2013 A.D.: Odd Signs In Our Day?
It is February of 2013 A.D. and I can't help but think that we are being served up a ration of odd signs. We were given Maya Doom to focus on, as if it were the gods of the Maya, and not Yahweh, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, who should be heeded. That was a bust, it seems. Not too surprising! The predicted date, December 21, 2012, came and went without too much craziness other than that generated by people on the lookout for cataclysmic events. If something happened that day, if a new age or era began, it started out with a low profile. But, in truth there are some odd things happening. They may turn out to lead to nothing, but I have a feeling that may not prove to be the case this time. I think that when so many strange things happen in quick succession then we should pay sober attention and consider our position with Yahweh our Father and Jesus our Savior and Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit while we still can.
What strange things? There have been several. For one thing, there has been a rash of cold violent acts which have topped the news. Spouses killing each other, lovers killing each other, the killing of innocent children in their schools. There have been some pretty ugly crimes lately.... especially ugly. It seems that there is a heavy spiritual feeling in the air, at least to me, lately.
The Pope is retiring rather than passing away while still in office. It's an unusual occurrence; the last time it happened was about 600 years ago. And on the date that Pope Benedict announced his retirement there were pictures taken that night purporting to be of a lightning strike on St. Peter's Basilica in Rome at about 6 P.M. Rome time. And there has since been an earthquake in Italy, not far from Rome, though at only 4 something on the Richter scale.
Retiring Pope Benedict is the 111th Pope predicted in the 12th century Malachy prophecies, either the last or the next to last.... there are two versions of the prophecies. One spoke of 112 Popes. If the version which speaks of 112 Popes is the genuine one, then the last quatrain will be important. There should be a Pope named or associated with the words 'Peter the Roman' (Petrus Romanus) following Benedict who will guide the Catholic Church during the terrible times of persecution that these prophecies say precede the coming of the Lord Jesus, referred to as the Great and Terrible Judge. Are these legitimate prophecies? They were not published until almost the end of the 16th century. The Catholic church does not find them legitimate, I have read. Yet sometimes they have done an excellent job of describing the Popes they refer to. They just might be real. Whatever the case is, we will be able to put the matter to rest at long last after this next Pope is selected and lives out his Papal life.
There are lists of top contenders for being the next Pope. People even place bets on who will be chosen, so there are odds for each contender. Two of the contenders whose names I have seen are named some form of 'Peter'. One is named Peter Turkson, a Bishop from Ghana, and I read that his countrymen have already been calling him Peter of Rome because his duties have kept him in Rome so much these last years. Wouldn't that be wild if he was chosen as the next Pope. True, he probably will not be. But even having a 'Peter the Roman' on the scene at such a time is unusual. The other 'Peter' I noticed was from the Sao Paulo area of South America.
On another topic, there has been a meteor which passed between the Earth and the Geo-Stationary satellites. There was a meteor that exploded in Russia harming over 1,000 people there. There was a large meteor which was visible near San Francisco, California. Three notable meteor events, all within a few days of each other. That's very uncommon.
Nations are making threats of wiping other nations off the face of the Earth. Iran is breathing out threats against Israel as usual. Its leader is known to have both nuclear technology drawing ever near to the point at which nuclear weapons could be constructed, and a wish to instigate a great war so that it will usher in a much anticipated and prophesied Muslim personage and an era of prophesied Muslim greatness.
Then there are the Koreas....North Korea threatens to do grave things to South Korea, meanwhile we have a South Korean United Nations General Secretary. That could complicate things. It would be hard not to be extra zealous in protecting the very nation that you hail from in you were the General Secretary of the United States. There is the potential for a great amount of DEATH to unfold upon the Earth if North and South Korea somehow engage in armed conflict. That's a war that could expand quickly. There are a lot of big players near to that geographical area. It could result in a very great amount of DEATH in the wors
t case scenario.
Not only that...and some may justifiably say that this is reaching or worse.... but speaking of Korea, there is this now fading but quite popular and unusual You Tube video by a South Korean artist named Psy, called Gangnam Style, in which this artist from South Korea pretends to ride out and about (dance moves resembling the riding of a horse) as he sings his song. The artist was born on December 31 of 1977, the last day of the year, New Years Eve in the west, and all of that. It was also a day in history when U.S. President Jimmy Carter agreed to sell the Shah of Iran 6 or 7 nuclear reactors. Psy's video became the first one on You Tube to be watched by 1 billion people on December 21, 2012, which is essentially the darkest day of every year. It was also the forecasted day that we were referring to then as 'Maya Doom' day, when the ancient Maya had predicted a new era to begin. Maya Doom Day coincided with a special astrological alignment that was said to occur about every 28,600 years.
Another odd thing is that there are now over 1.3 billion You Tube views and rising, the last time I looked. We have about 6 billion people on the Earth, so the video has gone out to about 1/4th of the Earth in that respect. In light of that, read this scripture from Revelation Chapter 6 about the going out of a pale horse. Be patient...you have to read about the other 3 horses first!
