Rapture and End Times

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

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Humans’ impact on Earth began a new epoch in the 1950s called the Anthropocene, scientists say AP, July 11, 2023

From climate change to species loss and pollution, humans have etched their impact on Earth with such strength and permanence since the middle of the 20th century that a special team of scientists says a new geologic epoch began then.

Called the Anthropocene — and derived from the Greek terms for “human” and “new” — this epoch started sometime between 1950 and 1954, according to the scientists. While there is evidence worldwide that captures the impact of burning fossil fuels, detonating nuclear weapons and dumping fertilizers and plastics on land and in waterways, the scientists are proposing a small but deep lake outside of Toronto, Canada — Crawford Lake — to place a historic marker.

“It’s quite clear that the scale of change has intensified unbelievably and that has to be human impact,” said University of Leicester geologist Colin Waters, who chaired the Anthropocene Working Group.

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House Republicans propose planting a trillion trees as they move away from climate change denial AP, July 19, 2023

When House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was asked about climate change and forest fires, he was ready with a response: Plant a trillion trees. The answer reflects a shift in Republican thinking. The party is no longer denying that global warming exists yet is searching for a response to sweltering summers and weather disasters that doesn’t involve abandoning support for American-produced energy from burning oil, coal and gas.

Why this matters:

Scientists overwhelmingly agree that heat-trapping gases released from the use of fossil fuels are pushing up global temperatures and upending weather patterns across the globe. But the solution touted by Democrats and advocates — government action to force emissions reductions — remains a non-starter with most Republicans.

A 2019 study suggested that planting trees to suck up heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere could be one of the most effective ways to fight climate change. Major conservation groups, and former President Donald Trump, have embraced the idea. But the tree-planting push has drawn intense pushback from environmental scientists who call it a distraction from emissions cutting.

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‘Incredibly Disturbing’ Docs Reveal Oil Giant Shell Knew About Climate Impacts Even Earlier Common Dreams Apr 03, 2023

Reporting on a cache of documents published over the weekend shows Shell knew about the impact of fossil fuels even earlier than previously revealed, potentially bolstering legal efforts to hold Big Oil accountable for the global climate emergency.

The reporting from DeSmog and Follow the Money is based on Dirty Pearls: Exposing Shell’s hidden legacy of climate change accountability, 1970-1990, a project for which researcher Vatan Hüzeir compiled 201 books, correspondence, documents, scholarship, and other materials.

Following explosive revelations about what ExxonMobil knew about fossil fuels driving global heating, investigations in 2017 and 2018 uncovered that Shell’s scientists privately warned about the impact of its products in the 1980s.

However, as Follow the Money detailed, the newly unveiled records show that “Shell already began collecting knowledge about climate change in the 1960s. The company not only kept well abreast of climate science, but also funded research. As a result, Shell already knew in the 1970s that burning fossil fuels could lead to alarming climate change.”

Faced with a global oil crisis, rather than using its climate information to publicly sound the alarm and shift to cleaner practices, the company “focused instead on a nonsustainable profit model,” launching Shell Coal International in 1974.

The following year, a study Shell was involved with warned that “increases in the CO2 content of the atmosphere could lead to the so-called greenhouse effect… which would be enough to induce major climatic changes.” Three years later, another report warned that “the continued burning of fossil fuels will lead to a manifold increase in the atmospheric CO2 concentration.”

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Modern ‘Sixth Mass Extinction’ Event Will Be Worse Than First Predicted: Report Forbes, July 19, 2023

Tragically, the global mass extinction event that we find ourselves in the midst of will be even worse than originally predicted, according to a recent study. The international team of scientists came to their conclusion after analyzing population trends data for more than 71,000 animal species — including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects — from around the world to see how their numbers have changed since record-keeping first began.

Globally, many species are declining as the result of a variety of destructive human activities, particularly habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation, the widespread use of pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals, and the effects of invasive species, aggravated by runaway climate change.

“Collectively, our findings reinforce the warning that biodiversity is on the brink of an extinction crisis,” the authors point out in their study, noting that this extinction event will be far more serious than prior research has suggested, particularly as entire ecosystems unravel and collapse.

“This crisis will have extensive ecological and ecosystemic consequences, given that ecological functioning is severely impacted by population declines and the resulting changes in community compositions.”

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What’s happening:

An already warming Earth steamed to its hottest June on record and global oceans set temperature records for the third straight month. The planet has seen extreme weather events increase across the globe including tornadoes, monsoons and wildfires.

