Gulf of Aqabah).   First the waters flow southward through the Arabah Desert to eventually empty into “the sea,” and that sea is the northern extension of the Red Sea, which is also known by the Arabs as the Gulf of Aqabah.  As indicated, in previous Birth Pang Updates, a channel will be opened in the land that lies between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqabah.  This land was once known as the land of Idumea.   Gradually the flow of fresh water from the Temple and the diverted fresh water from the Euphrates will “heal” the “east country” of its high salt content.  The “healing” will be accomplished by most of its salt being carried southward into the Red Sea.  Figure 47 shows the completed hydrological structure prophesied by Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Joel.  I believe that the shape of the Dead Sea will be quite different from what I have shown in Figure 47, but so that the reader may relate to a known geographical feature, I have left its present shape unchanged.  Actually, it will become more like a fresh water delta marsh from Engedi to Eneglaim, and that section from “the brink of the river” to the fresh water marsh will be similar to the Mississippi Delta, but on a much smaller scale.

Figure 48 gives a general pictorial summation of many of the geological changes prophesied to occur in previous Updates.  All of these terrifying changes have a twofold purpose:  to show man the power of God and to prepare the land for the reign of Jesus Christ when he returns.

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 30 Chapter 32 – God Weaves a Breadbasket

[12] And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine. Ezekiel 47:12.

In Birth Pangs 1 through 6 we detailed the unbelievable shaking that would change the geomagnetic balance of the earth by a fantastic shift in its outer and interior structure.  One of the outcomes of this change will be a change in the climate of Israel.  The latitudinal shift associated with winter and summer will be greatly reduced, such that never again will there be a killing frost in Israel south of the mountains north of the Sea of Galilee.

In America we are most familiar with broadleaf, deciduous trees that lose their leaves after the first frost.  But many broadleaf, common in tropical and subtropical climatic zones, never shed their leaves because of frost.  These broadleaf fruit producers bear foliage throughout each year, constantly losing older leaves as new budding leaves push them off.  The fig tree of Israel will not shed its leaves in a deciduous manner unless a frost occurs, and it sometimes keeps its leaves year round.  Trees need two things to grow year round and remain green while producing fruit: water and a suitable climate.  And God will produce both by His great shaking of the Earth and Israel.  The following Scriptures describe this great worldwide shaking and its devastating effect upon the land of Israel and the army of the antichrist.

[12] And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; [13] And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. [14] And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. [15] And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; Revelation 6:12-15

[12] And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. [13] And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. [14] The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. [15] And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. [18] And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. Revelation 11:12-15, 18

[16] And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. [17] And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. [18] And there were voices, and thunders, and lightning’s; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. [19] And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Revelation 16:16-19

[18] And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face. [19] For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; [20] So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. [2] And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: Ezekiel 38:18-20 + 39:2

Ezekiel 47:12 portrays Israel, following the shaking, as a nation dominated by a new frost free climate with more water than it can use on a preexisting rich soil profile.  The “leaf shall not fade” because frost will not turn it to a winter brown.  But, as a new green leaf bud pushes up into the old leaf’s socket, it will simply push it from the branch before any substantial fading can occur.  And, “neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed,” for without a frost some trees will produce fruit more than once a year.  And, “it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months,” for different trees will bring forth fruit at different times.  One may bring two annual crops to maturity, one in January and one in July, while another does the same in March and September, etc.  There will be fruit coming forth from Israel in every month of the year.  But, in spite of the climatic change, none of this would have been possible without God’s new water supply in Israel, and the fruit comes forth “because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary.”  If you want to see how God geologically brings a preexisting water supply to the surface during this great shaking of the land, then go back and review Birth Pangs Number 25 through 29.  You may do this by clicking on Birth Pangs 29 at the beginning of this update, and then proceeding back by clicking on the top of each update all the way back to Number 25.

The word used for “meat” in Ezekiel 47:12 means “an eatable.”  It includes all food taken into the body to meet its biological needs.  The Hebrew word used for “medicine” literally means “a remedy.” It is only within the past century that man has discovered the value of high quality production of foodstuffs by a quality growing program.  Just the right blend of climatic, soil, and water conditions can produce foodstuffs that will keep a person in an almost constant state of good health.  More and more physicians are discovering the amazing benefits that can be derived by the proper input of high yield foodstuffs.  When the Scripture states, “and the fruit thereof shall be used for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine,” it means that the products obtained from the trees and vegetation of Israel will be of such high quality that they will meet the biological and health needs of all the Israelites.  God will have just the right blend of sun, soil, season, and water to make Israel the breadbasket of the world.

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 31 Chapter 33 – God Waters His Breadbasket

[6] Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. [7] And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. Isaiah 35:6, 7.

In these scriptures we have springs of water breaking out in the wildernesses of Judah and the Negev, and a spring passing through the desert of the Arabah.  In Birth Pangs 25 and 26 I wrote concerning the lifting of the land from Geba to Rimmon, and showed how Ezekiel’s spring would form at the foot of the fault scarp generated by this lifting.  There will be a massive fault scarp extending all the way from Geba to Rimmon (See Figure 39), and at the base of this fault scarp hundreds of springs will burst forth in the Judean and Negev wildernesses.  These springs will water the Judean and Negev zones, eventually feeding into Zechariah’s river that empties into the Mediterranean Sea (See Figure 47).  The stream through the Arabah Desert was fully described in previous Birth Pangs.