6 I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” 2 I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
3 When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.
5 When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6 Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds[a] of wheat for a day’s wages, [b] and six pounds[c] of barley for a day’s wages, [d] and do not damage the oil and the wine!”
7 When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
End Quote
So, there are prophesied to be four horsemen of the Apocalypse that appear in their times. The last one is a 'PALE' horse. The actual word can mean GREEN, YELLOW, or PALE from what I have read about it. And this horse will apparently affect 1/4 th of the Earth's population in a deadly way.
So, this scripture says that the rider of the pale horse was named DEATH. Conflict between North and South Korea would carry some threat of DEATH. The rider in the video is a South Korean person, obviously. The word Gangnam, by the way, refers to 'south of the river', referring to the Han River which divides Seoul, in the city of Seoul, South Korea. It's an area of the city that is thought to have a more opulent or flashier lifestyle.
The scripture says that the pale horse goes out, and that HADES followed it. Well, Hades is an underworld concept that is just about identical to She'ol in Hebrew, from what I know. It's an underground place where the dead souls go to wait for their judgement. Some sources say that both the good and the bad wait there, with the good souls waiting in much happier circumstances. Other sources say that only the bad souls wait there. This recording artist, Psy, is from Seoul, South Korea. I am suggesting nothing bad about Psy, the artist, nor have I been thinking anything bad of him, but have noticed that She'ol and Seoul sound pretty similar, which is an interesting coincidence.
The artist acts like a 'horse rider' in his video. He wore GREEN (a green coat) on an American morning show appearance that I have seen a photo of. He is an Asian artist. Caucasians are sometimes said to be WHITE, Africans sometimes said to be BLACK, and Asians sometimes said to be YELLOW. As for PALE, I don't really see that connection too much. Psy seems to me to have a pretty medium tone complexion. But, this 'rider', Psy, and his video called 'Gangnam Style' have been viewed by about 1/4 of the Earth. And as for DEATH, as the scripture mentions, if North and South Korea should end up in some sort of war or nuclear war, there will be a lot of Death involved....not saying that they will.
So, along with all of the other strange signs that have appeared in the last few months, there is almost an incidental seeming cultural parody of a Biblically prophesied manifestation from the end times.... the 'pale rider' of Revelation 6. Again, I definitely am not implying that this fellow Psy is some threat from the Bible, or that there is anything wrong with his video; in fact, the video seems pretty entertaining. I'm just noting that the times we're living in have provided us with a 'rider' going out to about 1/4 of the Earth, such as will happen in the times of Revelation Chapter 6, during the tribulation. Maybe that is from God, to remind us about those coming times and to wake us up? Probably it's completely untrue that there is any connection. I'm happy if that's true, and it probably is.
But given all of the other strange signs we've seen since December 2012; I think it all combines to form a time in human history when we might all want to be especially watchful over our souls and think about where we sit in God's eyes! The bad times are supposed to come at a time that catches people unaware....a time we don't expect. But it's always a bad time for whichever of us die without having a relationship with the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, who died painfully and unjustly to provide us a path that did not lead to the Lake of Fire. Why should any of us ignore so great a gift? Remember the saying: "He is no fool that gives up what he cannot keep to obtain what he cannot lose." That applies to us if we give up the fleeting and unfulfilling ways of this Satan-occupied world to choose the narrow path that Jesus provided for any of us wise enough to try to walk it. The Kingdom of God is already on the Earth, and has been for 2,000 years, in the form of Christ's followers and the Holy Spirit that has worked constantly with them. But so has Satan's kingdom been at work. The two have intermingled. There comes a time when only Jesus will reign on Earth, a time when only His kingdom will rule. Jesus will then hand it all to the Father so that the Father will be all in all, as it says in 1 Corinthians 15: 24 - 28.
If we can just believe in Jesus, repent of and confess our sins and don't return to them, and then follow Jesus' teachings, helping to show others the truth also, then we are promised that Jesus is faithful to forgive us and save our souls. That's an awfully wonderful gift, considering the eternal state that our sins have otherwise earned for us.
Are these the last days for real and true...the actual beginning of the Great Tribulation? Maybe! But even if not, we are wise to make our choice now for Jesus. There comes a time in every person's life when it's too late to choose, and not choosing is choosing the Lake of Fire. None of us are going to like it at all if we end up there, because it is very, very bad, and ever so eternal! God did not send His Son to die for jaywalkers. Even great sinners can change and be saved. But God sent His very Son! Pity the person that scorns that great sacrifice that was made by our Father and Creator, and by His Son, our Savior Jesus. He was guilty of nothing yet endured great cruelty and indignation at the hands of ruined souls in sinful vessels made of mere dust, all so that He could be that perfect sacrifice for our sins that could not have been provided by any other source! We owe Jesus so much, yet still show so little gratitude. We men really are pitiful creatures. Yet we are assured that the Father values our souls and wishes greatly and deeply to redeem us if we will only turn and embrace His provided plan.
***Update: February 5th, 2013: Comets are big news for the near future. That's somewhat rare also. One called PanSTARR is supposed to be pretty visible this month. I guess comets always do come and go. But big ones always seem like signs in the sky, right? ***