There’s no escaping climate change as extreme weather events abound:

Floods, fires and deadly heat are the alarm bells of a planet on the brink The Washington Post, July 13, 2023

The world is hotter than it’s been in thousands of years, and it’s as if every alarm bell on Earth were ringing.

The warnings are echoing through the drenched mountains of Vermont, where two months of rain just fell in only two days. India and Japan were deluged by extreme flooding.

They’re blaring from the scorching streets of Texas, Florida, Spain and China, with a severe heat wave also building in Phoenix and the Southwest in coming days.

They’re burbling up from the oceans, where temperatures have surged to levels considered “beyond extreme.”

And they’re showing up in unprecedented, still-burning wildfires in Canada that have sent plumes of dangerous smoke into the United States.

Scientists say there is no question that this cacophony was caused by climate change — or that it will continue to intensify as the planet warms. Research shows that human greenhouse gas emissions, particularly from burning fossil fuels, have raised Earth’s temperature by about 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. Unless humanity radically transforms the way people travel, generate energy and produce food, the global average temperature is on track to increase by more than 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 Fahrenheit), according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — unleashing catastrophes that will make this year’s disasters seem mild.

The only question, scientists say, is when the alarms will finally be loud enough to make people wake up.

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The big picture:

Earth is a rare planet in several ways. The Sun is a stable star, which means it has a long lifespan and is not likely to go through any major changes that would affect Earth’s habitability. Earth is located in the “habitable zone” around the Sun, which means it is at just the right distance to receive enough heat and light to support life.

Earth’s plate tectonics help to recycle elements through the planet, which is important for sustaining life. Earth has a strong magnetic field that protects the planet from harmful solar radiation. Earth’s atmosphere is made up of the right mix of gases, including oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide, which helps to regulate the planet’s temperature and provide the necessary elements for life. Earth has large amounts of liquid water, which is essential for life.

The Moon’s gravitational pull is responsible for the tides, which in turn played a role in the development of life in the oceans. The tides helped to circulate nutrients and oxygen, which were necessary for the evolution of complex life. Additionally, the Moon’s stabilizing effect on Earth’s axial tilt helped to create a stable climate, which was also important for the development of complex life.

Jupiter’s enormous gravitational field helps to deflect comets and asteroids that might otherwise hit Earth, creating a more stable environment for life to evolve.

But, even with all of these advantages, on our planet, mass extinction has happened five times in life’s four-billion-year history.

The last time it happened was the event that brought the end of the age of the dinosaurs. A meteorite impact triggered a catastrophic change in the earth’s conditions. 75% of all species were wiped out.

Life had no option but to rebuild. For 65 million years, it’s been at work reconstructing the living world… until we come to the world we know… our time. Scientists call it the Holocene. The Holocene has been one of the most stable periods in our planet’s great history.

For 10,000 years, the average temperature has not wavered up or down by more than one degree Celsius. And the rich and thriving living world around us has been key to this stability. Phytoplankton at the ocean’s surface and immense forests straddling the north have helped to balance the atmosphere by locking away carbon.

Huge herds on the plains have kept the grasslands rich and productive by fertilizing the soils. Mangroves and coral reefs along thousands of miles of coast have harbored nurseries of fish species that, when mature, then range into open waters. A thick belt of jungles around the equator has piled plant on plant to capture as much of the sun’s energy as possible, adding moisture and oxygen to the global air currents. And the extent of the polar ice has been critical, reflecting sunlight back off its white surface, cooling the whole earth. The biodiversity of the Holocene helped to bring stability, and the entire living world settled into a gentle, reliable rhythm… the seasons.

On the tropical plains, the dry and rainy seasons would switch every year like clockwork. In Asia, the winds would create the monsoon on cue.

In the northern regions, the temperatures would lift in March, triggering spring, and stay high until they dipped in October and brought about autumn.

The Holocene was our Garden of Eden. Its rhythm of seasons was so reliable that it gave our own species a unique opportunity.

We invented farming. We learnt how to exploit the seasons to produce food crops. The history of all human civilization followed. Each generation able to develop and progress only because the living world could be relied upon to deliver us the conditions we needed. The pace of progress was unlike anything to be found in the fossil record.

The global air temperature had been relatively stable till the 1990s. But it now appeared this was only because the ocean was absorbing much of the excess heat, masking our impact.