In verse seven we are advised that the habitation of dragons (jackals or wild animals) will become a delta-like region filled with reeds and rushes like the Nile Delta.  I believe that the habitation zone mentioned by Isaiah was that portion of the wilderness zone of Judah that extended ten miles westward from the Dead Sea shoreline between Engedi and Eneglaim (See Figure 47).  It is in this zone that the existing and prophesied geological structure could support a bird foot delta, and it is this delta I have portrayed in Figure 47.

The tremendous influx of water into the parched ground of a thirsty land, outlined in Isaiah 35:6, 7, is what leads to the scene outlined in Isaiah 35:1, 2.

[1] The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. [2] It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. Isaiah 35:1, 2

The glory of the Lord will not only be manifested by His presence when he returns to begin his millennial reign, but also by the beauty of a millennial landscape created by His own hands.  The waters of God will turn Israel into a subtropical paradise.

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 32 Chapter 34 – God Fills His Breadbasket

[18] And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim. [19] Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. [20] But Judah shall dwell forever and Jerusalem from generation to generation. [21] For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion. Joel 3:18-21.

Verse eighteen describes the great abundance of liquids that will be produced, directly and indirectly, by the vegetation in the mountains and hills of Judah.  It also predicts the increase of water throughout Judea.  It even describes Ezekiel’s millennial Temple spring and, even more astonishing, it forecasts that it will flow through the new millennial river system (described by Zechariah, Isaiah, and Amos) to pour fresh water into the valley of Shittim.  I tell you that, without question, it is impossible for the word of God not to be inspired.  These writers, writing at different times, and in different locations, literally had to be controlled by a single Spiritual Being to have come to such specific, matching descriptions of the vast geologic and hydrologic changes prophesied to occur during the tribulation period.  That Spirit was, and is, and always shall be, the Holy Spirit of God.

Please note that Joel, in verse nineteen, also confirms the closing of the Suez Canal, and the ripping apart of Edom (Idumea) over the Arabah Fault.  Both these geologic changes were described in previous Birth Pangs.

Verses twenty and twenty-one again paint a beautiful picture of what all the Old Testament prophets knew by faith would one day arrive, that is, God dwelling with them in a material millennial kingdom for one thousand years on this present earth, then eternally in a spiritual kingdom consisting of a new heaven and a new earth.  The prophesied fertility of Israel’s millennial land is mentioned over and over again by numerous prophets of the Old Testament.  There can be little doubt that Israel will become the world’s millennial breadbasket.  Amos speaks of the land’s great productivity during the time of Messiah’s reign on this planet.

[13] Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. [14] And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. [15] And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God. Amos 9:13-15

Verse thirteen describes how the arid desert land of the Judean and Negev deserts will become so productive in the new hydrological pattern, formed by the tribulation period geologic upheavals, that the following figurative illustration is presented as reality:

(1)          The crops will grow so fast that before one can be fully harvested it will be time to plant another.

(2)          The number of new vineyards being planted will be constantly increasing to meet the ever growing demand for the fruit of the vine.

(3)          The mountains will be terraced to drop down from above a multiplicity of fruits, such that were the juices from them to run over the terraces, the resultant gully erosion would erode the terraces.

The same type of figurative language is used in the book of Leviticus to describe fertility of the land given as a blessing from God.

[5] And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. Leviticus 26:5

Verse fourteen describes the great rebuilding of a nation devastated during the geologic upheavals experienced in the period of great tribulation.  I once was pastor to a deacon who taught the adult morning class.  One day, while he was teaching about these millennial blessings God will pour out on Israel, he briefly paused, and cried,

Oh My!  If I knew how to get there right now, I would start out afoot!  I feel the same way he did.  Praise God, I wish the kingdom was already here, and I was standing and looking at this beautiful picture painted by Amos and the numerous other Old Testament prophets, such as Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel.

[4] And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. Isaiah 61:4

[23] And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. [24] And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it. [25] And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. [26] And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. [27] And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them. [28] And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. Ezekiel 34:23-28

Verse fifteen is the completed fulfillment of God to Israel.  For one thousand years the world population will grow and God will extend mankind’s horizons.  With Messiah spiritually controlling the world from the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 40 through 43) through his saints and angels in the spiritual kingdom, and through his nation Israel in the material kingdom, man will rise to heights he has never known.  Israel, the breadbasket of the world, will rule over this earth as nation of nations under the Messiah, the king of Kings, the Son of God and of David, Jesus Christ.

[24] For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. [25] Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. [26] A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. [27] And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. [28] And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. [29] I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. [30] And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. [31] Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. [32] Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. [33] Thus saith the Lord God; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. [34] And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. [35] And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited. [36] Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it. [37] Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock. [38] As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the Lord. Ezekiel 36:24-38

[37] Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely: [38] And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: [39] And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me forever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: [40] And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. [41] Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. Jeremiah 32:37-41

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Tectonic Chaos – Chapter 23 – The Great Lifeguard