It was the first indication to me that the earth was beginning to lose its balance.

Right now, we’re facing a man-made disaster of global scale. Our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change. The collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.

This is the situation in the near future:

The Amazon Rainforest, cut down until it can no longer produce enough moisture, degrades into a dry savannah, bringing catastrophic species loss… and altering the global water cycle.

At the same time, the Arctic becomes ice-free in the summer. Without the white ice cap, less of the sun’s energy is reflected back out to space. And the speed of global warming increases.

Throughout the north, frozen soils thaw, releasing methane, a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide, accelerating the rate of climate change dramatically.

As the ocean continues to heat and becomes more acidic, coral reefs around the world die. Fish populations crash.

Global food production enters a crisis as soils become exhausted by overuse. Pollinating insects disappear. And the weather is more and more unpredictable.

Our planet becomes four degrees Celsius warmer. Large parts of the earth are uninhabitable. Millions of people rendered homeless. A sixth mass extinction event… is well underway. This is a series of one-way doors… bringing irreversible change. Within the span of the our lifetime, the security and stability of the Holocene, our Garden of Eden… will be lost.

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1 big thing:

The Holy Bible refers to these disasters as part of the “birth pains” that will accelerate in the Last Days:

While He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached Him privately and said, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what is the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?”

Then Jesus replied to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will deceive many. You are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, because these things must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these events are the beginning of birth pains. (Matthew 24:3-8)

“Then there will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars; and there will be anguish on the earth among nations bewildered by the roaring sea and waves. People will faint from fear and expectation of the things that are coming on the world, because the celestial powers will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is near!” (Luke 21:25-28)

The birthing example in Revelation 12 can help us to understand what is happening right now.

Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth… She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. (Revelation 12:1-2,5)

We have seen the incredible hardship on millions of people, including Christians, just in the last few years, with non-stop wars, natural disasters, global social upheavals, and economic devastation.

The “male Child” represents all Christians who will be “caught up” (I Thess. 4:16-17) at the time of the Rapture.

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Why it matters:

We must be ready for the Lord to rescue us at any time, but we must also be prepared to take necessary actions when faced with disasters such as hurricanes, floods and wildfires. 95% of all survival situations are resolved within 72 hours, but the first 72 hours are extremely critical.

In any disaster, it’s a good idea to plan to have what you need during a period where you might get stuck in your home. Good advice is to treat today as though this is your last day to get what you need and be where you want to be.

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Prepare

There are many natural disaster preparedness measures you can take to get yourself and your family ready for a natural disaster, including tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, flash floods, and wildfires. You want to be prepared for any and all emergencies so you can stay safe if and when something unprecedented happens.

Put together a natural disaster preparedness kit to be used for emergencies. You’ll need basic necessities like food, water, first aid supplies, and other emergency equipment that you might already have around the house – think flashlights and duct tape. Having all of this together in one place instead of scattered around your home will help you feel organized and ready if anything dangerous happens.

A disaster can easily disrupt the food supply at any time, so plan to have at least a 3-day supply of food on hand.

Keep foods that:

• Have a long storage life
• Require little or no cooking, water, or refrigeration, in case utilities are disrupted
• Meet the needs of babies or other family members who are on special diets
• Meet pets’ needs
• Are not very salty or spicy, as these foods increase the need for drinking water, which may be in short supply

A sensible grocery list can include:

Dry grains: Rice, quinoa, oats, cornmeal (for polenta).
Beans: dried or canned.
Tinned fish: tuna, tasty cans of smoked sardines, or mackerel.
A couple varieties of nut butter and tahini.
Flour (you can add water, salt, and a leavening agent like baking soda or powder to make biscuits, tortillas, and crackers).
Eggs.
Onions (they keep for weeks when stored in a cool, dark place).
Garlic.
Potatoes.
Boxed cereal.
Hardy veggies: broccoli, celery, carrots, and kale (they stay fresh for a long time in your fridge).
Bananas (when they start to turn, freeze for smoothies or bake into banana bread).
Frozen peas (add to soups and pastas).
Frozen sausage (just one link can go a long way in adding flavor to a dish).
Bag of frozen shrimp.
Sliced bread (pop it in your freezer, will last a long time).
Taste boosters: soy sauce, mayo, ketchup, fruit jam, Dijon mustard, Parmesan cheese, olives, capers.

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Pray

He was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.”

He said to them, “Whenever you pray, say: